Microsoft launches a series of optional updates taking advantage of “Patch Tuesday”. Updates that reach all versions of Windows 10 with the exception of the one with the number 1511 and that have in common the interest to “cover” a vulnerability discovered in Internet Explorer.

Although Microsoft’s ancient browser is becoming less popular and Edge has taken over (now the Chromium-based version), the security breach has recommended its update, especially when it is still widely used for operations with official agencies and by companies.

More security in IE

And is that the changelog focuses precisely on the security measures offered for Internet Explorer, a victim of a major vulnerability that is corrected with the release of the patch:

There is a remote code execution vulnerability in the way the scripting engine handles objects in memory in Internet Explorer. The vulnerability could corrupt memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could obtain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user has logged in with administrative user rights, an attacker who has successfully exploited the vulnerability could take control of an affected system. An attacker could install programs, view, change or delete data as well as create new accounts with full user rights.

In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website specially designed to exploit the vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website, for example, by sending an email.

The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way the scripting engine handles objects in memory.

Remember that this update is optional and therefore will not be downloaded in the usual way on our computers. To access it we have to go to “Windows Update” and look for a section under the heading “see optional updates”.

This is the list of versions of Windows 10 that benefit from this patch as well as the corresponding download links for each of them:

And specifically, here are the updates that were released today:

• Windows 10 1903: KB4522016 (build 18362.357)
• Windows 10 1809: KB4522015 (build 17763.740)
• Windows 10 1803: KB4522014 (build 17134.1009)
• Windows 10 1709: KB4522012 (build 16299.1392)
• Windows 10 1703: KB4522011 (build 15063.2046)
• Windows 10 1607: KB4522010 (build 14393.3206)
• Windows 10 1507: KB4522009 (build 10240.18334)

Source | Microsoft