Alert: Update Windows Netlogon Remote Protocol Now, says Homeland Security

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released an emergency directive concerning a critical exploit known as Zerologon, that affects servers running Windows Server operating systems that needs to get patched as soon as possible.

What’s the Exploit and Who Does It Affect?

The vulnerability in the CISA’s emergency directive affects all supported Windows Server operating systems. It’s been named Zerologon, and If left unpatched, it could allow an unauthenticated threat actor to gain access to a domain controller and completely compromise your network’s Active Directory services. The vulnerability gets its name because all the hacker has to do is send a series of Netlogon messages with the input fields filled with zeroes to gain access. 

Once in, this essentially gives the hacker a lot of control over your network, and it’s a publicly available exploit (since Microsoft has released a patch for it) which means cybercriminals will be taking advantage of it. The attacker doesn’t need any user credentials to use this exploit.

If your business network is running Windows Server, you need to have updates applied to your servers to ensure that this vulnerability is patched. If you aren’t actively keeping all the devices on your network maintained with the latest updates and security patches, you are essentially leaving the front door wide open.

The Department of Homeland Security (the parent department of the CISA), has issued a directive for all government agencies in the United States that they have until today (September  21st) to apply the patch, to prevent giving hackers control over federal networks. This means all state and local government agencies are required to apply this today and report back to the CISA. Not having this patch installed will also affect other compliance standards throughout other industries, and of course, leave your business and your data at high-risk of a breach. It is highly recommended to apply this patch today, as soon as possible, regardless of the industry you are in. We can’t stress this enough. Apply this patch as soon as humanly possible.

The Good News

If you have an active managed IT services agreement with Washington Works that covers the maintenance of your Windows Servers, you have likely already received the patch, or will be having it installed today. The patch was released by Microsoft as part of their August 2020 Patch Tuesday Update.

If you don’t have an agreement with us, or you aren’t sure if your agreement covers fixing the Zerologon vulnerability, we urge you to reach out to us by calling 301-571-5040. This is definitely not something you want to risk.

The Department of Homeland Security and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency don’t issue emergency directives casually. This needs to be taken seriously for all businesses and organizations.

If you need help, or you are unsure about how to protect your organization from the Zerologon vulnerability, don’t hesitate to reach out to Washington Works at 301-571-5040.