Western Digital My Book Live Devices Compromised

TL; DR

If you own a WD My Book Live, please consider disconnecting it from the internet, using it within your own network only or with a VPN. Threat actors are targeting and in some cases, wiping these devices. Unfortunately, it is unlikely WD will resolve the under lying issues causing this. Instead they will likely recommend upgrading to newer hardware.

====================

In late June, the hard drive manufacturer Western Digital (WD) received notification from a large number of its customers that their WD My Book Live devices did not contain the data they had stored?

What has happened?

WD My Book Live devices are external hard drives but rather than connect to your personal devices using a USB cable, it connects using an Ethernet (network) cable to your network. You can then remotely access the drives contents using the WD My Book Live app or via SSH (Secure Shell (defined)).

WD’s investigation determined that a threat actor was able to remotely access the WD My Book Live devices making use of a previously unpatched vulnerability, CVE-2018-18472 With access to the device now in place, they carried out a factory reset of the device erasing the data stored within it. WD’s statement on this occurrence has been published by BleepingComputer.

Further information has since been shared by BleepingComputer clarifying that while the above unpatched vulnerability was used to access the devices in the past it was a new zero day (defined) vulnerability CVE-2021-35941 has led to the factory resets occurring. WD My Book Live devices have previously been added to botnets (defined) in order to: “perform DDoS attacks, attack other devices, execute commands, or even steal files”. My thanks to BleepingComputer and Lawrence Abrams for this information.

A third zero day vulnerability affecting the operating system that powers the My Cloud storage devices has been disclosed and will not be resolved by WD for those existing devices.

How can I protect my data from this threat?

Follow WD’s current advice and temporarily disconnect the drives from the internet. An alternative is to only use the device within your own network or place the device behind a Virtual Private Network (VPN)(defined).

Please refer to the support forum thread and the security advisory it references. These sources will be updated with further recommendations when they are available. So far, further analysis of the original vulnerability, a new vulnerability and how WD plans to remediate the issue both now and in the future have been shared. It is unclear if the above to zero day vulnerabilities will be resolved by a software update or if WD will simply recommend upgrading to newer hardware.

To resolve the third zero-day vulnerability, WD recommends upgrading to newer My Cloud devices which use version 5 of the My Cloud operating system (even though those devices offer less flexibility).

If you have lost the data from your WD My Book Live and do not have another backup, WD will be offering data recovery services in the future (please see the WD post linked to below for more details).

It has been reported that some users have used the PhotoRec file recovery tool to recover their lost files. However, success is not guaranteed.

Thank you.

====================

References

Western Digital

Bleepingcomputer

ThreatPost Article 1

ThreatPost Article 2

Protecting against the Windows Adobe Type Manager (ATM) Zero Day Vulnerabilities

=======================
Update: 15th April 2020
=======================
Microsoft have now issued updates for both of the Adobe Type Manager vulnerabilities. These updates apply to Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 (and their Windows Server equivalents):

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-0938

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1020

Please install these updates when you can. Thank you.

=====================
TL;DR
A patch for these vulnerabilities is expected at the next scheduled collection of updates to be released on the 14th of April. Until then be aware of attempts to have you open unexpected or suspicious files via clicking links on websites/within emails or opening email attachments. If you are using any version of Windows earlier than Server 2016, 2019 or Windows 10 (Version 1703 or earlier), evaluate if you wish to enable the workarounds until a patch is released. This vulnerability is of critical severity for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, please be certain your staff are security aware not to open unknown or suspicious attachments/files.

A micro-patch is now available for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 (including their Windows Server equivalents):

https://blog.0patch.com/2020/03/micropatching-unknown-0days-in-windows.html
=====================

=====================
Update: 30th March 2020
=====================
0Patch have released a micro-patch for these vulnerabilities that is free of charge during these uncertain times (some micro-patches are usually paid for services from 0Patch).

The patch works by blocking Windows from using the common code path used by Windows Explorer, Font Viewer, and applications using Windows-integrated font support to display Adobe Type 1 PostScript fonts. The micro-patch does not protect against local attacks but does block the more important remote attack vector.

The micro-patch is available for Windows versions including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with ESU, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012, both 32-bit and 64-bit:

https://blog.0patch.com/2020/03/micropatching-unknown-0days-in-windows.html

A YouTube video of the micro-patch in action is available from the following link:

https://youtu.be/VmL-C7Tqpac

Thank you.

=====================
Update: 28th March 2020
=====================
As detailed in Microsoft’s security advisory, these zero day (defined) vulnerabilities are of critical severity for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. Please make certain your staff/users are security aware and strongly advise them not to open unknown or suspicious attachments/files. This is particularly severe when staff/users are likely working from home at this time and the security of systems they are using may not benefit from the firewalls/IPS and proxy servers of their primary work location. Staff/users may even be using their personal laptop/desktops to access corporate data during the current COVID-19 lockdown period.

If possible, please evaluate and implement the appropriate workarounds in Microsoft’s security advisory (which mitigate the vulnerabilities but have the least impact on your day to day work/activities) while the appropriate updates are not yet available.

Thank you.

=====================
Original Post:
=====================
I hope everyone is staying safe under the current circumstances.

Yesterday Microsoft published a security advisory describing the use of vulnerabilities within the Windows Adobe Type Manager (ATM) library by attackers to run unauthorised code on victim systems.

Why should these vulnerabilities be considered important?
If an attacker can persuade you to open a document (a document, you may have been expecting but the email it came in doesn’t look or sound quite right or by clicking a potentially useful link) they may be successful in remotely running code of their choice on your system.

According to Kaspersky a more likely scenario would be “attackers also can exploit this vulnerability through an extension to the HTTP called Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), which allows users to collaborate on a document. Microsoft suggests disabling the WebClient service, which allows you to use this feature”

https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/windows-adobe-type-manager-vulnerability/34395/

For the attack to be successful you must be using a version of Windows older than Windows Server 2016 (Version 1703 or earlier), 2019 or Windows 10 (Version 1703 or earlier). If your version of Windows is newer as per Microsoft’s analysis : ”The possibility of remote code execution is negligible and elevation of privilege is not possible”.

