Windows Schannel vulnerability affects every Windows user in the world
Microsoft just reported and released a patch to a vulnerability (CVE-2014-6321) on November 11, 2014 that affects every single Microsoft Windows user in the entire world. CVE-2014-6321, commonly known as the Windows Schannel vulnerability, has the potential to be as catastrophic as Heartbleed for Microsoft users. After all, there are over 1 billion Windows PCs in the world today.
What is and isn’t affected?
Every supported Microsoft operating system and software on this list should be patched immediately. This includes both servers and workstations. Because the vulnerability affects a user’s operating system, it has the potential to allow attackers to compromise most applications on your computer.Apple OS, Linux, UNIX, and BSD systems aren’t affected by this vulnerability, and neither are applications that use other SSL libraries, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
What should I do?
5 words: Patch your Windows OS immediately. This includes all supported versions of Windows OS, such as: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, and Windows RT Gold and 8.1.How does the vulnerability work?
As of right now, we don’t know how the vulnerability works. The vulnerability was identified in an internal audit performed by Microsoft who did not release the nature of the exploit to the public.What we do know is, Schannel is Microsoft’s closed-source version of SSL and Microsoft has informed the public that there was a remote code execution vulnerability. This means an attacker could execute commands to gain control of any computer or server running an unpatched version of Windows OS.
How does this affect me as a SecurityMetrics customer?
Because there is no exploit for Windows Schannel, remote vulnerability scanners can’t detect it…yet. But it’s only a matter of time. When an exploit for Windows Schannel is released, SecurityMetrics will work to include a check for the vulnerability in its vulnerability scanning engine.We recommend you update any Windows OS immediately. If you have any questions, please contact SecurityMetrics support, 801.705.5700.
