Notes

Four specific vulnerabilities were highlighted in the article. The first one was CVE-2023-36884, which included multiple zero-day vulnerabilities that Microsoft reported last month. The second one was CVE-2023-38180, which allowed attackers to perform denial of service attacks through exploiting .NET and Visual Studio vulnerabilities. The third one, CVE-2023-21709, was a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server that attackers could exploit to perform privilege elevation on servers that ran this software. Finally, CVE-2023-36910 was mentioned, which was a vulnerability in the Microsoft Message Queueing service that could allow attackers to remotely execute code on multiple versions of Windows without elevating privileges (Krebs, 2023). These were the vulnerabilities highlighted in the article that Microsoft patched this month.

Vulnerability Details:

The following details the potential system impact of each of the article's listed vulnerabilities:

CVE-2023-36884: This vulnerability is titled the Windows Search Remote Code Execution Vulnerability on its Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) page. As its name implies, this vulnerability, if exploited, would allow attackers to execute code remotely on vulnerable Windows systems. However, because this vulnerability requires user interaction, attackers must first convince a user to perform a certain action, such as running an attached script from a malicious email. Nevertheless, if this occurs, it would allow the attacker to bring about a total loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability to the Windows systems they successfully attack without having to escalate privileges. These and other factors cause this vulnerability to have a CVSS base score of 7.5 and rating of High ("Windows search remote code", 2023).
CVE-2023-38180: This vulnerability is titled the .NET and Visual Studio Denial of Service Vulnerability on its MSRC page. As the name indicates, it allows attackers to perform denial of service attacks on hosts containing vulnerable versions of .NET and Visual Studio on Windows systems. Although these attacks have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, they allow attackers to easily impact servers' availability without privilege escalation or user interaction (".NET and visual studio", 2023). However, the vulnerability is only susceptible to attackers who are on the same network as the server (Krebs, 2023). These and other factors cause this vulnerability to have a CVSS base score of 7.5 and rating of High (".NET and visual studio", 2023).
CVE-2023-21709: This vulnerability is titled Microsoft Exchange Server Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability ("Microsoft exchange server elevation", 2023). As the name implies, this vulnerability allowed attackers to gain elevated privileges on servers using the Microsoft Exchange Server software by performing brute-force attacks on user accounts. Although accounts with weak passwords are needed for these attacks to succeed (Krebs, 2023), they are possible without user interaction, can be performed by unauthenticated attackers, and do not require the attacker to be on the same network as the targeted server. Furthermore, if the vulnerability is successfully exploited, the server's confidentiality, integrity, and availability can be totally lost. These and other factors cause this vulnerability to have a CVSS base score of 9.8 and rating of Critical ("Microsoft exchange server elevation", 2023).
CVE-2023-36910: This vulnerability is titled Microsoft Message Queuing Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. As the vulnerability's name implies, it allows attackers to exploit the Message Queuing service and remotely execute code on Windows 10 and 11 devices, as well as multiple versions of Windows Server("Microsoft message queuing remote", 2023). However, this vulnerability is not available on all Windows systems because the messaging service is disabled by default and is not commonly used (Krebs, 2023). Nevertheless, if it is enabled, it exposes a critical vulnerability because the attack can not only be performed without user interaction and privilege escalation, but it can also result in a device's complete loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. These and other factors cause this vulnerability to have a CVSS base score of 9.8 and rating of Critical ("Microsoft message queuing remote", 2023).