How can I protect my organisation or myself from these vulnerabilities?
Until an update is made available, be aware and don’t open email attachments that look suspicious or click on links (from emails, while web browsing or via instant message clients) that you weren’t expecting or are suspicious.

If you are using an older version of Windows, consider implementing the workarounds provided by Microsoft in their advisory but please be aware of their potential impact to routine functionality before more widely enabling such workarounds:

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/security-guidance/advisory/adv200006

Thank you and stay safe everyone both inside and outside of cyberspace.

Adobe Flash Player 2020 Update Tracker

As I have done in previous years this post will track the number of vulnerabilities patched within Adobe Flash for 2020. This will be the last year of tracking these numbers since Flash Player is due to be decommissioned at the end of 2020. The major browsers are taking slightly different approaches to the phase out but the result will be the same (FAQ: Flash Player Deprecation).

Mozilla plan to turn off Flash by default in Firefox 84 scheduled for release in December 2020. However it appears the option to re-enable it manually will still be present.

As you know, this post will be updated throughout the year with the details of vulnerabilities being patched and if they are being exploited in the wild.

I have published a separate post that discusses the final phase of Flash Player’s lifecycle which references the approach each web browser vendor is taking to disable and remove it.

Thank you.

=======================
14th January 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month.

11th February 2020: Adobe releases Flash Player v32.0.0.330 to resolve 1x critical priority 2 vulnerability.

10th March 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month.

14th April 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month.

12th May 2020: Similar to the previous 2 months, Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates in May.

9th June 2020: Adobe releases Flash Player v32.0.0.387 to resolve 1x critical priority 2 vulnerability.

14th July 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month.

11th August 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month.

8th September 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month.

13th October 2020: Adobe releases Flash Player v32.0.0.445 to resolve 1x critical priority 2 vulnerability. This is likely to be the final Flash Player update

10th November 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month.

8th December 2020: Adobe did not release any Adobe Flash updates this month and likely won’t release any further updates. Microsoft highlighted their approach to discontinue Flash Player in this blog post.

=======================

Update: 19th February 2020: The timeline was created to include the Adobe Flash Player update for February 2020 and to record not updates were issued in January. At the time of writing no exploits for this critical vulnerability disclosed in February are known to be taking place.

Update: 21st April 2020: The timeline above was updated to document that no Flash Player updates were published in March or April 2020.

Update: 19th May 2020: The timeline above was updated to document that no Flash Player updates were published in May 2020. The main text of this post was updated to add Mozilla’s plans for Firefox’s removal of support for Flash later this year.

Update: 9th June 2020: The timeline above was updated to reflect the release of Flash Player v32.0.0.387. At this time no known exploits are in the wild for the vulnerability it resolves.

Update: 11th August 2020: The timeline above was updated to document that no Flash Player updates were made available in July or August 2020.

Update: 8th November 2020: The timeline above was updated to document that no Flash Player updates were made available in September but an update was released in October.

Update: 9th December 2020: The timeline above was updated to document that no Flash Player updates were made available in November or December. Its likely no further updates will be published. Microsoft highlighted their approach to discontinue Flash Player in the above linked to blog post.

February 2020 Update Summary

Today marks the release of this year’s second wave of scheduled updates from Adobe and Microsoft. 42 vulnerabilities were resolved by Adobe with Microsoft addressing 99 CVEs (defined).

Let’s start with Adobe’s patches first:
====================
Adobe
====================
Adobe Acrobat and Reader: 17x Priority 2 CVEs resolved (12x Critical, 3x Important, 2x Moderate severity)

Adobe Digital Editions:  2x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (1x Critical and 1x Important severity)

Adobe Experience Manager: 1x Priority 2 CVE resolved (1x Important severity)

Adobe Flash Player: 1x Priority 2 CVE resolved (1x Critical severity)

Adobe Framemaker: 21x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (21x Critical severity)

If you use the above Adobe products, please install these updates (especially in the case of the above critical vulnerabilities within Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat/Reader and Framemaker).
====================

Microsoft’s monthly summary; lists Known Issues for 13 Microsoft products but all have workarounds or resolution steps listed.

====================
US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

====================
As always for this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
====================
Microsoft Scripting Engine: CVE-2020-0710 , CVE-2020-0711 , CVE-2020-0712 , CVE-2020-0713 , CVE-2020-0767

Internet Explorer: CVE-2020-0674 (this was  the zero day (defined) vulnerability reported last month).

Microsoft Edge Chromium:  ADV200002

Windows Shell (LNK): CVE-2020-0729

Windows Remote Desktop Client: CVE-2020-0681 , CVE-2020-0734

Windows Hyper-V: CVE-2020-0662

Windows Media Foundation: CVE-2020-0738

Please install the remaining updates at your earliest convenience.

As per standard best practice; I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have also provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications below.

Thank you.

====================
Mozilla Firefox
====================
Earlier this month Mozilla released Firefox 73 and Firefox ESR  (Extended Support Release) 68.5 to address the following vulnerabilities:

Firefox 73.0: Resolves 3x high severity CVEs and 3x moderate severity CVEs

Firefox ESR 68.5: Resolves 2x high severity CVEs and 3x moderate severity CVEs

Firefox 73 brings the following minor features listed below:

1. A global zoom level configured from the settings menu
2. Opt-in notification when the use of virtual reality is being requested
3. A new DNS over HTTP (DoH) (defined) provider was added within Firefox. The new provider, NextDNS can be selected as follows: Select Options -> General -> Network Settings. Scroll down and place a tick/check in the ‘Enable DNS over HTTPs’ box and finally choose from NextDNS as a DoH provider.

