Security News
Microsoft has addressed important severity remote code execution vulnerabilities affecting multiple Office products in the January 2021 Office security updates. Microsoft also released non-security Office updates last week addressing bugs that may lead to PowerPoint crashes and other issues affecting Windows Installer editions of Office 2016, Office 2013, and Office 2010 products.
Microsoft today rolled out updates to plug at least 56 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software. Windows 10 users should note that while the operating system installs all monthly patch roll-ups in one go, that rollup does not typically include.
For its February Patch Day, Microsoft released security advisories covering 56 CVE-assigned vulnerabilities, 11 of them rated critical. The Windows giant managed to publish a misspelled URL on the landing page for its February updates that instead of taking visitors to the intended Microsoft Security Response Center post about API changes, pointed to msrc-blog.
The Microsoft patch drop adds to the workloads for weary defenders struggling to keep pace with the volume and pace of security updates from major vendors. Earlier Tuesday, Adobe shipped fixes for multiple dangerous security holes, including a bug in the Adobe Reader that is being exploited in "Limited targeted attacks" against Windows OS users.
Microsoft has plugged 56 security holes, including one actively exploited privilege escalation flaw. Adobe has released security updates for Acrobat and Reader, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, and the Magento CMS. Out of all of those, the Acrobat and Reader updates should be tested and deployed as soon as possible, as they fix a bucketload of critical and important issues in widely used solutions, including one bug that is being exploited in "Limited" attacks on Reader for Windows.
Microsoft has urged customers today to install security updates for three Windows TCP/IP vulnerabilities rated as critical and high severity as soon as possible. The three TCP/IP security vulnerabilities impact computers running Windows client and server versions starting with Windows 7 and higher.
Today is Microsoft's February 2021 Patch Tuesday, so please be buy your Windows administrators some snacks to keep their energy up throughout the day. With today's update, Microsoft has fixed for 56 vulnerabilities, with eleven classified as Critical, two as Moderate, and 43 as Important.
SolarWinds Orion exploited by another group of state-sponsored hackersAnother group of state-sponsored hackers has exploited the ubiquity of SolarWinds software to target US government agencies, Reuters reported on Tuesday. February 2021 Patch Tuesday forecast: The human communication aspectWe spend a lot of time each month discussing the technical details surrounding vulnerabilities, software updates, and the tools we use for patch management in our organizations.
Google, whose Project Zero bug-hunting team is often surprisingly vocal when describing and discussing software vulnerabilities, has taken a very quiet approach to a just-patched bug in its Chrome browser. The phrase "Exploit exists in the wild" is shorthand for "The crooks found this vulnerability before we did and are already using it in real-life attacks".
We spend a lot of time each month discussing the technical details surrounding vulnerabilities, software updates, and the tools we use for patch management in our organizations. It is critical that these application owners and administrators have a direct and ongoing channel of communication with the security analysts and IT administrators to ensure they are in 'lock step' as they identify critical vulnerabilities, prioritize the patches, and execute the updates to protect their infrastructure.