PatchLink Corp., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based vendor of patch management software, surveyed 250 IT managers in February. More than 60 percent said they would like software vendors to release patches immediately when exploit code is in the wild. But the survey also showed that many IT professionals remain skeptical about using third-party patches, according to PatchLink.

In January, PatchLink made Guilfanov's WMF patch available to its customers. "About 25 percent downloaded it and took a look at it," including several large government organizations, said Chris Andrew, PatchLink's vice president of security technologies. But in the end, he said, the number of companies that implemented the patch "was probably limited to a handful."

Robert McMillan of the IDG News Service contributed to this story.