Microsoft has patched a critical security vulnerability in Windows Defender, which could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a system.<\/p>\n
The attack required a specific file to be scanned by the\u00a0Microsoft Malware Protection Engine, that then led to memory corruption.<\/p>\n
The attacker could remotely execute code in the security context of the LocalSystem account, allowing them to take control of the system.<\/p>\n
“There are many ways that an attacker could place a specially crafted file in a location that is scanned by the engine,” said the company.<\/p>\n
“An attacker could use a website to deliver a file to the victim’s system… [or] via an email message, or in an instant messenger message.”<\/p>\n
If a user’s real-time protection is turned on, the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine will scan files automatically, leading to exploitation of the vulnerability.”<\/p>\n
Microsoft’s patch addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way the Protection Engine scans these files.<\/p>\n
The flaw affected the older Microsoft Security Essentials program, and the Defender service from Windows 7 to Windows 10.<\/p>\n
Other Microsoft products affected included Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and 2016.<\/p>\n
Microsoft has patched a critical security vulnerability in Windows Defender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":206794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[123,807,43062],"class_list":["post-254727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-microsoft","tag-windows","tag-windows-defender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254733,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254727\/revisions\/254733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}