Microsoft today issued software updates to plug at least 10 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software. More than half of the vulnerabilities fixed by these patches earned the company’s most dire “critical” rating, and several of them are located in areas of Windows that attackers have shown an affinity for exploiting in the past. Among the more serious security holes fixed today is one present in a component of Windows (GDI) used to process certain types of images. This is the type of vulnerability that could be exploited to install software on a vulnerable system just by convincing the user to visit a malicious Web site. Indeed, attackers targeted a very similar vulnerability back in 2005 to compromise massive numbers of Windows computers with password-stealing programs when unsuspecting users visited one of thousands of hacked Web sites. Security vendor Symantec says there is a good chance