The Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for February 2011 details the upcoming patches. A total of 12 security bulletins are released next Tuesday of which all but one fix issues in the Microsoft Windows operating system. The remaining patch fixes a vulnerability in Microsoft Office.

Three of the security vulnerabilities have received a maximum severity rating of critical, the highest available rating, the remaining nine a severity rating of important.

• Microsoft’s newest operating system Windows 7 is affected by seven of the twelve issues. Of those, two are rated critical and the remaining five as important.
• Windows Vista is affected by six vulnerabilities with three rated as critical and the remaining three as important.
• Windows XP is affected by eight vulnerabilities with two being rated as critical and six as important.
• Windows Server 2003 is affected by 10 vulnerabilities of which one is critical, eight are important and one is moderate.
• Windows Server 2008 is affected in the same way as the Vista operating system, with the exception that one of the critical vulnerabilities is only rated as moderate here.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 finally is affected the same way as Windows 7, again with the exception of two vulnerabilities that are rated as moderate instead of critical and important.

The remaining vulnerabiliy affected Microsoft Visio 2002 Service Pack 2, Visio 2003 Service Pack 3 and Visio 2007 Service Pack 2. It is rated as important.

The advanced notifications are accessible here.

Adobe

Adobe has released a Prenotification Security Advisory for Adobe Reader and Acrobat.

Adobe is planning to release updates for Adobe Reader X (10.0) for Windows and Macintosh, Adobe Reader 9.4.1 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX, Adobe Acrobat X (10.0) for Windows and Macintosh, and Adobe Acrobat 9.4.1 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh to resolve critical security issues. Adobe expects to make updates for Windows and Macintosh available on Tuesday, February 8, 2011. An update for UNIX is expected to be available by the week of February 28, 2011.

Expect lots of patching next Tuesday. We will post detailed information once the patches are released by Microsoft and Adobe.

The severity of both security bulletins has been rated as important. Attackers can exploit the issues for remote code execution.

The security updates are offered through the usual channels including Windows Update, Microsoft Update or directly from Microsoft websites.

• MS10-016 – Vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker Could Allow Remote Code Execution (975561) – This security update addresses a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker and Microsoft Producer 2003. Windows Live Movie Maker, which is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7, is not affected by this vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted Movie Maker or Microsoft Producer project file and convinced the user to open the specially crafted file. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-017 – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (980150) – This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

Users who have Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Producer 2003 or Windows Movie Maker installed should install the security patches right away to protect their computer system from exploits that target those vulnerabilities.

Three of the vulnerabilities have a maximum severity rating of critical while the other three are rated as important. The vulnerability impact is either a remote code execution or denial of service attack. It is recommended to patch computer systems and programs that are affected by these vulnerabilities as soon as possible to prevent attacks that are making use of these vulnerabilities.

• MS09-071 – Vulnerabilities in Internet Authentication Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (974318) – This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if messages received by the Internet Authentication Service server are copied incorrectly into memory when handling PEAP authentication attempts. An attacker who successfully exploited either of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. Servers using Internet Authentication Service are only affected when using PEAP with MS-CHAP v2 authentication.
• MS09-074 – Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Project Could Allow Remote Code Execution (967183) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office Project. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Project file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS09-072 – Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (976325) – This security update resolves four privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. An ActiveX control built with Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) headers could also allow remote code execution; this vulnerability has been described in Microsoft Security Advisory 973882 and Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035.
• MS09-069 – Vulnerability in Local Security Authority Subsystem Service Could Allow Denial of Service (974392) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow a denial of service if a remote, authenticated attacker, while communicating through Internet Protocol security (IPsec), sends a specially crafted ISAKMP message to the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) on an affected system.
• MS09-070 – Vulnerabilities in Active Directory Federation Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution (971726) – This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted HTTP request to an ADFS-enabled Web server. An attacker would need to be an authenticated user in order to exploit either of these vulnerabilities.
• MS09-073 – Vulnerability in WordPad and Office Text Converters Could Allow Remote Code Execution (975539) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft WordPad and Microsoft Office text converters. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a specially crafted Word 97 file is opened in WordPad or Microsoft Office Word. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same privileges as the user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer privileges on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative privileges.

Patches can be downloaded from the usual sources including Automatic Update, Windows Update, Microsoft Update or by following the links of individual vulnerabilities above.

Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office users are encouraged to update their computer systems as soon as possible to protect the PCs from possible exploits that could attack the systems successfully. The usual options to download the patches are provided including automatic updates, Windows updates, Microsoft update or manually by following the links posted in the different security bulletins.

• MS09-063 Vulnerability in Web Services on Devices API Could Allow Remote Code Execution (973565) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Web Services on Devices Application Programming Interface (WSDAPI) on the Windows operating system. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected Windows system receives a specially crafted packet. Only attackers on the local subnet would be able to exploit this vulnerability.
• MS09-064 – Vulnerability in License Logging Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution (974783) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 2000. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted network message to a computer running the License Logging Server. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of the system. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect networks from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter.
• MS09-065 – Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Remote Code Execution (969947) – This security update resolves several privately reported vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel. The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user viewed content rendered in a specially crafted Embedded OpenType (EOT) font. In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker would have to host a Web site that contains specially crafted embedded fonts that are used to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit a specially crafted Web site. Instead, an attacker would have to convince the user to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes the user to the attacker’s site.
• MS09-066 – Vulnerability in Active Directory Could Allow Denial of Service (973309) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Active Directory directory service, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM), and Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service (AD LDS). The vulnerability could allow denial of service if stack space was exhausted during execution of certain types of LDAP or LDAPS requests. This vulnerability only affects domain controllers and systems configured to run ADAM or AD LDS.
• MS09-067 – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (972652) – This security update resolves several privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS09-068 – Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (976307) – This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Word file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

Detailed information are available in the security bulletins linked above or at the security bulletin summary page here.

The easiest way to install the patches is by downloading and installing the security patches at Windows Update which provides access to all security updates even for users who run a non legit version of Windows.

Microsoft did also release a new version of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool which is now able to detect two new families of malware (Win32/FakeXPA and Win32/Yektel)

• MS08-070: Vulnerabilities in Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime Extended Files (ActiveX Controls) Could Allow Remote Code Execution (932349) which is rated “Critical”
• MS08-071: Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (956802) which is rated “Critical”
• MS08-072: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (957173) which is rated “Critical”
• MS08-073: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (958215) which is rated “Critical”
• MS08-074: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959070) which is rated “Critical”
• MS08-075: Vulnerabilities in Windows Search Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959349) which is rated “Critical”
• MS08-076: Vulnerabilities in Windows Media Components Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959807) which is rated “Important”
• MS08-077: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Could Cause Elevation of Privilege (957175) which is rated “Important”

Windows users should install the updates as soon as possible to secure their computer system.

The vulnerability rated as critical could allow remote code execution in the in Microsoft XML Core Services while the vulnerability rated important could allow remote code execution in Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol.

Both security vulnerabilities can be fixed by using Windows Update or by downloading the security updates directly from the Microsoft Download website by following the two links given above in this article.

All critical vulnerabilities which affect Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer allow Remote Code Execution. The easiest way to patch these security vulnerabilities is by visiting the Windows Update website with Internet Explorer and let a script check the available updates for your system. Please note that you will be asked if you want to install Service Pack 3 Refresh 2 for Windows XP if you use that operating system. My advise would be to not install this version yet and wait for the release version.

All security updates will be displayed and are selected for immediate download and installation. You could follow the link above which leads to the Microsoft website that explains the vulnerabilities and leads to downloads of the patches. This means that you have to make sure to pick the correct downloads for your operating system and software.