Microsoft has rolled out an out-of-band security update to Windows 10 October 2018 Update, April 2018 Update, Fall Creators Update, Creators Update, Anniversary Update, and the original version of Windows 10. Today’s update only brings one security fix to Internet Explorer to patch up a zero-day remote code execution vulnerability that could give attackers full admin rights.
The security update is also available for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server.
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Internet Explorer bug can get attackers admin rights on Windows machines
Microsoft said that Google engineers first discovered and reported this bug to Microsoft, which has already been exploited in the wild.
“A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the scripting engine handles objects in memory in Internet Explorer,” the advisory reads. “The vulnerability could corrupt memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user.”
An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could take control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.
In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit the vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website, for example, by sending an email.
The Windows maker added that today’s update fixes up this vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2018-8653) by modifying how the scripting engine handles objects in memory. “Customers who have Windows Update enabled and have applied the latest security updates, are protected automatically,” the company wrote, advising customers to enable automatic updates.
KB4483235 is now available for version 1809; KB4483234 for version 1803; KB4483232 for version 1709; version 1703 gets KB4483230; version 1607 and Windows Server 2016 get KB4483229, and version 1507 is receiving KB4483228. You can manually download these updates via the Microsoft Catalog website.
