Security Bulletin Advance Notice for July 2013

On Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Microsoft is planning to release seven (7) bulletins.  Six of the bulletins are identified as Critical with one bulletin rated Important.

The critical bulletis will address vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, .NET Framework, Silverlight, Internet Explorer and GDI+. The bulletin rated Important will address issues in Microsoft Security software.

With .NET Framework included in the updates, users who have had problems with .NET Framework in the past are reminded to install this update separately with a shutdown/restart between other updates.

Microsoft is also planning on addressing CVE-2013-3660, a publicly known issue in the Kernel-Mode Drivers component of Windows in the updates.

As happens each month, Microsoft will also release an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services, and the Download Center.

References

• MSRC Blog:  Advance Notification Service for July 2013 Security Bulletin Release
• TechNet: Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for July 2013

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

Mozilla Firefox 22.0 Released with Critical Security Updates

Mozilla sent Firefox Version 22.0 to the release channel. The current update includes fourteen security updates of which four are critical, six high, three moderate and one low.

Note:  According to members at DSLReports, the update appears to have broken the Roboform toolbar.  (H/T, siljaline)

Notable Changes

Social Services:  New to version 22.0 is the ability to disable social media services that may be included with installed add-ons.  To disable social services, open the add-ons manager and select Services to disable or remove any service that you have installed in the browser.

Plain text files:  Word-wrap is a welcome change to viewing plain text files in this version of Firefox.

Fixed in Firefox 22

• MFSA 2013-62 Inaccessible updater can lead to local privilege escalation
• MFSA 2013-61 Homograph domain spoofing in .com, .net and .name
• MFSA 2013-60 getUserMedia permission dialog incorrectly displays location
• MFSA 2013-59 XrayWrappers can be bypassed to run user defined methods in a privileged context
• MFSA 2013-58 X-Frame-Options ignored when using server push with multi-part responses
• MFSA 2013-57 Sandbox restrictions not applied to nested frame elements
• MFSA 2013-56 PreserveWrapper has inconsistent behavior
• MFSA 2013-55 SVG filters can lead to information disclosure
• MFSA 2013-54 Data in the body of XHR HEAD requests leads to CSRF attacks
• MFSA 2013-53 Execution of unmapped memory through onreadystatechange event
• MFSA 2013-52 Arbitrary code execution within Profiler
• MFSA 2013-51 Privileged content access and execution via XBL
• MFSA 2013-50 Memory corruption found using Address Sanitizer
• MFSA 2013-49 Miscellaneous memory safety hazards (rv:22.0 / rv:17.0.7)

What’s New

• NEW -- WebRTC is now enabled by default!
• NEW -- Windows: Firefox now follows display scaling options to render text larger on high-res displays
• NEW -- Mac OS X: Download progress in Dock application icon
• NEW -- HTML5 audio/video playback rate can now be changed
• NEW -- Social services management implemented in Add-ons Manager
• NEW -- asm.js optimizations (OdinMonkey) enabled for major performance improvements
• CHANGED -- Improved WebGL rendering performance through asynchronous canvas updates
• CHANGED-- Plain text files displayed within Firefox will now word-wrap
• CHANGED -- For user security, the |Components| object is no longer accessible from web content
• CHANGED -- Improved memory usage and display time when rendering images
• CHANGED-- Pointer Lock API can now be used outside of fullscreen
• HTML5 -- New HTML5 and  elements
• FIXED -- Scrolling using some high-resolution-scroll aware touchpads feels slow (829952)

Known Issues

• Unresolved-- If you try to start Firefox using a locked profile, it will crash (see 573369)

Update

To get the update now, select "Help" from the Firefox menu at the upper left of the browser window, then pick "About Firefox."  Mac users need to select "About Firefox" from the Firefox menu.

If you do not use the English language version, Fully Localized Versions are available for download.

References

• Common questions after updating Firefox
• Security Updates
• Mozilla Firefox Release Notes
• Bug Fixes 

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

Critical Oracle Java Security Update

Oracle released the scheduled critical security updates for its Java SE Runtime Environment software.

This is a Critical Patch Update that contains 40 new security fixes for Oracle Java SE.  Oracle indicated that thirty-seven (37) of the vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication.  This was described as the possibility of being exploited over a network without the need for a username and password.

Additional details about the update are available in the Oracle Quality Assurance Blog post, June 2013 Critical Patch Update for Java SE Released.  If Java is still installed on your computer, it is recommended that this update be applied as soon as possible due to the threat posed by a successful attack.

For those people who have desktop applications that require Java and cannot uninstall it, Java can now be disabled in Internet Explorer.  See Microsoft Fix it to Disable Java in Internet Explorer.

Java Security Recommendations

1)  In the Java Control Panel, at minimum, set the security to high.
2)  Keep Java disabled until needed.  Uncheck the box "Enable Java content in the browser" in the Java Control Panel.

(Image via Sophos Naked Security Blog)

3)  If you use Firefox, install NoScript and only allow Java on those sites where it is required.

Instructions on removing older (and less secure) versions of Java can be found at http://java.com/en/download/faq/remove_olderversions.xml

Download Information

Download link:  Java Version 7 Update 25

Verify your version:  http://www.java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp

Notes:

• UNcheck any pre-checked toolbar and/or software options presented with the update. They are not part of the software update and are completely optional.
• Starting with Java SE 7 Update 21 in April 2013, all Java Applets and Web Start Applications should be signed with a trusted certificate.  It is not recommended to run untrusted/unsigned Certificates.  See How to protect your computer against dangerous Java Applets

Critical Patch Updates

For Oracle Java SE Critical Patch Updates, the next scheduled dates are as follows:

• 15 October 2013
• 14 January 2014
• 15 April 2014 

References

•  June 2013 Critical Patch Update for Java SE Released
• Java SE 7 Update Release Notes
• Critical Patch Updates, Security Alerts and Third Party Bulletin 
• Java, The Never-Ending Saga  

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...