Windows 10 doesn’t have a monthly celebration of all its vulnerabilities as it moves to an “as-a-service” model, but there’s still plenty for other supported versions of Windows from Vista to Server 2012. The flaw is in how the Windows Adobe Type Manager Library handles OpenType fonts and can be exploited by persuading a user to open a specially crafted document or visit an untrustworthy webpage containing embedded OpenType fonts.
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MS15-102 patches elevation of privilege vulnerabilities in Windows Task Management that happen when Windows fails to validate and enforce impersonation levels or certain file system interactions.
One of those vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2015-2509, was located in the Windows Media Center and had zero-day status – it was publicly disclosed before the patch was released. “New products are responsible for the increase, with holes in Microsoft’s new Edge browser responsible for four new updates this month alone”.
“There are already attacks going on in the wild” that use these vulnerabilities, Sarwate said.
As always, security updates for Internet Explorer-and now for Microsoft Edge as well-should be treated as a high priority.
Kandek wrote that security bulletin MS15-094 should be priority number two because it addresses 17 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer (IE), 14 of which are deemed critical. The update also patches all versions of Internet Explorer.
According to security researchers from Trend Micro, who reported the newly patched Windows Media Center vulnerability to Microsoft, an exploit for it was found in Hacking Team’s data.
The Active Directory flaw makes the software vulnerable to a denial of service (DoS) attacks. The vulnerabilities rated by Microsoft as “critical”. Marked as Critical for Remote Code Execution.
MS15-103 patches information disclosure vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server if exploited via Outlook Web Access.
MS15-095 affects Windows and Edge and, as such, will be sent to Windows 10. “The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application”, Microsoft said.
“Any vulnerability that has been publicly disclosed is something that you will want to pay close attention to, as public disclosure is an indicator of risk”, warned Shavlik product manager, Chris Goetll.
ms15-104 An update for three elevation of privilege flaws in Skype for Business server and Lync server.
“Attackers would typically trick users into opening these files by disguising them as something harmless and interesting”, Kandek noted, “say a resume for an open position listed on your site, an article about a subject that is interesting to you or an offer for a free membership or other benefits to some of your users”. Marked as Important for Security Feature Bypass.
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The final critical bulletin (MS15-096) covers a Windows Journal flaw that could allow for remote code execution if a user were to open a specially crafted Journal file.
