The Top 10 most exploited vulnerabilities of the past four years include a software bug — CVE-2012-0158 — first reported in April 2012, a new report from the FBI and the US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reveals, in yet another reminder that poor patching regimes/legacy software continue to help facilitate data breaches and other malicious intrusions.

The code that CVE-2012-0158 exploits is housed within the Microsoft Windows Common Control Library, a Dynamic Linked Library (DLL).

Vulnerabilities in the ListView, ListView2, TreeView, and TreeView2 ActiveX controls let attackers execute arbitrary code via a crafted (a) web site, (b) Office document, or (c) .rtf file. Malware authors over the years have built thousands of different ways to harness the vulnerability and obfuscate exploits.

CVE-2012-0158: What’s Vulnerable?

Vulnerable software includes Microsoft Office 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2 and SP3, and 2010 Gold and SP1; SQL Server 2000 SP4, 2005 SP4, and 2008 SP2, SP3, and R2; Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2; and Visual Basic 6.0, among others.

(Yes, these all still have many users, if with dwindling numbers.)

Top 10 Most Exploited Vulnerabilities: Public and Private Sector Need a “Concerted Campaign to Patch these Vulnerabilities”

CISA and the FBI lament that “foreign cyber actors continue to exploit publicly known—and often dated—software vulnerabilities against broad target sets, including public and private sector organizations.”

They added this week: “The public and private sectors could degrade some foreign cyber threats to U.S. interests through an increased effort to patch their systems and implement programs to keep system patching up to date.

“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.”

These are the Top 10, as listed by CISA.

CVE-2017-11882

CVE-2017-0199

CVE-2017-5638

CVE-2012-0158

CVE-2019-0604

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
  • Mitigation: Update affected Microsoft products with the latest security patches
  • More Detail: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-0143

CVE-2018-4878

CVE-2017-8759

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
  • Mitigation: Update affected Microsoft products with the latest security patches
  • More Detail: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-1641
  • IOCs: https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar20-133m

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
  • Mitigation: Upgrade to the most recent version of Drupal 7 or 8 core.
  • More Detail: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-7600

See also: Software Patch Management: Tips, Tricks and Stern Warnings