MS10-042 resolves a publicly disclosed and actively exploited vulnerability discussed in Security Advisory 2219475. The update addresses an issue in the Windows Help and Support Center feature included in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Even though this issue affects Server 2003, we have not found an attack vector on that platform so the severity rating is Low. Windows XP customers should install this update as soon as possible.

MS10-043 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 a Denial of Service (DoS). Note that this bulletin affects only 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows Aero enabled. Aero is not installed by default on Server 2008 R2. We are not aware of any active attacks against this issue.

MS10-044 resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Access ActiveX Controls. This issue could allow remote code execution if a customer with Access installed opened a specially crafted Office file, or viewed a Web page that instantiated Access ActiveX controls. This security update is rated Critical for supported editions of Microsoft Office Access 2003 and Microsoft Office Access 2007.

MS10-045 This security update resolves another privately reported vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if a customer opened an attachment in a specially crafted e-mail message using an affected version of Outlook -- Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

The following video provides an overview of these four bulletins:

Both Windows vulnerabilities and one Office vulnerability have Critical severity ratings, while the second Office vulnerability carries an Important severity rating.

As always, Microsoft recommends that customers test and deploy all security updates as soon as possible. We recommend that deployment priority be given to MS10-042 and MS10-045.

For a more in-depth look at these issues, our Security Research & Defense (SRD) team has taken a closer look at both these bulletins on its blog.

We also include one bulletin re-release, MS10-024, in this cycle. The re-release will address the issue previously noted in KB976323, in which the installation of the bulletin reset user-configured settings for SMTP servers on Windows Server 2008-based systems with Internet Information Services (IIS) installed. Users who have previously installed MS01-024 will not be offered the re-released update.

Today also marks the end of support for Windows XP Service Pack 2. Customers who have not migrated from this version are encouraged to upgrade immediately, either to Service Pack 3 or to Windows 7. In addition, after today's bulletin release, we will no longer provide support for all Windows 2000 products as we have reached the end of extended support.

More information about the security updates can be found on the Microsoft Security Bulletin summary webpage.  Our Exploitability Index provides additional information to help customers prioritize deployment of the monthly security bulletins.

Please join the monthly technical webcast to learn more about the May 2010 security bulletin release. The webcast is scheduled for Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. PDT (UTC -7). Registration is available here.

Reminder: You can follow the team for late breaking news and updates on the threat landscape here: @MSFTSecResponse.

Thanks!

Jerry Bryant
Group Manager, Response Communications

Customers running SharePoint Server 2007 or SharePoint Services 3.0 are encouraged to review and apply the mitigations and workarounds discussed in the Security Advisory. These include restricting access to the SharePoint help.aspx XML files and enabling the Internet Explorer 8 XSS filter in the intranet zone.

We are actively working with partners in our Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) to provide information that they can use to provide broader protections to customers.

As always, Microsoft strives to work with security researchers to address vulnerabilities in our software. This helps ensure that customers receive comprehensive, high-quality updates before cyber criminals learn of – and work to exploit – a vulnerability. Responsible disclosure protects the computer ecosystem and individual computer users from harm.

Anyone believed to have been affected by this issue can visit: http://support.microsoft.com and should contact the national law enforcement agency in their country. 

We will continue to share updates on this blog and through our Twitter feed (@msftsecresponse).

Thanks,

Jerry Bryant
Group Manager, Response Communications

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

I’m writing to let you know that we have updated Security Advisory 981374 with new workaround information. We are aware that exploit code has been made public for this issue. As with our last update, Internet Explorer 8 remains unaffected by the vulnerability addressed in the advisory and we continue to encourage all customers to upgrade to this version.

On Wednesday we added a workaround to the advisory that helps to mitigate the vulnerability by disabling the peer factory class through the modification of a registry key. With today’s update, we have added a Microsoft Fix It to automate this workaround for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 customers. As always, customers should test this thoroughly before deploying as certain functionality that depends on the peer factory class, such as printing from Internet Explorer and the use of web folders, may be affected.

We have seen speculation that Microsoft might release an update for this issue out-of-band. I can tell you that we are working hard to produce an update which is now in testing. This is a critical and time intensive step of the process as the update must be tested against affected versions of Internet Explorer on all supported versions of Windows. Additionally, each supported language version needs to be tested as well as testing against thousands of third party applications. We never rule out the possibility of an out-of-band update. When the update is ready for broad distribution, we will make that decision based on customer needs.

Please review the advisory for more information. We will keep you posted as additional information becomes available.

Jerry Bryant
Sr. Security Communications Manager Lead

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

Today we released Security Advisory 981374 addressing a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer 8 is not affected by this issue. Customers using Internet Explorer 6 or 7 should upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 immediately to benefit from the improved security features and defense in depth protections. Additionally, Internet Explorer 5.01 on Windows 2000 is not affected.

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At this time, we are aware of targeted attacks seeking to exploit this vulnerability against Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer Protected Mode in Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista helps to mitigate the impact of this issue. Additionally, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 runs in a restricted mode that is known as Enhanced Security Configuration. This mode sets the security level for the Internet zone to High. This is a mitigating factor for Web sites that you have not added to the Internet Explorer Trusted sites zone. Please review the Security Advisory for additional workarounds which include modifying the Access Control List (ACL) on iepeers.dll (the affected component), setting the Internet and local Intranet security zones to "high", configuring Internet Explorer to prompt before running Active Scripting, and enabling Data Execution Prevention (DEP) where possible which makes it difficult to successfully exploit the vulnerability.

