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Microsoft this week pushed security updates to fix more than 60 vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software, including at least one zero-day bug that is already being exploited. Microsoft also fixed a glitch that prevented some Windows 10 users from taking advantage of an extra year of security updates, which is nice because the zero-day flaw and other critical weaknesses affect all versions of Windows, including Windows 10.
Affected products this month include the Windows OS, Office, SharePoint, SQL Server, Visual Studio, GitHub Copilot, and Azure Monitor Agent. The zero-day threat concerns a memory corruption bug deep in the Windows innards called CVE-2025-62215. Despite the flaw’s zero-day status, Microsoft has assigned it an “important” rating rather than critical, because exploiting it requires an attacker to already have access to the target’s device.
“These types of vulnerabilities are often exploited as part of a more complex attack chain,” said Johannes Ullrich, dean of research for the SANS Technology Institute. “However, exploiting this specific vulnerability is likely to be relatively straightforward, given the existence of prior similar vulnerabilities.”
Ben McCarthy, lead cybersecurity engineer at Immersive, called attention to CVE-2025-60274, a critical weakness in a core Windows graphic component (GDI+) that is used by a massive number of applications, including Microsoft Office, web servers processing images, and countless third-party applications.
“The patch for this should be an organization’s highest priority,” McCarthy said. “While Microsoft assesses this as ‘Exploitation Less Likely,’ a 9.8-rated flaw in a ubiquitous library like GDI+ is a critical risk.”
Microsoft patched a critical bug in Office — CVE-2025-62199 — that can lead to remote code execution on a Windows system. Alex Vovk, CEO and co-founder of Action1, said this Office flaw is a high priority because it is low complexity, needs no privileges, and can be exploited just by viewing a booby-trapped message in the Preview Pane.
Many of the more concerning bugs addressed by Microsoft this month affect Windows 10, an operating system that Microsoft officially ceased supporting with patches last month. As that deadline rolled around, however, Microsoft began offering Windows 10 users an extra year of free updates, so long as they register their PC to an active Microsoft account.
Judging from the comments on last month’s Patch Tuesday post, that registration worked for a lot of Windows 10 users, but some readers reported the option for an extra year of updates was never offered. Nick Carroll, cyber incident response manager at Nightwing, notes that Microsoft has recently released an out-of-band update to address issues when trying to enroll in the Windows 10 Consumer Extended Security Update program.
“If you plan to participate in the program, make sure you update and install KB5071959 to address the enrollment issues,” Carroll said. “After that is installed, users should be able to install other updates such as today’s KB5068781 which is the latest update to Windows 10.”
Chris Goettl at Ivanti notes that in addition to Microsoft updates today, third-party updates from Adobe and Mozilla have already been released. Also, an update for Google Chrome is expected soon, which means Edge will also be in need of its own update.
The SANS Internet Storm Center has a clickable breakdown of each individual fix from Microsoft, indexed by severity and CVSS score. Enterprise Windows admins involved in testing patches before rolling them out should keep an eye on askwoody.com, which often has the skinny on any updates gone awry.
As always, please don’t neglect to back up your data (if not your entire system) at regular intervals, and feel free to sound off in the comments if you experience problems installing any of these fixes.
[Author’s note: This post was intended to appear on the homepage on Tuesday, Nov. 11. I’m still not sure how it happened, but somehow this story failed to publish that day. My apologies for the oversight.]
Microsoft today released updates to fix at least 137 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software. None of the weaknesses addressed this month are known to be actively exploited, but 14 of the flaws earned Microsoft’s most-dire “critical” rating, meaning they could be exploited to seize control over vulnerable Windows PCs with little or no help from users.
While not listed as critical, CVE-2025-49719 is a publicly disclosed information disclosure vulnerability, with all versions as far back as SQL Server 2016 receiving patches. Microsoft rates CVE-2025-49719 as less likely to be exploited, but the availability of proof-of-concept code for this flaw means its patch should probably be a priority for affected enterprises.
Mike Walters, co-founder of Action1, said CVE-2025-49719 can be exploited without authentication, and that many third-party applications depend on SQL server and the affected drivers — potentially introducing a supply-chain risk that extends beyond direct SQL Server users.
“The potential exposure of sensitive information makes this a high-priority concern for organizations handling valuable or regulated data,” Walters said. “The comprehensive nature of the affected versions, spanning multiple SQL Server releases from 2016 through 2022, indicates a fundamental issue in how SQL Server handles memory management and input validation.”
Adam Barnett at Rapid7 notes that today is the end of the road for SQL Server 2012, meaning there will be no future security patches even for critical vulnerabilities, even if you’re willing to pay Microsoft for the privilege.
Barnett also called attention to CVE-2025-47981, a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.8 (10 being the worst), a remote code execution bug in the way Windows servers and clients negotiate to discover mutually supported authentication mechanisms. This pre-authentication vulnerability affects any Windows client machine running Windows 10 1607 or above, and all current versions of Windows Server. Microsoft considers it more likely that attackers will exploit this flaw.
