Unlike the last month’s single patch, this month we have thirteen Security bulletins from Microsoft. Five are considered Critical, Seven are Important and one is Moderate.  They effect all Operating Systems (2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 & Windows 7) as well as applications such as Microsoft DirectShow, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Paint & Windows Internet Explorer.

The patches fix an array of vulnerabilities which could, if exploited, allow an attacker to control and run code remotely. The majority of the patches will require a system restart, so should be managed in a controlled manner to avoid any business impact that may be associated with the downtime.

Our usual advice is…

• Ensure that the critical patches are deployed to all Windows desktop and server operating systems and Software, where appropriate, immediately.
   
• Ensure that all Anti-virus and Malware blocking software packages are fully up to date, and properly configured firewalls are in place within your environment.
   
• Update your Operating systems with the latest critical patches (MS10-006, MS10-007, MS10-008, MS10-009, MS10-013)

As always, some consideration is needed in order to evaluate any risks depending on whether you have the relevant affected environment. More details on these patches is given in the table below with links to the relevant Microsoft Knowledge base articles.

Table 1: Details of MS Patches released Tuesday 09/02/2010

MS Link	ITSL Summary	Severity	Affected Software	Restart after patch
MS10-006 KB978251	This patch fixes two reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows that could allow remote software execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted response to a client-initiated request. Please patch immediately.	Critical	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008	Yes
MS10-007 KB975713	This patch fixes a vulnerability in 2000, XP & Server 2003. Other versions of Windows are not at risk. This vulnerability could allow an attacker to control and run code on your systems if an application, such as a Web browser, pases affected data to the Windows sub system.	Critical	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003	Yes
MS10-008 KB978262	This vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page that runs an ActiveX control with Internet Explorer.  The attacker is granted the same network access rights as the victim.  Users who have administrative privileges could unwittingly give the attacker full network access. Rated Critical for Windows 2000 & XP. Rated Important for Vista & Windows 7. Rated Moderate for Server 2003. Rated Low for Server 2008 (&R2).	Critical Important Moderate Low	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008	May Require Restart
MS10-009 KB974145	This patch fixes four reported vulnerabilities with Microsoft Windows and could allow an attacker to control and run code on your systems if they are actively trying to connect to the affected system.	Critical	Windows Vista, Windows 2008	Yes
MS10-013 KB977935	This security update resolves a reported security flaw in Microsoft DirectShow. The vulnerability could allow remote software execution if a user opened a specially crafted AVI video file.  An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected computer.  An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.  Victims whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who have administrator user rights.	Critical	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008	Yes
MS10-003 KB978214	In simple terms this patch fixes a vulnerability in Microsoft Office that could allow remote software execution if a user opens a specially crafted Office file. The attack could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.	Important	Office XP, Office 2004 for Mac	May Require Restart
MS10-004 KB975416	This resolves six reported security flaws in Microsoft Office PowerPoint.  The vulnerabilities could allow remote software execution if a user opens a specially crafted PowerPoint file.  An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.	Important	Office XP, Office 2003 & Office 2004 for Mac	May Require Restart
MS10-010 KB977894	This security update resolves a reported security flaw in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and 2008 R2 Hyper-V and could allow a denial of service under certain circumstances. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability, so this could not be exploited remotely or anonymously. Our advice is to patch Servers as part of your regular updates.	Important	Hyper-V (2008, 2008 R2)	Yes
MS10-011 KB978037	This security update resolves a reported security flaw in Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. An attacker must have a valid logon account and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability.  The vulnerability could not be exploited without a valid logon account.	Important	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003	Yes
MS10-012 KB971468	This patch resolves several reported security flaws in Microsoft Windows.  The most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote software execution if an attacker created a specially crafted data packet and sent the packet to an affected system.  Standard default firewall configurations can help protect networks from these attacks from outside the network.	Important	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2	Yes
MS10-014 KB972290	This vulnerability could allow a denial of service if a specially crafted data packet is sent from an authenticated user.  The denial of service could persist until the domain controller is restarted.	Important	Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and Windows 2008	Yes
MS10-015 KB977165	This security update resolves two reported security flaws in Microsoft Windows which could allow a low level access user account to gain administrator access. To exploit these vulnerabilities, an attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on to the network locally.	Important	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32Bit)and Windows 2008	Yes
MS10-005 KB978706	This vulnerability could allow remote software execution if a user viewed a specially crafted JPEG image file using Microsoft Paint.  Victims whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who have administrator user rights.	Moderate	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003	Yes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rating	Definition
Critical	A vulnerability whose exploitation could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action.
Important	A vulnerability whose exploitation could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of users data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources.
Moderate	Exploitability is mitigated to a significant degree by factors such as default configuration, auditing, or difficulty of exploitation.
Low	A vulnerability whose exploitation is extremely difficult, or whose impact is minimal.