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It's April 2020 Patch Tuesday , and during these challenging times of coronavirus pandemic, this month's patch management process would not go easy for many organizations where most of the resources are working remotely. Microsoft today released the latest batch of software security updates for all supported versions of its Windows operating systems and other products that patch a total of 113 new security vulnerabilities, 17 of which are critical and 96 rated important in severity. Patches for 4 Zero-Days Exploited In the Wild Most importantly, two of the security flaws have been reported as being publicly known at the time of release, and the 3 are being actively exploited in the wild by hackers. One of the publicly disclosed flaws, which was also exploited as zero-day, resides in the Adobe Font Manager Library used by Windows, the existence of which Microsoft revealed last month within an early security warning for its millions of users. Tracked as CVE-2020-10...

Microsoft today rolling out its October 2019 Patch Tuesday security updates to fix a total of 59 vulnerabilities in Windows operating systems and related software, 9 of which are rated as critical, 49 are important, and one is moderate in severity. What's good about this month's patch update is that after a very long time, none of the security vulnerabilities patched by the tech giant this month is being listed as publicly known or under active attack. Moreover, there is no roll-up patch for Adobe Flash Player bundled in Windows update for this month. Besides this, Microsoft has also put up a notice as a reminder for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users, warning them that the extended support for these two operating systems is about to end in the next two months and that they will no longer receive updates as of January 14, 2020. Two of the critical vulnerabilities patched this month are remote code execution flaws in the VBScript engine, and both exist in the way VBS...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Get your update caps on. Microsoft today released its monthly Patch Tuesday update for September 2019, patching a total of 79 security vulnerabilities in its software, of which 17 are rated critical, 61 as important, and one moderate in severity. Two of the security vulnerabilities patched by the tech giant this month are listed as "publicly known" at the time of release, one of which is an elevation of privilege vulnerability (CVE-2019-1235) in Windows Text Service Framework (TSF), more likely related to a 20-year-old flaw Google security researcher disclosed last month . Two other vulnerabilities patched this month are reported as being actively exploited in the wild by hackers, both are privilege elevation flaws—one resides in the Windows operating system and the other in Windows Common Log File System Driver. Besides these, Microsoft has released patches for four critical RCE vulnerabilities in Windows built-in Remote Desktop Client application that could enabl...

It's time for another batch of "Patch Tuesday" updates from Microsoft. Microsoft today released its March 2019 software updates to address a total of 64 CVE-listed security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other products, 17 of which are rated critical, 45 important, one moderate and one low in severity. The update addresses flaws in Windows, Internet Explorer, Edge, MS Office, and MS Office SharePoint, ChakraCore, Skype for Business, and Visual Studio NuGet. Four of the security vulnerabilities, all rated important, patched by the tech giant this month were disclosed publicly, of which none were found exploited in the wild. Microsoft Patches Two Zero-Day Flaws Under Active Attack Microsoft has also patched two separate zero-day elevation of privilege vulnerabilities in Windows. Both flaws, also rated as important, reside in Win32k component that hackers are actively exploiting in the wild, including the one that Google warned of last w...

As part of June's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released security patches for a total of 96 security vulnerabilities across its products, including fixes for two vulnerabilities being actively exploited in the wild. This month's patch release also includes emergency patches for unsupported versions of Windows platform the company no longer officially supports to fix three Windows hacking exploits leaked by the Shadow Brokers in the April's data dump of NSA hacking arsenal . The June 2017 Patch Tuesday brings patches for several remote code execution flaws in Windows, Office, and Edge, which could be exploited remotely by hackers to take complete control over vulnerable machines with little or no interaction from the user. While two of the vulnerabilities have been exploited in live attacks, another three flaws have publicly available proof-of-concept (POC) exploits that anyone could use to target Windows users. Vulnerabilities Under Active Attack The two vul...

