February Trending CVEs: CVE-2021-24078

As stewards of the lush and vast landscape of security vulnerabilities, we felt obliged to share with you the top trending CVEs of the past month (who's excited for winter to be over?! 😁☀️🌷). Brace yourself! Ok, here we go.

CVE-2021-24078

Microsoft rolled out updates to plug some security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software. A major concern for enterprises is a critical bug in the DNS service on Windows Server 2008 through 2019 that can be used to remotely install software of the attacker’s choice. CVE-2021-24078 earned a CVSS score of 9.8, which is as risky as they come. 

This vulnerability can be exploited remotely by getting a vulnerable DNS server to query for a domain it has not come across before. For example, sending a phishing email with a link to a new domain or images embedded that call out to a new domain. 

CVE-2021-24078 could let a cyber attacker steal lots of data by changing the destination for the web traffic of an organization. For instance, pointing internal appliances or outlook email access at a malicious server. 

Latest Updates and Solutions

• With February 2021 security patches, Microsoft has started to reject insecure Netlogon attempts from non-Windows devices. 
• While staying up-to-date on Windows patches is essential, it’s important that you are updating only after you have backed up your important files and data. 
• A reliable backup means you are less likely to have any issues with your data when the odd patch causes problems booting the system.
• Do yourself a favor and back up your files before installing any patches. 
• Windows 10 also has some built-in tools that can assist you with a backup process, either on a per-file basis or making a complete and bootable copy of your hard drive at once.

Visit the Vicarius Research Center for more information on CVEs and how to remediate them. You can also try a 30-day free trial of our TOPIA solution.

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