Microsoft released on Thursday a corrected cumulative update for Internet Explorer, closing an exploitable security hole introduced by the original patch.

Released on August 8, the original patch--labeled MS06-042--fixed eight vulnerabilities but created a security issue with how the software giant's Web browser handled long addresses to sites using version 1.1 of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The software company originally intended to release the patch on Tuesday, but had to delay the fix because of a problem.

"Through ongoing analysis and monitoring including work with our partners in the MSRA (Microsoft Security Response Alliance), Microsoft is not aware of any active attacks against customers using any of the vulnerabilities associated with MS06-042," the company said in a statement.

Microsoft was not the only company dealing with the quality of its software updates this week. Software and services firm Canonical, which supports the Ubuntu project, had to scramble on Tuesday to pull an update to the X Window graphical subsystem for Linux, after a patch caused widespread problems.

Microsoft updated on Thursday both the advisory and the bulletin describing the issues.