Microsoft released a patch this weekend for the beta version of its next-generation operation system, Vista, to fix a recent vulnerability in the Windows Meta File format.

The latest update for the vulnerability comes more than a week after Microsoft released a fix for the flaw in Windows 2000, XP and 2003 systems. The flaw occurs in how the Microsoft Windows' Graphics Rendering Engine handles WMF files. A specially crafted image file can take advantage of the flaw to compromise a Windows system that opens the image.

The need for an update to Windows Vista underscores that, while Microsoft's next-generation operating system has better security technologies built in, the software's security still suffers from legacy code.

Ironically, according to a history of the security issue posted by Microsoft, older versions of Windows had more protections against the flaw than newer versions of the operating system.