Microsoft Support & Discussions

As security professionals, we are trained to think in worst-case scenarios. We run through the land of the theoretical, chasing “what if” scenarios as though they are lightning bugs to be gathered and stashed in a glass jar. Most of time, this type of thinking is absolutely the correct thing for security professionals to do. Continue reading...

Today we provide advance notification for the release of seven Bulletins, two rated Critical and five rated Important in severity. These Updates are for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. The Update for Internet Explorer addresses CVE-2014-1770, which we have not seen used in any active attacks. Also, in case you missed it, last month we released Security Advisory 2871997 to further enhance credentials management and protections on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012. Continue reading...

An Overview of KB2871997 An Overview of KB2871997 Microsoft recently released KB2871997 for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008R2, and Windows Server 2012. This blog will give an overview of the feature changes, their impact, and some important configuration changes that can be made in conjunction with the update to further improve system security. Continue reading...

Microsoft is committed to promoting a safer, more trusted Internet and providing monthly security updates is one of the ways our customers keep their devices and connections to the Internet more secure. Packaging updates together into a monthly bulletin cycle stems from customer feedback and offers a predictable way to help protect them against newly discovered threats. Continue reading...

Today we published the May 2014 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We answered 17 questions in total, with the majority focusing on the update for SharePoint (MS14-022), Group Policy (MS14-025) and Internet Explorer (MS14-029). Here is the video replay: We invite you to join us for the next scheduled webcast on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, at 11 a. Continue reading...

Today we released eight security bulletins addressing 13 unique CVE’s. Two bulletins have a maximum severity rating of Critical while the other six have a maximum severity rating of Important. The table is designed to help you prioritize the deployment of updates appropriately for your environment. Bulletin Most likely attack vector Max Bulletin Severity Max exploit-ability Likely first 30 days impact Platform mitigations and key notes MS14-029(Internet Explorer) Victim browses to a malicious webpage. Continue reading...

Dynamically loading libraries in an application can lead to vulnerabilities if not secured properly. In this blog post we talk about loading a library using LoadLibraryEx() API and make use of options to make it safe. Know the defaults: The library file name passed to LoadLibrary() / LoadLibraryEx() call need not contain an extension. Continue reading...

Today, we released an update to address a vulnerability in Group Policy Preferences (MS14-025). Group Policy Preferences was an addition made to Group Policy to extend its capabilities. Among other things, Group Policy Preferences allows an administrator to configure: Local administrator accounts (name of the account, account password, etc) Configure a service or scheduled task (allowed to specify alternate credentials to run as) Mount network drives when a user logs in (allowed to specify alternate credentials to connect with) Group Policy Preferences are distributed just like normal group policy: An XML file containing the settings is written to the SYSVOL share of the …

Today, we released eight security bulletins – two rated Critical and six rated Important – to address 13 Common Vulnerability & Exposures (CVEs) in .NET Framework, Office, SharePoint, Internet Explorer, and Windows. We encourage you to apply all of these updates, but for those who need to prioritize their deployment planning, we recommend focusing on MS14-024, MS14-025 and MS14-029. Continue reading...

Today we provide Advance Notification Service (ANS) for the release of eight bulletins, two rated Critical and six rated Important in severity. These updates will address vulnerabilities for .NET Framework, Office, Internet Explorer, and Windows. As we do every month, we’ve scheduled the security bulletin release for the second Tuesday of the month, May 13, 2014, at approximately 10:00 a. Continue reading...

At approximately 10 a.m. PDT, we will release an out-of-band security update to address the issue affecting Internet Explorer (IE) that was first discussed in Security Advisory 2963983. This update is fully tested and ready for release for all affected versions of the browser. The majority of customers have automatic updates enabled and will not need to take any action because protections will be downloaded and installed automatically. Continue reading...

Today, we released a security update to address the Internet Explorer (IE) vulnerability first described in Security Advisory 2963983. This security update addresses every version of Internet Explorer. While we’ve seen only a limited number of targeted attacks, customers are advised to install this update promptly. The majority of our customers have automatic updates enabled and so will not need to take any action as protections will be downloaded and installed automatically. Continue reading...

