Patch Tuesday (August 2023): Vulnerabilities and CVE IDs released

August 2023 Patch Tuesday: 87 flaws, 2 zero days and 6 critical vulnerabilities fixed

Here is a breakdown of the 87 vulnerabilities fixed this month:

CVE IDs: 73
Advisories: 2
Republished CVE IDs: 12 (more details on this below)

Security updates were released for the following products, features, and roles:

Microsoft Office
Memory Integrity System Readiness Scan Tool
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Teams
Windows Kernel
Microsoft Office Excel
Microsoft Office Visio
Windows Message Queuing
Windows Projected File System
Windows Reliability Analysis Metrics Calculation Engine
Windows Fax and Scan Service
Windows HTML Platform
Windows Bluetooth A2DP driver
Microsoft Dynamics
.NET Core
ASP.NET and Visual Studio
Azure HDInsights
Azure DevOps
.NET Framework
Reliability Analysis Metrics Calculation Engine
Microsoft WDAC OLE DB provider for SQL
Windows Group Policy
Microsoft Office SharePoint
Microsoft Office Outlook
Microsoft Office
Tablet Windows User Interface
ASP.NET
Windows Common Log File System Driver
Windows System Assessment Tool
Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver
Windows Wireless Wide Area Network Service
Windows Cryptographic Services
Role: Windows Hyper-V
Windows Smart Card
Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based)
Dynamics Business Central Control
SQL Server
Microsoft Windows Codecs Library
Windows Defender
Azure Arc
Windows LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
Windows Mobile Device Management

Two zero days patched, all being actively exploited

August 2023’s Patch Tuesday witnessed two zero-day vulnerabilities, and unfortunately all of them are being actively exploited. Let’s take a detailed look at these vulnerabilities:

CVE-2023-38180: .NET and Visual Studio Denial of Service Vulnerability

Rated as Important with a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5, this zero-day vulnerability in .NET and Visual Studio are being actively exploited. However, no reports of the POC being publicly disclosed have emerged, as of now.

While not many additional details have been shared by the vendor regarding this vulnerability, sources have confirmed that this flaw can facilitate DDoS attacks.

ADV230003: Microsoft Office Defense in Depth Update

This advisory is not a vulnerability. Rather, as stated by the vendor, this is "...an update for Microsoft Office that provides enhanced security as a defense in depth measure."

Further, Microsoft has also stated that installing this update will prevent the attack chain leading to CVE-2023-36884, i.e., the Remote Code Execution in Windows Search. In addition, Microsoft has also recommended users to install the Office updates in the advisory as well as the Windows updates released in this month's Patch Tuesday.

Republished CVE IDs:

Besides the vulnerabilities fixed in this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has also republished twelve CVE IDs. These are as follows:

CVE-2023-20569
CVE-2023-4068
CVE-2023-4069
CVE-2023-4070
CVE-2023-4071
CVE-2023-4072
CVE-2023-4073
CVE-2023-4074
CVE-2023-4075
CVE-2023-4076
CVE-2023-4077
CVE-2023-4078

These CVE IDs are related to the software "consumed" by Microsoft. The vendor has stated that the latest versions of this software are not vulnerable to these flaws anymore.