Microsoft Security Bulletins For December 2012 Released

The last Patch Tuesday of the year has arrived and it brings along seven security bulletins that fix vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. Five of the seven bulletins have a maximum severity rating of critical which means that there is at least one Microsoft product that is affected critically by them.

The bulletins address a total of 12 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Server software. Microsoft recommends to focus deployment on the MS12-077 and MS12-079 vulnerabilities first affecting Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word before deployment of the other patches on affected systems.

Check out the bulletin deployment priority guide below for suggestions on how to deploy the bulletins on affected computer systems.

• MS12-077 - All versions of Internet Explorer are affected
• MS12-079 - Microsoft Office Word 2007 and 2010 customers need to install Compatibility Pack KB2760416 to be protected from the vulnerability
• MS12-081 - Windows 8, Windows RT and Server 2012 are not affected
• MS12-078 - Windows 8, Server 2012 and Windows RT are affected
• MS12-080 - Protects Microsoft Exchange customers from the vulnerability
• MS12-082 - Windows Rt is not affected
• Ms12-083 - Security bypass on Server 2008 and 2012.

• MS12-077 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2761465) - This security update resolves three privately reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. The most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current 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.
• MS12-078 Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Remote Code Execution - (2783534) - This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted document or visits a malicious webpage that embeds TrueType or OpenType font files. An attacker would have to convince users to visit the website, typically by getting them to click a link in an email message that takes them to the attacker's website.
• MS12-079 Vulnerability in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2780642) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted RTF file using an affected version of Microsoft Office software, or previews or opens a specially crafted RTF email message in Outlook while using Microsoft Word as the email viewer. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current 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.
• MS12-080 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2784126) - This security update resolves publicly disclosed vulnerabilities and one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server. The most severe vulnerabilities are in Microsoft Exchange Server WebReady Document Viewing and could allow remote code execution in the security context of the transcoding service on the Exchange server if a user previews a specially crafted file using Outlook Web App (OWA). The transcoding service in Exchange that is used for WebReady Document Viewing is running in the LocalService account. The LocalService account has minimum privileges on the local computer and presents anonymous credentials on the network.
• MS12-081 Vulnerability in Windows File Handling Component Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2758857) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user browses to a folder that contains a file or subfolder with a specially crafted name. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current 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.
• MS12-082 Vulnerability in DirectPlay Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2770660) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker convinces a user to view a specially crafted Office document with embedded content. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current 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.
• MS12-083 Vulnerability in IP-HTTPS Component Could Allow Security Feature Bypass (2765809) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow security feature bypass if an attacker presents a revoked certificate to an IP-HTTPS server commonly used in Microsoft DirectAccess deployments. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker must use a certificate issued from the domain for IP-HTTPS server authentication. Logging on to a system inside the organization would still require system or domain credentials.

Microsoft Surface users may also notice improvements after the update. It increases the Wi-Fi reliability of Surface, improved connectivity and performance including support for access point names that use non standard ASCII characters and reduction in scenarios resulting in limited WiFi connectivity.

Updating

Updates are as usual available via Windows Update or Microsoft's Download Center. The download center is ideal for deployment on multiple systems, Windows Update if you only need to patch a single system to protect if from exploits targeting the vulnerabilities.

You can download the December 2012 Security Release ISO image from the Download Center which includes all the bulletins released by Microsoft.

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