If you’re a user of Microsoft products, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest Patch Tuesday releases. Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday releases are a monthly release of security patches to fix any vulnerabilities that have been identified in the company’s software. For February 2021, Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday included a massive number of patches, including 36 Remote Code Execution (RCE) bugs, 3 of which were zero-day vulnerabilities, and 75 total Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs).
What is RCE?
RCE is a type of attack that allows an attacker to execute malicious code on a user’s computer or network. This code can be used to gain access to sensitive information, such as passwords, financial data, and other confidential information. It can also be used to install additional malicious software, such as ransomware or spyware, onto a user’s computer or network.
What are zero-day vulnerabilities?
Zero-day vulnerabilities are security flaws in software that have not yet been identified or patched by the software vendor. Attackers can exploit zero-day vulnerabilities to gain access to a user’s system before the vendor can patch the flaw. As zero-day vulnerabilities are not known or accessible to the public, they can be difficult to detect or protect against.
What are CVEs?
CVEs are publicly-known security vulnerabilities in software. CVEs are tracked by the National Vulnerability Database, a publicly accessible database of known security vulnerabilities. Knowing which CVEs a system is vulnerable to is important as this can help security teams identify which systems need to be patched.
Explaining Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday
Microsoft’s February 2021 Patch Tuesday included a massive number of patches, including 36 RCE bugs, 3 of which were zero-day vulnerabilities, and 75 total CVEs. Of the 3 zero-day vulnerabilities, 2 were described as “critical”, meaning that they could be exploited to run code on a vulnerable system without any user action.
The 75 CVEs included in Microsoft’s February 2021 Patch Tuesday represented a range of different types of vulnerabilities, including elevation of privilege, denial of service, and remote code execution. Microsoft patched a number of vulnerabilities in products such as Windows, Internet Explorer, Edge, Office, Windows Defender, and Visual Studio.
It’s important for users of Microsoft products to stay up to date on the latest Patch Tuesday releases and ensure that their systems are up to date with the latest patches. Failing to patch vulnerabilities in a timely manner can leave a system open to exploitation.
Call to Action
It’s essential to stay informed about the latest Patch Tuesday releases from Microsoft in order to keep your system secure from malicious attacks. If you found this article useful, please share it with your friends and on your social media channels to help others stay up to date on Patch Tuesday releases.