February Patch Tuesday 2022 Fixes 51 Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Releases 51 fixes this month including 1 Public Aware threat

here are 50 Important fixes in this release and 1 Moderate.  Microsoft Windows and Windows Components, Azure Data Explorer, Kestrel Web Server, Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based), Windows Codecs Library, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Office and Office Components, Windows Hyper-V Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio Code, and Microsoft Teams.

Year 3 Extended Support – Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (including R2) have received some updates this month.

Robert Brown, Head of Customer Success for Syxsense said, “This is the first year we have a Microsoft release which has not consisted of a Critical severity vulnerability rated by the Vendor.  This is the reason it is essential to compare different severity systems instead of relying on a single source of truth, in this case the vendor rated severity.  There are still extremely important vulnerabilities to remediate this month, the lack of a Critical vulnerabilities does not allow you to relax just yet.”

Top February 2022 Patches and Vulnerabilities

Based on the Vendor Severity and CVSS Score, we have made a few recommendations below. As usual, we recommend our customers enter the CVE numbers below into your patch management solution and deploy as soon as possible.

1. CVE-2022-21989: Windows Kernel Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Windows does not properly impose security restrictions in Windows Kernel, which leads to security restrictions bypass and privilege escalation.

Syxscore

• Vendor Severity: Important
• CVSS: 7.8
• Weaponised: No
• Public Aware: Yes
• Countermeasure: No

Syxscore Risk

• Attack Vector: Local
• Attack Complexity: High
• Privileges: Low
• User Interaction: None
• Scope (Jump Point): Yes

2. CVE-2022-21984: Windows DNS Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

This patch fixes a remote code execution bug in the Microsoft DNS server.  An attacker could completely take over your DNS and execute code with elevated privileges.

Syxscore

• Vendor Severity: Important
• CVSS: 8.8
• Weaponised: No
• Public Aware: No
• Countermeasure: Yes – The server is only affected if dynamic updates are enabled, but this is a relatively common configuration. 

Syxscore Risk

• Attack Vector: Network
• Attack Complexity: Low
• Privileges: Low
• User Interaction: None
• Scope (Jump Point): No

3. CVE-2022-21995: Windows Hyper-V Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

This patch fixes a guest-to-host escape in Hyper-V server and successful exploitation of this vulnerability may result in complete compromise of the system.

Syxscore

• Vendor Severity: Important
• CVSS: 7.9
• Weaponised: No
• Public Aware: No
• Countermeasure: No

Syxscore Risk

• Attack Vector: Adjacent
• Attack Complexity: High
• Privileges: None
• User Interaction: Required
• Scope (Jump Point): Yes
• Scope (Jump Point): No

Syxsense Recommendations

Based on the Vendor Severity and CVSS Score, we have made a few recommendations below which you should prioritize this month. Please pay close attention to any of these which are Publicly Aware and / or Weaponized.