Microsoft Patch Tuesday: March 2010

With this March Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Update, we see a light or relatively minor release of Microsoft Security updates with two application level updates rated as Important. Both the Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Movie Maker patches released this month will likely require a reboot of the target system. Our sample of over 2,000 applications are analysed for application level conflicts with Microsoft Security Updates and potential dependencies, or down-level conflicts. Based on the results of our AOK Application Compatibility Lab only one patch appears to have the potential for a marginal impact on a standard corporate or enterprise application portfolio; MS10-017 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution. We have included a brief snap-shot of some of the results from our AOK Software that demonstrates some of the potential impacts on the application package with the following snap-shot image. MS10-003 Vulnerability in Microsoft Office (MSO) Could Allow Remote Code Execution. Testing Summary MS10-016 : "Vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker Could Allow Remote Code Execution (975561)" MS10-014 : "Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (980150)" Patch Name Total Issues Matches Affected Reboot Rating RAG Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-016 <1% <1% YES Marginal impact and negligible testing profile Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-014 <1% <1% YES Marginal impact and negligible testing profile Legend: No Issues Detected Potentially fixable application Impact Serious Compatibility Issue Security Update Detailed Summary MS10-016 Vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker Could Allow Remote Code Execution Description This security update addresses a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker and Microsoft Producer 2003. Windows Live Movie Maker, which is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7, is not affected by this vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted Movie Maker or Microsoft Producer project file and convinced the user to open the specially crafted file. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. Payload Moviemk.exe Impact Important – Remote Code Execution MS10-014 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution Description This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. Payload Excel.exe, Excel.man, Xlcall32.dll Impact Important – Remote Code Execution *All results are based on an AOK Application Compatibility Lab’s test portfolio of over 1,000 applications.