patch Tuesday | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Microsoft has rolled out  Patch Tuesday updates  for May 2023 to address 38 security flaws, including two zero-day bugs that it said are being actively exploited in the wild. Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI)  said  the volume is the lowest since August 2021, although it pointed out that "this number is expected to rise in the coming months." Of the 38 vulnerabilities, six are rated Critical and 32 are rated Important in severity. Eight of the flaws have been tagged with "Exploitation More Likely" assessment by Microsoft. This is aside from  18 flaws  – including 11 bugs since the start of May – the Windows maker resolved in its Chromium-based Edge browser following the release of April Patch Tuesday updates. Topping the list is  CVE-2023-29336  (CVSS score: 7.8), a privilege escalation flaw in Win32k that has come under active exploitation. It's not immediately clear how widespread the attacks are. "An attacker who successfully explo...

It's the second Tuesday of the month, and Microsoft has released another set of security updates to fix  a total of 97 flaws  impacting its software, one of which has been actively exploited in ransomware attacks in the wild. Seven of the 97 bugs are rated Critical and 90 are rated Important in severity. Interestingly, 45 of the shortcomings are remote code execution flaws, followed by 20 elevation of privilege vulnerabilities. The updates also follow fixes for 26 vulnerabilities in its Edge browser that were released over the past month. The security flaw that's come under active exploitation is  CVE-2023-28252  (CVSS score: 7.8), a privilege escalation bug in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges," Microsoft said in an advisory, crediting researchers Boris Larin, Genwei Jiang, and Quan Jin for reporting the issue. CVE-2023-28252 is the fourth privilege escalatio...

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday update for March 2023 is rolling out with remediations for a set of  80 security flaws , two of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. Eight of the 80 bugs are rated Critical, 71 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. The updates are in  addition to 29 flaws  the tech giant fixed in its Chromium-based Edge browser in recent weeks. The two vulnerabilities that have come under active attack include a Microsoft Outlook privilege escalation flaw ( CVE-2023-23397 , CVSS score: 9.8) and a Windows SmartScreen security feature bypass ( CVE-2023-24880 , CVSS score: 5.1). CVE-2023-23397 is "triggered when an attacker sends a message with an extended MAPI property with a UNC path to an SMB (TCP 445) share on a threat actor-controlled server," Microsoft  said  in a standalone advisory. A threat actor could leverage this flaw by sending a specially crafted email, activating it automatically when it is retrie...

Microsoft on Tuesday released  security updates  to address 75 flaws spanning its product portfolio, three of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. The updates are in addition to 22 flaws the Windows maker  patched  in its Chromium-based Edge browser over the past month. Of the 75 vulnerabilities, nine are rated Critical and 66 are rated Important in severity. 37 out of 75 bugs are classified as remote code execution (RCE) flaws. The three zero-days of note that have been exploited are as follows - CVE-2023-21715  (CVSS score: 7.3) - Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2023-21823  (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Graphics Component Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability CVE-2023-23376  (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "The attack itself is carried out locally by a user with authentication to the targeted system," Microsoft said in advisory for...

The first Patch Tuesday fixes shipped by Microsoft for 2023 have addressed a total of  98 security flaws , including one bug that the company said is being actively exploited in the wild. 11 of the 98 issues are rated Critical and 87 are rated Important in severity, with one of the vulnerabilities also listed as publicly known at the time of release. Separately, the Windows maker is expected to release updates for its Chromium-based Edge browser.  The vulnerability that's under attack relates to  CVE-2023-21674  (CVSS score: 8.8), a privilege escalation flaw in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call ( ALPC ) that could be exploited by an attacker to gain SYSTEM permissions. "This vulnerability could lead to a browser sandbox escape," Microsoft noted in an advisory, crediting Avast researchers Jan Vojtěšek, Milánek, and Przemek Gmerek for reporting the bug. While details of the vulnerability are still under wraps, a successful exploit requires an attacker to have ...

Tech giant Microsoft released its last set of monthly security updates for 2022 with  fixes for 49 vulnerabilities  across its software products. Of the 49 bugs, six are rated Critical, 40 are rated Important, and three are rated Moderate in severity. The updates are in addition to  24 vulnerabilities  that have been addressed in the Chromium-based Edge browser since the start of the month. December's Patch Tuesday plugs two zero-day vulnerabilities, one that's actively exploited and another issue that's listed as publicly disclosed at the time of release. The former relates to  CVE-2022-44698  (CVSS score: 5.4), one of the  three security bypass issues  in Windows SmartScreen that could be exploited by a malicious actor to evade mark of the web (MotW) protections. It's worth noting that this issue, in conjunction with  CVE-2022-41091  (CVSS score: 5.4), has been observed being exploited by Magniber ransomware actors to deliver rogu...

Microsoft's latest round of monthly security updates has been released with fixes for  68 vulnerabilities  spanning its software portfolio, including patches for six actively exploited zero-days. 12 of the issues are rated Critical, two are rated High, and 55 are rated Important in severity. This also includes the weaknesses that were closed out by  OpenSSL  the previous week. Also separately  addressed  in Microsoft Edge at the start of the month is an actively exploited flaw in Chromium-based browsers ( CVE-2022-3723 ) that was plugged by Google as part of an out-of-band update late last month. "The big news is that  two older zero-day CVEs  affecting Exchange Server, made public at the end of September, have finally been fixed," Greg Wiseman, product manager at Rapid7, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. "Customers are advised to update their  Exchange Server systems  immediately, regardless of whether any previousl...

As many as  121 new security flaws  were patched by Microsoft as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for the month of August, which also includes a fix for a Support Diagnostic Tool vulnerability that the company said is being actively exploited in the wild. Of the 121 bugs, 17 are rated Critical, 102 are rated Important, one is rated Moderate, and one is rated Low in severity. Two of the issues have been listed as publicly known at the time of the release. It's worth noting that the 121 security flaws are in addition to  25 shortcomings  the tech giant addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser late last month and the previous week. Topping the list of patches is  CVE-2022-34713  (CVSS score: 7.8), a case of remote code execution affecting the Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT), making it the second flaw in the same component after  Follina  (CVE-2022-30190) to be weaponized in  real-world attacks  within three months....

Microsoft released its monthly round of Patch Tuesday updates to address  84 new security flaws  spanning multiple product categories, counting a zero-day vulnerability that's under active attack in the wild. Of the 84 shortcomings, four are rated Critical, and 80 are rated Important in severity. Also separately resolved by the tech giant are  two other bugs  in the Chromium-based Edge browser, one of which plugs another  zero-day flaw  that Google disclosed as being actively exploited in real-world attacks. Top of the list of this month's updates is  CVE-2022-22047  (CVSS score: 7.8), a case of privilege escalation in the Windows Client Server Runtime Subsystem ( CSRSS ) that could be abused by an attacker to gain SYSTEM permissions. "With this level of access, the attackers are able to disable local services such as Endpoint Detection and Security tools," Kev Breen, director of cyber threat research at Immersive Labs, told The Hacker News. "...