Windows Security

Our Advance Notification Service (ANS) was created more than a decade ago as part of Update Tuesday to broadly communicate in advance, about the security updates being released for Microsoft products and services each month. Over the years, technology environments and customer needs have evolved, prompting us to evaluate our existing information and distribution channels.View the full article

Today, as part of Update Tuesday, we released seven security updates – three rated Critical and four rated Important in severity, to address 24 unique Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and Exchange. We encourage you to apply all of these updates. For more information about this month’s security updates, including the detailed view of the Exploit Index (XI) broken down by each CVE, visit the Microsoft Bulletin Summary webpage.View the full article

Today, we provide advance notificationfor the release of seven Security Bulletins. Three of these updates are rated Critical and four are rated as Important in severity. These updates are for Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and Exchange. As per our monthly process, we’ve scheduled the Security Bulletin release for the second Tuesday of the month, December 9, 2014, at approximately 10 a.View the full article

Today, we released an out-of-band security update to address a vulnerability in Kerberos which could allow Elevation of Privilege. This update is for all supported versions of Windows Server and includes a defense-in-depth update for all supported versions of Windows. We strongly encourage customers to apply this update as soon as possible by following the directions in Security Bulletin MS14-068.View the full article

On Tuesday, November 18, 2014, at approximately 10 a.m. PST, we will release an out-of-band security update to address a vulnerability in Windows. We strongly encourage customers to apply this update as soon as possible, following the directions in the security bulletin. More information about this bulletin can be found at Microsoft’s Bulletin Summary page.View the full article

Today, as part of Update Tuesday, we released 14 security updates – four rated Critical, nine rated Important, and two rated Moderate, to address 33 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office, .NET Framework, Internet Information Services (IIS), Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Input Method Editor (IME) (Japanese), and Kernel Mode Driver (KMD).View the full article

Today, we provide advance notification for the release of 16 Security Bulletins. Five of these updates are rated Critical, nine are rated as Important, and two are rated Moderate in severity. These updates are for Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, Exchange, .NET Framework, Internet Information Services (IIS), Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Input Method Editor (IME) (Japanese), and Kernel Mode Driver (KMD).View the full article

Today, we announced the availability of SSL 3.0 fallback warnings in Internet Explorer (IE) 11. For more information please visit the IE blog. We have also published an update on the status of the changes we have made to our Azure offerings in response to the SSL 3.0 vulnerability. For more information please visit the Azure blog.View the full article

Today, we released Security Advisory 3010060to provide additional protections regarding limited, targeted attacks directed at Microsoft Windows customers. A cyberattacker could cause remote code execution if someone is tricked into opening a maliciously-crafted PowerPoint document that contains an infected Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) file. As part of this Security Advisory, we have included an easy, one-click Fix itsolution to address the known cyberattack.View the full article

Today, as part of Update Tuesday, we released eight securityupdates – three rated Critical and five rated Important - to address 24 Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures (CVEs) in Windows, Office, .NET Framework, .ASP.NET, and Internet Explorer (IE). We encourage you to apply all of these updates, but for those who need to prioritize deployment planning, we recommend focusing on the Critical updates first.View the full article

Today, we provide advance notification for the release of nine Security Bulletins. Three of these updates are rated Critical, five are rated as Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. These updates are for Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, .NET Framework, and ASP.NET. As per our usual process, we’ve scheduled the Security Bulletin release for the second Tuesday of the month, October 14, 2014, at approximately 10 a.View the full article

Today we’re publishing the September 2014 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We fielded four questions on various topics during the webcast, with specific bulletin questions focusing primarily on Internet Explorer (MS14-052) and a question about the Windows Update client. We invite you to join us for the next scheduled webcast on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, at 11 a.View the full article

Today, as a part of our regular Update Tuesday process, we released four security bulletins – one rated Critical and three rated Important in severity – to address 42 Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures (CVEs) in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, .NET Framework, and Lync Server. We encourage you to apply all of these updates, but for those who need to prioritize, we recommend focusing on the Critical update first.View the full article

Today, we provide advance notification for the release of four Security Bulletins. One of these updates is rated Critical and three are rated as Important in severity. These updates are for Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, .NET Framework and Lync. As a reminder, we are now using a new format for our Security Bulletin Webcast, scheduled on Wednesday, September 10, at 11 a.View the full article

Every month for many years, we’ve released a number of updates focused on the continuous improvement of customers’ experiences with our technology. Historically, these updates happened at different times during the month, with the security-specific ones occurring on the second Tuesday of each month. Recently, to further streamline, we decided to include more of our non-security updates together with our security updates and begin the global release to customers on the second Tuesday of each month.View the full article

Today, we published the August 2014 Security Bulletin webcast questions and answers page along with the webcast replay. We answered ten questions on air, with the majority focusing on the update for Internet Explorer. Here is the video replay: We are aware of some issues related to the recent updates and are working on a fix.View the full article

Today, as part of Update Tuesday, we released nine securityupdates – two rated Critical and seven rated Important – to address 37 Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures (CVEs) in SQL Server, OneNote, SharePoint, .NET, Windows and Internet Explorer (IE). We encourage you to apply all of these updates, but for those who need to prioritize their deployment planning, we recommend focusing on the Critical updates first.View the full article

Today, we provide advance notification for the release of nine Security Bulletins. Two of these are rated Critical, and the remaining seven are rated Important in severity. These Updates are for SQL Server, SharePoint, OneNote, .NET, Microsoft Windows, and Internet Explorer. As per our usual process, we’ve scheduled the Security Bulletin release for the second Tuesday of the month, August 12, 2014, at approximately 10 a.View the full article

Today, we are excited to announce the general availability of Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) 5.0. EMET is a free tool, designed to help customers with their defense in depth strategies against cyberattacks, by helping block and terminate the most common techniques adversaries might use in comprising systems. EMET 5.0 further helps to protect with two new mitigations, and with new capabilities giving customers additional flexibility on their deployments.View the full article

Today we published the July 2014 Security Bulletin webcast questions and answers page along with the webcast replay. We answered eight questions on air, with the majority focusing on the update for Internet Explorer. The transcript also includes a question we did not have time to answer on the air.View the full article

Today, we are updating the Certificate Trust List (CTL) for all supported releases of Microsoft Windows to remove the trust of mis-issued third-party digital certificates. These certificates could be used to spoof content and perform phishing or man-in-the-middle attacks against web properties. With this update, most customers will be automatically protected against this issue and will not need to take any action.View the full article

Many around the globe have been following the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ closely. Regardless of which country you are supporting, many folks have been impressed by the defensive display put on by keeper Tim Howard in a loss against Belgium. It was a great performance highlighting a strong defense – always a good thing to have, be it on the pitch or on your system.View the full article

Today, we provide advance notification for the release of six Security Bulletins. Two of these are rated Critical, three are rated as Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. These Updates are for Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. This month we will also premier the new format for our Security Bulletin Webcast, scheduled on Wednesday, July 9, at 11 a.View the full article

Today, Microsoft is pleased to announce the private preview of Microsoft Interflow, a security and threat information exchange platform for analysts and researchers working in cybersecurity. Interflow uses industry specifications to create an automated, machine-readable feed of threat and security information that can be shared across industries and groups in near real-time.View the full article

Today, we released Security Advisory 2974294 to inform global customers about an update for the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine. This update addresses a privately disclosed issue and fixes a vulnerability that could allow a denial of service if the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine scans a specially crafted file. Updates for the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine are sent through security advisories as there is typically no action required to install the update.View the full article