Today Microsoft released their monthly Patch Tuesday posting, with a total of 14 security bulletins that include 5 bulletins that were listed as Critical. This batch of patches addresses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, and Internet Explorer.
Fixes for FREAK
One of the more notable bugs covered by this posting include the recent FREAK (Factoring RSA Export Keys) vulnerability seen in early March, which forces a secure connection to use weaker encryption—making it easier for attackers to decrypt and sniff data encrypted by SSL. The FREAK vulnerability is patched by MS15-031 and was given an Important rating.
FREAK was discovered by Karthikeyan Bhargavan at INRIA in Paris and the mitLS team. Initially, it was thought that only OpenSSL (versions prior to 1.0.1k) and Apple TLS/SSL clients were vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, but later research revealed that Microsoft products were at risk as well.
Critical Bulletins Include Updates for Internet Explorer- Again
Last month’s Patch Tuesday update included a critical update for different versions of Internet Explorer. The same goes for this month’s patches, but this time, MS15-018 only addresses a total of 12 CVEs, while the MS15-009 update last month addressed 41 different CVEs.
MS15-021 is another update rated as Critical and addresses eight vulnerabilities in the Adobe Font Driver that could lead to remote code execution (RCE). Other updates that were given the Critical rating addressed holes in Microsoft Office and SharePoint (MS15-022), and an RCE vulnerability in the VBScript scripting engine in Microsoft Windows (MS15-019).
One bulletin that received a Critical rating (MS15-020) also deserves to be highlighted due to its history: this particular bulletin is an updated fix for the original shortcut vulnerability that was targeted by Stuxnet that was first patched in August 2010 with MS10-046. It is now believed that the original fix was not complete; it is unclear if attacks targeted systems with the incomplete patch were ever seen in the wild.
Solutions and Best Practices
Users and system administrators are strongly advised to issue the appropriate patches for these system vulnerabilities. Trend Micro Deep Security and Vulnerability Protection protect user systems from threats that may leverage these vulnerabilities following DPI rules:
- 1006563 – Microsoft Windows VBScript Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0032)
- 1006571 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0056)
- 1006564 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0099)
- 1006570 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0100)
- 1006565 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-1622)
- 1006567 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-1623)
- 1006569 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-1624)
- 1006566 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-1625)
- 1006568 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-1626)
- 1006573 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-1634)
- 1006563 – Microsoft Windows VBScript Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0032)
- 1006577 – Microsoft Windows Text Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0081)
- 1006554 – Microsoft Windows DLL Planting Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0096)
- 1006550 – Adobe Font Driver Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0090)
- 1006551 – Adobe Font Driver Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0091)
- 1006553 – Adobe Font Driver Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0092)
- 1006548 – Adobe Font Driver Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0093)
- 1006578 – Microsoft Office Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0086)
- 1006472 – Microsoft Internet Explorer Same Origin Policy Bypass Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0072)
- 1006547 – Adobe Font Driver Information Disclosure Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0087)
- 1006549 – Adobe Font Driver Information Disclosure Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0089)
- 1006552 – Microsoft Office Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0085)
- 1006574 – Microsoft Office Local Zone Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0097)
- 1000552 – Generic Cross Site Scripting(XSS) Prevention
- 1006575 – Microsoft Windows Malformed PNG Parsing Information Disclosure Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0080)
- 1000552 – Generic Cross Site Scripting(XSS) Prevention (CVE-2015-1628)
- 1000552 – Generic Cross Site Scripting(XSS) Prevention (CVE-2015-1632)
- 1006576 – Microsoft Windows JPEG XR Parser Information Disclosure Vulnerability (CVE-2015-0076)
- 1003716 – Identified Too Many Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Connection Request
- 1006562 – Identified Usage Of TLS/SSL EXPORT Cipher Suite In Request (CVE-2015-1637)
More information about these bulletins and their corresponding Trend Micro solutions are posted at our Threat Encyclopedia Page: March 2015 – Microsoft Releases 14 Security Advisories.
