Patch Tuesday, October 2024 Review: Top 10 Vulnerabilities and Key Insights
Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday release addresses a wide array of security vulnerabilities across multiple components of Windows and related services. As a cybersecurity specialist, it is critical to understand the risk factors associated with these vulnerabilities and the potential actions to mitigate them. This post'll cover the top 10 vulnerabilities based on their CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) base score and exploitability, along with recommended mitigating actions to minimize risk. We'll also provide a quick summary of the other vulnerabilities that were patched.
Top 10 Vulnerabilities
- CVE-2024-38124 – Windows Netlogon
- Base Score: 9.0
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Adjacent network
- Privileges Required: Low
- Impact: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (High)
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Attackers could compromise authentication mechanisms, gain control over network access, or cause disruptions in authentication services.
- Mitigation: Ensure domain controllers are updated promptly—Disable vulnerable protocols where not required. Utilize network segmentation to limit adjacent network access.
- CVE-2024-43468 – Microsoft Configuration Manager
- Base Score: 9.8
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Network
- Privileges Required: None
- Impact: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (High)
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Full compromise of systems via remote code execution, leading to administrative privileges.
- Mitigation: Apply the latest patches immediately, especially for internet-facing systems. Monitor for unusual activity in Configuration Manager environments.
- CVE-2024-43453 – Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS)
- Base Score: 8.8
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Network
- Privileges Required: None
- Impact: High for Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Unauthenticated remote access leading to potential system control.
- Mitigation: Restrict RRAS access to trusted networks and ensure proper patching and network segmentation.
- CVE-2024-43532 – RPC Endpoint Mapper Service
- Base Score: 8.8
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Network
- Privileges Required: Low
- Impact: High for Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Remote exploitation could lead to code execution with high privileges.
- Mitigation: Implement access control measures to limit exposure of RPC services and enforce proper network segmentation.
- CVE-2024-43497 – DeepSpeed
- Base Score: 8.4
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Local
- Privileges Required: None
- Impact: High
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Local privilege escalation with the ability to compromise sensitive data.
- Mitigation: Limit user access to affected machines and apply the latest patches. Ensure secure configurations are enforced on locally exposed services.
- CVE-2024-38179 – Azure Stack
- Base Score: 8.8
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Local
- Privileges Required: Low
- Impact: High for Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Privileged local users could elevate access to gain control over Azure Stack environments.
- Mitigation: Apply the patch immediately and enforce least-privilege access control.
- CVE-2024-43488 – Visual Studio Code
- Base Score: 8.8
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Network
- Privileges Required: None
- Impact: High
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Potential remote code execution by exploiting Visual Studio environments.
- Mitigation: Ensure Visual Studio Code installations are updated, and enable strong security configurations for development environments.
- CVE-2024-43456 – Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS)
- Base Score: 8.8
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Network
- Privileges Required: None
- Impact: High for Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Possible remote code execution without authentication.
- Mitigation: Patch all affected systems, restrict access to RRAS services, and audit logs for suspicious access attempts.
- CVE-2024-43503 – Microsoft Office SharePoint
- Base Score: 7.8
- Exploitability: More Likely
- Attack Vector: Local
- Privileges Required: Low
- Impact: High for Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Local privilege escalation within SharePoint environments, leading to unauthorized data access or manipulation.
- Mitigation: Apply SharePoint security updates immediately and monitor for unusual behaviour in SharePoint systems.
- CVE-2024-43453 – Windows Remote Desktop Services
- Base Score: 7.8
- Exploitability: Less Likely
- Attack Vector: Network
- Privileges Required: None
- Impact: High
- What Privileges Could Be Accessed: Unauthenticated, remote users could execute code, leading to a potential system compromise.
- Mitigation: Restrict Remote Desktop access to trusted networks and ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is in place.
Summary of Other Vulnerabilities
The rest of the vulnerabilities, while not as severe, still require prompt attention. These include vulnerabilities in the Windows EFI Partition, OpenSSH for Windows, Windows Hyper-V, .NET Framework, and several others. Most of these have a lower exploitability and impact, with CVSS scores ranging from 5.5 to 7.5, making them less critical but still worthy of patching, especially in sensitive environments.
Patch management remains a critical factor in maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture. While some vulnerabilities in this update are labelled as "less likely" to be exploited, the potential impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is significant if they are compromised. Always ensure patches are applied as soon as they are released, and use strong access controls and monitoring to mitigate risks until updates are fully deployed.
Stay secure, everyone!
