Microsoft February 2021 Patch Tuesday fixes 56 bugs, including Windows zero-day

RV_ · February 11

Excerpt:

"Microsoft also warns about three nasty vulnerabilities in the Windows TCP/IP stack. (Fixed in this update)

Microsoft has released today its monthly batch of security updates, known as Patch Tuesday. This month, the OS maker has fixed 56 security vulnerabilities, including a Windows bug that was being exploited in the wild before today's patches.

Tracked as CVE-2021-1732, the Windows zero-day is an elevation of privelege bug in Win32k, a core component of the Windows operating system.

The bug was exploited after attackers gained access to a Windows system in order to obtain SYSTEM-level access.

According to a report from Chinese security firm DBAPPSecurity, the zero-day was employed by an advanced threat actor known as Bitter, with a long history of attacks targeting Pakistani and Chinese organizations and users.

DBAPPSecurity said the zero-day exploit they initially detected was compiled in May 2020 and was designed to target Windows10 1909 64-bits operating system, but that subsequent tests revealed that the bug also impacted the latest Windows10 20H2 64-bitsOS as well.

Of note was that in its report, the Chinese security firm described the zero-day as "high-quality" and "sophisticated," and said that the attacker used it "with caution," going undetected for almost seven months.

Many bug details went public

Besides the zero-day, this month's Patch Tuesday also stands out because of the high number of vulnerabilities whose details were made public even before patches were available.

In total, six Microsoft product bugs had their details posted online before today's patches.

Much more detail in the original article here:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-february-2021-patch-tuesday-fixes-56-bugs-including-windows-zero-day/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=&mid=13264607&cid=2180787277