All told, there will be 73 security vulnerabilities fixed across Oracle's various product lines. Oracle releases patches for all of its software - except the Java virtual machine -- quarterly, in a set of patches it calls the Critical Patch Update (CPU).

Next week's CPU is due on Tuesday. There are nine fixes set for Oracle Fusion middleware, 14 for the PeopleSoft Suite and eight for the JD Edwards Suite.

Two of the database flaws are considered critical, meaning they "may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password," Oracle said in a .

The updates are set to come one week after Microsoft issued They also come on the tail of Apple and , released Thursday.

Oracle will patch many of its Sun products, including Solaris and some of the Java server software. However, the widely used Java SE and Java for Business client software are not scheduled to be updated in next week's release.