It’s not Patch Tuesday, but Microsoft has released a crucial update for Internet Explorer that you should apply immediately.

Microsoft included a cumulative update for Internet Explorer in the 13 security bulletins that made up Patch Tuesday last week, and that update was considered Critical as well. Since then, though, a new flaw has been targeted by attacks in the wild, so Microsoft has responded with an out-of-band update.

The update from Microsoft is a Fix-It tool, which is more of a stop-gap bandage than an actual patch. Applying the Fix-It will protect Internet Explorer and prevent the currently circulating exploit from working on your systems.

Paul Henry, security and forensic analyst with Lumension, says that there are number of mitigating factors that limit the potential scope of this threat, but those factors may offer little consolation for many users. “The bad news is that this is a very wide-reaching patch, affecting all versions of IE across all operating systems, from XP to RT,” he says. “And more bad news: the average user is very susceptible to being hit with this.”

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