Here’s why you need to install the latest ’emergency’ Microsoft Windows update immediately

The security updates to address the vulnerability have been rated critical by Redmond.

Microsoft Windows: An emergency Windows patch is being rolled out by Microsoft to address a critical vulnerability in the Print Spooler service of Windows, which has been dubbed as PrintNightmare. The flaw had come to light last week, after the proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code had been accidentally published by security researchers. The security updates to address the vulnerability have been rated critical by Redmond since the attackers have the ability to undertake remote execution of code with system-level privileges on the impacted machines.

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The Print Spooler is a default service on Windows which is why Microsoft has now issued patches for Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008, a variety of supported versions of Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1. What’s more interesting is that patches have also been issued for Windows 7, in an unusual step for Redmond considering the fact that it officially stopped supporting the OS version last year.

On the other hand, Microsoft has not issued patches for Windows 10 Version 1607, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2016, yet. Patches for these versions would be released soon, the tech giant has said.

With the PrintNightmare vulnerability unaddressed, attackers would be able to undertake remote code execution in order to modify data, create new accounts having full admin rights and potentially install programs as well. It did take Microsoft a few days after finding the flaw to push out an alert about the flaw that affects all supported Windows versions.

The tech giant released the security updates on Tuesday, recommending that users install them immediately.