Microsoft has launched safety updates for Home windows customers to patch a safety flaw impacting the Home windows Print Spooler service. The vulnerability known as “PrintNightmare,” that was found final week, permits attackers to remotely execute malicious code with system privileges and set up applications, make modifications within the present applications, and create new accounts with full consumer rights. Microsoft has introduced the emergency patch for all main Home windows variations — ranging from Home windows 7 to Home windows 10. Home windows Server customers have additionally been supplied with particular safety updates to repair the crucial flaw.
The listing of Home windows variations which have acquired the safety updates to patch the PrintNightmare vulnerability includes Home windows Server 2004, Home windows Server 2008, Home windows Server 2012, Home windows Server 2012 R2, Home windows Server 2016, Home windows Server 2019, Home windows 7, Home windows RT 8.1, Home windows 8.1, and Home windows 10. Microsoft mentioned that the updates comprise protections for the problem that has been recorded as CVE-2021-34527.
For the reason that Home windows Print Spooler service exists on all Home windows variations, the vulnerability has impacted all Home windows machines. Nonetheless, the safety updates listing is presently restricted to some variations initially. Microsoft mentioned that it might replace the remaining Home windows variations quickly.
In the meantime, customers on a Home windows machine that’s but to obtain the safety repair are advisable to manually disable the Print Spooler service or disable inbound distant printing. The Print Spooler might be disabled by passing the “Cease-Service -Title Spooler -Pressure” and “Set-Service -Title Spooler -StartupType Disabled” instructions by PowerShell.
Inbound distant printing, however, might be disabled by going to Pc Configuration > Administrative Templates > Printers and switching off the Enable Print Spooler to simply accept consumer connections choice. It’s essential to restart the Print Spooler service for the change to take impact.
The PrintNightmare flaw was reported by researchers at Chinese language cybersecurity agency Sangfor Applied sciences final week. It is called a distant code execution vulnerability that could possibly be exploited to run arbitrary malicious code with system privileges. The flaw exists when the Home windows Print Spooler service improperly performs privileged file operations, Microsoft defined.