"Ordinarily, it would have been fine to wait to patch this until tomorrow," said Storms, again referring to Microsoft's Patch Tuesday. "It probably would have happened tomorrow, but Google forced the hand of Adobe." Windows 8 users can obtain today's Flash update for IE10 via the Windows Update service, as well as through the enterprise-grade WSUS (Windows Server Update Services).

So far this year, Adobe has issued eight Flash updates: One in February; two in March; one each in May and June; two in August; and one in October.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at , or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

in Computerworld's Security Topic Center.