Microsoft Security Response Center Blog

Vulnerabilities in DNS Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Today we released MS11-058 to address two vulnerabilities in the Microsoft DNS Service. One of the two issues, CVE-2011-1966, could potentially allow an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability to run arbitrary code on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 DNS servers having a particular DNS configuration. We’d like to share more detail in this blog post and help you make a risk decision for your environment.

• Attack Vector
• DNS
• Mitigations
• Network protocol
• Risk Asessment

Advance Notification Service for the August 2011 Bulletin Release

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Hello all. Before we look at next week’s bulletin release, we’d like to recommend – for those of you who missed it in the run-up to this year’s Black Hat conference – the third annual Microsoft Security Response Center Progress Report. Every year around this time, we look back at the progress our key security programs have made.

Announcing the BlueHat Prize for Advancement of Exploit Mitigations

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Protecting the general computing ecosystem is a really tough job, and given some of the media headlines, it’s easy to get discouraged and wallow in the problems. It seems like we’re constantly bombarded with statistics measuring the number of bugs, vulnerabilities, or attacks in an attempt to build an accurate “state of the state.

• Announcements
• Exploitability
• Mitigations

From Bounties to the BlueHat Prize – Evolutionary Thinking in Valuing Security Research

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Handle: k8e IRL: Katie Moussouris Rank: Senior Security Strategist Lead, Head of Microsoft’s Security Community and Strategy Team Likes: Cool vulns, BlueHat, soldering irons, quantum teleportation Dislikes: Rudeness, socks-n-sandals, licorice Today on the MSRC blog, Matt Thomlinson announced the BlueHat Prize, the first and largest incentive prize Microsoft has ever offered to seek out and reward new ideas in computer security defense.

• BlueHat Security Briefings
• Community-based Defense
• EcoStrat
• Mitigations
• Security Ecosystem
• Security Research

MSRC Progress Report Shows Continued Progress of MSRC Key Initiatives

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Today, the MSRC released its third annual progress report highlighting advancements of key Microsoft programs designed to help prevent and defend against online threats. The Microsoft programs featured in this paper include the following: The Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) and Microsoft Vulnerability Research (MSVR) programs are intended to help protect customers through innovative industry collaboration and information sharing.

Q&A From July 2011 Security Bulletin Webcast

Friday, July 15, 2011

Hello, Today we published the July Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We fielded thirteen questions on various topics during the webcast, including bulletins released, deployment tools, and update detection tools. There were two questions during the webcast that we were unable to answer and we have included those questions and answers on the Q&A page.

A guide to exploit mitigations and the July 2011 security bulletin release

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hello all – Over the years we’ve often talked about exploit mitigations – DEP, ASLR, SEHOP and so forth – as effective tools for improving computer security, reducing risk, preventing attacks, and minimizing operational disruption. Today we’re releasing a user’s guide to the toolbox: “Mitigating Software Vulnerabilities,” a white paper with practical information on choosing and enabling those mitigations.

• Mitigations
• Security Bulletin
• Security bulletin release

Mitigating Software Vulnerabilities

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

How can you protect yourself, your business, and your customers when faced with an unknown or unpatched software vulnerability? This question can be difficult to answer but it is nevertheless worthy of thoughtful consideration. One particularly noteworthy answer to this question is provided in the form of exploit mitigation technologies such as DEP and ASLR, which are designed to make it difficult and costly for an attacker to exploit a software vulnerability.

• Defense-in-depth
• EMET
• Mitigations
• Security Science

MS11-053: Vulnerability in the Bluetooth stack could allow remote code execution

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The single Critical vulnerability in today’s batch of security updates addresses an issue in the Bluetooth stack. Your workstations’ risk to this vulnerability varies, depending on a number of factors. I’d like to use this blog post to outline those risk factors. How can I protect my system? The best way to protect any potentially vulnerable system is to apply the MS11-053 security update.

• Attack Surface Reduction
• Attack Vector
• Exploitability
• Mitigations
• Network protocol
• Risk Asessment
• Workarounds

MS11-056: Vulnerabilities in the Client/Server Runtime Subsystem and Console Host

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Today we released security update MS11-056 to address vulnerabilities in the Windows Client/Server Runtime Subsystem (CSRSS) and Console Host (conhost.exe). We also closed an internally found elevation of privilege attack vector on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, significantly reducing the opportunity for any console issues discovered in the future to result in elevation of privilege on those platforms.

• Attack Surface Reduction