Weekly Infosec News Brief 13-19 July

Adobe Releases Updates for Two More Serious Zero-Day Flash Vulnerabilities

Last Tuesday Adobe released updates to resolve two new serious Flash vulnerabilities that allowed for remote code execution (CVE-2015-5122/23). This was the regularly-scheduled update cycle for Adobe, and they released updates for Shockwave and Acrobat as well. The Flash vulnerabilities are being actively exploited in the wild, and it is essential for all organizations to update Flash as soon as possible.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/14/adobe_flash_patch_tuesday/
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb15-18.html


Mozilla and Google Take Steps to Block or Restrict Flash in Browsers

After weeks of frequent new revelations of serious vulnerabilities in Flash, Mozilla and Google have taken steps to restrict how and when Flash runs within their Firefox and Chrome browsers. Facebook's security chief also called for a plan to end the use of Flash altogether. These actions are part of a larger industry backlash against Adobe's Flash in light of a series of serious vulnerabilities that have come to light. Flash is considered by many to be the most insecure and dangerous element of a typical computer. Is your organization doing anything to limit your exposure to Flash vulnerabilities?
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/adobe-flash-player-die/


Oracle Releases Updates, Including Critical Java Updates

Oracle also released updates last Tuesday, on their regular quarterly schedule. A large portion of Oracle's database products have updates available, as do many Sun server products. The most visible updates is the update to Java 8, which fixes a critical zero-day flaw. Like Flash, Java is a major target for hackers, and your organization should consider whether having Java installed and enabled on user desktops is wise or necessary.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/adobe-ms-oracle-push-critical-security-fixes/


Microsoft Releases Large Batch of Updates, Four of Them Critical

Microsoft released a large group of updates on "Patch Tuesday" this month, including four critical updates. One of the critical updates includes patches for a total of 29 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, and should be a priority for most organizations running Windows. The second addresses a memory-handling flaw in web-based VBScript in Windows 2003 and 2008 servers only, so is only a priority for organizations that have serves deployed in that way. The other two critical updates are for less widely-used systems, namely Remote Desktop on 32-bit Windows 7 and Windows 8 desktops and the Windows Hyper-V virtualization platform.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2947756/application-security/huge-july-patch-update-with-critical-update-to-ie-and-windows.html

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