Microsoft in the present day launched updates to repair greater than 100 safety flaws in its Home windows working methods and different software program. At the very least 13 of the bugs acquired Microsoft’s most-dire “essential” score, which means they may very well be abused by malware or malcontents to achieve distant entry to a Home windows system with little or no assist from customers.
August’s patch batch from Redmond contains an replace for CVE-2025-53786, a vulnerability that permits an attacker to pivot from a compromised Microsoft Trade Server instantly into a corporation’s cloud surroundings, doubtlessly gaining management over Trade On-line and different related Microsoft Workplace 365 companies. Microsoft first warned about this bug on Aug. 6, saying it impacts Trade Server 2016 and Trade Server 2019, in addition to its flagship Trade Server Subscription Version.
Ben McCarthy, lead cyber safety engineer at Immersive, stated a tough search reveals roughly 29,000 Trade servers publicly dealing with on the web which are weak to this difficulty, with a lot of them prone to have even older vulnerabilities.
McCarthy stated the repair for CVE-2025-53786 requires extra than simply putting in a patch, comparable to following Microsoft’s handbook directions for making a devoted service to supervise and lock down the hybrid connection.
“In impact, this vulnerability turns a major on-premise Trade breach right into a full-blown, difficult-to-detect cloud compromise with successfully residing off the land methods that are at all times more durable to detect for defensive groups,” McCarthy stated.
CVE-2025-53779 is a weak spot within the Home windows Kerberos authentication system that permits an unauthenticated attacker to achieve area administrator privileges. Microsoft credit the invention of the flaw to Akamai researcher Yuval Gordon, who dubbed it “BadSuccessor” in a Could 2025 weblog publish. The assault exploits a weak spot in “delegated Managed Service Account” or dMSA — a function that was launched in Home windows Server 2025.
A number of the essential flaws addressed this month with the very best severity (between 9.0 and 9.9 CVSS scores) embody a distant code execution bug within the Home windows GDI+ element that handles graphics rendering (CVE-2025-53766) and CVE-2025-50165, one other graphics rendering weak spot. One other essential patch includes CVE-2025-53733, a vulnerability in Microsoft Phrase that may be exploited with out consumer interplay and triggered by way of the Preview Pane.
One closing essential bug tackled this month deserves consideration: CVE-2025-53778, a bug in Home windows NTLM, a core perform of how Home windows methods deal with community authentication. In keeping with Microsoft, the flaw may enable an attacker with low-level community entry and fundamental consumer privileges to use NTLM and elevate to SYSTEM-level entry — the very best stage of privilege in Home windows. Microsoft charges the exploitation of this bug as “extra seemingly,” though there isn’t a proof the vulnerability is being exploited in the intervening time.
Be happy to holler within the feedback when you expertise issues putting in any of those updates. As ever, the SANS Web Storm Heart has its helpful breakdown of the Microsoft patches listed by severity and CVSS rating, and AskWoody.com is conserving an eye fixed out for Home windows patches that will trigger issues for enterprises and finish customers.
GOOD MIGRATIONS
Home windows 10 customers on the market seemingly have seen by now that Microsoft actually needs you to improve to Home windows 11. The reason being that after the Patch Tuesday on October 14, 2025, Microsoft will cease transport free safety updates for Home windows 10 computer systems. The difficulty is, many PCs operating Home windows 10 don’t meet the {hardware} specs required to put in Home windows 11 (or they do, however simply barely).
If the expertise with Home windows XP is any indicator, many of those older computer systems will wind up in landfills or else can be left operating in an unpatched state. But when your Home windows 10 PC doesn’t have the {hardware} chops to run Home windows 11 and also you’d nonetheless wish to get some use out of it safely, think about putting in a newbie-friendly model of Linux, like Linux Mint.
Like most fashionable Linux variations, Mint will run on something with a 64-bit CPU that has a minimum of 2GB of reminiscence, though 4GB is beneficial. In different phrases, it can run on nearly any pc produced within the final decade.
There are numerous variations of Linux obtainable, however Linux Mint is prone to be probably the most intuitive interface for normal Home windows customers, and it’s largely configurable with none fuss on the text-only command-line immediate. Mint and different flavors of Linux include LibreOffice, which is an open supply suite of instruments that features functions just like Microsoft Workplace, and it could open, edit and save paperwork as Microsoft Workplace information.
Should you’d choose to offer Linux a take a look at drive earlier than putting in it on a Home windows PC, you possibly can at all times simply obtain it to a detachable USB drive. From there, reboot the pc (with the detachable drive plugged in) and choose the choice at startup to run the working system from the exterior USB drive. Should you don’t see an possibility for that after restarting, strive restarting once more and hitting the F8 button, which ought to open a listing of bootable drives. Right here’s a reasonably thorough tutorial that walks by way of precisely tips on how to do all this.
And if that is your first time making an attempt out Linux, calm down and have enjoyable: The good factor a couple of “stay” model of Linux (because it’s referred to as when the working system is run from a detachable drive comparable to a CD or a USB stick) is that none of your modifications persist after a reboot. Even when you one way or the other handle to interrupt one thing, a restart will return the system again to its authentic state.
