5 Major Takeaways From Microsoft's July Patch Tuesday

July's updates contained 100+ patches and security policy notes, leaving vulnerability management teams stressed and scrambling to prioritize. We're here to help find some zen.

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Microsoft's July 2023 Patch Tuesday update is the largest one so far this year, weighing in at a whopping 129 bug fixes, with four of them addressing actively exploited zero-days, and nine earning a "critical" rating.

The vulnerabilities affect a wide range of Microsoft products, including Windows, Office, .NET, Azure Active Directory, printer drivers, DMS Server, and Remote Desktop.

They also run the gamut in terms of the types of risk they represent to businesses: There are plenty of remote code execution (RCE) bugs, a raft of security bypass and privilege escalation issues, information disclosure baddies, and denial of service vulnerabilities.

While the zero-day vulnerabilities are likely on security teams' radar for patch prioritization, it might get a bit tougher after that, researchers told Dark Reading via email, in a series of insights aimed at helping organizations sift through the morass. This feature piece distills that advice into five key takeaways from this month's updates, to help teams find a bit of zen.

About the Author

Tara Seals, Managing Editor, News, Dark Reading

Tara Seals has 20+ years of experience as a journalist, analyst and editor in the cybersecurity, communications and technology space. Prior to Dark Reading, Tara was Editor in Chief at Threatpost, and prior to that, the North American news lead for Infosecurity Magazine. She also spent 13 years working for Informa (formerly Virgo Publishing), as executive editor and editor-in-chief at publications focused on both the service provider and the enterprise arenas. A Texas native, she holds a B.A. from Columbia University, lives in Western Massachusetts with her family and is on a never-ending quest for good Mexican food in the Northeast.

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