The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, best known as EMET, helps raise the bar against attackers gaining access to computer systems. Since the first release of EMET in 2009, our customers and the security community have adopted EMET and provided us with valuable feedback. Feedback both in forums and through Microsoft Premier Support Services, which provides enterprise support for EMET, has helped shape the new EMET capabilities to further expand the range of scenarios it addresses. Continue reading...

We’ve received a number of customer inquiries about the workaround steps documented in Security Advisory 2963983 published on Saturday evening. We hope this blog post answers those questions. Steps you can take to stay safe The security advisory lists several options customers can take to stay safe. Those options are (in summary): Continue reading...

Today, we released Security Advisory 2963983 regarding an issue that impacts Internet Explorer. At this time, we are only aware of limited, targeted attacks. This issue allows remote code execution if users visit a malicious website with an affected browser. This would typically occur by an attacker convincing someone to click a link in an email or instant message. Continue reading...

Today we released Security Advisory 2963983 regarding a potential vulnerability in Internet Explorer reported by FireEye and currently under investigation. We are working closely with FireEye to investigate this report of a vulnerability which was found used in very limited targeted attack: - the vulnerability is a “use-after-free” memory corruption and the exploit observed seems to target IE9, IE10 and IE11; Continue reading...

Today we published the April 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We answered 13 questions in total, with the majority focusing on the update for Internet Explorer (MS14-018) and the Windows 8.1 Update (KB2919355). Two questions that were not answered on air have been included on the Q&A page. Continue reading...

Today we released four security bulletins addressing 11 unique CVE’s. Two bulletins have a maximum severity rating of Critical while the other two have a maximum severity rating of Important. We hope that the table below helps you prioritize the deployment of the updates appropriately for your environment. Bulletin Most likely attack vector Max Bulletin Severity Max exploitability Likely first 30 days impact Platform mitigations and key notes MS14-017(Word) Victim opens a malicious RTF or DOC/DOCX file. Continue reading...

Command (.cmd) and batch (.bat) files can be directly provided as input to the CreateProcess as if it is an executable. CreateProcess uses the cmd.exe automatically to run the input .cmd or .bat. Today, with the bulletin MS14-019 we are fixing a vulnerability, where in particular scenario it is possible to hijack the cmd. Continue reading...

T. S. Elliot once said, “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” So as we put one season to bed, let’s start another by looking at the April security updates. Today, we release four bulletins to address 11 CVEs in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. Continue reading...

Today we provide advance notification for the release of four bulletins, two rated Critical and two rated Important in severity. These updates address issues in Microsoft Windows, Office and Internet Explorer. The update provided through MS14-017 fully addresses the Microsoft Word issue first described in Security Advisory 2953095. This advisory also included a Fix it to disable opening rich-text format (RTF) files within Microsoft Word. Continue reading...

It is often said that attackers have an advantage, because the defenders have to protect every part of their systems all the time, while the attacker only has to find one way in. This argument oversimplifies the security landscape and the real strength that defenders can achieve if they work together. Continue reading...

Today we released Security Advisory 2953095 to notify customers of a vulnerability in Microsoft Word. At this time, we are aware of limited, targeted attacks directed at Microsoft Word 2010. An attacker could cause remote code execution if someone was convinced to open a specially crafted Rich Text Format (RTF) file or a specially crafted mail in Microsoft Outlook while using Microsoft Word as the email viewer. Continue reading...

Today, Microsoft released Security Advisory 2953095 to notify customers of a vulnerability in Microsoft Word. At this time, we are aware of limited, targeted attacks directed at Microsoft Word 2010. This blog will discuss mitigations and temporary defensive strategies that will help customers to protect themselves while we are working on a security update. Continue reading...

Today we published the March 2014 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We answered eight questions in total, with the majority focusing on the updates for Windows (MS14-016) and Internet Explorer (MS14-012). One question that was not answered on air has been included on the Q&A page. Here is the video replay. Continue reading...