Google disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a flaw in Microsoft Edge earlier this week , after Microsoft failed to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the bug in time . Now Google ’ s Project Zero team of security researchers are disclosing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability yet another Windows 10 security flaw that Microsoft has again failed to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability before Google ’ s imposed 90-day period . Neowin spotted that Google reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability two bugs to Microsoft in November , but the company only addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability one of them with its recent Patch Tuesday fixes . The latest unpatched issue is an Elevation of Privilege which allows a normal user to gain administrator privileges on a system . Microsoft has rated Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the flaw as “ important , ” but not “ critical ” as it can ’ t be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability remotely . It ’ s still an important issue to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , as an attacker could potentially combine this with a separate unknown remote code execution to gain administrator access , although that ’ s an unlikely scenario unless Microsoft doesn ’ t address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability it promptly . It ’ s not clear when Microsoft intends to address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the latest security flaw in Windows 10 , and the company still needs to solve Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Edge vulnerability that was disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Google earlier this week . Microsoft hit back at Google ’ s approach to security patches last year , after discovering Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a Chrome flaw and “responsibly” disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it to Google so the company had enough time to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Google ’ s policy to disclose after 90 days without a patch is often criticized and applauded in equal measure . There ’ s plenty of evidence to suggest security vulnerabilities are increasing in Windows and across the industry , and Microsoft has clearly struggled to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these two issues with plenty of notice . It can also be argued that Google is making rival software more secure with its efforts , making everyone ’ s software secure . However , Google also has competitive commercial interests , and Project Zero has been unusually aggressive in finding and publishing new vulnerabilities . Reports suggest Google ’ s Project Zero security team originated from the fallout around the 2009 Google hack , an intrusion blamed on an unpatched flaw in Microsoft ’ s Internet Explorer 6 browser . Google makes exceptions to its strict rules , with grace periods , and can even disclose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability much sooner if the vulnerability is being actively exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Google disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a major Windows bug back in 2016 just 10 days after reporting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it to Microsoft , and the company has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability zero-day bugs in Windows in the past before patches are available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability .

Microsoft and Google have been bitter rivals for at least a decade , and the pair have had several disagreements over security vulnerability disclosure Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in recent years . Google is stoking those disagreements again this week by disclosing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a Microsoft Edge security flaw before a patch is available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Neowin spotted that Google disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the security flaw to Microsoft back in November , and the company provided 90 days for Microsoft to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability it before going public Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability as it ’ s rated “ medium ” in terms of severity . Google also provided Microsoft with an additional 14-day grace period to have a fix available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for its monthly Patch Tuesday release in February , but Microsoft missed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability this goal because “ the fix is more complex than initially anticipated. ” It ’ s not clear when Microsoft will have a fix available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability , and the Google engineer responsible for reporting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the security flaw says because of the complexity of the fix Microsoft “ do not yet have a fixed date set as of yet. ” The public disclosure will likely anger Microsoft , once again . The software giant hit back at Google ’ s approach Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability to security patches last October , after discovering Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a Chrome flaw and “responsibly” disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it to Google so the company had enough time to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . At the heart of the issue is whether Google ’ s policy to disclose after 90 days without a patch is reasonable . Google makes exceptions to this hard rule , with grace periods , and can even disclose Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability much sooner if the vulnerability is being actively exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Google disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a major Windows bug back in 2016 just 10 days after reporting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it to Microsoft , and the company has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability zero-day bugs in Windows in the past before patches are available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Two big and obvious exceptions to Google ’ s security disclosure rules were the recent Meltdown and Spectre bugs . Google engineers discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the CPU flaws and Intel , AMD , and others had around six months to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the problems before the flaws were publicly disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability earlier this year . Chrome OS and Android devices were also affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by the processor flaws , along with Windows , Linux , macOS , and iOS . Google wants the industry to adopt its aggressive disclosure policies , but Microsoft has so far resisted rather publicly . This latest episode isn ’ t as critical as some of the past disclosures , but it will likely reignite the debate over whether Google , a company with competitive commercial interests , should be leading the way security flaws in rival operating systems are disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in the public interest .

