Microsoft has issued a patch for a very serious zero-day remote execution flaw in several of its products. This means that it may be actively exploited in the wild because the vendor had no previous knowledge of it. A security advisory was released for CVE-2017-0290, which details this flaw found by Google Project Zero researchers over the weekend. One of them tweeted that it was “crazy bad” and possibly the “worst Windows remote code [execution] in recent memory.”
This one is especially dangerous because it can be let loose with no interaction by the end user. In other words, an email can be sent to a user who doesn’t even have to open it or click on anything within it. It can also execute if a user visits a malicious website or receives a malicious instant message. It affects the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine. If the engine scans a “specially crafted” file, it could allow remote code execution and attackers can gain complete control of the system. It also has the ability to “worm” its way around beyond the target system, making it even more dangerous.
IT administrators are encouraged to manually apply the patch immediately if it hasn’t automatically executed already. It is always recommended to ensure critical and security updates and patches are put onto systems right away, particularly in the case of zero-day flaws.
The affected products comprise a reasonably long list:
- Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010
- Microsoft Endpoint Protection
- Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint Service Pack 3
- Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection
- Microsoft Security Essentials
- Windows Defender for Windows 7, 8.1, RT 8.1, 10, 10 1511, 10 1607, and 10 1703
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Intune Endpoint Protection
Microsoft notes that if the Control Flow Guard (CFG) security feature is enabled, the risk is lessened, although the company also noted that there is no knowledge of the vulnerability being actively exploited at this time. The patch for this has been released. The speed at which this was done has been a highly praised task by the researchers, since it was disclosed only a few days ago.
For banks and credit unions
Share this article with your members
Copy a ready-made summary and link for your newsletter, website or social posts.
