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MSRC

Month Archives: March 2013

March 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast, Q&A, and Slide Deck

Friday, March 15, 2013

Today we’re publishing the March 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We fielded 13 questions on various topics during the webcast, with specific bulletin questions focusing primarily on Internet Explorer (MS13-021), SharePoint (MS13-024) and the update for Kernel-Mode Drivers in MS13-027. There were six additional questions during the webcast that we were unable to answer on air, and we have also answered those on the Q&A page.

Assessing risk for the March 2013 security updates

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Today we released seven security bulletins addressing 20 CVE’s. Four of the bulletins have a maximum severity rating of Critical, and three 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 Exploit-ability Index Likely first 30 days impact Platform mitigations and key notes MS13-021(Internet Explorer) Victim browses to a malicious webpage.

Evolving Response and the March 2013 Bulletin Release

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

As my career in security response has grown over the years, I am often reminded of the words of Italian author Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, who stated, “If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.” There are some things that we wish to stay the same.

MS13-027: Addressing an issue in the USB driver requiring physical access

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Today we are addressing a vulnerability in the way that the Windows USB drivers handle USB descriptors when enumerating devices. (KB 2807986). This update represents an expansion of our risk assessment methodology to recognize vulnerabilities that may require physical access, but do not require a valid logon session. Windows typically discovers USB devices when they are inserted or when they change power sources (if they switch from plugged-in power to being powered off of the USB connection itself).