This month may have been a light release from Microsoft, but there was still plenty of updates to deploy. Microsoft released four security updates, one of which was critical, resolving 42 vulnerabilities. On the Non-Microsoft front, there were releases from Adobe and Google to take note of. Adobe Flash had a patch Tuesday release resulting in an IE advisory and a Google Chrome release to update the Flash plug-in. The Flash update resolved 12 vulnerabilities. There was no security updates for Office this month, but there were 18 non-security updates. One of those has run into some issues and had to be pulled. Here is a priority breakdown for security updates this month and details on known issues:

Shavlik Priority 1 Updates (Priority 1 updates should be applied as soon as possible):

  • MS14-052: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2977629) - This update is rated as critical by Microsoft. It resolves 37 vulnerabilities which could allow for remote code execution. The updates are all relating to memory corruption issues. One of the vulnerabilities resolved (CVE-2013-7331) has been exploited in targeted attacks in the wild. There are a large number of vulnerabilities and one publicly exploited making this a high priority for update.
  • APSB14-21: Security updates available for Adobe Flash Player - This update is rated as a Priority 1 by Adobe. The update resolves 12 vulnerabilities which have a variety of impacts including memory corruptionbypass memory randomization, code execution, bypass same origin policy, and security feature bypass.
  • MSAF-029: Microsoft Security Advisory: update for vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash in Internet Explorer - This update allows Internet Explorer to support the latest Adobe Flash release which resolves 12 vulnerabilities and is rated as a Priority 1 by Adobe.
  • CHROME-111: Chrome 37.0.2062.120 - Resolves four vulnerabilities including one high priority vulnerability. The update also includes support for the latest Adobe Flash plug-in which puts it up in the priority list for this month.

Shavlik Priority 2 Updates (Priority 2 updates should be tested and rolled out in a reasonable time frame, typically within 10-30 days of release):

  • MS14-053: Vulnerability in .Net Framework could allow Denial of Service - This update resolves one privately reported vulnerability which could lead to a DoS, but by default an install of .Net will not be vulnerable to this vulnerability. The flaw is exposed if ASP.NET is installed and registered with an IIS server. This would require customer to install ASP.NET manually.
  • MS14-054: Vulnerability in Windows Task Scheduler could allow for elevation of privilege - This update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows which could allow for elevation of privilege. The attacker must, however, have a valid logon credential and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability.
  • MS14-055: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Lync Server could allow Denial of Service - This update resolves three privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Lync Server. The attacker must send a specially crafted request to the Lync Server to exploit this vulnerability.

Watch List:

  • Adobe delayed release of APSB14-20 - The update will be a Priority 1 from Adobe as it resolves several critical vulnerabilities. The release was delayed to the week of September 15, meaning it will drop any day now. Once it does, you can expect to bump this up to the Priority list for rolling out this month.
  • Office non-security patch pulled by Microsoft - Microsoft did not release any security updates for Office this month, but 18 non-security updates have released.  An issue was discovered with KB2889866, an update for OneDrive, which would cause syncing to another users library to fail and moving of links etc, to no longer be picked up by sync.

For access to Shavlik's Patch Tuesday webinar or presentation you can go to our webinars page and check out the 'Recent Webinars' section and click view. You can also sign up for the October Patch Tuesday webinar where we will discuss the Patch Tuesday release for all of the critical apps that affect you.