Patch Tuesday update fixes three Windows filesharing bugs
Microsoft has revealed that this month’s sole security update is a fix for three problems in Windows’ filesharing system. The firm has also suggested blocking two specific ports as a secondary method of minimizing the problem.
The issues involve the Server Message Block which, put simply, is part of the system Windows uses for sharing files and printer access across computers on a network. This can include the internet itself, meaning vulnerabilities give hackers a way into other computers.
While Microsoft ranks the fix as critical (meaning the damage that could theoretically be done without it is high), the problems get the lowest ranking on the ‘exploitability index’, which rates how likely it is hackers will attempt to use them.
That usually signifies that there’s no evidence hackers have already figured out a way to exploit the problem, though in this case it’s also down to the fact that the worst-case scenario is particularly unlikely. In Vista and Server 2008, the worst that hackers can do with the vulnerability is a denial of service attack — the computer equivalent of repeatedly phoning a company’s telephone switchboard to jam all the lines.
In earlier versions of Windows, it’s theoretically possible that hackers could carry out remote code execution, which gives them control over another machine. However, the nature of these problems mean that this control would be limited, mainly because the hacker would need to know several details about the memory set-up in the computer concerned.
Microsoft has also noted that blocking two specific ports (139 and 445) with a firewall could be a temporary fix to the problem, though that does risk causing problems with some Windows services and isn’t a substitute for applying the patch.
While any vulnerability is a problem, this issue isn’t major by Microsoft standards; in a busier month, it probably wouldn’t get that much attention. That said, it may even work out better for the firm’s public relations to have a sole problem like this than to have a month with no security updates at all. That could either risk coming across as impossible to believe, or draw even more attention to the fact that there are usually problems to fix every month.
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