Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Security Updates For September 2010

Microsoft routinely releases patches every month’s second Tuesday, popularly known as “Patch Tuesday.” During this monthly security update cycle, Microsoft has released 9 new security updates on September 14, 2010.

In the update, Microsoft also released MS10-061 patch to address vulnerability first discovered and reported by Kaspersky Lab and then later by Symantec. This vulnerability in the Print Spooler Service is rated Critical for Windows XP and Important on all other affected platforms and is used by Stuxnet to spread to systems inside the network where the Print Spooler service is exposed without authentication.

In addition, Microsoft researchers uncovered two additional Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerabilities (one of which was also reported by Kaspersky to Microsoft, and later independently confirmed by Symantec) used by the malware to gain full control of the infected system. One of these EoP vulnerabilities affects Windows XP and the other affects Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2. These are local EoP issues which means that an attacker, in this case Stuxnet, already has permission to run code on the system or has compromised the system through some other means. Microsoft is working to address both issues in a future bulletin.

The latest security updates published are:

  • MS10-061 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 2347290)
  • MS10-062 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 975558)
  • MS10-063 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office (KB 2320113)
  • MS10-064 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Office (KB 2315011)
  • MS10-065 – addresses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Information Services (KB 2267960)
  • MS10-066 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 982802)
  • MS10-067 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 2259922)
  • MS10-068 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 983539)
  • MS10-069 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 2121546)

You can click on the links to get more information related to the patch.

As you can see from the total severity and exploitability index chart below, there are two bulletins that are both Critical and have an exploitability index rating of 1. The first is MS10-061 discussed above and the second, MS10-062, involves a vulnerability in the MPEG-4 codec affecting supported versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. This issue can be exploited if a user opens a specially crafted media file or receives streaming content from the web.

5482.Sept 2010 Risk and Impact

The remaining bulletins are given a 2 or a 3 in Microsoft’s deployment priority list.

3580.Sept 2010 Overview Final

You may already have the update if you have automatic updating turned on. If you do not have automatic updating turned on, or you just want to check whether you need the update, simply visit Microsoft Update.

Microsoft Update is an online tool that will scan your computer and provide you a report about what updates your computer needs.

You can also download the security updates from the Microsoft Download Center. Find them by doing a keyword search using the words security update and the name of the month the update was released.

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