14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft released patches to address a total of 48 vulnerabilities in its software, including 15 different security flaws impacting all versions of Windows, starting with Windows 7 and ending with Windows 10.
The software giant, however, says it’s not aware of any attacks trying to exploit one of these vulnerabilities, but users are recommended to patch their systems anyway as soon as possible.
Microsoft flagged no less than 25 security vulnerabilities as critical, adding that 27 can allow Remote Code Execution attacks (RCE), which means that cybercriminals could get control of an unpatched system should they successfully manage to exploit such a security flaw.
The company is once again addressing a SMB vulnerability, this time in Windows Search, though it’s worth knowing that it’s not in any way related to the WannaCry and Petya ransomware attacks launched earlier this year and using SMB as the main attack vector.
Microsoft explains in CVE-2017-8620 documentation that all Windows versions are affected by this security flaw and adds that the vulnerability can be triggered with a SMB connection when Windows Search handles objects in memory. The attacker can install programs, access and edit data, or create new accounts with full user rights.
“To exploit the vulnerability, the attacker could send specially crafted messages to the Windows Search service. An attacker with access to a target computer could exploit this vulnerability to elevate privileges and take control of the computer. Additionally, in an enterprise scenario, a remote unauthenticated attacker could remotely trigger the vulnerability through an SMB connection and then take control of a target computer,” Microsoft explains.
Microsoft Edge and IE users also exposed
Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer browsers are also getting their own share of patches, and Windows 10 users should pay particular attention to CVE-2017-0293, which details a Windows PDF RCE flaw.
The software giant says the flaw exists in the way the Windows PDF Library handles objects in memory, with a successful attack granting cybercriminals the same rights as the logged-in user. Exploits must include malicious PDF content that can be published on websites loaded in Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer.
August 2017 updates require system reboots, and at the time of publishing this article, we’re not aware of any botched patch, with most users reporting flawless experience this time on Windows 7, 8.1, and Windows 10.