Microsoft also patched at least four critical, remote code execution flaws in Office (CVE-2025-49695, CVE-2025-49696, CVE-2025-49697, CVE-2025-49702). The first two are both rated by Microsoft as having a higher likelihood of exploitation, do not require user interaction, and can be triggered through the Preview Pane.
Two more high severity bugs include CVE-2025-49740 (CVSS 8.8) and CVE-2025-47178 (CVSS 8.0); the former is a weakness that could allow malicious files to bypass screening by Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, a built-in feature of Windows that tries to block untrusted downloads and malicious sites.
CVE-2025-47178 involves a remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Configuration Manager, an enterprise tool for managing, deploying, and securing computers, servers, and devices across a network. Ben Hopkins at Immersive said this bug requires very low privileges to exploit, and that it is possible for a user or attacker with a read-only access role to exploit it.
“Exploiting this vulnerability allows an attacker to execute arbitrary SQL queries as the privileged SMS service account in Microsoft Configuration Manager,” Hopkins said. “This access can be used to manipulate deployments, push malicious software or scripts to all managed devices, alter configurations, steal sensitive data, and potentially escalate to full operating system code execution across the enterprise, giving the attacker broad control over the entire IT environment.”
Separately, Adobe has released security updates for a broad range of software, including After Effects, Adobe Audition, Illustrator, FrameMaker, and ColdFusion.
The SANS Internet Storm Center has a breakdown of each individual patch, indexed by severity. If you’re responsible for administering a number of Windows systems, it may be worth keeping an eye on AskWoody for the lowdown on any potentially wonky updates (considering the large number of vulnerabilities and Windows components addressed this month).
If you’re a Windows home user, please consider backing up your data and/or drive before installing any patches, and drop a note in the comments if you encounter any problems with these updates.
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Microsoft today released security updates to fix at least 67 vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and software. Redmond warns that one of the flaws is already under active attack, and that software blueprints showing how to exploit a pervasive Windows bug patched this month are now public.
The sole zero-day flaw this month is CVE-2025-33053, a remote code execution flaw in the Windows implementation of WebDAV — an HTTP extension that lets users remotely manage files and directories on a server. While WebDAV isn’t enabled by default in Windows, its presence in legacy or specialized systems still makes it a relevant target, said Seth Hoyt, senior security engineer at Automox.
Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7, said Microsoft’s advisory for CVE-2025-33053 does not mention that the Windows implementation of WebDAV is listed as deprecated since November 2023, which in practical terms means that the WebClient service no longer starts by default.
“The advisory also has attack complexity as low, which means that exploitation does not require preparation of the target environment in any way that is beyond the attacker’s control,” Barnett said. “Exploitation relies on the user clicking a malicious link. It’s not clear how an asset would be immediately vulnerable if the service isn’t running, but all versions of Windows receive a patch, including those released since the deprecation of WebClient, like Server 2025 and Windows 11 24H2.”
Microsoft warns that an “elevation of privilege” vulnerability in the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) client (CVE-2025-33073) is likely to be exploited, given that proof-of-concept code for this bug is now public. CVE-2025-33073 has a CVSS risk score of 8.8 (out of 10), and exploitation of the flaw leads to the attacker gaining “SYSTEM” level control over a vulnerable PC.
“What makes this especially dangerous is that no further user interaction is required after the initial connection—something attackers can often trigger without the user realizing it,” said Alex Vovk, co-founder and CEO of Action1. “Given the high privilege level and ease of exploitation, this flaw poses a significant risk to Windows environments. The scope of affected systems is extensive, as SMB is a core Windows protocol used for file and printer sharing and inter-process communication.”
Beyond these highlights, 10 of the vulnerabilities fixed this month were rated “critical” by Microsoft, including eight remote code execution flaws.
Notably absent from this month’s patch batch is a fix for a newly discovered weakness in Windows Server 2025 that allows attackers to act with the privileges of any user in Active Directory. The bug, dubbed “BadSuccessor,” was publicly disclosed by researchers at Akamai on May 21, and several public proof-of-concepts are now available. Tenable’s Satnam Narang said organizations that have at least one Windows Server 2025 domain controller should review permissions for principals and limit those permissions as much as possible.
Adobe has released updates for Acrobat Reader and six other products addressing at least 259 vulnerabilities, most of them in an update for Experience Manager. Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome both recently released security updates that require a restart of the browser to take effect. The latest Chrome update fixes two zero-day exploits in the browser (CVE-2025-5419 and CVE-2025-4664).
For a detailed breakdown on the individual security updates released by Microsoft today, check out the Patch Tuesday roundup from the SANS Internet Storm Center. Action 1 has a breakdown of patches from Microsoft and a raft of other software vendors releasing fixes this month. As always, please back up your system and/or data before patching, and feel free to drop a note in the comments if you run into any problems applying these updates.
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