Microsoft Rolls Out Critical Security Patch to Windows 11 Users
Microsoft Rolls Out Critical Security Patch to Windows 11 Users
Microsoft releases security patches into the wild every month on "Patch Tuesday," but this latest update is especially important.
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The company is urging customers to download and install the latest security patch, according to a message issued by the Microsoft Security Response Center. This update addresses several vulnerabilities for Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 users.
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What's the big deal? The update plugs around 120 security holes, which includes six zero-day patches. That's par for the course these days, but one of the flaws patched is "wormable," which is far more dangerous. A wormable threat can self-propagate, meaning that no humans are needed for an attack to spread from one computer to the next.
This HTTP Protocol Stack Remote Code Execution vulnerability, affectionately named CVE-2022-21907, is not known to be active, but the company is not taking any chances.
"The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack, and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet," Microsoft wrote.
Microsoft considers nine more of these flaws to be critical, meaning ne'er-do-wells could use them to remotely access any affected computer system.
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The company addressed the last wormable threat in May 2021, and less than a week later, computer code exploiting the flaw was posted online. In other words, check for and install system updates immediately.
Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus Software
Microsoft Security Essentials is one of the best free antivirus programs available if you're using an older version of Windows. It's available directly from Microsoft, and it's easy to see if the program protects you as it should.
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This tool conducts quick scans to check for threats in common areas where viruses hide, but you can also run a full scan to check everything or a custom scan to look in specific folders or drives.
Microsoft Security Essentials Features
Like any antivirus program, MSE offers several features to help fight threats. It does a good job at balancing ease-of-use with functionality.
• Fully functional engines to guard against viruses and most other kinds of malware.
• Presents an easy-to-use, on-demand virus scanner for manual malware checks, or it schedules scans (quick or full) to run daily or on any day of the week, at any specified time of day.
• Files, locations, file types, and processes can be excluded from scans.
• Trigger a scan directly from Windows Explorer's right-click menu.
• A simple green or red indicator makes it easy to see if you're protected or not.
• It updates regularly to keep its malware knowledge current. View the last time the MSE definitions were updated, as well as the current spyware and virus definition version number.
• Lets you limit how much of the CPU can be used to run scans, anywhere from 10-100 percent.
• Archives and removable drives can be set to be scanned in a full scan.
• Use it to automatically turn on Windows Firewall if no other firewall program is enabled.
• The History tab keeps a record of quarantined and allowed items so that you can check how the program performs.
• Choose the default action that MSE takes (for example, to remove or allow the threat) when a threat is identified as having a severe, high, medium, or low alert.
• Quarantined items can be set up to be deleted automatically or kept forever. If you choose to remove these items after a set time, you can choose from one day later to up to three months later.
• Use it to create restore points before performing certain actions on detected items.
• Optionally join MAPS (Microsoft Active Protection Service) to automatically report malware and other unwanted items to Microsoft.
Thoughts on Microsoft Security Essentials
Security Essentials is Microsoft's first attempt at an antivirus program, free or otherwise. Overall, the program works well and performs its task admirably.
One thing that we like about similar programs that you don't get with this one, is easy access to the program's settings directly from the icon on the taskbar. Ideally, you'd be able to turn off real-time protection temporarily, exit the program, check for an update, etc., from that menu. Instead, the only thing you can do is open the full program window.
Despite the robust nature of the program, MSE is an old solution for out-of-date operating systems. Particularly in high-stress environments, it's better to upgrade to Windows 11 for the latest security updates and features directly from Microsoft.