As part of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released security patches for a total of 55 vulnerabilities across its products, including fixes for four zero-day vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild. Just yesterday, Microsoft released an emergency out-of-band update separately to patch a remote execution bug ( CVE-2017-0290 ) in Microsoft's Antivirus Engine that comes enabled by default on Windows 7, 8.1, RT, 10 and Server 2016 operating systems. The vulnerability, reported by Google Project Zero researchers, could allow an attacker to take over your Windows PC with just an email, which you haven't even opened yet. May 2017 Patch Tuesday — Out of 55 vulnerabilities, 17 have been rated as critical and affect the company's main operating systems, along with other products like Office, Edge, Internet Explorer, and the malware protection engine used in most of the Microsoft's anti-malware products. Sysadmins all over the world should prioriti...

For the last Patch Tuesday for this year, Microsoft has released 12 security bulletins, half of which are rated 'critical' as they give attackers remote code execution capabilities on the affected computers. The security bulletins address vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Windows, Office, Internet Explorer and Edge. The first critical security bulletin, MS16-144 , patches a total of 8 security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, 3 of which had publicly been disclosed before Microsoft issued patches for them, though the company said they're not being exploited in the wild. The 3 publicly disclosed vulnerabilities include a Microsoft browser information disclosure vulnerability (CVE-2016-7282), a Microsoft browser security feature bypass bug (CVE-2016-7281) and a scripting engine memory corruption vulnerability (CVE-2016-7202) that allow remote code execution on the affected computer. The remaining 5 security flaws include a scripting engine memory corruption b...

Microsoft was very upset with Google last week when its Threat Analysis Group publically disclosed a critical Windows kernel vulnerability (CVE-2016-7255) that had yet to be patched. The company criticized Google's move , claiming that the disclosure of the vulnerability, which was being exploited in the wild, put its customers "at potential risk." The vulnerability affects all Windows versions from Windows Vista through current versions of Windows 10, and Microsoft was set to issue a fix come this month's Patch Tuesday. So, as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday, Microsoft today patched the security flaw in Windows that was actively being exploited by hackers. According to Microsoft's security bulletin released today, any hacker who tricked victims into running a "specially-crafted application" could successfully exploit the system bug and gain the ability to "install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with fu...

Microsoft has released 16 security bulletins on Tuesday resolving a total of 44 security holes in its software, including Windows, Office, Exchange Server, Internet Explorer and Edge. Five bulletins have been rated "critical" that could be used to carry out remote code execution and affected: Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Edge (the new, improved IE), Microsoft Office and Office services; and the remaining 11 are marked important. One of the critical issues, MS16-071 that caused alarm bells to go off for many security experts involves a Use-After-Free bug (CVE-2016-3227), which affects Microsoft Windows Domain Name System (DNS) servers for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. The vulnerability resides in the way servers handle requests. Attackers could send a specially crafted request to a DNS server and convinced it to run arbitrary code in the context of the Local System Account, Microsoft's advisory warns. Another critical vulnerability is addressed in MS16-070, which patc...

As warned last year, Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 upgrades onto its user's PCs much harder by re-categorizing Windows 10 as a " Recommended Update " in Windows Update, instead of an " optional update. " Microsoft launched Windows 10 earlier last year and offered the free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 and 8.1 users. While the company has been successful in getting Windows 10 onto more than 200 Million devices , Microsoft wants to go a lot more aggressive this year. So, If you have enabled Automatic Windows Update on your Window 7, 8 or 8.1 to install critical updates, like Security Patches, you should watch your steps because… ...From Monday, Windows Update will start upgrading your PC to the newest Windows 10 as a recommended update, Microsoft confirmed. Must Read: How to Stop Windows 7 or 8 from Downloading Windows 10 Automatically . This means Windows 10 upgrade process will download and start on hundreds of millions of d...

Microsoft wholeheartedly wants you to upgrade your PCs to Windows 10, so much so that the company plans to automatically download its new operating system to Windows 7/8 computers next year. Just two weeks ago, Microsoft accidentally pushed Windows 10 installation to Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 users through the Windows Update process, but next year the company will do it on purpose. MISSION '1 BILLION': It doesn't come as a surprise, as Microsoft mentioned many times that it wants to get Windows 10 into as many hands as possible to reach its goal of 1 Billion installations. Starting next year, Microsoft is planning to re-categorize Windows 10 as a " Recommended Update " in its Windows Update service. Also Read:  Here's How to Stop Windows 7 or 8 from Downloading Windows 10 Automatically . This means that the Windows 10 upgrade process will start downloading and initiating automatically on thousands of devices. Before: ...

