Microsoft releases emergency patch to address critical Windows vulnerability PrintNightmare

Microsoft has triggered an emergency windows Patch to correct a critical flaw found in the Windows Print Spooler service. The vulnerability, called PrintNightmare, was disclosed last week after security researchers published proof-of-concept exploit code. Microsoft has now released an out-of-band security update to address the flaw, and has rated the threat as “critical” because attackers can remotely execute code with system-level privileges on affected machines. can do. Print Spooler service runs by default windows, for this reason Microsoft had to issue a patch for windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 and various supported versions of Windows 10.

Microsoft is also releasing a patch for Windows 7, which officially went out of support last year. Microsoft has not yet released patches for Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, and Windows 10 Version 1607. Microsoft says that security updates for these versions of Windows will be released soon. The PrintNightmare vulnerability allows attackers to access remote code execution, so bad actors can potentially install programs, modify data, and create new accounts with full administrator rights. It also includes a local privilege escalation vector that can be abused in attacks to run commands with system privileges on target Windows machines.