Microsoft Security Updates July 2010

Microsoft has just released four security bulletins on this months' Patch Tuesday fixing vulnerabilities in Microsoft software products. Three of the four bulletins have a maximum severity rating of critical, the highest rated, while one is rated as important.

Affected software includes several Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft Office, take a look at the listing below for additional details on every security bulletin released today.

• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-042 - Critical
  Vulnerability in Help and Support Center Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2229593) - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Windows Help and Support Center feature that is delivered with supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using a Web browser or clicks a specially crafted link in an e-mail message. The vulnerability cannot be exploited automatically through e-mail. For an attack to be successful, a user must click a link listed within an e-mail message.
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-043 - Critical
  Vulnerability in Canonical Display Driver Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2032276) - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Canonical Display Driver (cdd.dll). Although it is possible that the vulnerability could allow code execution, successful code execution is unlikely due to memory randomization. In most scenarios, it is much more likely that an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause the affected system to stop responding and automatically restart.
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-044 - Critical
  Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Access ActiveX Controls Could Allow Remote Code Execution - This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Access ActiveX Controls. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opened a specially crafted Office file or viewed a Web page that instantiated Access ActiveX controls. 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.
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-045 - Important
  Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Outlook Could Allow Remote Code Execution (978212) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opened an attachment in a specially crafted e-mail message using an affected version of Microsoft Office Outlook. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability 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

Affected software:

• MS10-042 - Windows XP, Windows XP Pro 64-bit, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 64-bit
• MS10-043 - Windows 7 for x64-based Systems, Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems
• MS10-044 - Microsoft Office 2003 , Microsoft Office 2007
• MS10-045 - Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office 2007

All vulnerabilities allow remote code execution on compromised systems. Additional information about this months' patches are available at the Technet blog post.