Microsoft Security Bulletins For February 2013 Released

Patch day has arrived and boy it is a big one. A total of 12 security bulletins are released today that address a total of 57 different vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. The majority of vulnerabilities affect one or multiple versions of the Windows operating system, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Server Software and the Microsoft .Net Framework.

When you look at the maximum severity rating, that is the highest rating that at least one Microsoft product received, you will notice that five bulletins have received the highest possible rating critical, while the remaining seven vulnerabilities one of important, the second highest rating.

Operating system distribution

Here is the list of bulletins by operating system. First the desktop systems and then the server operating systems.

• Windows XP: 4 critical, 3 important
• Windows Vista: 3 critical, 3 important, 1 moderate
• Windows 7:  2 critical, 4 important, 1 moderate
• Windows 8:  2 critical, 2 important, 1 moderate
• Windows RT: 2 critical, 1 important, 1 moderate
• Windows Server 2003: 2 critical, 3 important, 1 moderate
• Windows Server 2008: 2 critical, 4 important, 1 moderate
• Windows server 2008 R2: 1 critical, 6 important, 1 moderate
• Windows Server 2012: 1 critical, 4 important, 1 moderate

Revised Advisories

Security Advisory 2755801 revised to address Adobe Flash Player issues in Adobe Flash Player in Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8.

Deployment Guide

Every month, Microsoft releases a graphic that details the suggested deployment priority for businesses and computer networks. The suggested course of action is to start at the top and work your way down to the bottom. The order is computed by several variables, including the severity rating, exploitability index rating, available mitigations and workarounds, and the range of affected products.

Severity and Exploitability Index

The February 2013 bulletins

• MS13-009 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2792100) - This security update resolves thirteen 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.
• MS13-010 Vulnerability in Vector Markup Language Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2797052) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Microsoft implementation of Vector Markup Language (VML). The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a specially crafted webpage 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.
• MS13-011 Vulnerability in Media Decompression Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2780091) - This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted media file (such as an .mpg file), opens a Microsoft Office document (such as a .ppt file) that contains a specially crafted embedded media file, or receives specially crafted streaming content. 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.
• MS13-012 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2809279) - This security update resolves publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server. The most severe vulnerability is 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.
• MS13-020 Vulnerability in OLE Automation Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2802968) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Automation. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted file. 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.
• MS13-013 Vulnerabilities in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Parsing Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2784242) - This security update resolves publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution in the security context of a user account with a restricted token. FAST Search Server for SharePoint is only affected by this issue when Advanced Filter Pack is enabled. By default, Advanced Filter Pack is disabled.
• MS13-014 Vulnerability in NFS Server Could Allow Denial of Service (2790978) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if an attacker attempts a file operation on a read only share. An attacker who exploited this vulnerability could cause the affected system to stop responding and restart. The vulnerability only affects Windows servers with the NFS role enabled.
• MS13-015 Vulnerability in .NET Framework Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2800277) - This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in the .NET Framework. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if a user views a specially crafted webpage using a web browser that can run XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs). The vulnerability could also be used by Windows .NET applications to bypass Code Access Security (CAS) restrictions. 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.
• MS13-016 Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Driver Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2778344) - This security update resolves 30 privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to the system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit the vulnerabilities.
• MS13-017 Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2799494) - This security update resolves three privately reported vulnerabilities in all supported releases of Microsoft Windows. The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to the system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit the vulnerabilities.
• MS13-018 Vulnerability in TCP/IP Could Allow Denial of Service (2790655) - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if an unauthenticated attacker sends a specially crafted connection termination packet to the server.
• MS13-019 Vulnerability in Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem (CSRSS) Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2790113) - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability.

How to download and install the February 2013 updates

The majority of Windows users should receive the updates automatically as Windows is configured by default to install important security updates automatically. You can speed that up by checking for updates manually. On Windows 7 and older versions, you enter Windows Update in the start menu and select the appropriate option which should either open a web browser or the control panel.

On Windows 8 you tap on the Windows key to get to the start screen interface, enter Windows update, select Settings on the Charms Bar, and then Check for updates in the results listing.

Here you can click on check for updates to run a manual update check. Windows should pick up the new updates right away so that you can download and install them to your system.

If you need to or want to test updates before you install them you should download them from Microsoft's Download Center instead where they are available as standalone updates and as a monthly security ISO disc image that you can download and burn to DVD or mount on the system.

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