Cybersecurity is a matter of grave concern, and bad actors are actively involved in exploiting vulnerabilities in systems. Today, the US cybersecurity agencies have released a list of the top 10 most exploited vulnerabilities between 2016 and 2019.
The data has been released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as AA20-133A alert through the National Cyber Awareness System. This is intended to help companies in prioritizing security patches for vulnerabilities according to how frequently they are targeted by the attackers.
“A concerted campaign to patch these vulnerabilities would introduce friction into foreign adversaries’ operational tradecraft and force them to develop or acquire exploits that are more costly and less widely effective,” reads the alert.
Top 10 Most Exploited Vulnerabilities (2016-2019)
1. Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2017-11882)
Vulnerable Products: Microsoft Office 2007 SP3/2010 SP2/2013 SP1/2016, Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1
Associated Malware: Loki, FormBook, Pony/FAREIT.
2. Microsoft Office/WordPad Remote Code Execution Vulnerability w/Windows API (CVE-2017-0199)
Vulnerable Products: Microsoft Office 2007 SP3/2010 SP2/2013 SP1/2016, Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1
Associated Malware: FINSPY, LATENTBOT, Dridex.
3. Incorrect exception handling and error-message generation during file-upload attempts in Jakarta Multipart parser in Apache Struts (CVE-2017-5638)
Vulnerable Products: Apache Struts 2 2.3.x before 2.3.32 and 2.5.x before 2.5.10.1
Associated Malware: JexBoss
4. MSCOMCTL.OCX RCE Vulnerability (CVE-2012-0158)
Vulnerable Products: Microsoft Office 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2 and SP3, and 2010 Gold and SP1; Office 2003 Web Components SP3; SQL Server 2000 SP4, 2005 SP4, and 2008 SP2, SP3, and R2; BizTalk Server 2002 SP1; Commerce Server 2002 SP4, 2007 SP2, and 2009 Gold and R2; Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 and 9.0 SP2; and Visual Basic 6.0.
Associated Malware: Dridex
5. Microsoft SharePoint Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2019-0604)
Vulnerable Products: Microsoft SharePoint
Associated Malware: China Chopper
6. Windows SMB Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2017-0143)
Vulnerable Products: Microsoft Windows Vista SP2; Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1; Windows 7 SP1; Windows 8.1; Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2; Windows RT 8.1; and Windows 10 Gold, 1511, and 1607; and Windows Server 2016
Associated Malware: Multiple using the EternalSynergy and EternalBlue Exploit Kit
7. Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player (CVE-2018-4878)
Vulnerable Products: Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161
Associated Malware: DOGCALL
8. .NET Framework Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2017-8759)
Vulnerable Products: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.5, 3.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2 and 4.7
Associated Malware: FINSPY, FinFisher, WingBird
9. Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CVE-2015-1641)
Vulnerable Products: Microsoft Word 2007 SP3, Office 2010 SP2, Word 2010 SP2, Word 2013 SP1, Word 2013 RT SP1, Word for Mac 2011, Office Compatibility Pack SP3, Word Automation Services on SharePoint Server 2010 SP2 and 2013 SP1, and Office Web Apps Server 2010 SP2 and 2013 SP1
Associated Malware: Toshliph, UWarrior
10. The issue affecting multiple subsystems with default or common module configurations in Drupal (CVE-2018-7600)
Vulnerable Products: Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1
Associated Malware: Kitty
As evident from this list, Microsoft Office 2007 is the most vulnerable product in the past three years. CISA has also provided mitigations for the top 10 most exploited vulnerabilities in the alert. Here is the PDF document; you can refer to for more details.