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

====================
Google Chrome
====================
Google made available a security update in early February; resolving 56 vulnerabilities bringing Google Chrome to version 80. A further 2 updates on the 11th and 13th were also released but are not security updates.

Version 80 of Chrome also brings changes to how it handles cookies (defined). Specifically, restricting them to first party access by default and requiring website developers to specify within their code which cookies are allowed to work across websites. In addition, 3rd party cookies will then only be sent over HTTPS. This change was initially announced by Google in May 2019. As Google states “This change also has a significant security benefit for users, protecting cookies from cross-site injection and data disclosure attacks like Spectre and CSRF by default”. Further advice to developers is available in this video.

Separately in late February Google released Chrome version 80.0.3987.122 to address 3 security vulnerabilities, the most severe being a zero day (defined) vulnerability designated CVE-2020-6418 which is a type confusion vulnerability within Chrome’s JavaScript (defined) and Web Assembly (defined) engine known as V8.

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 vertically stacked dots) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

====================
Realtek Audio/Sound Card Drivers
====================
In early February, the hardware manufacturer Realtek released an updated audio/sound card driver. This driver addressed a security vulnerability that requires an attacker to have already compromised your Windows system and to have obtained administrative privileges. More information on this vulnerability is available from the security researchers who responsibly disclosed (defined) it to Realtek. The vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2019-19705 by Mitre.

This vulnerability is a DLL search-order hijacking vulnerability (defined) which if exploited could allow an attacker to download and run a malicious executable file on your system. They also have the ability to achieve persistence on your system namely that any malware they install will remain on your system after it is shutdown or restarted.

If your system uses a Realtek audio device (use Windows Device Manager and expand the category named “Sound, video and game controllers” looking for a device with Realtek in its name), please refer to the manufacturer of your desktop, laptop or motherboard for a driver update. If no driver is available, please contact them to request that a driver be made available. As per Realtek’s security advisory, drivers with versions later than 1.0.0.8856 (legacy , non DCH (what is the difference between DCH and standard drivers?) are not vulnerable.

====================
Nvidia
====================
On the 28th of February Nvidia released security updates for its drivers which power their Geforce, Tesla and Quadro/NVS GPUs as well and updates for its vGPU software (for Linux, Windows, Citrix Hypervisor, VMware vSphere, Red Hat Enterprise Linux KVM, Nutanix AHV). Not all updates for the vGPU software are available at this time but are in progress and will be released over the coming weeks (timelines are provided within Nvidia’s security advisory).

As was the case with November’s security updates all of these vulnerabilities are local vulnerabilities rather than remote meaning that an attacker would first need to compromise your system before exploiting the vulnerabilities to elevate their privileges. The steps to install the drivers are located here. If you use the affected Nvidia graphics cards or software, please consider installing these updates.

====================
Intel Security Advisories
====================
Intel have released a series of security advisories this month. The advisories are prioritised below. If you use any of these products, software or devices, please update them as soon as possible especially in the case of the high severity advisories.

High
Intel CSME Advisory (Intel Management Engine (ME) Firmware)

Medium
Intel RWC3 Advisory
Intel RWC2 Advisory
Intel MPSS Advisory
Intel Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Driver Advisory

Low
Intel SGX SDK Advisory

====================
VMware
====================
In the latter half of February, VMware released a critical security advisory to address vulnerabilities within the following product:

vRealize Operations for Horizon Adapter

If you use VMware vRealize Operations for Horizon Adapter, please install the applicable security updates (depending upon which version of this product you are using) as soon as possible.

====================
Wireshark
====================
In the final week of February, updates were released for Wireshark (I’ll detail only the 2 most recent versions here):

v3.2.2: Relating to 4 security advisories (relating to 4 CVEs)

v3.0.9: Relating to 3 security advisories (relating to 3 CVEs)

As per standard process Linux distributions can obtain this update using the operating systems standard package manager (if the latest version is not installed automatically using the package manager you can instead compile the source code (v3.2.2 or v3.0.9). This forum thread and this forum thread may also be helpful to you with installing Wireshark on your Linux based system.

For Mac OS X and Windows, the update is available within the downloads section of the Wireshark website. In addition, a detailed FAQ for Wireshark is available here.

Thank you.

January 2020 Update Summary

====================
Update: 11th February 2020
====================
This Internet Explorer zero day (defined) vulnerability was resolved by the patch released by Microsoft today. If you use Internet Explorer (especially versions 8 or earlier), please install this update as soon as possible.

Thank you.

==============
Update: 27th January 2020
==============
Shortly after the release of Microsoft’s scheduled updates, on the 17th of January they issued a security advisory for a critical zero day (defined) vulnerability being exploited by attackers in targeted attacks.

An out of bound update has not been released by Microsoft since by default all support versions of Internet Explorer by default use Jscript9.dll rather than Jscript.dll However versions earlier then IE 9 face increased risk.

If you use Internet Explorer for day to day work or just general surfing, please consider implementing the workaround described within Microsoft’s security advisory. Please remember to remove the workaround prior to installing the relevant security update in February. Also, please note that this workaround is causing some printers not to print and the Microsoft Print To PDF function not to work. If this is the case, use another browser and disable the workaround or use the micropatch (discussed below).

An alternative which according to ghacks.net is free is to install the micro-patch for IE available from 0Patch. More information on the micropatch and how to install it is available in the previous link above. This micropatch does not come with side effects. A YouTube video of the micropatch in action is available from the following link:

https://youtu.be/ixpBN_a2cHQ

Thank you.

==============
Original Post
==============
Happy New Year to my dedicated readers!

Today Adobe and Microsoft released their first security updates of the year. Adobe resolved 9 vulnerabilities more formally known as CVEs (defined) with Microsoft addressing 50 vulnerabilities.

