Oracle plans to release 37 security patches next week as part of its quarterly update cycle.

The fixes cover as-yet-unspecified flaws in products including Oracle Database, Application Server, and E-Business Suite, among others. Some of the patches due to be released on Tuesday, 17 April cover flaws in multiple products.

An unlucky 13 of the planned security updates include fixes for versions of Oracle's database. Three of these patches are particularly important since they cover flaws that might be exploited remotely without requiring login credentials. Two of the 11 flaws in Oracle's E-Business suite might also be remotely exploited by hackers, Oracle warns in a pre-release announcement here.

In October, Oracle began rating the severity of bugs in its applications according to the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), an industry-wide initiative designed to standardise vulnerability ratings. Oracle rates this quarter's patch batch at 7.0 in a scale from zero to 10, where 10 indicates impending internet meltdown (or some such calamity). That's the same threat level given to Oracle's last patch release, published in January. However this time around database and system adminstrators have to deal with fewer patches, 37 compared to the 51 Oracle issued at the start of the year. ®