Security News > 2023 > April > Windows admins warned to patch critical MSMQ QueueJumper bug
Security researchers and experts warn of a critical vulnerability in the Windows Message Queuing middleware service patched by Microsoft during this month's Patch Tuesday and exposing hundreds of thousands of systems to attacks.
MSMQ is available on all Windows operating systems as an optional component that provides apps with network communication capabilities with "Guaranteed message delivery," and it can be enabled via PowerShell or the Control Panel.
The flaw enables unauthenticated attackers to gain remote code execution on unpatched Windows servers using specially crafted malicious MSMQ packets in low-complexity attacks that don't require user interaction.
The list of affected Windows server and client versions includes all currently supported releases up to the latest versions, Windows 11 22H2 and Windows Server 2022.
"The important takeaway is that if MSMQ is enabled on a server, the attacker could potentially exploit this or any MSMQ vulnerability and take over the server."
While Microsoft has already addressed this bug and 96 other security flaws as part of the April Patch Tuesday, it also advised admins who can't immediately deploy the patch to disable the Windows MSMQ service to remove the attack vector.
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