Microsoft immediately launched updates to repair almost 100 safety flaws in its Home windows working methods and different software program. Highlights from the primary Patch Tuesday of 2023 embody a zero-day vulnerability in Home windows, printer software program flaws reported by the U.S. Nationwide Safety Company, and a crucial Microsoft SharePoint Server bug that permits a distant, unauthenticated attacker to make an nameless connection.
At the least 11 of the patches launched immediately are rated “Vital” by Microsoft, which means they might be exploited by malware or malcontents to grab distant management over weak Home windows methods with little or no assist from customers.
Of specific concern for organizations operating Microsoft SharePoint Server is CVE-2023-21743. This can be a Vital safety bypass flaw that might permit a distant, unauthenticated attacker to make an nameless connection to a weak SharePoint server. Microsoft says this flaw is “extra more likely to be exploited” in some unspecified time in the future.
However patching this bug might not be so simple as deploying Microsoft updates. Dustin Childs, head of risk consciousness at Development Micro’s Zero Day Initiative, stated sysadmins have to take extra measures to be absolutely protected against this vulnerability.
“To completely resolve this bug, it’s essential to additionally set off a SharePoint improve motion that’s additionally included on this replace,” Childs stated. “Full particulars on how to do that are within the bulletin. Conditions like this are why individuals who scream ‘Simply patch it!’ present they’ve by no means really needed to patch an enterprise in the actual world.”
Eighty-seven of the vulnerabilities earned Redmond’s barely much less dire “Vital” severity ranking. That designation describes vulnerabilities “whose exploitation might end in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of person information, or of the integrity or availability of processing sources.”
Among the many extra Vital bugs this month is CVE-2023-21674, which is an “elevation of privilege” weak point in most supported variations of Home windows that has already been abused in energetic assaults.
Satnam Narang, senior workers analysis engineer at Tenable, stated though particulars concerning the flaw weren’t obtainable on the time Microsoft printed its advisory on Patch Tuesday, it seems this was doubtless chained along with a vulnerability in a Chromium-based browser similar to Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge as a way to get away of a browser’s sandbox and acquire full system entry.
“Vulnerabilities like CVE-2023-21674 are sometimes the work of superior persistent risk (APT) teams as a part of focused assaults,” Narang stated. “The probability of future widespread exploitation of an exploit chain like that is restricted because of auto-update performance used to patch browsers.”
By the way in which, when was the final time you utterly closed out your Internet browser and restarted it? Some browsers will mechanically obtain and set up new safety updates, however the safety from these updates normally solely occurs after you restart the browser.
Talking of APT teams, the U.S. Nationwide Safety Company is credited with reporting CVE-2023-21678, which is one other “necessary” vulnerability within the Home windows Print Spooler software program.
There have been so many vulnerabilities patched in Microsoft’s printing software program over the previous 12 months (together with the dastardly PrintNightmare assaults and borked patches) that KrebsOnSecurity has joked about Patch Tuesday experiences being sponsored by Print Spooler. Tenable’s Narang factors out that that is the third Print Spooler flaw the NSA has reported within the final 12 months.
Kevin Breen at Immersive Labs known as particular consideration to CVE-2023-21563, which is a safety function bypass in BitLocker, the info and disk encryption know-how constructed into enterprise variations of Home windows.
“For organizations which have distant customers, or customers that journey, this vulnerability could also be of curiosity,” Breen stated. “We depend on BitLocker and full-disk encryption instruments to maintain our information and information secure within the occasion a laptop computer or gadget is stolen. Whereas data is mild, this seems to counsel that it might be attainable for an attacker to bypass this safety and acquire entry to the underlying working system and its contents. If safety groups will not be in a position to apply this patch, one potential mitigation might be to make sure Distant System Administration is deployed with the power to remotely disable and wipe property.”
There are additionally two Microsoft Alternate vulnerabilities patched this month — CVE-2023-21762 and CVE-2023-21745. Given the rapidity with which risk actors exploit new Alternate bugs to steal company electronic mail and infiltrate weak methods, organizations utilizing Alternate ought to patch instantly. Microsoft’s advisory says these Alternate flaws are certainly “extra more likely to be exploited.”
Adobe launched 4 patches addressing 29 flaws in Adobe Acrobat and Reader, InDesign, InCopy, and Adobe Dimension. The replace for Reader fixes 15 bugs with eight of those being ranked Vital in severity (permitting arbitrary code execution if an affected system opened a specifically crafted file).
For a extra granular rundown on the updates launched immediately, see the SANS Web Storm Heart roundup. Practically 100 updates is so much, and there are sure to be a couple of patches that trigger issues for organizations and finish customers. When that occurs, AskWoody.com normally has the lowdown.
Please take into account backing up your information and/or imaging your system earlier than making use of any updates. And please pontificate within the feedback if you happen to expertise any issues because of these patches.
