NewsDude
07-09-2008, 05:40 PM
Microsoft issued four bulletins that address nine vulnerabilities for July's Patch Tuesday, none of them critical. This is the first time since last year that none of the patches were rated critical.
With only four vulnerabilities rated "important," IT administrators have some breathing room to get caught up and reassess their security, researchers said.
"There are no patches rated critical this month, but there are a number of notable patches, including one addressing a new file type found in Vista," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager at Symantec Security Response. "The Microsoft Windows Explorer saved-search File Remote Code Execution Vulnerability is the first report of a vulnerability using the new Search-MS file type, introduced in Vista."
Focusing on High-Value Targets
Despite the apparent reprieve, organizations still need to pay close attention to the two security updates that address elevation of privilege on Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, said Don Leatham, director of solutions and strategy at Lumension. That's because elevation of privilege can easily negate the policy and enforcement efforts on these systems.
"Both of these products can be high-value targets and these vulnerabilities could be considered critical, depending on the organization. Many corporations hold not only their basic business information, but also their customer/patient data and critical intellectual property in Microsoft SQL Server databases, or transmit these types of data via Microsoft Exchange servers," Leatham said.
Web Application Security
The two Exchange vulnerabilities involve cross-site scripting (XSS) and underline again the growing importance of Web application security, according to Tyler Reguly, a security engineer for nCircle, a network security firm that works with companies like Safeway, ESPN and Archer Daniels Midland.
"In this case, the XSS would be in a specially crafted e-mail and could allow for full session hijacking," Reguly said. "These vulnerabilities offer great opportunity for an attacker to snoop for additional...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60676)
With only four vulnerabilities rated "important," IT administrators have some breathing room to get caught up and reassess their security, researchers said.
"There are no patches rated critical this month, but there are a number of notable patches, including one addressing a new file type found in Vista," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager at Symantec Security Response. "The Microsoft Windows Explorer saved-search File Remote Code Execution Vulnerability is the first report of a vulnerability using the new Search-MS file type, introduced in Vista."
Focusing on High-Value Targets
Despite the apparent reprieve, organizations still need to pay close attention to the two security updates that address elevation of privilege on Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, said Don Leatham, director of solutions and strategy at Lumension. That's because elevation of privilege can easily negate the policy and enforcement efforts on these systems.
"Both of these products can be high-value targets and these vulnerabilities could be considered critical, depending on the organization. Many corporations hold not only their basic business information, but also their customer/patient data and critical intellectual property in Microsoft SQL Server databases, or transmit these types of data via Microsoft Exchange servers," Leatham said.
Web Application Security
The two Exchange vulnerabilities involve cross-site scripting (XSS) and underline again the growing importance of Web application security, according to Tyler Reguly, a security engineer for nCircle, a network security firm that works with companies like Safeway, ESPN and Archer Daniels Midland.
"In this case, the XSS would be in a specially crafted e-mail and could allow for full session hijacking," Reguly said. "These vulnerabilities offer great opportunity for an attacker to snoop for additional...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60676)