A highly mysterious update that was pushed out to Windows machines globally was the result of a test that was not correctly implemented. Yes, Microsoft accidentally released a test patch (KB3877432) to consumer machines running Windows 7, making users believe that the Windows Update service got hacked, and they are infected with malware. However, several hours later, a Microsoft spokesperson clear the air by confirming that the company had " incorrectly published a test update " and that they are "in the process of removing it." Windows users started raising concerns on social media, Microsoft community forums, and news-sharing sites that the Update service has been compromised in some way. The rogue patch, 4.3MB in size , advertised itself as a Windows Language Pack and flagged as an " Important " update, but featured strange and inaccessible URLs and lacked any detailed information. Is My Windows PC Being Compromised? A Wi...

If you think that the patches delivered through Windows update can not be laced with malware, think again. Security researchers have shown that Hackers could intercept Windows Update to deliver and inject malware in organizations. Security researchers from UK-based security firm ' Context ' have discovered a way to exploit insecurely configured implementations of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) for an enterprise. What is WSUS in Windows? Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) allows an administrator to deploy the Windows software update to servers and desktops throughout the organization. These updates come from the WSUS server and not Windows server. Once the updates are with the administrator on the server, he can limit the privilege for the clients in a corporate environment to download and install these updates. As the admin is the owner of the distribution of these updates. Intercepting WSUS to Inject Malware into Corporate Networks By def...

After installing Windows 10, Feeling like your Internet Bandwidth is dropping away? Windows 10 is stealing your network bandwidth. Along with the privacy features related to Wi-Fi Sense , Windows 10 users should check for another hidden by default feature that uses your network bandwidth to share updates with other Windows 10 users across the Internet. Microsoft launched Windows 10 on July 29 and offered a free upgrade to Windows 7,8 and 8.1 users , and for anyone who wants to download it. But, handling millions of simultaneous 3.5GB downloads is quite difficult for the company. So, in order to cope up with the issue, Microsoft has baked a new feature into its latest desktop operating system that uses the torrent-style approach to obtain software updates , allowing Windows 10 users to download updates from other users. Also Read:  How to Fix 35+ Windows 10 Privacy Issues With Just One Click . Windows 10 is Stealing your Internet Bandwidth The feature, kn...

In the wake of a critical Remote Code Execution vulnerability in all supported versions of its operating system platform, Microsoft has just issued an emergency fix. Yes, it's time to patch your Windows operating system against an alarming security hole that could allow remote attackers to run malicious code on your computer, thereby taking " complete control of the affected system. " The critical flaw ( CVE-2015-2426 ), which affects all the supported versions of Windows operating system, resides in the way Windows Adobe Type Manager Library handles specially crafted Microsoft's OpenType fonts. Once exploited, the vulnerability could allow hackers to execute remotely malicious code on victims' computer if they open a specially crafted document or visit an untrusted web page that contains embedded OpenType fonts. " An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights ," Microsoft s...

Windows 10 is all set to launch on July 29 and will also be available on USB drives for purchase in retail channels. So, if you are planning to install Windows 10 Home , one thing you must keep in your mind – You wish or not, the software updates for Microsoft's new operating system will be mandatory. Microsoft is planning to make a significant change to its software update policy by " removing the option to DISABLE software updates in Windows 10 Home ". This clearly indicates that all users of Windows operating system must agree to allow Microsoft to install software updates automatically. In Windows 8.1 , users get four options for Windows Update's behavior, which include: Download and Install Windows Updates Automatically Download Windows Updates automatically but Choose when to Install them Check for Updates but Choose when to Download and Install them Never check for, Download, or Install Updates From a Security point of view, the last...