====================
Adobe
====================
Adobe Experience Manager: 4x Priority 2 CVEs resolved (3x Important severity, 1x Moderate severity)

Adobe Illustrator CC: 5x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (5x Critical severity)

If you use the above Adobe products, please install these updates (especially in the case of the above critical vulnerabilities within Illustrator CC).
====================

Inside Microsoft’s monthly summary; there are Known Issues for 9 Microsoft products but all have workarounds (some workarounds will be replaced by further updates).

====================
US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

====================
For this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
====================
Windows CryptoAPI Spoofing Vulnerability: CVE-2020-0601 (disclosed by the NSA to Microsoft). Further information on this vulnerability is available from KrebsonSecurity, within this CERT advisory and the detailed NSA PDF.

Windows Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2020-0609

Windows Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2020-0610

Remote Desktop Client Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2020-0611

.NET Framework Remote Code Execution Injection Vulnerability: CVE-2020 0605

.NET Framework Remote Code Execution Injection Vulnerability: CVE-2020-0606

.NET Framework Remote Code Execution Injection Vulnerability: CVE-2020-0646

Please install the remaining less severe updates at your earliest convenience.

====================
Microsoft Edge Chromium
====================
Tomorrow, 15th January will mark the release of a new version of Microsoft Edge powered by the Chromium rendering engine. This version will be available for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. This is especially relevant for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 since while Windows itself ends its support lifecycle today, Edge Chromium will continue to be supported for a further 18 months. This matches similar statements from Google regarding Chrome and separately Vivaldi.

For details of which versions of Windows 10 will receive the new Edge via Windows Update and which versions will need to download it separately, please refer to this link. I wish to extend my thanks to Softpedia and Bleepingcomputer.com for these really useful links.

If for any reason, you wish to use the previous version of Edge (which uses the legacy rendering engine, please see this link for details of how to run the older version alongside its modern equivalent).

As per standard best practice; I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications below.

Thank you.

====================
Mozilla Firefox
====================
In early January Mozilla released new versions of Firefox to address the following vulnerabilities and to add new user privacy features:

Firefox 72.0: Resolves 5x high severity CVEs (defined), 5x moderate CVEs and 1x low CVE

Firefox ESR 68.4 (Extended Support Release): Resolves 4x high severity CVEs and 2x moderate CVEs

More recently Firefox 72.0.1 was released to address a single critical severity zero day (defined) vulnerability which was responsibly disclosed to Mozilla and fixed very quickly. Finally Firefox 72.0.2  was released on the 20th of January resolving inconsistent playback of full-screen HD videos among non-security other issues.

Highlights from version 72 of Firefox include:
In addition to picture in picture enabled by default for macOS and Linux, it blocks the use of fingerprinting by default (the collection of data from your system e.g. browser version, font size, screen resolution and other unique data. This protection is provided by Disconnect. There are multiple levels of fingerprinting protection provided with the standard level being enabled by default. The strict level however may lead to websites not functioning as expected. Further details are available here.

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

====================
Wireshark
====================
In mid-January the following Wireshark updates were released:

v3.2.1: Relating to 1 security advisory

v3.0.8: Relating to 1 security advisory

As per standard process Linux distributions can obtain this update using the operating systems standard package manager (if the latest version is not installed automatically using the package manager you can instead compile the source code (v3.2.1 or v3.0.8). This forum thread and this forum thread may also be helpful to you with installing Wireshark on your Linux based system.

For Mac OS X and Windows, the update is available within the downloads section of the Wireshark website. In addition, a detailed FAQ for Wireshark is available here.

====================
Google Chrome
====================
Google made available two security updates during November; the first resolves 3 vulnerabilities while the second resolves 16 vulnerabilities. The second also provides mitigation for the vulnerability disclosed by the NSA to Microsoft more commonly known as the  Chain of Fools/CurveBall or CVE-2020-0601 This test page from SANS will then show your system is no longer vulnerable after applying the second update. Please still apply the update from Microsoft to provide the most protection, Google’s changes are a mitigation only.

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 vertically stacked dots) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

====================
Intel Security Advisories
====================
Intel have released a series of security advisories this month. The advisories are prioritised below. If you use any of these products, software or devices, please update them as soon as possible especially in the case of the high severity advisories:

High
Intel VTune Amplifier for Windows Advisory

Medium
Intel Processors Data Leakage Advisory
Intel Processor Graphics Advisory
Intel RWC 3 for Windows Advisory
Intel Chipset Device Software Advisory
Intel SNMP Subagent Stand-Alone Advisory for Windows

Low
Intel Data Analytics Acceleration Library (DAAL)

====================
VMware
====================
VMware released 2 security advisories in January , the first is of moderate severity with the second being of important severity. The advisories relate to the following products:

Moderate Severity Advisory:

Workspace ONE SDK

Workspace ONE Boxer

Workspace ONE Content

Workspace ONE SDK Plugin for Apache Cordova

Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub

Workspace ONE Notebook

Workspace ONE People

Workspace ONE PIV-D

Workspace ONE Web

Workspace ONE SDK Plugin for Xamarin

Important Severity Advisory:
VMware Tools

If you use the above VMware products, please review the advisories and apply the necessary updates.

=======================
Oracle:
=======================
Oracle issued updates to resolve 334 vulnerabilities in January 2020. Further details and installation steps are available here. 12 vulnerabilities affect the Java runtime; all of which are remotely exploitable without an attacker needing to obtain a user’s username and password (their credentials).

If you use any of the Oracle products listed here, please install the appropriate security updates as soon as possible.

October 2019 Update Sumamry

================
Update: 25th October 2019
================
Apologies for the delay in updating this post due to professional commitments.

I wanted to provide details of this month’s security updates from Microsoft and Adobe. On the 8th of October, Microsoft made available their updates resolving 59 vulnerabilities more formally known CVEs (defined).

Separately Adobe made available their updates a week later:

====================

Adobe Acrobat and Reader: 68x Priority 2 CVEs resolved (45x critical severity, 23x Important severity)

Adobe Download Manager: Priority 3 CVE resolved (1x Important severity)

Adobe Experience Manager: Priority 2 CVEs (1x Critical CVE, 7x Important and 4x Moderate severity)

Adobe Experience Manager Forms: 1x Priority 3 CVE (1x Important severity)

As always, if you use these Adobe products, please install the necessary updates as soon as possible prioritising the Adobe Acrobat/Reader and Experience Manager updates.

====================

This month’s list of Known Issues from Microsoft is available within their monthly summary page and applies to all currently supported operating systems. All issues have workarounds at this time and none appear to be serious issues. The up to date list is available from their summary page.

As for stability, I have installed all of this month’s updates on my Windows 10 systems (Builds 18362.388 , 18362.418) most recently the new kb4522355 (for Windows 10 Version 1903 Build 18362.449) and have not experienced any issues. Indeed, this update was intended to resolve the issues e.g. among with the Start menu that caused me to advise not to install Windows 10 updates earlier this month. Obviously, please continue to backup and test your systems as you usually would before install widely rolling out these updates but in general you should be fine.

====================
US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

A further useful source of update related information is the Calendar of Updates.

News/announcements of updates in the categories of General Software, Security Software and Utilities are available on their website. The news/announcements are very timely and (almost always) contain useful direct download links as well as the changes/improvements made by those updates (where possible).

If you like and use it, please also consider supporting that entirely volunteer run website by donating.

====================
For this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
====================
Microsoft Scripting Engine: CVE-2019-1307 CVE-2019-1308 CVE-2019-1366

VBScript Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2019-1238 CVE-2019-1239

Azure Stack Remote Code Execution Vulnerability : CVE-2019-1372

Remote Desktop Client Remote Code Execution Vulnerability : CVE-2019-1333

MS XML Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2019-1060

Windows Error Reporting Manager Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability : CVE-2019-1315

Please install the remaining updates at your earliest convenience.

As per standard best practice; I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications below.

Thank you.

====================
Mozilla Firefox
====================
On 22nd October Mozilla released Firefox 70 to address multiple critical vulnerabilities and to one again introduce further privacy features (see below):

Firefox 70: Resolves 1x critical CVE (defined)(but consisting of multiple vulnerabilities), 3x high CVEs, 8x moderate and 1x low CVE

Firefox ESR 68.2 (Extended Support Release): Resolves 1x critical CVE (but consisting of multiple vulnerabilities), 3x high CVEs, 5x moderate

Highlights from version 70 of Firefox include:

Details of improvements in the macOS and Windows versions of Firefox are provided in this article. The blocking of social networking tracking is discussed in another article.

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

====================
Google Chrome
====================
On October 22nd, Google released Chrome version 78.0.3904.70. This update resolves a high severity flaw that earned the researcher who reported it $20,000. The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) stated “successful exploitation could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the browser, obtain sensitive information, bypass security restrictions and perform unauthorized actions, or cause denial-of-service conditions.” In total, this update contains 37 security fixes.

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 stacked small horizontal lines, sometimes called a “hamburger” button) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

=======================
WinSCP:
=======================
In mid October; WinSCP version 5.15.5 was released upgrading it’s embedded version of Putty (the Windows SSH client) to 0.73 (along with its SSH private key tools to the same version) resolving 2 vulnerabilities (with one other issue possibly security related). WinSCP 5.15.6 has since been released as a non-security update.

Thank you.

================
Update: 8th October 2019
================
Unfortunately due to professional commitments I won’t be able to update this post today with details of Adobe’s and Microsoft’s updates. I will do so as soon as possible this week.

Thanks for your understanding.

================
Original Post
================
On the 23rd of September Microsoft issued two out of band (unscheduled) security updates to resolve 2 zero-day (defined) vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities affect Internet Explorer and Windows Defender.

Microsoft has drawn criticism for adding confusion to these updates since they are not available on Windows Update but must be installed manually. For Windows 10 Version 1903 this prompted the release of kb4524147 which at this time I do NOT recommend you install since it is causing some systems not to boot, not being able to print and in some cases the Start menu is crashing.

With further security updates expected from Microsoft tomorrow, please await those updates and re-assess if you should install them. I’ll updater this post tomorrow with more information on the new monthly updates.

Separately since Windows Defender updates automatically you should have received the relevant anti-malware engine update (Version: 1.1.14700.5) 48 hours after the 23rd September.

Thank you.

July 2019 Update Summary

As predicted; earlier today Adobe and Microsoft made available their usual monthly security updates addressing 5 and 77 vulnerabilities (respectively) more formally known as CVEs (defined):

====================
Adobe Bridge CC: 1x Priority 3 vulnerability resolved (Important severity)

Adobe Dreamweaver: 1x Priority 3 vulnerability resolved (Important severity)

Adobe Experience Manager: 3x Priority 2 vulnerabilities : 2x Important, 1x Moderate severity resolved

If you use any of these Adobe products, please apply the necessary updates as soon as possible.

====================
This month’s list of Known Issues from Microsoft is available within their monthly summary page and applies to all currently supported operating systems. Not all issues have workarounds at this time. Just like last month; Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 list known issues with McAfee products and should refer to the guidance linked to by Microsoft within the above linked to attempt to workaround these issues:

4493730                Servicing stack update for Windows Server 2008 SP2

4507434                Internet Explorer 11

4507435                Windows 10, version 1803

4507448                Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 (Monthly Rollup)

4507449                Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (Monthly Rollup)

4507450                Windows 10, version 1703

4507453                Windows 10, version 1903, Windows Server version 1903

4507455                Windows 10, version 1709

4507457                Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 (Security-only update)

4507458                Windows 10

4507460                Windows 10 1607 and Windows Server 2016

4507462                Windows Server 2012 (Monthly Rollup)

4507464                Windows Server 2012 (Security-only update)

4507469                Windows 10, version 1809, Windows Server 2019

====================
US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

A further useful source of update related information is the Calendar of Updates.

