September 2023 Patch Tuesday by Microsoft Fixes Five Critical, Two Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday for September 2023 has been released, addressing 59 security vulnerabilities. The update encompasses five critical vulnerabilities as well as two exploited zero-day vulnerabilities.

This month’s update includes the following vulnerability types: 

  • 23 Remote Code Execution (RCE) Vulnerabilities
  • 16 Elevation of Privilege (EoP) Vulnerabilities
  • 9 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities 
  • 3 Denial-of-Service (DoS) Vulnerabilities 
  • 3 Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities
  • 3 Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerabilities 
  • 2 Spoofing Vulnerabilities 

In this blog post, we will outline the fixed vulnerabilities and guide organizations to secure their systems.

Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitation: CVE-2023-36802 and CVE-2023-36761

This month’s Patch Tuesday addresses two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities: 

CVE-2023-36761: It is an information disclosure vulnerability in Microsoft Word. According to the advisory, the Preview Pane is also an attack vector, and exploiting the vulnerability could result in the disclosure of NTLM hashes. When opening a document, an attacker can steal these NTLM hashes and use them in NTLM Relay attacks to obtain access to accounts. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 6.2 on the Microsoft advisory.

Vulnerability card for CVE-2023-36761 (SOCRadar Vulnerability Intelligence Module)Vulnerability card for CVE-2023-36761 (SOCRadar Vulnerability Intelligence Module)

CVE-2023-36802: An Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerability affecting Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy that, if exploited successfully, allows an attacker to gain SYSTEM privileges. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.8 on the Microsoft advisory. 

Vulnerability card for CVE-2023-36802 (SOCRadar Vulnerability Intelligence Module)Vulnerability card for CVE-2023-36802 (SOCRadar Vulnerability Intelligence Module)

Critical Vulnerabilities in September 2023 Patch Tuesday 

CVE-2023-36796, CVE-2023-36792, and CVE-2023-36793 are all critical vulnerabilities in Visual Studio that can lead to remote code execution (RCE). An attacker must persuade a user to open a maliciously crafted package file in Visual Studio in order to exploit these vulnerabilities. They have a CVSS score of 7.8 on Microsoft advisory. 

Microsoft has addressed another RCE vulnerability, which affects the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service. The vulnerability is identified as CVE-2023-38148, with the update’s highest CVSS score of 8.8. An unauthorized attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending a specially crafted network packet to the service. This attack is only applicable to systems connected to the same network segment as the attacker, and it can only be exploited if ICS is enabled.

The last critical vulnerability in the September 2023 Patch Tuesday update is CVE-2023-29332 (CVSS score: 7.5), which affects the Azure Kubernetes Service. A remote attacker who exploits this vulnerability successfully could gain Cluster Administrator privileges. Microsoft states that an attacker does not need extensive prior knowledge of the cluster/system to exploit this vulnerability and can achieve repeatable success.

Apply Updates for September 2023 Patch Tuesday

It is highly recommended to apply the patches promptly to safeguard your environment and enhance your security stance. To access additional details about the vulnerabilities addressed in September 2023 Patch Tuesday, see Microsoft’s Release Note.

Enhance Your Defense with SOCRadar 

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SOCRadar’s Vulnerability Intelligence enhances security by continuously monitoring vulnerabilities. This module allows you to search for vulnerabilities, access their details and related activities, and monitor hacker trends.

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