We’re in the middle of a pandemic, but that’s no excuse to leave software unpatched. There’s certainly been no reduction in the rate at which vulnerabilities and exploits are being discovered.

This month’s contribution from Microsoft, as documented in the Security Update Guide, consists of thirty-eight updates, with corresponding bulletins, addressing one hundred and eleven vulnerabilities in .NET, Internet Explorer, Edge, Office, Visual Studio, and Windows. Eighteen of the updates are flagged as having Critical severity.

If you’re still using Windows 7, and you haven’t shelled out for Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates, you won’t find any of this month’s Windows 7 updates via Windows Update. You do have at least one other option: an organization called 0patch. These folks provide what they call ‘micropatches’ for known vulnerabilities in no-longer-officially-supported versions of Windows, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. I haven’t tried these myself, but they seem legitimate. Well, presumably not in the view of Microsoft.

Windows 10 users will get the latest updates whether they’re wanted or not, although there are settings that allow you to delay them, for a while. That leaves Windows 8.1, for which Windows Update is still the appropriate tool.

Adobe once again tags along this month, with new versions of Reader and Acrobat. Most people use the free version of Reader, officially known as Acrobat Reader DC. The new version, 2020.009.20063, includes fixes for twenty-four security vulnerabilites in earlier versions.

This month we’ve got a new version of Reader from Adobe, along with the usual heap of updates affecting Microsoft software.

Analysis of Microsoft’s Security Update Guide for December shows that there are thirty-two updates in all, affecting Internet Explorer 9 through 11; Office 365, 2013, 2016, and 2019; Visual Studio; Windows 7, 8.1, and 10; and Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2019. Thirty-seven vulnerabilities (CVEs) are addressed, of which seven are flagged as having Critical severity.

The easiest way to install Microsoft updates is via the Windows Update Control Panel (prior to Windows 10) or Settings > Update & Security on Windows 10.

Adobe released updates for several of its software products on Tuesday, but the only one likely to be installed on your computers is the ubiquitous Acrobat Reader DC, Adobe’s free PDF file viewer.

A new version of Acrobat Reader DC, 2019.021.20058, addresses at least twenty-one vulnerabilities in previous versions.

Recent versions of Reader seem to keep themselves updated, but if you use Reader to view PDF files from dubious sources, you should definitely check whether your Reader is up to date. Do that by running it, then choosing Check for Updates... from the Help menu.

About CVEs

I usually refer to security bugs as vulnerabilities. There’s another term that I sometimes use (see above): CVE. That’s an abbreviation for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures. If you’d like to know more, there’s a helpful post about CVEs over on the SecurityTrails web site. Here’s a quote:

CVE was launched in 1999 by the MITRE Corporation, a nonprofit sponsored by the National Cyber Security Division, or NCSD. When a researcher or a company discovers a new vulnerability or an exposure, they add them to the CVE list so other organizations can leverage this data and protect their systems.

It’s a worthwhile read, even for non-technical folks.

It’s another day of updates, with the usual load from Microsoft, and a new version of Reader from Adobe.

Analysis of the monthly data dump from Microsoft’s Security Update Guide shows that this month we have fifty-two updates (with associated bulletins), addressing ninety-five vulnerabilities in Office applications, Windows, Internet Explorer 9 through 11, Edge, Exchange, SharePoint, and Windows Defender.

Twenty-nine of the vulnerabilities are characterised as having Critical severity, and all of the usual nightmarish potential impacts are represented, including Denial of Service, Elevation of Privilege, Information Disclosure, Remote Code Execution, Security Feature Bypass, Spoofing, and Tampering.

If you’re running Windows 10, there’s not much you can do to avoid these updates, although you can at least delay them. The risks associated with installing updates as soon as they become available are still arguably lower that the risks of delaying them as much as possible, or somehow avoiding them altogether.

In this particular case, however, you definitely should install the updates immediately. That’s because they include fixes for a set of dangerous vulnerabilities in RDS (Remote Desktop Services) in all versions of Windows, including Windows 10. Still not convinced? This month’s updates also include a fix for a terrible vulnerability in the Text Services Framework that’s existed in all versions of Windows since XP. The RDS and Text Services vulnerabilities were discovered very recently; no related exploits or attacks have been observed, but it’s a safe bet that malicious persons are working on exploits right now.

Anyway, as always, Windows Update is your friend. Your annoying, can’t-seem-to-shake-them kind of friend.

Adobe released updates for several of its products today, of which only Acrobat Reader presents a significant risk, because malicious hacker types enjoy embedding various kinds of nastiness in PDF files, pretty much every computer on Earth has Acrobat Reader installed, and most people with computers open PDF files without even thinking about the risk.

The latest Acrobat Reader (DC Continuous, which is the variant most likely to be installed on your computer) is version 2019.012.20036. It addresses at least seventy-six security vulnerabilities in previous versions. The release bulletin gives credit to a number of non-Adobe security researchers who discovered and reported some of the vulnerabilities.

You can check your version of Acrobat Reader by navigating its menu to Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Also on the Help menu is the handy Check for Updates option, which is probably the easiest way to update Reader.