Microsoft: October Patch Tuesday to Bring 23 Security Fixes

After a relatively quiet Patch Tuesday in September, Microsoft is releasing fixes for 23 separate vulnerabilities in its security update next week.

The patches will be spread across eight bulletins – two rated ‘Critical’, six designated ‘Important’ – and will touch Internet Explorer, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG), Microsoft Host Integration Server, the .NET Framework and Silverlight.

“The first “critical” bulletin affects .NET and Silverlight,” noted Marcus Carey, security researcher at Rapid7. “This bulletin looks very close to MS11-039, which was patched in August. When exploit developers look for bugs disclosed in products, they usually find similar bugs which result in the same type of vulnerabilities. I’d expect the implications of this one to mirror MS11-039 – specifically that server and client side attacks may be perpetrated through .Net or Silverlight.”

The other critical bulletin is focused on Windows and Internet Explorer. In both cases, the bulletins squash bugs Microsoft says can be exploited to remotely execute code. The six remaining bulletins cover a mix of remote code execution, denial of service and privilege escalation issues in Windows, Host Integration Server and Forefront UAG.

Though the bulletin focused on Forefront UAG is rated important as opposed to critical, Carey said organizations should keep an eye out for any suspicious activity related to the product.

“No one wants to hear that software that is designed for security is vulnerable to remote code execution,” he said. “This software is used by employees for remote access, allowing employees to gain access to internal assets. This bulletin and the related vulnerabilities will definitely peak a lot of attacker’s interest.”

The bulletins are scheduled to be released Oct. 11 at approximately 10 a.m. PDT.