Microsoft Security Bulletin MS16-144 - Critical

• 10/11/2017
• 15 minutes to read
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Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (3204059)

Published: December 13, 2016

Version: 1.0

Executive Summary

This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows clients, and Moderate for Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows servers. For more information, see the Affected Software section.

The update addresses the vulnerabilities by correcting how:

• Microsoft browser and affected components handle objects in memory
• Microsoft browser checks Same Origin Policy for scripts running inside Web Workers
• Scripting engines handle objects in memory

For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Vulnerability Information section.

For more information about this update, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 3204059.

Affected Software

The following software versions or editions are affected. Versions or editions that are not listed are either past their support life cycle or are not affected. To determine the support life cycle for your software version or edition, see Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

The severity ratings indicated for each affected software assume the potential maximum impact of the vulnerability. For information regarding the likelihood, within 30 days of this security bulletin’s release, of the exploitability of the vulnerability in relation to its severity rating and security impact, please see the Exploitability Index in the December bulletin summary.

Note Please see the Security Update Guide for a new approach to consuming the security update information. You can customize your views and create affected software spreadsheets, as well as download data via a restful API. For more information, please see the Security Updates Guide FAQ. As a reminder, the Security Updates Guide will be replacing security bulletins as of February 2017. Please see our blog post, Furthering our commitment to security updates, for more details.

^[2]For information about changes in support for Internet Explorer beginning January 12, 2016, see Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

^[3]Beginning with the October 2016 release, Microsoft has changed the update servicing model for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2. For more information, please see this Microsoft TechNet article. 

[4]This update is available via Windows Update.

[5] Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 updates are cumulative. The monthly security release includes all security fixes for vulnerabilities that affect Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, in addition to non-security updates. The updates are available via the Microsoft Update Catalog. Please note that effective December 13, 2016, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 details for the Cumulative Updates will be documented in Release Notes. Please refer to the Release Notes for OS Build numbers, Known Issues, and affected file list information.

Note The vulnerability discussed in this bulletin affects Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5.

Although an update is available for Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 via Windows Update, Microsoft recommends that customers upgrade to Window Server 2016 at their earliest convenience. 

*The Updates Replaced column shows only the latest update in any chain of superseded updates. For a comprehensive list of updates replaced, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog, search for the update KB number, and then view update details (updates replaced information is provided on the Package Details tab).

Update FAQ

In addition to installing this update are there any further steps I need to carry out to be protected from any of the vulnerabilities discussed in this bulletin?
Yes. For Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems installing the 3203621 cumulative update by itself does not fully protect against CVE-2016-7278 — you must also install security update 3208481 to be fully protected from the vulnerability.

Severity Ratings and Vulnerability Identifiers

The following severity ratings assume the potential maximum impact of the vulnerability. For information regarding the likelihood, within 30 days of this security bulletin's release, of the exploitability of the vulnerability in relation to its severity rating and security impact, please see the Exploitability Index in the December bulletin summary.

Where specified in the Severity Ratings and Impact table, Critical, Important, and Moderate values indicate severity ratings. For more information, see Security Bulletin Severity Rating System. Refer to the following key for the abbreviations used in the table to indicate maximum impact:

Vulnerability Information

Multiple Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities

Information disclosure vulnerabilities exist in the way that the affected components handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could obtain information to further compromise a target system.

In a web-based attack scenario an attacker could host a website in an attempt to exploit the vulnerabilities. Additionally, compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content could contain specially crafted content that could be used to exploit the vulnerabilities. However, in all cases an attacker would have no way to force users to view attacker-controlled content. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to take action. For example, an attacker could trick users into clicking a link that takes them to the attacker's site.

The following table contains links to the standard entry for each vulnerability in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list: