Oracle plans to fix dozens of flaws in its software products next Tuesday, including critical bugs in the company's database, e-business suite, and application server.

In its first security update of 2008, Oracle will ship 27 security fixes, some of which will affect several products. Oracle outlined some details of the upcoming patches in a pre-release announcement posted to the company's Web site Thursday afternoon.

Oracle releases security patches every three months, a process known as the Critical Patch Update (CPU). January's bug-fix total is low by Oracle's standards. In October, the company patched 51 vulnerabilities.

As usual, the company's database will be a major focus of the CPU. Oracle plans to ship eight security fixes for the Oracle Database, addressing bugs in the software's advanced queuing, core RDBMS (relational database management system), Oracle Agent, Oracle Spatial, and XML (Extensible Markup Language) database software.

None of the database vulnerabilities can be exploited over a network without the attacker first obtaining a username and password for the database.

Oracle's next most-patched product will be the E-Business Suite, which will receive seven updates, three of which are for bugs that can be remotely exploited by attackers who do not have usernames or passwords for the system.

The Oracle Application Server will get six bug-fixes, addressing flaws in components such as the product's BPEL (Business Process Execution Language), Worklist Application, Oracle Forms, and Oracle Internet Directory software.

Finally, Oracle is planning four updates for its PeopleSoft and JD Edwards products, as well as one fix each for Oracle Enterprise Manager and the Oracle Collaboration Suite.