Never before a file has given it as much to speak. We are talking about “Inetpub”, an empty folder that appeared in C: millions of Windows 11 users after installing the last update; Its goal remains a mystery, although Microsoft warned that it was necessary.
Two weeks ago, Microsoft launched the KB50555523 update for Windows 11, as part of Patch on Tuesday, the tradition of launching new fixes and updates to the second Tuesday of each month. Unlike other recent updates, it did not include a lot of new features and seemed to be a simple collection of various corrections and arrangements. Therefore, it was a surprise when the users met An empty file, called “Inetpub” After update.
After several days of confusion and conspiracy theories, Microsoft confirmed that His engineers had forgotten Include the creation of this file as one of the modifications introduced by the update; In addition, he warned users that they did not collapse the file, because although it was empty, it actually serves to mitigate a safety bug which allows the entry of an attacker into the system.
It is not clear exactly how the creation of a simple file is capable of blocking a pirate, but whatever, it seemed that it was the end of the story; But much less. As expected, this strange solution has drawn the attention of cybersecurity experts, and we have already discovered a serious problem: The “Inetpub” folder can be used by the pirates Presentation of another vulnerability in Windows.
Security researcher Kevin Beaumont shared information on this problem in his personal blog in Medium. Beaumont discovered that the file introduces a vulnerability of the denial of service in Windows, which allows us to Users without administrator license stop all updates System security.
Indeed, with this decision, an attacker could Prevent our computer from being updated Correctly, keeping the system in an old version; This can be extremely useful from the point of view of a pirate, as it means that the team will not receive future bugs. The attacker has only to use a vulnerability which has been covered with a patch that was not received by the victim's computer.
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The process to take advantage of this failure is really simple, because it only requires the creation of symbolic direct access; Unlike other types of links in a file, the symbolic link does not require special permits and Any user can create them. A symbolic link created in this file and intended for an application (for example, notes) makes all the updates fail and not be installed correctly.
Beaumont says that Contacted Microsoft two weeks ago To inform them of this problem, but that has not received an answer; This may be why, he decided to make public the existence of this “bug”, hoping that Microsoft's engineers will achieve their gravity.
