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August 10, 2005

Microsoft Releases Patches for Multiple Critical Vulnerabilities

Summary

On Aug 9, 2005, Microsoft released six new security updates, three of them rated as critical. All current versions of Windows are affected by some of them.

Some of these vulnerabilities can result in system-level compromise without direct user interaction. Others can result in compromise if the user opens a maliciously constructed HTML email message or web page.

What to Do

Windows users can manually use "Windows Update" to download and install the current operating system patches.

Additionally, it is recommended that all Windows machines have an automated patch management solution installed and configured on their system. Stanford provides BigFix to automatically patch Windows machines; it is available at http://patching.stanford.edu. Alternatively, Windows Automatic Update should be enabled.

Technical Detail

Information regarding all six security updates is available at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-aug.mspx. The following are brief summaries of those rated as critical.

MS05-038 - Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (KB896727)

• Affected platforms:
  • Windows 98, 98SE, ME
  • Windows 2000, all versions
  • Windows XP, all versions
  • Windows Server 2003, all versions
• Activated by opening a malicious web page.
• Exploit code is publicly available

MS05-039 - Vulnerability in Plug and Play Could Allow Remote Code Execution and Elevation of Privilege (KB899588)

• Affected platforms:
  • Windows 2000, all versions
  • Windows XP, all versions
  • Windows Server 2003, all versions
• No credentials or user interaction required on Windows 2000
• Exploit code is publicly available

MS05-043 - Vulnerability in Print Spooler Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (KB896423)

• Affected platforms:
  • Windows 2000, all versions
  • Windows XP, all 32-bit versions
  • Windows Server 2003, without Service Pack 1
• No credentials or user interaction required on Windows 2000 and Windows XP Service Pack 1.

References

Additional information regarding these vulnerabilities is available at

• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-aug.mspx

The Information Security Office would like to thank the Windows Systems Team in ITSS for their assistance in producing this alert.