Microsoft Patch Tuesday - January 2011

The ebb and flow of Microsoft Security Bulletins continued this month, with a nice slow release of only two bulletins to follow up the record set in December. Unfortunately, neither of these two bulletins patched any of the zero-day vulnerabilities that are currently affecting Microsoft products. Microsoft continued to patch DLL preloading vulnerabilities, this time updating Windows Backup Manager on Vista (MS11-001). This is the seventh security bulleting Microsoft has released to address a DLL preloading vulnerability in one of their products. And remember from last month, it is a good idea to follow the mitigation steps outlined in KB2269637 as numerous other third-party software products are affected and unpatched. Join Marc Maiffret and the eEye Research team tomorrow (January 12) at 11AM PST for this month’s vulnerability expert forum (VEF). Because of the small number of bulletins, tomorrow’s VEF should have ample time to discuss trends in the security industry and to answer any questions that you may have. Listeners will have a chance to win an Amazon Kindle, so make sure to sign up and listen. Here are our recommendations for the two security updates. You can find our full write-up in newsletter format here. Retina Network Security Scanner customers can view the list of audits associated with these bulletins. CRITICAL

MS11-002 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Data Access Components Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2451910)

• Analysis There are two vulnerabilities in Microsoft Data Access Components, both allowing for remote code execution in the context of the local user. A user must visit a specially crafted web page in order for the vulnerability to be exploited; once a user has visited a malicious page, an attacker may gain complete control of the system if the user is running as an administrator.
• Recommendations Administrators are urged to patch immediately, however there is one mitigating factor and one workaround to help lessen the impact of these vulnerabilities: CVE-2011-0026 is not exploitable under the default Windows configuration. - A third-party application that uses ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) APIs in an insecure way must be installed on the system in order to be vulnerable. CVE-2011-0027 may be mitigated by setting the Internet and local Intranet zones to “High” within Internet Explorer or by configuring Internet Explorer to prompt the user before running Active Scripting. - In Internet Explorer, click the Security Tab --> Internet --> Custom Level. * Under Settings, in the Scripting section, under Active Scripting click “Prompt or Disable”. - Go back to the Security Tab --> Local Intranet --> Custom Level. * Under Settings, in the Scripting section, under Active Scripting click “Prompt or Disable”.

IMPORTANT

MS11-001 - Vulnerability in Windows Backup Manager Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2478935)

• Analysis Windows Backup Manager contains a vulnerability when loading DLLs, causing susceptibility to DLL preloading attacks. Files that are opened with Windows Backup Manager, such as .wbcat, from attacker controlled locations (e.g. a WebDAV server or other untrusted location) could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the local user. This vulnerability only affects Windows Vista (both 32-bit and 64-bit).
• Recommendations dministrators are urged to install the patch; however, there is a workaround that may be used to help mitigate this threat: Disable loading of libraries from remote network locations (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2264107).