Microsoft fixes a 17-year-old Windows flaw: Here’s what it could’ve done to your PC

Microsoft has apparently removed a 17-year-old critical vulnerability in the Windows DNS Server, which could’ve let an attacker essentially breach the company’s infrastructure. Microsoft classified this vulnerability as ‘wormable’. It has been explained that the flaw could let attackers create special malware and execute it on Windows servers that would’ve created malicious DNS queries.

“Wormable vulnerabilities have the potential to spread via malware between vulnerable computers without user interaction,” said Mechele Gruhn, Principal Security PM Manager, Microsoft Security Response Centre. “Windows DNS Server is a core networking component. While this vulnerability is not currently known to be used in active attacks, it is essential that customers apply Windows updates to address this vulnerability as soon as possible.”

It has been pointed out that researchers at Check Point security, discovered the flaw and reported it to Microsoft back in May this year. However, Microsoft adds that it has not faced any exploitation case yet.

As mentioned by Gruhn, the update for CVE-2020-1350 vulnerability is available on all Windows Servers starting today. Also, if applying the update quickly is not practical, there is a registry-based workaround  that does not require restarting the server.

Also read: New Windows 10 update will kill off Control Panel’s System applet

Last month, the Redmond-based tech giant rolled out a fix for the printer issue faced by many Windows 10 users after one of the updates. The update was made available for Windows 10 version 1803, 1809, 1903, and 1909. Users with Windows 10 2004 may have to wait longer for the fix.

An out-of-band optional update is now available on the Microsoft Update Catalog to address a known issue in which certain printers may be unable to print after installing updates released June 9, 2020. We recommend you only install this optional update if you are affected by this issue,” said Microsoft on its docs support.