Critical Microsoft Defender Bug Actively Exploited; Patch Tuesday Offers 83 Fixes

Microsoft addressed 10 critical bugs, one under active exploit and another publicly known, in its January Patch Tuesday roundup of fixes. In total it patched 83 vulnerabilities. The most serious bug is a flaw in Microsoft’s Defender anti-malware software that allows remote attackers to infect targeted systems with executable code. Security experts are warning that Windows users who have not connected to internet recently and received an auto-update, should patch now. “This bug in the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine may already be patched on your system as the engine auto-updates as needed. However, if your systems are not connected to the internet, you’ll need to manually apply the patch,” wrote Dustin Childs, Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) security manager. Researchers believe the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-1647, has been exploited for the past three months and was leveraged by hackers as part of the massive SolarWinds attack. Last month, Microsoft said state-sponsored hackers had compromised its internal network and leveraged additional Microsoft products to conduct further attacks. Affected versions of Microsoft Malware Protection Engine range from 1.1.17600.5 to 1.1.17700.4 running on Windows 10, Windows 7 and 2004 Windows Server, according to the security bulletin. Publicly Known Bug Fixed Twice Microsoft patched a second vulnerability, that researchers believe was also being exploited in the wild, tracked as CVE-2021-1648. The flaw is classified…

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