December 2018 Patch Tuesday – 39 Vulns, Workstation Patches, Adobe Vulns

This month’s Patch Tuesday addresses 39 vulnerabilities, with 9 of them labeled as Critical. Out of the Criticals, most are browser-related, with the rest including Windows, and .net Framework. A Privilege Escalation vulnerability exists in Windows kernel which has been exploited in wild. Adobe also patched 9 Critical and Important vulnerabilities this month for Adobe Acrobat and Reader.

On the basis of volume and severity this Patch Tuesday is light in weight.

Workstation Patches

Browser and Scripting Engine patches should be prioritized for workstation-type devices, meaning any system that is used for email or to access the internet via a browser. This includes multi-user servers that are used as remote desktops for users. Out of the 9 vulnerabilities, 6 can be exploited through browsers.

Active Attacks on Win32k Privilege Escalation

Microsoft has reported that there are active attacks detected against CVE-2018-8611. Microsoft has ranked this patch as Important. It is important to prioritize Windows kernel patching.

Adobe Patches and Mitigations

Adobe released nine patches for Acrobat/Reader, with 6 rated as critical and 3 as important. In early December, Adobe also released out-of-band patches for Adobe Flash. CVE-2018-15982 is rated as critical and has been exploited in wild. CVE-2018-15983 is labeled as important.