As always, we are investigating this issue and will take appropriate action to protect customers when we have finalized a solution. This may include providing a solution through our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.

Anyone believed to have been affected can visit: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/support/default.mspx and should contact the national law enforcement agency in their country. Those in the United States can contact Customer Service and Support at no charge using the PC Safety hotline at 1-866-727-2338 (PCSAFETY).  Additionally, customers in the United States should contact their local FBI office or report their situation at: www.ic3.gov. Customers should follow the guidance in the advisory and our Protect Your PC guidance of enabling a firewall, getting software updates, and installing antivirus software (learn more by visiting the Protect Your PC web site). International customers can find their Regional Customer Service Representative http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx.

We are also working with our Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), the Microsoft Security Response Alliance (MSRA), authorities and other industry partners to help provide broader protections for customers. Together with our partners, we will continue to monitor the threat landscape and will take action against any web sites that seek to exploit this vulnerability.

The Security Advisory will be updated with any new developments so if you are not already subscribed to our comprehensive alerts, please do so in order to be alerted by email when new information is added.

Please review the advisory for additional details and if the situation changes, we will provide an update here on the MSRC blog.

Jerry Bryant
Sr. Security Communications Manager Lead

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

Today we released Security Advisory 981169 to address the VBScript issue involving Windows Help files that we blogged about yesterday. To reiterate what we said in that post, we are not aware of any active attacks at this time and the following operating systems are not affected by this issue: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista.

Our investigation is ongoing. Users on older versions of Windows should review the Security Advisory for mitigations and workarounds for this issue. Additionally, our Security Research & Defense team provides a detailed analysis of the issue and the available workarounds on their blog. User education is a key factor in this scenario given the amount of user interaction required to reach the vulnerability.

Our teams are working to address the issue and once we complete our investigation, we will take appropriate action to protect customers. This may include releasing an update out-of-band. We will provide further updates as they become available.

Thanks,

Jerry Bryant
Sr. Security Communications Manager Lead

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

On Friday 2/26/2010, an issue was posted publicly that could allow an attacker to host a maliciously crafted web page and run arbitrary code if they could convince a user to visit the web page and then get them to press the F1 key in response to a pop up dialog box. We are not aware of any attacks seeking to exploit this issue at this time and in the current state of our investigation, we have determined that users running Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista, are not affected by this issue.

The issue in question involves the use of VBScript and Windows Help files in Internet Explorer. Windows Help files are included in a long list of what we refer to as “unsafe file types”. These are file types that are designed to invoke automatic actions during normal use of the files. While they can be very valuable productivity tools, they can also be used by attackers to try and compromise a system. To help customers better understand unsafe file types, we have published a white paper on the topic which you can find by clicking this link.

Once we have completed our investigation, we will take appropriate action to protect customers. To minimize risk to computer users, Microsoft continues to encourage responsible disclosure. Reporting vulnerabilities directly to vendors without further disclosure helps ensure that customers receive comprehensive, high-quality updates before cyber criminals learn of – and work to exploit – a vulnerability. Responsible disclosure protects the computer ecosystem and individual computer users from harm.

Anyone believed to have been affected can visit: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/support/default.mspx and should contact the national law enforcement agency in their country.  Those in the United States can contact Customer Service and Support at no charge (for computer security related issues) using the PC Safety hotline at 1-866-727-2338 (PCSAFETY). Customers outside of the United States can visit http://support.microsoft.com/international to find local support information.

We continue to encourage customers to follow the “Protect Your Computer” guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Additional information can be found at: www.microsoft.com/protect.

We will provide more information on this issue as it becomes available.

Thanks,

Jerry Bryant
Sr. Security Communications Manager Lead

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

On Dec. 23 we were made aware of a new claim of a vulnerability in Internet Information Services (IIS). We are still investigating this issue and are not aware of any active attacks but wanted to let customers know that our initial assessment shows that the IIS web server must be in a non-default, unsafe configuration in order to be vulnerable. An attacker would have to be authenticated and have write access to a directory on the web server with execute permissions which does not align with best practices or guidance Microsoft provides for secure server configuration. Customers using out of the box configurations and who follow security best practices are at reduced risk of being impacted by issues like this.

Once we’re done investigating, we will take appropriate action to help protect customers. This may include providing a security update through the monthly release process, an out-of-cycle update or additional guidance to help customers protect themselves.

This vulnerability was not responsibly disclosed to Microsoft and may put customers at risk. We continue to encourage responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities as we believe reporting vulnerabilities directly to a vendor serves everyone's best interests. This practice helps to ensure that customers receive comprehensive, high-quality updates for security vulnerabilities without exposure to malicious attackers while the update is being developed.

I want to close by providing some resources and best practices for securely configuring IIS servers:

IIS 6.0 Security Best Practices
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782762(WS.10).aspx

Securing Sites with Web Site Permissions
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc756133(WS.10).aspx

IIS 6.0 Operations Guide
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc785089(WS.10).aspx

Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms994921.aspx

Thanks,

Jerry Bryant

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights*