According to a security report issued Tuesday, Sept. 7, Microsoft is aware of an active vulnerability in Windows. The vulnerability appears to be through “specially-crafted Microsoft Office documents,” which mainly affects users with administrative user rights:
An attacker could craft a malicious ActiveX control to be used by a Microsoft Office document that hosts the browser rendering engine. The attacker would then have to convince the user to open the malicious document. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
Microsoft
Luckily, you aren’t without defenses. Microsoft recommends users update their antimalware software as soon as possible; the company stresses that Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are effective against the exploit.
Enterprise customers who manage updates should select the detection build 1.349.22.0 or newer and deploy it across their environments. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts will be displayed as: “Suspicious Cpl File Execution”. Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.
Microsoft
