March Patch Tuesday leaves IE unpatched for Pwn2Own hackers

Microsoft unlike its browser rivals will not be patching Internet Explorer before the upcoming Pwn2Own hacking contest next week.

A March Patch Tuesday pre-alert, published on Thursday, reveals that Redmond will be issuing three security bulletins next week, one of which affects a critical flaw in Windows and none of which relates to IE. The critical update affects Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 while the two lesser risk ("important") bulletins cover a separate flaw in Windows and an update for the Office Groove 2007 software.

Net security firm Qualys said it expected the important update would cover a recently discovered MHTML Information Disclosure bug.

Redmond last patched IE in February, while Mozilla and Google each patched Firefox (more info here) and Chrome (here) respectively earlier this week ahead of the annual fun and games of the Pwn2Own hacking contest.

Four browsers IE, Firefox, chrome and Apple Safari are in the firing line in the Pwn2Own contest, which will run from 9 to 11 March as part of the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver next week.