Security Updates Exchange 2010-2019 (Feb2020)

A quick blog on recently published security updates for Exchange Server 2013 up to Exchange Server 2019 and Exchange Server 2010 as well. These fixes address the following vulnerabilities:

  • CVE-2020-0692: Microsoft Exchange Server Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Microsoft Exchange Server. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same rights as any other user of the Exchange server. This could allow the attacker to perform activities such as accessing the mailboxes of other users. Exploitation of this vulnerability requires Exchange Web Services (EWS) to be enabled and in use in an affected environment. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would need to change parameters in the Security Access Token and forward it to a Microsoft Exchange Server, thereby allowing impersonation of another Exchange user. To address this vulnerability, Microsoft has changed the way EWS handles these tokens.
This vulnerability does not apply to Exchange 2010.

  • CVE-2020-0688: Microsoft Exchange Memory Corruption Vulnerability

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Exchange Server when the server fails to properly create unique keys at install time. Knowledge of a the validation key allows an authenticated user with a mailbox to pass arbitrary objects to be deserialized by the web application, which runs as SYSTEM. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Microsoft Exchange creates the keys during install.

The CVE documents contain more details on the vulnerabilities. In addition, KB4536989 (Rollup 30) for Exchange 2010 and KB4536988 for Exchange 2013 also fixes the following issue:

  • KB4540267 MSExchangeDelivery.exe or EdgeTransport.exe crashes in Exchange Server 2013 and Exchange Server 2010

The exploits can be fixed by single security update, which you can find in the table below per current Exchange version.

ExchangeDownloadBuildKBSupersedes
Exchange 2019 CU4Download15.2.529.8KB4536987KB4523171
Exchange 2019 CU3Download15.2.464.11KB4536987KB4523171
Exchange 2016 CU15Download15.1.1913.7KB4536987KB4523171
Exchange 2016 CU14Download15.1.1847.7KB4536987KB4523171
Exchange 2013 CU23Download15.0.1497.6KB4536988KB4523171
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU30KB4536989KB4509410

Be advised that the Security Updates for Exchange 2013-2019 are Cumulative Update level specific. Unfortunately, the security update carries the same name for different CUs, and you cannot apply the update for Exchange 2016 CU15 to Exchange 2016 CU14. I would suggest tagging the Cumulative Update in the file name used, e.g. Exchange2016-CU15-KB4536987-x64-en.msp.

Also, run the Security Update from an elevated command prompt, to prevent issues during installation. And on a final note, as with any patch or update, I’d recommend to apply this in a acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

Security Updates Exchange 2013-2019 (Nov2019)

Exchange2019LogoA quick blog on recently published security updates for Exchange Server 2013 up to Exchange Server 2019. These fixes address the following vulnerabilities:

  • CVE-2019-1373: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

The CVE documents contain more details on the vulnerabilities. The exploits can be fixed by single security update, which you can find in the table below per current Exchange version.

ExchangeDownloadBuildKBSupersedes
Exchange 2019 CU3Download15.2.464.7 KB4523171KB4515832
Exchange 2019 CU2Download15.2.397.9 KB4523171 KB4515832
Exchange 2016 CU14Download15.1.1847.5 KB4523171 KB4515832
Exchange 2016 CU13Download15.1.1779.7 KB4523171 KB4515832
Exchange 2013 CU23Download15.0.1497.4 KB4523171 KB4509409

Be advised that the Security Updates for Exchange 2013-2019 are Cumulative Update level specific. Unfortunately, the security update carries the same name for different CUs, and you cannot apply the update for Exchange 2016 CU14 to Exchange 2016 CU13. I would suggest tagging the Cumulative Update in the file name when you store it, e.g. Exchange2016-CU14-KB4523171-x64-en.msp.

As with any patch or update, I’d recommend to apply this in a acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

Security Updates Exchange 2016 & 2019 (Sep2019)

Today, Microsoft published security fixes for Exchange Server 2016 and 2019. These fixes address the following vulnerabilities:

The CVE documents contain more details on the vulnerabilities. These exploits can be fixed by single security updates; you can download them here:

VersionLinksBuildKB
2019 CU2Download15.2.397.6KB4515832
2019 CU1Download15.2.330.10KB4515832
2016 CU13Download15.1.1779.5KB4515832
2016 CU12Download15.1.1713.9KB4515832

Note: KB4515832 supersedes KB4509409 and KB4509408.

