Microsoft March 2022 Patch Tuesday fixes 71 flaws

Today is Microsoft’s March 2022 Patch Tuesday, and with it comes fixes for three zero-day vulnerabilities and a total of 71 flaws.

Microsoft has fixed 71 vulnerabilities (not including 21 Microsoft Edge vulnerabilities ) with today’s update, with three classified as Critical as they allow remote code execution.

The number of bugs in each vulnerability category is listed below:

• 25 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities
• 3 Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities
• 29 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities
• 6 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities
• 4 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
• 3 Spoofing Vulnerabilities
• 21 Edge – Chromium Vulnerabilities

For information about the non-security Windows updates, you can read about today’s Windows 10 KB5011487 and KB5011485 updates updates and Windows 11’s KB5011493 update.

Three zero-days fixed, none actively exploited

This month’s Patch Tuesday includes fixes for three publicly disclosed zero-day vulnerabilities. The good news is that none of these vulnerabilities were actively exploited in attacks.

Microsoft classifies a vulnerability as a zero-day if it is publicly disclosed or actively exploited with no official fix available.

The publicly disclosed vulnerabilities fixed as part of the March 2022 Patch Tuesday are:

• CVE-2022-21990 – Remote Desktop Client Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
• CVE-2022-24459 – Windows Fax and Scan Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
• CVE-2022-24512 – .NET and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

While none of these vulnerabilities have been used in attacks, Microsoft states that there are public proof-of-concept exploits for CVE-2022-21990 and CVE-2022-24459.

Other vulnerabilities of interest this month that Microsoft believes are more likely to be targeted by threat actors are:

• CVE-2022-24508 – Windows SMBv3 Client/Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
• CVE-2022-23277 – Microsoft Exchange Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Now that Microsoft has issued patches for these vulnerabilities, it should be expected for threat actors to analyze the vulnerabilities to learn how to exploit them.

Recent updates from other companies

Other vendors who released updates in March 2022 include:

• Google released Android’s March security updates.
• Cisco released security updates for numerous products this month, including Cisco Cisco FXOS and NX-OS, StarOS, and Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller.
• HP disclosed 16 UEFI firmware vulnerabilities that threat actors can use to install stealthy malware.

The March 2022 Patch Tuesday Security Updates

Below is the complete list of resolved vulnerabilities and released advisories in the March 2022 Patch Tuesday updates. To access the full description of each vulnerability and the systems that it affects, you can view the full report here.

Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com