The company's March security updates include the fixes skipped in February Microsoft’s batch of security patches for March is one of the largest ever and includes fixes for several vulnerabilities that are publicly known and actively exploited.The company published 17 security bulletins covering 135 vulnerabilities in its own products and one separate bulletin for Flash Player, which has its security patches distributed through Windows Update. Nine bulletins are rated critical and nine are rated as important.The affected products include Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Office, Exchange, Skype for Business, Microsoft Lync, and Silverlight.The highest priority should be given to the MS17-013 security bulletin, which addresses remote code execution, privilege escalation, and information disclosure flaws in the Windows Graphics Component, Graphics Device Interface (GDI), and Color Management. These vulnerabilities affect Windows, Office, Skype, Lync, and Silverlight. The remote code execution flaws can be exploited by tricking users into opening a specially crafted website or document. What’s worse is that one of the vulnerabilities is publicly known and another is already actively exploited.Another important bulletin is MS17-012, which fixes a vulnerability in the Windows SMB network file-sharing protocol that has been publicly disclosed over a month ago. The MS17-006 and MS17-007 bulletins for Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer also contain vulnerabilities that have been publicly disclosed, including a critical remote code execution one.On the server side, the Microsoft Exchange and IIS bulletins, MS17-015 and MS17-016, should be prioritized because these systems are typically exposed to the internet. Server administrators should also direct their attention to the bulletins for Hyper-V virtualization (MS17-008) and Active Directory Federation Server (MS17-019).“Overall, it’s going to be very busy for IT departments of all sizes due to the large number of desktop and server patches,” Amol Sarwate, director of Vulnerability Labs at security vendor Qualys, said in a blog post.The high number of patches in this release are because Microsoft decided to postpone by a month the security updates it had originally scheduled for February. This unprecedented decision was taken due to an unspecified last-minute issue and was criticized by some researchers, especially since there were a number of publicly known flaws.Also, it seems that Microsoft has backtracked on its plan to stop organizing patch information into security bulletins, at least for this month. The company had planned to stop using bulletins in favor of a new portal called the Security Updates Guide.Add your comments to our Facebook page. Related content news Multibillion-dollar cybersecurity training market fails to fix the supply-demand imbalance Despite money pouring into programs around the world, training organizations have not managed to ensure employment for professionals, while entry-level professionals are finding it hard to land a job By Samira Sarraf Oct 02, 2023 6 mins CSO and CISO CSO and CISO CSO and CISO news Royal family’s website suffers Russia-linked cyberattack Pro-Russian hacker group KillNet took responsibility for the attack days after King Charles condemned the invasion of Ukraine. By Michael Hill Oct 02, 2023 2 mins DDoS Cyberattacks feature 10 things you should know about navigating the dark web A lot can be found in the shadows of the internet from sensitive stolen data to attack tools for sale, the dark web is a trove of risks for enterprises. Here are a few things to know and navigate safely. By Rosalyn Page Oct 02, 2023 13 mins Cybercrime Security news ShadowSyndicate Cybercrime gang has used 7 ransomware families over the past year Researchers from Group-IB believe it's likely the group is an independent affiliate working for multiple ransomware-as-a-service operations By Lucian Constantin Oct 02, 2023 4 mins Hacker Groups Ransomware Cybercrime Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe