On March 8th, Microsoft released a big security update (Microsoft’s March 2022 Patch Tuesday Addresses 71 CVEs that has addressed at least 71 “Zero Day” vulnerabilities that may allow malicious attackers or hackers to remotely control your computer.
Windows 10 and 11 software packages that might bring more threats to the computers running Windows operating systems vulnerable to be hacked. Microsoft claims to have fixed 71 security flaws and vulnerabilities however those are only the ones it is aware of. Remote access is the most significant and worrying issue.
If a hacker target the computer that doesn’t have the latest security patches released by Microsoft, they can access it from anywhere, view the data on the target computer, and install software like key loggers that allow them to see every word what is being typed by the user on the target computer.
Spoofing, elevation of privileges or permissions, and denial of service are some of the great examples of these vulnerabilities that every computer users wanted to stay away from. Zero-day vulnerabilities indicate that the threat is current, and that hackers might exploit the flaws at any time.
This month’s update includes patches for the most of the Microsoft’s developed products listed below:
- .NET and Visual Studio
- Azure Site Recovery
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Microsoft Defender for IoT
- Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based)
- Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Intune
- Microsoft Office Visio
- Microsoft Office Word
- Microsoft Windows ALPC
- Microsoft Windows Codecs Library
- Paint 3D
- Role: Windows Hyper-V
- Skype Extension for Chrome
- Tablet Windows User Interface
- Visual Studio Code
- Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock
- Windows CD-ROM Driver
- Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver
- Windows COM
- Windows Common Log File System Driver
- Windows DWM Core Library
- Windows Event Tracing
- Windows Fastfat Driver
- Windows Fax and Scan Service
- Windows HTML Platform
- Windows Installer
- Windows Kernel
- Windows Media
- Windows PDEV
- Windows Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
- Windows Print Spooler Components
- Windows Remote Desktop
- Windows Security Support Provider Interface
- Windows SMB Server
- Windows Update Stack
- XBox
According to Microsoft’s update information site, the vulnerability requires no major rights or privileges and the attack’s complexity is low, implying that even inexperienced hackers may exploit the flaws to remotely access targeted computers. It is vital to keep a Windows PC up to date.
To check whether yours needs to be updated, go to the lower left corner of the screen and click on the Windows Start button. Select “Windows Update” from the Update and Security menu. Alternatively, simply press the power button and restart. If an update is available, it will automatically install when the machine restarts. Microsoft’s updates always has both positive and negative aspects.
This update is good because there’s a patch, but it’s also terrible since hackers now know about it, if they didn’t aware of these vulnerabilities in Windows operating systems earlier. They can now try to use the vulnerability to exploit computers.
If you haven’t restarted your computer in a while, it’s a good idea to do so once a week or so to ensure that any updates are installed automatically.