As you may know, today was Microsoft Patch Day. If you manage a Windows-based network, it’s time to get the latest updates.
According to Microsoft’s summary post, the Redmond-based software company released four security bulletins fixing 41 vulnerabilities in many of their popular products. The affected software includes, Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Lync Server, and the .NET Framework. Microsoft rates the IE update as Critical, and the rest as Important.
As you might guess from the severity ratings, the IE update is the most important. It fixes over 37 security flaws in the popular browser, many of which attackers could use in drive-by download attacks (where just visiting a web site results in malware on your computer). Furthermore, one of the fixes closes a zero day vulnerability that attackers have exploited in the wild. If you use IE, I recommend you apply its update as quickly as your can. You should also install the other updates as well, however, their mitigating factors lessen their risk, so you can install them at your convenience.
In summary, if you use any of the affected products, download, test, and deploy these updates as quickly as you can or let Windows’ Automatic Update do it for you. For the server related updates, I highly recommend you test them before installing them on production servers, as Microsoft has released a few problem causing updates recently. You can find more information about these bulletins and updates in Microsoft’s September Summary advisory.
Also note today is Adobe’s Patch Day as well, and they released one security update fixing 12 vulnerabilities in Flash Player. If you use Flash, you should update it quickly. Adobe also pre-announced a Reader update earlier this month. However, it appears they have had to delay the update for some reason.
I’ll share more details about today’s patches on the blog throughout the day. However, I am traveling internationally, so the updates may not arrive as regularly as usual. If you are in a hurry to patch, I recommend you visit the links above, and start now. — Corey Nachreiner, CISSP (@SecAdept).