Oracle will release security updates for its products this week fixing 51 vulnerabilities in its products.

Included in the Critical Patch Update, set to be released this week, will be critical updates for the company's flagship Oracle Database. Twenty-seven database bugs will be fixed, but five of the bugs can be "exploited over a network without the need for a username and password," Oracle said in a note on this week's patches.

Fixes are also planned for Oracle's Application Server, E-Business Suite and Enterprise Manager software. There will also be patches for three vulnerabilities in the company's PeopleSoft Enterprise products.

After the database software, the Application Server and E-Business suite will get the most patches with 11 and eight bug fixes, respectively. No patches are planned for Oracle's Collaboration Suite and JD Edwards products.

Oracle's 10g and 9i databases will both be patched next week.

The software vendor releases its updates on a quarterly basis, meaning that these updates typically contain a lot of patches. For example, July's updates contained 45 fixes.

Following this week's release, the next Critical Patch Update is set for January 15.