Before we get started on this month's releases, just a quick reminder that Microsoft released an out-of-band (OOB) security bulletin (MS11-100) late last month. That brought their 2011 total to 100 bulletins - so much for keeping it in double digits.
To start off the new year, today Microsoft released seven bulletins. Microsoft finally tamed the BEAST with this latest patch Tuesday - if you remember it was held back last month for not playing well with other software. Redmond also included patches for two issues leading to remote code execution within Windows Media Player and DirectShow, as well as a tricky Unicode parsing gaff found in Japanese, Chinese and Korean locale configurations.
Not to be left out, Adobe released a bulletin that addressed four different remote code execution vulnerabilities within Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
Tomorrow brings another episode of the Vulnerability Expert Forum (VEF). Listen in as the eEye Research Team discusses today's bulletins and the month in security.
The list of Retina Network Security Scanner audits associated with these bulletins is also available for your reference.
Here are this month's recommendations from the eEye Research Team:
Deploy Immediately MS12-004 – Vulnerabilities in Windows Media Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2636391) Recommendation: Install the patch immediately to prevent exploitation by attackers. Until the patch can be installed, disable MIDI files from being parsed and disable the Line21 filter for DirectShow. Deploy As Soon As Possible MS12-001 – Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Allow Security Feature Bypass (2644615) Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible. Until the patch can be installed, make sure that Structured Exception Handling Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) is enabled on affected systems. This mitigation is not available to XP and Server 2003 users. Additionally, developers are encouraged to use a version of Visual C++ more recent than 2003; using the most recent version of software is always advised as a security best practice (see the eEye configuration report at www.eeye.com/securityresearch for more information). MS12-002 – Vulnerability in Windows Object Packager Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2603381) Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible. Until the patch can be installed, block ports 139 and 445 using a firewall and prevent the WebClient service from running. Additionally, use the registry editor to set a full path to packager.exe in the default value of HKCRPackageProtocolStdFileEditingServer. MS12-003 – Vulnerability in Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2646524) Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible, since no mitigation is available. MS12-005 – Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2584146) Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible. Until the patch can be installed, unregister the .application file association in the Windows registry. MS12-006 – Vulnerability in SSL/TLS Could Allow Information Disclosure (2643584) Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible. Until the patch can be installed, Enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2, prioritize the RC4 algorithm over CBC. Deploy At Earliest Convenience MS12-007 – Vulnerability in AntiXSS Library Could Allow Information Disclosure (2607664) Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible, since no mitigation is available.
