Microsoft patches two zero-day vulnerabilities in last Patch Tuesday of 2022

Microsoft Indicator

Microsoft has issued fixes for two zero-day vulnerabilities in its closing Patch Tuesday of the 12 months.

In its most up-to-date bulletin, Microsoft stated it will roll out security updates for a selection of working technique components and software products and solutions, like Azure, Microsoft Dynamics, Windows Kernel, and SmartScreen.

The update batch involves 49 patched vulnerabilities, six of which are rated critical, and 1 that scientists determined as acquiring been actively exploited.

This potentially exploited bug, tracked as CVE-2022-44698, impacts Windows SmartScreen and would help threat actors to bypass Mark of the Web (MOTW) protocols.

“An attacker can craft a malicious file that would evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses, resulting in a confined loss of integrity and availability of security options this kind of as Guarded Perspective in Microsoft Office environment, which count on MOTW tagging,” Microsoft disclosed in its security update.

Microsoft clarified that this certain flaw could be exploited in web-based mostly attack eventualities whereby an attacker hosts a destructive site designed exclusively to evade security protocols.

Similarly, attackers could leverage email or instantaneous messaging to compromise people by sending a specially crafted .url file.

Microsoft also disclosed a second critical vulnerability, CVE-2022-44710, influencing the DirectX graphics kernel on Windows 11 22H2 devices. This was recognized as an elevation of privilege vulnerability that, if effectively exploited, could empower an attacker to achieve process privileges.

When current observation reveals this has not been actively exploited, Microsoft gave the flaw a CVSS rating of 7.8, which means it is superior on the severity scale.

Critical Vulnerabilities

Microsoft has issued patches for all 6 critical flaws identified in its most up-to-date bulletin, which contain:

CVE-2022-41127 (Microsoft Dynamics)CVE-2022-44670 (Windows Safe Socket Tunneling Protocol)CVE-2022-44676 (Windows Safe Socket Tunneling Protocol)CVE-2022-41076 (PowerShell)CVE-2022-44690 (SharePoint)CVE-2022-44693 (SharePoint)

Greg Wiseman, direct merchandise manager at Speedy7, instructed IT Pro that directors for SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics “should be mindful of Critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities” and put into action patches right away.

Patch Tuesday

Microsoft’s ultimate Patch Tuesday of 2022 seems to have been a somewhat light-weight month in comparison to November.

Last month observed fixes for 6 exploited zero-working day vulnerabilities and the disclosure of 68 flaws, 11 of which ended up categorised as critical and authorized privilege elevation and remote code execution.

Having said that, Mark Lamb, CEO of HighGround.io, warned that organisations should really keep on being vigilant and prioritise patches to mitigate opportunity risks.

“It’s the final Patch Tuesday of 2022, and when not as big as past month’s update, we are however ending the year off with a bang,” he reported.

“Two zero-times and six critical flaws, which supply criminals with distant code execution, privileged access and denial of support, between other matters. This indicates a important update and organisations ought to use patches as quickly as possible,” Lamb extra.  

Some elements of this short article are sourced from:
www.itpro.co.uk