What’s New Wednesday: A Summary of October 2024’s Patch Tuesday October 9, 2024 – Posted in: Cyber Security, IT Support, News, What's New Wednesdays – Tags: Cyber Security, cybersecurity, ITSupport, Patch Tuesday, patching, WhatsNewWednesday

The Microsoft monthly security update release is published on the second Tuesday of each month. It’s a good idea to restart your PC on the following Wednesday – today. We may well restart some of your servers overnight this week if a patch requires it.

NEW THIS WEDNESDAY

This month’s Patch Tuesday included security updates for 118 flaws including 5 actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities. Overall Microsoft patched:

• 28 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities
• 7 Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities
• 43 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities
• 6 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities
• 26 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
• 7 Spoofing Vulnerabilities

There were 5 actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities patched, one of which is publicly disclosed:

CVE-2024-43573 – Windows MSHTML Platform Spoofing Vulnerability
involving the MSHTML platform, previously used by Internet Explorer and Legacy Microsoft Edge, whose components are still installed in Windows.
CVE-2024-43572 – Microsoft Management Console Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
allowed malicious Microsoft Saved Console (MSC) files to perform remote code execution on vulnerable devices, Microsoft fixed the flaw by preventing untrusted MSC files from being opened.
CVE-2024-6197 – Open Source Curl Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
a libcurl remote code execution flaw that could cause commands to be executed when Curl attempts to connect to a malicious server.
CVE-2024-20659 – Windows Hyper-V Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability
a UEFI bypass that could allow attackers to compromised the hypervisor and kernel, an attacker needs physical access to the device and must reboot it to exploit the flaw.
CVE-2024-43583 – Winlogon Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
an elevation of privileges flaw that could give attackers SYSTEM privileges in Windows, to be protected from this flaw, Microsoft says that admins must ensure that a Microsoft first-party IME is enabled on your device.

Releases from other software providers include:

• Cisco – released security updates for multiple products, including Cisco Meraki MX, Cisco Nexus Dashboard, and routers.
• DrayTek – released security updates for 14 vulnerabilities in various router models.
• Fortinet – fixed 4 vulnerabilities in various firmware, with none reported as actively exploited.
• Ivanti – released security updates for 3 zero-days chained in active attacks.
• Optigo Networks – released security updates for 2 flaws in its ONS-S8 Aggregation Switch products.
• SonicWall – released security patches for a zero-day vulnerability in the Digital Signal Processor service.
• Qualcomm – fixed a critical RCE vulnerability in Backup & Replication software.
• SAP – releases security updates for multiple products as part of October Patch Day.

FULL LIST OF MICROSOFT PATCHES

GLOSSARY

• Authentication – proving who you are so you can be given access to what you need/have rights to.
• MFA – multi-factor authentication, proving who you are in multiple ways, something you know (like a password or pin), something you are (a fingerprint or retina scan), something you have (like your phone – proved with a code).
• Vulnerability – a defect in software that could allow an attacker to gain control of a system or service.
• Patch – a change to a piece of software, released after sale, to fix a problem or add a feature.
• Zero Day – Microsoft classifies a vulnerability as a zero-day if it is publicly disclosed or actively exploited with no official fix available.
• Actively Exploited – an actively exploited vulnerability is one that is being used by malicious actors.
• DDOS / DOS – (Distributed) Denial of Service attack, a method of swamping a service or server with so many false queries at once that it is forced offline.
• Disclosed – a disclosed vulnerability is one that the software creators have published, meaning that it can be easily found out about by anyone who knows where to look.
• CVE ID – CVE, short for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, is a list of publicly disclosed computer security flaws, the ID is the number assigned to that vulnerability.
• Severity – a disclosed vulnerability is one that the software creators have published, meaning that it can be easily found out about by anyone who knows where to look.
• Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities – allow for intruders to bypass security features such as password protection or MFA.
• Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities – allow people to remotely trigger potentially malicious code on your device.
• Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities – allow the wrong people access to your data.
• Denial of Service Vulnerabilities – allow a DOS/DDOS attack to succeed.
• Spoofing Vulnerabilities – allow someone to pretend to be you/your systems.

If you have any concerns about cybersecurity, or would like to discuss any other IT Support needs you might have please give us a call on 01245 265100 or email us at . To stay up to date with our regular What’s New Wednesday emails and receive industry news straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters in the top right.