Microsoft Patch Tuesday: March 2012

With this March Microsoft Patch Tuesday update, we see a set of 6 updates; 1 with the rating of Critical, 4 with the rating of Important and 1 with that of Moderate. This is a relatively small update from Microsoft, and the potential compatibility impact for these updates is likely to be low.

Notably, the Patch Tuesday Security Update analysis performed by the ChangeBASE team has not identified any compatibility issues across the thousands of applications included in testing for this release. This makes us confident that this set of patches may be deployed with low risk of issue across the entire application portfolio.

Given the nature of the changes and updates included in each of these patches, most systems will require a reboot to successfully implement any and all of the patches and updates released in this March Patch Tuesday release cycle.

Sample Results

Here is a sample Summary report for a sample database where the Quest ChangeBASE Patch Impact team has run the latest Microsoft Updates against a test application portfolio. As you can see, no issues have been detected:

Testing Summary

MS12-017	Vulnerability in DNS Server Could Allow Denial of Service (2647170)
MS12-018	Vulnerability in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2641653)
MS12-019	Vulnerability in in DirectWrite Could Allow Denial of Service
MS12-020	Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2671387)
MS12-021	Vulnerability in Visual Studio Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2651019)
MS12-022	Vulnerability in Expression Design Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2651018)

Quest ChangeBASE RAG Report Summary

Security Update Detailed Summary

MS12-017	Vulnerability in DNS Server Could Allow Denial of Service (2647170)
Description	This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a remote unauthenticated attacker sends a specially crafted DNS query to the target DNS server.
Payload	Afd.sys, Dns.exe, Dnsperf.dll, Dnsperf.h, Dnsperf.ini, Mswsock.dll, Tcpip.sys, Tcpip6.sys, W03a3409.dll, Wdnsperf.dll, Wmswsock.dll, Ww03a3409.dll
Impact	Important - Denial of Service

MS12-018	Vulnerability in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2641653)
Description	This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability.
Payload	Win32k.sys
Impact	Important - Elevation of Privilege

MS12-019	Vulnerability in DirectWrite Could Allow Denial of Service
Description	Could Allow Denial of Service (2665364)
Payload	D2d1.dll, Dwrite.dll, D3d10_1.dll, D3d10_1core.dll, D3d10warp.dll
Impact	Moderate - Denial of Service

MS12-020	Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2671387)
Description	This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in the Remote Desktop Protocol. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a sequence of specially crafted RDP packets to an affected system. By default, the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is not enabled on any Windows operating system. Systems that do not have RDP enabled are not at risk.
Payload	Rdpwd.sys
Impact	Critical - Remote Code Execution

MS12-021	Vulnerability in Visual Studio Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2651019)
Description	This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in Visual Studio. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker places a specially crafted add-in in the path used by Visual Studio and convinces a user with higher privileges to start Visual Studio. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.
Payload	Vsaenv.exe, BaseConfig.pkgdef, BaseConfig.pkgdef.version
Impact	Important - Elevation of Privilege

MS12-022	Vulnerability in Expression Design Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2651018)
Description	This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Expression Design. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a legitimate file (such as an .xpr or .DESIGN file) that is located in the same network directory as a specially crafted dynamic link library (DLL) file. Then, while opening the legitimate file, Microsoft Expression Design could attempt to load the DLL file and execute any code it contained. For an attack to be successful, a user must visit an untrusted remote file system location or WebDAV share and open a legitimate file (such as an .xpr or .DESIGN file) from this location that is then loaded by a vulnerable application.
Payload	No specific file payload
Impact	Important - Remote Code Execution

Security Update Detailed Summary

MS12-017	Vulnerability in DNS Server Could Allow Denial of Service (2647170)
Description	This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a remote unauthenticated attacker sends a specially crafted DNS query to the target DNS server.
Payload	Afd.sys, Dns.exe, Dnsperf.dll, Dnsperf.h, Dnsperf.ini, Mswsock.dll, Tcpip.sys, Tcpip6.sys, W03a3409.dll, Wdnsperf.dll, Wmswsock.dll, Ww03a3409.dll
Impact	Important - Denial of Service

MS12-018	Vulnerability in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2641653)
Description	This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability.
Payload	Win32k.sys
Impact	Important - Elevation of Privilege

MS12-019	Vulnerability in DirectWrite Could Allow Denial of Service
Description	Could Allow Denial of Service (2665364)
Payload	D2d1.dll, Dwrite.dll, D3d10_1.dll, D3d10_1core.dll, D3d10warp.dll
Impact	Moderate - Denial of Service

MS12-020	Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2671387)
Description	This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in the Remote Desktop Protocol. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a sequence of specially crafted RDP packets to an affected system. By default, the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is not enabled on any Windows operating system. Systems that do not have RDP enabled are not at risk.
Payload	Rdpwd.sys
Impact	Critical - Remote Code Execution

MS12-021	Vulnerability in Visual Studio Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2651019)
Description	This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in Visual Studio. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker places a specially crafted add-in in the path used by Visual Studio and convinces a user with higher privileges to start Visual Studio. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.
Payload	Vsaenv.exe, BaseConfig.pkgdef, BaseConfig.pkgdef.version
Impact	Important - Elevation of Privilege

MS12-022	Vulnerability in Expression Design Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2651018)
Description	This security update resolves one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Expression Design. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a legitimate file (such as an .xpr or .DESIGN file) that is located in the same network directory as a specially crafted dynamic link library (DLL) file. Then, while opening the legitimate file, Microsoft Expression Design could attempt to load the DLL file and execute any code it contained. For an attack to be successful, a user must visit an untrusted remote file system location or WebDAV share and open a legitimate file (such as an .xpr or .DESIGN file) from this location that is then loaded by a vulnerable application.
Payload	No specific file payload
Impact	Important - Remote Code Execution

*All results are based on a ChangeBASE Application Compatibility Lab's test portfolio of over 1,000 applications.

For more information, please visit www.changebase.com