Microsoft November2011 Patch Tuesday Released

Microsoft has released only four bulletins covering a total of four vulnerabilities in its monthly security update. One of the bulletins is rated “Critical” while two are rated “Important” and the remaining one is rated “Moderate.”
The only ‘Critical’ rated issue affects the Windows TCP/IP stack. It can potentially be exploited to completely compromise an affected computer. The remaining issues affect Active Directory, Windows Mail and Windows kernel-mode drivers.

The following vulnerabilities are rated “Critical”:

MS11-083 – Vulnerability in TCP/IP Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2588516)
This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a continuous flow of specially crafted UDP packets to a closed port on a target system.

The following vulnerabilities are rated “Important”:

MS11-085 – Vulnerability in Windows Mail and Windows Meeting Space Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2620704)
This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a legitimate file (such as an .eml or .wcinv file) that is located in the same network directory as a specially crafted dynamic link library (DLL) file. Then, while opening the legitimate file, Windows Mail or Windows Meeting Space could attempt to load the DLL file and execute any code it contains. For an attack to be successful, a user must visit an untrusted remote file system location or WebDAV share and open a legitimate file (such as an .eml or .wcinv file) from this location which is then loaded by a vulnerable application.

MS11-086 – Vulnerability in Active Directory Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2630837)
This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Active Directory, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) and Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service (AD LDS). The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if Active Directory is configured to use LDAP over SSL (LDAPS) and an attacker acquires a revoked certificate that is associated with a valid domain account and then uses that revoked certificate to authenticate the Active Directory domain. By default, Active Directory is not configured to use LDAP over SSL.

The following vulnerabilities are rated “Modearate”:

MS11-084 – Vulnerability in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Denial of Service (2617657)
This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a user opens a specially crafted TrueType Font file as an email attachment or navigates to a network share or WebDAV location containing a specially crafted TrueType Font file. For an attack to be successful a user must visit the untrusted remote file system location or WebDAV share containing the specially crafted TrueType Font file or open the file as an email attachment. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to perform these actions. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade users to do so, typically by getting them to click a link in an email message or Instant Messenger message.

For detailed information of all the bulletins and the corresponding vulnerabilities addressed, please visit:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms11-nov

We recommend that users set ‘Windows Update’ mode to ‘Install updates automatically’ so that all important patches get applied automatically.

Anand Yadav