Microsoft Releases April 2023 Patch Tuesday Updates for Windows 11 and Windows 10

Microsoft has released today the April 2023 Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 11 and Windows 10. This month, Microsoft fixed 97 vulnerabilities in Windows and other components, with one of them being already exploited by attackers.  

On the quality and experience updates front, Microsoft is making the new Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) an inbox feature on Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2019 or newer. The feature is now natively integrated and will be serviced via the normal Windows patching process. 

Let’s start with the long list of security flaws Microsoft released this month, which includes a good amount of remote code execution vulnerabilities.

97vulnerabilities fixed in the March Patch Tuesday updates

Among the 97 security vulnerabilities addressed with the April 2023 Patch Tuesday updates, 7 are rated “Critical” and the rest are rated “Important.” The Zero Day Initiative also pointed out that none of the bugs disclosed during the recent Pwn2Own Vancouver are being addressed with these updates. 

Here are the most important patches you should know about this month: 

• CVE-2023-28252: This is a Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability that’s already being exploited by attackers to gain SYSTEM privileges. 
• CVE-2023-28231: This DHCP Server Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability can be exploited by an authenticated attacker using a specially crafted RPC call to the DHCP service.
• CVE-2023-28219: This Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Remote Code Execution Vulnerability requires an unauthenticated attacker to send a specially crafted connection request to a RAS server.
• CVE-2023-21554: This Microsoft Message Queuing Remote Code Execution Vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker sending a specially crafted malicious MSMQ packet to an MSMQ server.
• CVE-2023-28291: This Raw Image Extension Remote Code Execution Vulnerability requires an attacker or victim to execute a specially crafted application or file from the local machine to take control of the system. 
• CVE-2023-28232: This Windows Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol Remote Code Execution Vulnerability could be triggered when a user connects a Windows client to a malicious server.

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

Quality and experiences updates

With the April 2023 Patch Tuesday updates, Microsoft’s Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) is now natively integrated into Windows. This affects Windows 11 and Windows 10 Pro, EDU, and Enterprise, Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server Core 2022, as well as Windows Server 2019. 

The new built-in Windows LAPS also adds support for Azure Active Directory in private preview. Moreover, there are a couple of new capabilities for on-premises Active Directory scenarios, as well as new features for both Azure AD and on-premises AD scenarios. You can more details about what’s new in this article. 

On Windows 11 version 22H2, this month’s KB5025239 patch will make the search box on the taskbar look slightly lighter when using custom color mode. This will be especially noticeable if you set Windows mode to dark and app mode to light on your PC.  

Lastly, Microsoft has also fixed the following bugs in this patch:

• USB printers are no longer classified as multimedia devices. 
• Microsoft Narrator can now read dropdown lists in Excel.
• PowerPoint will no longer become unresponsive when using accessibility tools.
• NotePad will now show the combo box with all options in Settings. 

On Windows 10 versions 20H2, 21H2, and 22H2, the KB5025221 patch addresses a known issue with kiosk device profiles which caused devices where automatic logon is enabled to not work. As mentioned above, this update also adds the new Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) as a Windows inbox feature.

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.

If you have any problems with this month’s patches, please let us know in the comments below. Other readers might be able to share their experiences in how to roll back problematic updates or mitigate issues caused by patches that are important to have in place.