News/announcements of updates in the categories of General Software, Security Software and Utilities are available on their website. The news/announcements are very timely and (almost always) contain useful direct download links as well as the changes/improvements made by those updates (where possible).

If you like and use it, please also consider supporting that entirely volunteer run website by donating.

====================
For this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
====================

Zero-day (defined) vulnerabilities:
CVE-2019-1132 – Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

CVE-2019-0880 – Microsoft splwow64 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

====================
Critical
====================
CVE-2019-0785  Windows DHCP Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2019-1072  Azure DevOps Server and Team Foundation Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2019-1056  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1106  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1092  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1103  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1107  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1062  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1004  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1001  Scripting Engine

CVE-2019-1063  Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability

CVE-2019-1104  Microsoft Browser Memory Corruption Vulnerability

CVE-2019-1102  GDI+ Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2019-1113  .NET Framework Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Servicing Stack Update

====================

Please install the remaining updates at your earliest convenience.

As per standard best practice; I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications below.

Thank you.

=======================
Mozilla Firefox
=======================
Today, Mozilla released Firefox 68.0 to address the following vulnerabilities and to introduce new features:

Firefox 68.0: Resolves 2x critical CVEs (defined), 3x high CVEs, 10x moderate and 4x low CVEs

Firefox 60.8 ESR (Extended Support Release): Resolves 1x critical CVE, 4x high CVEs and 5x moderate CVEs

Firefox now also includes cryptomining protection and fingerprinting protections and improved add-on security (my thanks to Softpedia for this information, more details on other security features are here).

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

=======================
VMware ESXi
=======================
Earlier today VMware made available an update for ESXi version 6.5. Version 6.0 is unaffected and a patch for 6.7 is pending. This update resolves a denial of service vulnerability.

If you use VMware ESXi, please update when you can.

Thank you.

June 2019 Update Summary

With yesterday being the second Tuesday of the month; it means it’s Update Tuesday again. Microsoft resolved 88 vulnerabilities  (more formally known as CVEs (defined) with Adobe addressing 11 vulnerabilities of their own.

Adobe Campaign: 7x Priority 3 vulnerabilities (1x Critical, 3x Important, 3x Moderate)

Adobe ColdFusion: 3x Priority 2 vulnerabilities (3x Critical)

Adobe Flash Player: 1x Priority 1 vulnerability (1x Critical)

If you use Adobe ColdFusion, please apply the necessary updates as soon as possible. For that product, as per Adobe’s advisory, please make certain the Java JDK/JRE in use on the server is fully up to date in order to fully secure it. Please install the remaining updates for Campaign and Flash Player as soon as possible since they also resolve critical vulnerabilities.

====================
For Microsoft; this month’s list of Known Issues is available within their monthly summary page and applies to all currently supported operating systems. Not all issues have workarounds at this time. Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 list known issues with McAfee products and should refer to the guidance linked to by Microsoft within the above linked to attempt to workaround these issues:

4493730                Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Servicing stack update

4503027                Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Server 2016

4503028                Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3, Exchange Server 2013

4503263                Windows Server 2012 (Security-only update)

4503267                Windows 10, version 1607, Windows Server 2016

4503276                Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 (Monthly Rollup)

4503279                Windows 10, version 1703

4503284                Windows 10, version 1709

4503285                Windows Server 2012 (Monthly Rollup)

4503286                Windows 10, version 1803

4503290                Windows 8.1 Windows Server 2012 R2 (Security-only update)

4503291                Windows 10

4503292                Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (Security-only update)

4503293                Windows 10, version 1903

4503327                Windows 10, version 1809, Windows Server 2019

====================
US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

A further useful source of update related information is the Calendar of Updates.

News/announcements of updates in the categories of General Software, Security Software and Utilities are available on their website. The news/announcements are very timely and (almost always) contain useful direct download links as well as the changes/improvements made by those updates (where possible).

If you like and use it, please also consider supporting that entirely volunteer run website by donating.

====================
For this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
====================
Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer: CVE-2019-1038

Microsoft Speech API Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2019-0985

Microsoft Scripting Engine:

CVE-2019-1002

CVE-2019-0991

CVE-2019-1080

CVE-2019-1023

CVE-2019-0992

CVE-2019-1024

CVE-2019-0990

CVE-2019-0988

CVE-2019-0989

CVE-2019-1055

CVE-2019-1052

CVE-2019-1051

CVE-2019-0920

CVE-2019-1003

Windows Hyper-V Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2019-0709 , CVE-2019-0722 , CVE-2019-0620

ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2019-0888

Windows Task Scheduler: CVE-2019-1069 (disclosed by SandboxEscaper)

Windows AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC): CVE-2019-1064 (disclosed by SandboxEscaper)

Windows Shell: CVE-2019-1053 (disclosed by SandboxEscaper)

Windows Installer: CVE-2019-0973 (disclosed by SandboxEscaper)

====================
Please install the remaining updates at your earliest convenience.

As per standard best practice; I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications below.

Thank you.

=======================
VideoLAN VLC:
=======================
A new version of VLC is available for Apple macOS, Linux, Windows (desktop and Windows Store), Google Android and Apple iOS with some great performance improvements and resolving 33 security vulnerabilities (2 of which are high severity) as a result of the EU-FOSSA bug bounty programme which opened in January this year.

Further details are below:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/3.0.7.html

http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2019/VLC-3.0.7-and-security

Version 3.0.7.1 has since been released to resolve other non-security issues. The most recent version can be downloaded from:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

=======================
Mozilla Firefox
=======================
Yesterday (11th June), Mozilla released Firefox 67.0.2 to address a single moderate severity vulnerability.

Further to the above updates, on the 18th and the 20th June; Mozilla issued 2 updates for Firefox version 67.0.3 (ESR (Extended Support Release) 60.7.1) and 67.0.4 (ESR 60.7.2) to resolve 2x critical zero day (defined) vulnerabilities actively being exploited in the wild.

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

=======================
Google Chrome:
=======================
Google released Google Chrome version 75.0.3770.80 to address 42 vulnerabilities in early June.

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 stacked small horizontal lines, sometimes called a “hamburger” button) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

=======================
VMware:
=======================
Earlier this month VMware published a security advisory to address a single Important severity vulnerability in VMware Tools for Linux and Windows.

If you use VMware Tools on Linux or Windows, please review the security advisory and apply the necessary updates.

=======================
DOSBox
=======================
The retro gaming and legacy software emulator DOSBox in late June released an update to correct vulnerabilities discovered during a small code audit.

2 CVEs (CVE-2019-7165 and CVE-2019-12594) were assigned (that resolve critical vulnerabilities with CVSS 3.0 (defined) base scores of 9.8) but more out of bound access and buffer overflows (defined) were also resolved. Further details are available in their news post dated, 26th June 2019.

If you use DOSBox, please consider upgrading to version 0.74-3 which also includes many fixes for non-security bugs. The new version is available from here.

Thank you.

Botnet Targeted Unpatched Counter-Strike Vulnerabilities

In mid-March the security firm Dr. Web published details of a botnet (defined) they were able to shut down affecting players of the classic first-person shooter (FPS) game; Counter-Strike 1.6.

Why should this development be considered significant?
The report made available by Dr. Web showed that at it’s height the botnet resulting from the distribution of the Trojan (defined) Belonard numbered up to 39% of all the available game servers (1951 out of 5000) listed for Counter-strike gamers to choose from.

How were gamers systems infected?
One of the popular services offering servers to play on exploited 2 zero day (defined) remote code execution vulnerabilities within the 1.6 version of the Counter-Strike client to install Trojan Belonard within a gamer’s system. Researchers from Dr. Web found that this game remains very popular and can be played by 20,000 individuals on average at a time.

Counter-Strike can make use of dedicated servers that gamers can choose to connect to. These servers offer reduced lag, greater reliability while some monetised servers offer access to special weapons and protection against bans.

In an example scenario, a gamer might launch the official Steam gaming client. The client automatically will display a list of servers the player can connect to. Those with the lowest (lower is better) ping rate will be displayed at the top of the list. This list will also contain publicly available Valve (the company which created and maintains the Steam client) servers. However, the Trojan Belonard once it has infected a system it re-orders the servers offered to another system (placing them high in the list you see) in order to spread further. You may think you are connecting to a server with a low ping when in fact connecting to a malicious server which then infects your system with the Trojan. It does this by exploiting a remote code execution (defined: the ability for an attacker to remotely carry out any action of their choice on your device) vulnerability within the Counter-Strike client. A more detailed description and diagram is available from Dr. Web’s analysis of this threat. Your system will now contribute to spreading the Trojan by re-ordering the server list we discussed above.

The botnet herder did this in order to make more money since their other more legitimate servers would also be displayed high in the list of servers and those charge a fee for their use.

What happened to this botnet?
Dr. Web was successful in disrupting this botnet by coordinating with the registrar of the reg.ru domain name to shut down the websites used by the Trojan thus protecting new gamers from becoming infected. Furthermore, the domain generation algorithm (DGA)(defined); is being monitored by Dr. Web in order to continue to sinkhole (defined) the domains the malware attempts to use to continue spreading itself.

How can I protect myself from this threat or clean it from my system if I am already infected?
Unfortunately; the only way to prevent this botnet from being re-activated by whoever created it is for the zero-day vulnerabilities within the Counter-Strike client to be patched. Given the age and lack of financial reward to Valve to do this; that is unlikely.

If you suspect or know your system is infected with this malware; update your anti-malware software and run a full system scan. If this does not remove the malware you can use the free version of Malwarebytes to perform a scan and remove the malware. If you suspect any remnants remain you can use the additional anti-malware scanners linked to on this blog to remove them. In this case; RogueKiller, AdwCleaner and PowerEraser would be the most suitable for this malware.

Thank you.

March 2019 Update Summary

====================
Updated: 21st March 2019
====================
Two of the vulnerabilities patched by Microsoft (CVE-2019-0797, CVE-2019-0808) were zero day (defined) vulnerabilities being actively exploited in the wild. Four other vulnerabilities were publicly known (CVE-2019-0683, CVE-2019-0754, CVE-2019-0757 and CVE-2019-0809).

Separately the Google Chrome vulnerability mentioned below namely CVE-2019-5786 was also being exploited by attackers.

After publishing my original post; Adobe and Microsoft jointly reported that while a newer version (32.0.0.156) of Flash Player was made available it only resolves non-security bugs.

I have updated the suggested installation order (below) to reflect this new information. Thank you.

====================
Original Post:
====================
As scheduled; earlier today Microsoft and Adobe made available their security updates. Microsoft addressed 65 vulnerabilities (more formally known as CVEs (defined)) with Adobe resolving 2 vulnerabilities.

For Adobe; if you have not already done so; if you manage an installation of Adobe ColdFusion or know someone who does, please apply the necessary updates made available earlier this month. That update addressed a single priority 1 zero day (defined) vulnerability being exploited in the wild. Today’s Adobe updates are as follows:

Adobe Digital Editions: 1x priority 3 CVE resolved

Adobe Photoshop CC: 1x priority3 CVE resolved

If you use the affected Adobe products; please install their remaining priority 3 updates when you can.

This month’s list of Known Issues is now sorted by Microsoft within their monthly summary page and applies to all currently supported operating systems:

KB4489878          Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (Monthly Rollup)

KB4489881          Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 (Monthly Rollup)

KB4489882          Windows 10 version 1607, Windows Server 2016

KB4489883          Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 (Security-only update)

KB4489884          Windows Server 2012 (Security-only update)

KB4489885          Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (Security-only update)

KB4489891          Windows Server 2012 (Monthly Rollup)

KB4489899          Windows 10 version 1809, Windows Server 2019

You can monitor the availability of security updates for most your software from the following websites (among others) or use one of the utilities presented on this page:

====================
US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

A further useful source of update related information is the Calendar of Updates.

News/announcements of updates in the categories of General Software, Security Software and Utilities are available on their website. The news/announcements are very timely and (almost always) contain useful direct download links as well as the changes/improvements made by those updates (where possible).

If you like and use it, please also consider supporting that entirely volunteer run website by donating.

====================
For this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
====================
Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer (multiple versions of Edge and IE affected)

Windows Kernel: CVE-2019-0797, CVE-2019-0808

Windows DHCP Client: CVE-2019-0697 , CVE-2019-0698 , CVE-2019-0726

Microsoft XML: CVE-2019-0756

Scripting Engine: CVE-2019-0592 , CVE-2019-0746 , CVE-2019-0639 , CVE-2019-0783 , CVE-2019-0609 , CVE-2019-0611 , CVE-2019-0666 , CVE-2019-0769 , CVE-2019-0665 , CVE-2019-0667 , CVE-2019-0680 , CVE-2019-0773 , CVE-2019-0770 , CVE-2019-0771 , CVE-2019-0772

Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2019-0809

Microsoft Active Directory: CVE-2019-0683

NuGet Package Manager Tampering Vulnerability: CVE-2019-0757

Windows Denial of Service Vulnerability: CVE-2019-0754

Microsoft Dynamics 365: a privilege escalation vulnerability (defined) has been addressed (this product is also widely deployed)

If you use Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services), please review advisory: ADV190005

====================
Please install the remaining updates at your earliest convenience.

As always; I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues. I have provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications below.

Thank you.

=======================
Google Chrome:
=======================
Google released Google Chrome version 72.0.3626.121 to address a single zero day (defined) vulnerability under active exploit. The vulnerability was a high severity use-after-free (defined) flaw in Chrome’s FileReader API (defined) which could have led to information disclosure of files stored on the same system as Chrome is installed.

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 stacked small horizontal lines, sometimes called a “hamburger” button) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

=======================
Notepad++:
=======================
Notepad++ 7.6.4 was released on the 6th of March resolving 8 security issues. This version follows another from January which resolved 7 other vulnerabilities. If you use Notepad++, please update to the newest version to benefit from these security fixes.

Notepad++ 7.6.6 was released to resolve a critical regression in 7.6.5 which caused Notepad++ to crash. Version 7.6.5 resolved a further 6 security vulnerabilities.

If you use Notepad++, please update to the newest version to benefit from these reliability and security fixes.

Thank you.

=======================
Mozilla Firefox
=======================
Update: 25th March 2019: As detailed in the Pwn2Own 2019 results post; Mozilla released a further update for Firefox and Firefox ESR bringing their version numbers to 66.0.1 and 60.6.1 respectively. Both updates resolve 2x critical CVEs. Please consider updating to these versions as soon as possible.

=======================
In the latter half of March Mozilla issued updates for Firefox 66 and Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 60.6:

Firefox 66.0: Resolves 5x critical CVEs (defined), 7x high CVEs, 5x moderate CVEs and 4x low CVEs

Firefox 60.6: Resolves 4x critical critical CVEs, 4x high CVEs and 2x moderate CVEs

Firefox 66 introduces better reliability (since crashes have been reduced) and improved performance. In addition, smooth scrolling has been added. The blocking of websites automatically playing audio or video content is now also present. These and other features are discussed in more depth here and here.

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

=======================
VMware:
=======================
VMware issued 2 security advisories during March:
Security Advisory 1: Addresses 2x important severity CVEs in the following products:

VMware Player
VMware Workstation Pro

Security Advisory 2: Addresses 1x moderate severity CVE in the following products:

VMware Horizon

If you use the above VMware products, please review the security advisories and apply the necessary updates.

=======================
Putty:
=======================
Putty, the open source and highly popular SSH (defined) client for Windows, was updated to version 0.71 in mid-March. It contains 8 security fixes (see below). They are a result of the bug bounties awarded through the EU-Free and Open Source Software Auditing (EU-FOSSA) (discussed previously in this post). Version 0.71 is downloadable from here.

If you use Putty, please update it to version 0.71. Thank you.

Security vulnerabilities fixed:

• vuln-auth-prompt-spoofing: Authentication prompts can be spoofed by a malicious server
• vuln-chm-hijack: Potential malicious code execution via CHM hijacking
• vuln-fd-set-overflow: Buffer overflow in Unix PuTTY tools if server opens too many port forwardings
• vuln-rng-reuse: Cryptographic random numbers can occasionally be reused
• vuln-rsa-kex-integer-overflow: Integer overflow due to missing key-size check in RSA key exchange code
• vuln-terminal-dos-combining-chars: DoS if many Unicode combining characters are written to the terminal
• vuln-terminal-dos-combining-chars-double-width-gtk: DoS by terminal output involving combining characters, double-width text, an odd number of terminal columns, and GTK
• vuln-terminal-dos-one-column-cjk: DoS by terminal output if a CJK wide character is written to a 1-column-wide terminal

=======================

=======================
Nvidia Geforce Experience Software:
=======================
In late March , Nvidia released a security advisory for their Geforce Experience software for Windows. This update resolves 1 high severity vulnerabilities (as per their CVSS base scores). The necessary updates can be applied by opening Geforce Experience which will automatically updated it or the update can be obtained from here.

=======================
GOG Galaxy
=======================
Golden Old Games (GOG) has published an update for their popular game distribution platform GOG Galaxy. It resolves 2 critical vulnerabilities. Additionally, 2 high severity and 2x medium severity vulnerabilities were also resolved. These vulnerabilities are discussed in more detail in this Cisco Talos blog post and within this Kaspersky ThreatPost article. Please update GOG Galaxy to version 1.2.54.23 or later to resolve these vulnerabilities.

I don’t often post about vulnerabilities in gaming clients/gaming distribution clients but like any software; security updates can and are made available for them.