Cisco has resolved Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a set of critical vulnerabilities in Policy Suite which permit attackers to cause havoc in the software 's databases . This week , the tech giant released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a security advisory detailing four vulnerabilities which could place enterprise users at risk of information leaks , account compromise , database tampering , and more . The first vulnerability , CVE-2018-0374 , has earned a CVSS base score of 9.8 . Described as Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability an unauthenticated bypass bug , the security flaw `` could allow an unauthenticated , remote attacker to connect directly to the Policy Builder database , '' according to Cisco . The bug has been caused by a simple lack of authentication and as there is no requirement for identity verification , Policy Builder databases can be accessed and tampering with without limitation . Cisco Policy Suite releases prior to 18.2.0 are affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . The second vulnerability , CVE-2018-0375 , is a default password error . The CVSS 9.8 bug is present in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the Cluster Manager of Cisco Policy Suite and could allow an unauthenticated , remote attacker to log in to a vulnerable system using a root account . The serious security problem has emerged Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability due to the use of undocumented , static user credentials for root accounts . If a hacker has knowledge of these credentials , they can become a root user and are able to execute arbitrary commands . Versions of the software prior to 18.2.0 are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to exploit . The third bug , CVE-2018-0376 , is another unauthenticated access problem and is also caused by a lack of authentication measures . `` A successful exploit could allow the attacker to make changes to existing repositories and create new repositories , '' Cisco says Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Cisco Policy Suite versions prior to 18.2.0 are affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . The fourth security flaw , CVE-2018-0377 , affects Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the Open Systems Gateway initiative ( OSGi ) interface of Cisco Policy Suite . There is a lack of authentication within the OSGi interface which permits attackers to circumvent security processes and directly connect to the interface , access any files contained within they wish , and modify any content which is accessible through the process . This vulnerability impacts Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Policy Suite versions prior to 18.1.0 . There are no workarounds to circumvent these vulnerabilities . However , patches have been issued to address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability them and Cisco says that no reports have been received which indicate the bugs are being exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in the wild . In addition , Cisco has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability seven now-patched bugs affecting Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability SD-WAN solutions . The vulnerabilities included command injection security flaws , a remote code execution bug , and arbitrary file overwrite issues .

Security biz Qualys has revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability three vulnerabilities in a component of systemd , a system and service manager used in most major Linux distributions . Patches for the three flaws – CVE-2018-16864 , CVE-2018-16865 , and CVE-2018-16866 – should appear in Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability distro repos soon as a result of coordinated disclosure . However , Linux distributions such as Debian remain vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability at the moment , depending on the version you have installed . `` They 're aware Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability of the issues and they 're releasing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability patches , '' said Jimmy Graham , director of product management at Qualys , in a phone interview with The Register . `` I do n't believe Red Hat has released Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability one but it should be coming shortly . '' The bugs were found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in systemd-journald , a part of systemd that handles the collection and storage of log data . The first two CVEs refer to memory corruption flaws while the third involves an out of bounds error that can leak data . CVE-2018-16864 can be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by malware running on a Linux box , or a malicious logged-in user , to crash and potentially hijack the systemd-journald system service , elevating access from user to root . CVE-2018-16865 and CVE-2018-16866 can be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability together by a local attacker to crash or hijack the root-privileged journal service . While systemd is n't universally beloved in the Linux community , Graham sees nothing unusual about the presence of the three flaws in the software . `` The noteworthiness to me is that it is very commonly found in most major distributions , '' he said . Qualys contends all systemd-based Linux distros are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , though the vulnerabilities can not be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 , openSUSE Leap 15.0 , and Fedora 28 and 29 because their user-land code is compiled with GCC 's -fstack-clash-protection option . The security biz calls it a simplified stack clash – where the size of the stack gets changed to overlap with other memory areas – because it only requires the last two steps in a four step process : Clashing the stack with another memory region , moving the stack-pointer to the stack start , jumping over the stack guard-page into another memory region , and smashing the stack or memory space . The third bug , CVE-2018-16866 , appeared in Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability June 2015 ( systemd v221 ) and , Qualys says , was fixed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability inadvertently in August 2018 . In code where the flaw still exists Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , it could allow an attacker to read out of bounds information , resulting in information leakage . `` The risk [ of these issues ] is a local privilege escalation to root , '' said Graham . `` It 's something that should still be a concern because usually attackers do n't just use one vulnerability to comprise a system . They often chain vulnerabilities together . ''