Microsoft Releases July 2024 Patch Tuesday Updates

Key Takeaways:

• Microsoft addressed 142 security vulnerabilities in the July 2024 Patch Tuesday updates, including five critical ones.
• These vulnerabilities impact various components such as Windows Hyper-V, Windows MSHTML platform, .NET version 8.0, Visual Studio 2022, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and Windows Remote Desktop Licensing Service.
• Windows 11 users received new features and bug fixes, including a Copilot app, support for new file compression formats, a new account manager in the Start menu, enhancements for File Explorer, Windows Share, and the Snipping tool.

Microsoft has released the July 2024 Patch Tuesday updates for all supported versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10. This month, Microsoft fixed 142 security vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, and other components, and users can also expect the usual bug fixes and quality improvements.

Microsoft has rolled out a couple of new features, improvements, and bug fixes for Windows 11 users. The company is also reminding customers that Windows 11 version 22H2 will reach end of support on October 8, 2024. Microsoft advises users to switch to a newer version of Windows to continue receiving updates.

July 2024 Patch Tuesday updates fix over 140 vulnerabilities

As pointed out by the Zero Day Initiative, Microsoft released 142 security patches yesterday, with fixes for five critical vulnerabilities.

• CVE-2024-38080: This is a privilege escalation flaw in Microsoft’s Windows Hyper-V virtualization technology that affects Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. It could enable unauthenticated hackers to execute code with system-level privileges on affected systems. This security flaw received a CVSS rating of 7.8 and was rated as “important.”
• CVE-2024-38112: This is a Windows MSHTML platform spoofing vulnerability that received a 7.5 CVSS severity score. A hacker could exploit this security flaw by tricking the victim to click on a malicious link. Microsoft has confirmed that it affects all versions of Windows, including Windows Server 2008.
• CVE-2024-35264: This is a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that impacts .NET version 8.0 and Visual Studio 2022. Successful exploitation of the flaw requires the attacker to win a race condition in order to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data.
• CVE-2024-37985: This is an information disclosure vulnerability that affects Arm-based Windows 11 operating systems. It could allow cybercriminals to view heap memory from privileged processes on a targeted server.
• CVE-2024-38023: This is a remote code execution flaw in Microsoft SharePoint Server with a CVSS rating of 7.2. A hacker with Site Owner permissions could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code in the context of SharePoint Server.
• CVE-2024-38074, CVE-2024-38076, and CVE-2024-38077: Microsoft has also patched three critical remote code execution flaws in Windows Remote Desktop Licensing Service with a CVSS score of 9.8. It could let an unauthenticated user execute the code by sending a malicious message to a vulnerable server. Microsoft recommends that organizations that are not using the Remote Desktop Licensing Service should disable it.

Here’s the full list of CVEs Microsoft released this month:

Quality and experience updates

Microsoft has released the KB5040435 patch for users running Windows 11 version 24H2. This update addresses a couple of issues, including a bug that was previously preventing the User Account Control (UAC) from prompting for the user’s credentials.

For Windows 11 versions 23H2 and 22H2, the KB5040442 patch brings several new features that are gradually rolling out to all users. These improvements include a new Copilot app, support for new file compression formats, and a new account manager in the Start menu. There are also enhancements for the File Explorer, Windows Share, as well as the Snipping tool.

Lastly, the KB5040427 update is also available for Windows 10 version 22H2. This release also brings the new Copilot app to Windows 10 PCs. Microsoft has also fixed an issue that was preventing actions from an app’s jump list on the taskbar from completing.

Windows Update testing and best practices

Organizations looking to deploy this month’s patches should conduct thorough testing before deploying them widely on production systems. That said, applying the patches widely shouldn’t be delayed longer than necessary as hackers start to work out how to weaponize newly reported vulnerabilities.

A best practice is to make sure you have backed up systems before applying updates. Every month, users experience issues with Windows updates that lead to systems not booting, application and hardware compatibility issues, or even data loss in extreme cases.

There are backup tools built into Windows and Windows Server that you can use to restore systems in the event a patch causes a problem. The backup features in Windows can be used to restore an entire system, or files and folders on a granular basis.