Oh how I am starting to enjoy the odd numbered months this year. Back in January Microsoft released 2 bulletins. February followed with 12, March with 3, and April with 17. Now May has arrived with only 2 bulletins. If you are looking to avoid piles of patch deployment work this summer, I’d bet on taking vacation in June or August.
MS11-035 covers a vulnerability in WINS. If you aren’t using WINS within your environment, it is a good idea to verify that it has been disabled on your servers. If you are using WINS internally, make sure that TCP/42 and UDP/42 are blocked on external-facing firewalls.
MS11-036 addressed two more vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint. As you may recall, Microsoft patched three vulnerabilities in PowerPoint last month. This time around, PowerPoint 2010 is not affected. eEye Research recently published a report analyzing the 2010 Microsoft Security Bulletins. One of the many findings is that upgrading your Microsoft software is a good security practice.
As a reminder, tomorrow’s Vulnerability Expert Forum (VEF) will be at 1PM PDT. Sign up to hear what the eEye Research team has to say about today’s security bulletins and other security related topics. As there are only two Microsoft bulletins to cover, there should be ample time to touch on other topics and answer your questions.
Here are our recommendations for the two security updates. Retina Network Security Scanner customers can view the list of audits associated with these bulletins.
Deploy Immediately
MS11-035 – Vulnerability in WINS Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2524426)
Recommendation: Deploy patch immediately to prevent exploitation by attackers. Until the patch can be installed, block ports TCP/42 and UDP/42 on external-facing firewalls.
Deploy As Soon As Possible
MS11-036 – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2545814)
Recommendation: Deploy patches as soon as possible. Until the patches can be installed, Office File Validation should be enabled to prevent the loading of invalid PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 files. Additionally, use Microsoft Office File Block policy and Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment (MOICE) to deter exploitation via Office 2003 and earlier binary files.
