Tuesday, May 13, 2014
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.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
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 domain controllers, and computers periodically query the SYSVOL share (authenticating to it using their computer account) for updates to the group policy.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
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.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
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):
Saturday, April 26, 2014
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;
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
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.
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
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.
Monday, March 24, 2014
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.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
We wrote several times in this blog about the importance of enabling Address Space Layout Randomization mitigation (ASLR) in modern software because it’s a very important defense mechanism that can increase the cost of writing exploits for attackers and in some cases prevent reliable exploitation. In today’s blog, we’ll go through ASLR one more time to show in practice how it can be valuable to mitigate two real exploits seen in the wild and to suggest solutions for programs not equipped with ASLR yet.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Today we released five security bulletins addressing 23 unique CVE’s. Two bulletins have a maximum severity rating of Critical while the other 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 Likely first 30 days impact Platform mitigations and key notes MS14-012(Internet Explorer) Victim browses to a malicious webpage.
