April is upon us, and for Patch Tuesday Microsoft delivered six security bulletins, patching a total of eleven vulnerabilities. MS12-027 is the most urgent, as Microsoft has rated it critical and
has stated that there are targetted attacks leveraging this vulnerability - patch this one first.
To go along with the spirit of security updates, yesterday Microsoft
gently reminded us that April 2014 will mark the end of support for Windows XP and Office 2003. At that time, security hotfixes will no longer be issued. Do yourself a favor and start identifying any legacy Windows XP systems in your environment - and start a migration plan. No sense in waiting until the last minute to realize the accounting software you haven't touched since 2004 won't run on Windows 7.
Right on schedule, Adobe released their quareterly
update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat. Today's release fixes four vulnerabilities - and depending on your platform and version, Adobe
recommends updating immediately.
Tomorrow brings another episode of the Vulnerability Expert Forum (VEF). Join the eEye Research Team as they discuss these bulletins and the security landscape over the last 30 days.
Retina Network Security Scanner (and free
Retina Community) customers can review the list of audits associated with these bulletins.
This month's recommendations from the eEye Research Team:
Deploy Immediately
MS12-023 – Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2675157)
Recommendation: Install the patch immediately to prevent exploitation by attackers, since no mitigation is available for CVE-2012-0168. Until the patch can be installed, block ActiveX controls and block/disable Active Scripting in both Internet and Local intranet zones.
MS12-024 – Vulnerability in Windows Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2653956)
Recommendation: Install the patch immediately to prevent exploitation by attackers, since no mitigation is available.
MS12-025 – Vulnerability in .NET Framework Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2671605)
Recommendation: Install the patch immediately to prevent exploitation by attackers. Until the patch can be installed, block XAML browser applications from running in Internet Explorer.
MS12-027 – Vulnerability in Windows Common Controls Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2664258)
Recommendation: Install the patch immediately to prevent exploitation by attackers. Until the patch can be installed, use the registry to set killbits for the vulnerable controls. Additionally, do not open any Microsoft Office or Rich Text Format documents that come from untrusted sources.
Deploy As Soon As Possible
MS12-026 – Vulnerabilities in Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) Could Allow Information Disclosure (2663860)
Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible; no mitigation is available.
MS12-028 – Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2639185)
Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible. Until the patch can be applied, do not open Works files (.WPS extension) that come from untrusted sources
