Microsoft Patches Critical Vulnerabilities in its Software

As part of its monthly "Patch Tuesday" schedule, Microsoft has issued five new bulletins (four of them labeled "critical") about security vulnerabilities in its software. The most serious security flaws described could allow remote code execution, enabling a hacker to access data on a vulnerable PC or run malicious code such as a worm.

U.S. Cert explained that "a remote, unauthenticated attacker could execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. An attacker may also be able to cause a denial of service or launch cross-site scripting attacks."

• MS07-018. Critical. Could allow Remote Code Execution. Affects Microsoft Content Management Server.
• MS07-019. Critical. Could allow Remote Code Execution. Affects Universal Plug and Play.
• MS07-020. Critical. Could allow Remote Code Execution. Affects Microsoft Agent.
• MS07-021. Critical. Could allow Remote Code Execution. Affects CSRSS (Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem).
• MS07-022. Important. Could allow Remote Elevation of Privilege. Affects Windows Kernel.

The release of the patches follows one week after Microsoft released an emergency update to fix a flaw in the way Windows handles animated cursors (ANI files). Many attempts by hackers have been made to exploit this flaw during April.

"Many versions of Windows, including the latest edition of Windows Vista, are affected by these critical security flaws," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Hackers will show no mercy in taking advantage of these vulnerabilities in Microsoft's code unless companies and home consumers patch against them as a matter of priority. Anyone not taking these flaws seriously is asking for trouble."