Be advised that these Security Updates are Cumulative Update level specific. Unfortunately, the security update carries the same name for different CU’s, and you cannot apply the same update for Exchange 2016 CU13 to Exchange 2016 CU12. I would suggest tagging the Cumulative Update in the file name when you store it, e.g. Exchange2016-KB4515832-x64-en_CU11.msp.

As with any patch or update, I’d recommend to apply this in a acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

Security Updates Exchange 2010-2019

A quick blog that rather silently, Microsoft published hotfixes for a number of products few days ago, including Exchange Server 2010 up to Exchange Server 2019. These fixes address the following vulnerabilities:

  • CVE-2019-1084: Microsoft Exchange Information Disclosure Vulnerability, allowing non-printable characters to be added to Display Names.
  • CVE-2019-1136: Microsoft Exchange Server Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability, allowing NTLM MITM elevation permissions or impersonation through Exchange Web Services. This sounds like a variation on the NTLM MITM exploit which was fixed earlier this year with the February update cycle.
  • CVE-2019-1137: Microsoft Exchange Server Spoofing Vulnerability, allowing for cross-site scripting (XSS).

The CVE documents contain more details on the vulnerabilities. These exploits can be fixed by single security updates; you can download them here:

VersionCVE
2019
1084
CVE
2019
1136
CVE
2019
1137
DownloadBuildKB
2019 CU2XXLink15.2.397.54509408
2019 CU1XXLink15.2.330.94509408
2016 CU13XXXLink15.1.1779.44509409
2016 CU12XXXLink15.1.1713.84509409
2013 CU23XXXLink15.0.1497.34509409
2010 SP3 RU29XXLink14.3.468.04509410

Be advised that the Security Updates for Exchange 2013-2019 are Cumulative Update level specific. Unfortunately, the security update carries the same name for different CU’s, and you cannot apply the update for Exchange 2016 CU12 to Exchange 2016 CU11. I would suggest tagging the Cumulative Update in the file name when you store it, e.g. Exchange2016-KB4503027-x64-en_CU11.msp.

As with any patch or update, I’d recommend to apply this in a acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

Security Updates for Spoofing Vulnerability

Ex2013 LogoUpdated April 12th: Notice on KB4487563

Today, as part of patch Tuesday, supported Exchange versions received security updates to remediate the following issues:

Security updates are available for the following product levels, and fix the vulnerability mentioned:

Build KB Download CVE-2019-0817 CVE-2019-0858
Exchange 2019 CU1 15.2.330.7 KB4487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2019 15.2.221.16 KB4487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2016 CU12 15.1.1713.6 KB4487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2016 CU11 15.1.1591.16 KB487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2013 CU22 15.0.1473.4 KB487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU27 14.3.452.0 KB4491413 Download Yes No

Notes:

  • CVS-2019-0858 does not apply to Exchange 2010.
  • Exchange 2010 is currently in Extended Support. Extended support for Exchange 2010 ends January 14, 2020.
  • Don’t forget to put the Exchange server in maintenance mode prior to updating.
  • If you want to speed up the update process for systems without internet access, you can follow the procedure described here to disable publisher’s certificate revocation checking.
  • The order of installation shouldn’t matter with the “every server is an island” concept, yet recommended is to upgrade internet-facing first, followed by non-internet-facing servers, and finally Edge Transports.

Notice on KB4487563:
Apart from the known issues mentioned in KB4487563, there are reports the fix terminates while stopping services, and the following error is being logged:
[Error] System.Management.Automation.CommandNotFoundException: The term ‘Stop-SetupService’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

This Stop-SetupService isn’t a regular cmdlet, and I assume is an alias created by the update. However, there are reports this operation fails. In those circumstances, next to retrying installation of the update, a workaround might be opening up a PowerShell session and adding the alias yourself using New-Alias Stop-SetupService Stop-Service, followed by running the update. The alias isn’t persistent, so will be gone after you close your session.

Caution:
As for any update, I recommend to thoroughly test updates in a test environment prior to implementing them in production. When you lack such facilities, hold out a few days and monitor the comments on the original publication or forums for any issues.