Microsoft is sending the world a complete bunch of affection right now, within the type of patches to plug dozens of safety holes in its Home windows working techniques and different software program. This 12 months’s particular Valentine’s Day Patch Tuesday contains fixes for a whopping three completely different “zero-day” vulnerabilities which are already being utilized in energetic assaults.
Microsoft’s safety advisories are considerably sparse with particulars concerning the zero-day bugs. Redmond flags CVE-2023-23376 as an “Essential” elevation of privilege vulnerability within the Home windows Widespread Log File System Driver, which is current in Home windows 10 and 11 techniques, in addition to many server variations of Home windows.
“Sadly, there’s just a bit strong details about this privilege escalation,” mentioned Dustin Childs, head of risk consciousness at Pattern Micro’s Zero Day Initiative. “Microsoft does word that the vulnerability would permit an attacker to take advantage of code as SYSTEM, which might permit them to fully take over a goal. That is seemingly being chained with a distant code execution bug to unfold malware or ransomware. Contemplating this was found by Microsoft’s Risk Intelligence Heart, it may imply it was utilized by superior risk actors. Both method, ensure you take a look at and roll these fixes rapidly.”
The zero-day CVE-2023-21715 is a weak spot in Microsoft Workplace that Redmond describes as a “safety characteristic bypass vulnerability.”
“Microsoft lists this as underneath energetic exploit, however they provide no information on how widespread these exploits could also be,” Childs mentioned. “Primarily based on the write-up, it sounds extra like a privilege escalation than a safety characteristic bypass, however regardless, energetic assaults in a typical enterprise utility shouldn’t be ignored. It’s all the time alarming when a safety characteristic is not only bypassed however exploited. Let’s hope the repair comprehensively addresses the issue.”
The third zero-day flaw already seeing exploitation is CVE-2023-21823, which is one other elevation of privilege weak spot — this one within the Microsoft Home windows Graphic element. Researchers at cybersecurity forensics agency Mandiant have been credited with reporting the bug.
Kevin Breen, director of cyber risk analysis at Immersive Labs, identified that the safety bulletin for CVE-2023-21823 particularly calls out OneNote as being a susceptible element for the vulnerability.
“In current weeks, we now have seen a rise in using OneNote information as a part of focused malware campaigns,” Breen mentioned. “Patches for this are delivered by way of the app shops and never by the everyday codecs, so it’s necessary to double verify your group’s insurance policies.”
Microsoft fastened one other Workplace vulnerability in CVE-2023-21716, which is a Microsoft Phrase bug that may result in distant code execution — even when a booby-trapped Phrase doc is merely considered within the preview pane of Microsoft Outlook. This safety gap has a CVSS (severity) rating of 9.8 out of a potential 10.
Microsoft additionally has extra valentines for organizations that depend on Microsoft Trade Server to deal with electronic mail. Redmond patched three Trade Server flaws (CVE-2023-21706, CVE-2023-21707, and CVE-2023-21529), all of which Microsoft says are distant code execution flaws which are more likely to be exploited.
Microsoft mentioned authentication is required to take advantage of these bugs, however then once more risk teams that assault Trade vulnerabilities additionally are likely to phish targets for his or her Trade credentials.
Microsoft isn’t alone in dropping fixes for scary, ill-described zero-day flaws. Apple on Feb. 13 launched an replace for iOS that resolves a zero-day vulnerability in Webkit, Apple’s open supply browser engine. Johannes Ullrich on the SANS Web Storm Heart notes that along with the WebKit downside, Apple fastened a privilege escalation concern. Each flaws are fastened in iOS 16.3.1.
“This privilege escalation concern could possibly be used to flee the browser sandbox and achieve full system entry after executing code by way of the WebKit vulnerability,” Ullrich warned.
On a lighter word (hopefully), Microsoft drove the ultimate nail within the coffin for Web Explorer 11 (IE11). Based on Redmond, the out-of-support IE11 desktop utility was completely disabled on sure variations of Home windows 10 on February 14, 2023 by a Microsoft Edge replace.
“All remaining shopper and business units that weren’t already redirected from IE11 to Microsoft Edge have been redirected with the Microsoft Edge replace. Customers might be unable to reverse the change,” Microsoft defined. “Moreover, redirection from IE11 to Microsoft Edge might be included as a part of all future Microsoft Edge updates. IE11 visible references, such because the IE11 icons on the Begin Menu and taskbar, might be eliminated by the June 2023 Home windows safety replace (“B” launch) scheduled for June 13, 2023.”
For a extra granular rundown on the updates launched right now, see the SANS Web Storm Heart roundup. If right now’s updates trigger any stability or usability points in Home windows, AskWoody.com will seemingly have the lowdown on that.
Please take into account backing up your knowledge and/or imaging your system earlier than making use of any updates. And be happy to hold forth within the feedback should you expertise any issues on account of these patches.
