#microsoft

If only Patch Tuesdays came around infrequently -- like total solar eclipse rare -- instead of just creeping up on us each month like The Man in the Moon. Although to be fair, it would be tough for Microsoft to eclipse the number of vulnerabilities fixed in this month's patch batch -- a record 147 flaws in Windows and related software.

Though April’s monthly security update from Microsoft includes 150 vulnerabilities, only three of them are considered “critical."

It was discovered that a race condition existed in the io_uring subsystem in the Linux kernel, leading to a use-after-free vulnerability. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. Lonial Con discovered that the netfilter subsystem in the Linux kernel contained a memory leak when handling certain element flush operations. A local attacker could use this to expose sensitive information (kernel memory). Various other issues were also addressed.

Ubuntu Security Notice 6701-4 - Ruihan Li discovered that the bluetooth subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly perform permissions checks when handling HCI sockets. A physically proximate attacker could use this to cause a denial of service. It was discovered that the NVIDIA Tegra XUSB pad controller driver in the Linux kernel did not properly handle return values in certain error conditions. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service.

Ubuntu Security Notice 6726-1 - Pratyush Yadav discovered that the Xen network backend implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly handle zero length data request, leading to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. An attacker in a guest VM could possibly use this to cause a denial of service. It was discovered that the IPv6 implementation of the Linux kernel did not properly manage route cache memory usage. A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of service.

Ubuntu Security Notice 6725-1 - Chih-Yen Chang discovered that the KSMBD implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly validate certain data structure fields when parsing lease contexts, leading to an out-of-bounds read vulnerability. A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of service or possibly expose sensitive information. Quentin Minster discovered that a race condition existed in the KSMBD implementation in the Linux kernel, leading to a use-after-free vulnerability. A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code.

Ubuntu Security Notice 6724-1 - Pratyush Yadav discovered that the Xen network backend implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly handle zero length data request, leading to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. An attacker in a guest VM could possibly use this to cause a denial of service. It was discovered that the Habana's AI Processors driver in the Linux kernel did not properly initialize certain data structures before passing them to user space. A local attacker could use this to expose sensitive information.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack vector is network (AV:N) and the user interaction is required (UI:R). What is the target context of the remote code execution?** An authenticated victim who is connected to the network must be tricked or persuaded to connect to a malicious SQL database using their SQL client application. After the connection is made, the server can send specially crafted replies to the client that exploit the vulnerability and permit execution of arbitrary code within the context of the user's SQL client application.

**How could an attacker exploit this vulnerability?** To successfully exploit this vulnerability, the target server must be configured to allow remote activation of the COM object. In addition, the attacker must have sufficient user privileges on that server.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability?** Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to win a race condition.