+44 (0)203 88 020 88

Menu

Search

Cyber Security News & Articles

 

Cyber Security
News & Articles

Trusted Cyber Security Experts
25+ Years Industry Experience
Ethical, Professional & Pragmatic

Windows Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability

Attackers are targeting a pair of Windows bugs that can be exploited simply by sending a malicious email to the victim, allowing the attacker to steal the users Windows credentials. A vulnerability in the MSHTML / EdgeHTML component used in Microsoft products such as Internet Explorer (now retired), WebBrowser control, Microsoft Edge, and other legacy applications can be exploited to bypass a previous patch released in March to carry out zero-click attacks in the Windows Outlook client. The newly discovered vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-29324 has been given a medium severity rating and a CVSS base score of 6.5. However, despite this low rating, this flaw can be used to bypass security features which then allows attackers to exploit a critical severity Microsoft Outlook vulnerability, CVE-2023-23397, in what were previously thought to be fixed systems. 

CVE-2023-29324 affects the MapUrlToZone function in the Windows API causing it to incorrectly accept a remote path as a local one. This handling error means the previously implemented mitigation of CVE-2023-23397 that uses MapUrlToZone now can be easily bypassed by a remote, unauthenticated attacker, with no interaction required by the user. This legacy flaw affects all Windows versions of the Outlook client. Exploitation of this flaw is known and detected, enabling attackers to connect the vulnerable Outlook client to a server they control. This is performed by sending a malicious email to the victim in a zero-click attack, meaning no user interaction is required, and the attack can take place even before the email is viewed in the Preview Pane. A connection is made from the target to an external UNC that will provide the attacker with access to the Net-NTLMv2 hash of the victim. This allows the attacker to authenticate as their victim in an NTLM Relay attack which can be used to target another service. 

Microsoft have informed users that in order to be fully protected the updates patching both CVE-2023-29324 and CVE-2023-23397 need to be applied, and advised that the IE cumulative updates will protect users from these vulnerabilities. The most recent updates available for Microsoft products and Windows systems can be found listed online on the Microsoft Security Update Guide 

 

 

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter today

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with the latest cyber security news and articles from our technical team, you can sign up to our monthly newsletter. 

We hate spam as much as you do, so we promise not to bombard you with emails. We’ll send you a single, curated email each month that contains all of our cyber security news and articles for that month.

Why Choose SecureTeam?

Customer Testimonials

“We were very impressed with the service, I will say, the vulnerability found was one our previous organisation had not picked up, which does make you wonder if anything else was missed.”

Aim Ltd Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

"Within a very tight timescale, SecureTeam managed to deliver a highly professional service efficiently. The team helped the process with regular updates and escalation where necessary. Would highly recommend"

IoT Solutions Group Limited Chief Technology Officer (CTO) & Founder

“First class service as ever. We learn something new each year! Thank you to all your team.”

Royal Haskoning DHV Service Delivery Manager

“We’ve worked with SecureTeam for a few years to conduct our testing. The team make it easy to deal with them; they are attentive and explain detailed reports in a jargon-free way that allows the less technical people to understand. I wouldn’t work with anyone else for our cyber security.”

Capital Asset Management Head of Operations

“SecureTeam provided Derbyshire's Education Data Hub with an approachable and professional service to ensure our schools were able to successfully certify for Cyber Essentials. The team provided a smooth end-to-end service and were always on hand to offer advice when necessary.”

Derbyshire County Council Team Manager Education Data Hub

“A very efficient, professional, and friendly delivery of our testing and the results. You delivered exactly what we asked for in the timeframe we needed it, while maintaining quality and integrity. A great job, done well.”

AMX Solutions IT Project Officer

“We were very pleased with the work and report provided. It was easy to translate the provided details into some actionable tasks on our end so that was great. We always appreciate the ongoing support.”

Innovez Ltd Support Officer

Get in touch today

If you’d like to see how SecureTeam can take your cybersecurity posture to the next level, we’d love to hear from you, learn about your requirements and then send you a free quotation for our services.

Our customers love our fast-turnaround, “no-nonsense” quotations – not to mention that we hate high-pressure sales tactics as much as you do.

We know that every organisation is unique, so our detailed scoping process ensures that we provide you with an accurate quotation for our services, which we trust you’ll find highly competitive.

Get in touch with us today and a member of our team will be in touch to provide you with a quotation. 

0

No products in the basket.

No products in the basket.