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Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Security Updates for May 2021.

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Security Updates for May 2021.

Microsoft has released May 2021 Patch Tuesday security updates with a total of 55 vulnerabilities in the family of Windows and Mac operating systems and related products. In the release by Microsoft, 4 vulnerabilities were rated as Critical, 50 as Important, and 1 as Moderate. Therefore, a good vuln...

May 11, 2021By Mohamed Faiz4 min read

Microsoft has released May 2021 Patch Tuesday security updates with a total of 55 vulnerabilities in the family of Windows and Mac operating systems and related products. In the release by Microsoft, 4 vulnerabilities were rated as Critical, 50 as Important, and 1 as Moderate. Therefore, a good vulnerability management system can prevent these attacks and ensures the safety of your organization.

There were three zero-day reports this month with Patch Tuesday updates publicly disclosed, but none of them are known to be used in active attacks. Hence, a Vulnerability Management Tool can be a good defensive tool in your cyber security arsenal.

Zero-day vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-31204 impacts .NET and Visual Studio and could allow an authenticated user to escalate privileges in the system.

CVE-2021-31207 affects Microsoft Exchange Server bypassing its security feature. Moreover, this flaw has been disclosed in PWN2OWN 2021 competition.

CVE-2021-31200 is found in Common Utilities leading to Remote Code Execution. Hence, the exploitation needs successive levels of authentication.

Although the above zero-day vulnerabilities are not known to be inactive exploitation, they should be patched earlier.

Critical vulnerabilities of Microsoft patch Tuesday, May 2021

CVE-2021-31166 – HTTP Protocol Stack Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could send a specially crafted packet to a targeted server utilizing the HTTP Protocol Stack to therefore, exploit this vulnerability.

CVE-2021-26419 – Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability. A remote attacker can trick a victim into visiting a malicious website, triggering memory corruption and executing arbitrary code on the target system. Moreover, Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could allow an attacker to take complete control of the system.

CVE-2021-28476 – Remote Code Execution in Microsoft Hyper-V. The flaw exists due to improper input validation in the Microsoft Hyper-V. An attacker can get complete access to the vulnerable system on successful exploitation of the vulnerability.

CVE-2021-31194 – Remote Code Execution in Microsoft OLE Automation. The vulnerability exists because OLE Automation is using improper input validation. Once a malicious user exploits this vulnerability, he can completely compromise the affected system.

Microsoft security bulletin summary for May 2021

  • Internet Explorer
  • Microsoft Exchange Server
  • Microsoft Graphics Component
  • Microsoft Office
  • Microsoft Office Excel
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint
  • Microsoft Office Word
  • Microsoft Office Access
  • Visual Studio
  • Visual Studio Code
  • .NET Core & Visual Studio
  • Microsoft Dynamics Finance & Operations
  • Microsoft Windows Codecs Library
  • Skype for Business and Microsoft Lync
  • Windows SMB
  • Windows SSDP Service

1)Product: Internet Explorer

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-26419

Impact: Remote Code Execution

Severity: Critical

KBs: 5003165, 5003169, 5003171, 5003172, 5003173, 5003174, 5003197, 5003208, 5003209, 5003233, 5003165, 5003210

2)Product: Microsoft Exchange Server

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-31195, CVE-2021-31198, CVE-2021-31207, CVE-2021-31209

Impact: Remote Code Execution, Security Feature Bypass, Spoofing

Severity: Important

KBs: 5003435

3)Product: Microsoft Office

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-28455, CVE-2021-31174, CVE-2021-31175, CVE-2021-31176, CVE-2021-31177, CVE-2021-31178, CVE-2021-31179, CVE-2021-31180

Impact: Remote Code Execution, Information Disclosure

Severity: Important

KBs: 4493206, 4493197, 5001927, 5001923, 5001914, 5001928, 5001925, 5001920, 4464542

4)Product: Microsoft Excel

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-31174, CVE-2021-31175, CVE-2021-31177, CVE-2021-31178, CVE-2021-31179

Impact: Remote Code Execution, Information Disclosure

Severity: Important

KBs: 5001936, 5001918

5)Product: Microsoft SharePoint

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-26418, CVE-2021-28474, CVE-2021-28478, CVE-2021-31171, CVE-2021-31172, CVE-2021-31173, CVE-2021-31181

Impact: Remote Code Execution, Information Disclosure, Spoofing

Severity: Important

KBs: 5001917, 5001935, 5001916

6)Product: Microsoft Word

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-31180

Impact: Remote Code Execution

Severity: Important

KBs: 5001931, 5001919

7)Product: Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-27068, CVE-2021-31204, CVE-2021-31211, CVE-2021-31213, CVE-2021-31214

Impact: Remote Code Execution, Elevation of Privilege

Severity: Important

8)Product: Microsoft Dynamics Finance & Operations

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-28461

Impact: Spoofing

Severity: Important

9)Product: Skype for Business and Microsoft Lync

CVEs/Advisory: CVE-2021-26421, CVE-2021-26422

Impact: Remote Code Execution, Spoofing

Severity: Important

KBs: 5003729

SanerNow VM and SanerNow PM detect these vulnerabilities and automatically fix them by applying security updates. Use SanerNow and keep your systems updated and secure.

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