Today is Microsoft Patch Tuesday and it's one of the lightest of the year. This release includes four bulletins, one rated Critical and three rated Important. Despite the short list of bulletins, Internet Explorer clocks in with another 37 CVEs this month. This has been the Summer of Internet Explorer vulnerabilities with nearly 150 Critical vulnerabilities patched since June. The other three bulletins include Denial of Service vulnerabilities in .NET and Microsoft Lync Server as well as an Elevation of Privilege vulnerability in Windows Task Scheduler.
MS14-052 (KB2977629)
Critical
CVE-2014-4088, CVE-2014-4089, CVE-2014-4090, CVE-2014-4091, CVE-2014-4092, CVE-2014-4093, CVE-2014-4094, CVE-2014-4095, CVE-2014-4096, CVE-2014-4097, CVE-2014-4098, CVE-2014-4099, CVE-2014-4100, CVE-2014-4101, CVE-2014-4102, CVE-2014-4103, CVE-2014-4104, CVE-2014-4105, CVE-2014-4106, CVE-2014-4107, CVE-2014-4108, CVE-2014-4109, CVE-2014-4110, CVE-2014-4111
Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer
This bulletin resolves 36 Critical vulnerabilities and one Important vulnerability. The most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution. An attacker would need to lure a victim to a maliciously crafted webpage. Once exploited the attacker could execute any local application with the same user rights as the victim.
The single vulnerability rated Important is an information disclosure vulnerability. The vulnerability exists in the XMLDOM ActiveX control which, when queried remotely through Internet Explorer, allows local resources loaded into memory to be queried. This vulnerability could allow an attacker to detect anti-malware applications used by a victim. This could help future attacks avoid detection.
This bulletin affects Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6), Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7), Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows clients, and Moderate for Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6), Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7), Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows servers.
MS14-053 (KB2990931)
Important
CVE-2014-4072
Vulnerability in .NET Framework Could Allow Denial of Service
This denial of service vulnerability exists in the way that the .NET Framework handles requests that require additions to the .NET hash table. An attacker could specially craft malicious server requests that will cause hash collisions in the .NET hash table. If the attacker can chain enough of these collisions together it degrades the performance of the server eventually leading to an denial of service condition.
This bulletin affects Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 2, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1, Microsoft .NET Framework 4, and Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5/4.5.1/4.5.2 on affected releases of Microsoft Windows.
MS14-054 (KB2988948)
Important
CVE-2014-4074
Vulnerability in Windows Task Scheduler Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege for a locally logged-in user due to how Windows Task Scheduler conducts integrity checks on tasks. An attacker that is already logged into a system could exploit this vulnerability and run arbitrary code in the security context of the local system. With local system rights an attacker could perform any action they wanted including complete data access, program installation and user account creation.
This bulletin affects all supported editions of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows RT 8.1.
MS14-055 (KB2990928)
Important
CVE-2014-4068, CVE-2014-4070, CVE-2014-4071
Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Lync Server Could Allow Denial of Service
This bulletin covers three vulnerabilities in Microsoft Lync Server. The most severe of these are two vulnerabilities that could cause a denial of service condition. The third vulnerability is an information disclosure vulnerability.
The two denial of service vulnerabilities occur due to how Lync server handles a null dereference and program exceptions. A remote, unauthenticated attacker could craft malicious packets that could force these conditions and cause the target system to stop.
The information disclosure vulnerability is a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw. An attacker could embed malicious javascript that would be executed by their victim's browser.
This bulletin affects all supported editions of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2013.