Welcome to 2014! This month is a light month for Patch Tuesday bulletins. Microsoft has released patches for Microsoft Word and Office Web Apps, the Windows Kernel (and drivers), and Microsoft Dynamics AX. There are a total of four bulletins addressing six unique vulnerabilities; all of which are rated as important.
The NDProxy zero-day vulnerability from November, CVE-2013-5065, is receiving a fix this month in MS14-002. It affects XP and Server 2003. Attackers have been actively exploiting this vulnerability in the wild. Publicly available exploit frameworks have also incorporated exploits targeting this vulnerability. Given the high availability of exploits for this vulnerability, it is imperative that administrators deploy this patch immediately.
MS14-001, a fix for Microsoft Word and Office Web Apps, patches three vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution in the context of the current user. This bulletin covers Word 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013, Office Web Apps 2010/2013, as well as Word Automation Services on SharePoint Server 2010/2013. Exploitation of this vulnerability would require that a user open a maliciously crafted Word document, which would exploit one of the vulnerabilities. Because this affects so many versions of Word, it is important to get this deployed as soon as possible.
MS14-003 addresses a vulnerability in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, affecting Windows kernel drivers. The vulnerability occurs when the driver improperly uses window handle thread-owned objects. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to gain the ability to execute arbitrary code in the context of the kernel. This is very similar to the vulnerability fixed by MS14-002, which also provides attackers kernel level privileges if properly exploited. Make sure to deploy this patch as soon as possible.
The last patch of the month, MS14-004, fixes a vulnerability in Microsoft Dynamics AX, which could be used to cause a denial of service condition. This privately reported vulnerability affects a few versions of Dynamics AX (4.0 SP2, 2009 SP1, 2012, and 2012 R2). It is caused by a failure to properly handle user input, which could result in the server failing to respond to further client requests. Deploy this patch when possible.
Be sure to patch the NDProxy 0day (MS14-002), Word and Office Web Apps (MS14-001), Windows kernel-mode drivers (MS14-003), and Microsoft Dynamics AX (MS14-004). Also, be sure to join us for the Vulnerability Expert Forum tomorrow, Wednesday, January 15 at 1pm PT, where we cover these patches, as well as other security news. Sign up here.
>> Hello VEF Attendees! Participate in our monthly giveaway here. Answer the question in the comments to win an iPad Air!
In light of the recent breaches of cardholder data at both Target and Neiman Marcus, we want to know, have you since thought about how to improve or build upon your payment application security?
Why or why not?
Most insightful and/or awesome answer wins!
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>> VEF Questions & Comments
Related to the Target breach, Jason mentioned that you can sign up for one free year of credit monitoring through Target, as part of Target's response to the data breach.
William asked, "...how Target could have prevented the Dexter Malware from scraping the PANS". After doing some research on Primary Account Numbers (PANs) and card track data in general, there are a number of third party solutions available that provide Point to Point Encryption (P2PE), which can help safeguard payment information. Devices, such as card readers and PIN pads, encrypt card data before it reaches a POS device using Format Preserving Encryption, which allows POS systems to use the encrypted data as if it were card data. Solutions that use P2PE may have stopped the Dexter malware used against Target and other merchants from being effective.
Thank you to all who attended this month's VEF! We appreciate all the questions and comments. If there was a question you asked that we did not answer on the VEF, or did not mention in this blog post, please contact us directly research@BeyondTrust.com. Happy New Year!
