Microsoft’s January 2023 Patch Tuesday fixed 98 vulnerabilities: 11 rated critical and 87 important. The release included an actively exploited Windows elevation-of-privilege zero-day, a publicly known Windows flaw, and a SharePoint Server vulnerability that required an extra upgrade step after patching. For administrators, the urgent work was to prioritize exposed Windows, Exchange, and SharePoint systems—and to complete SharePoint’s separate upgrade action.
What Microsoft patched in January 2023
The January 10, 2023 release covered Windows and Windows components, Office, Exchange Server, SharePoint, 3D Builder, Print Spooler, .NET Core, Visual Studio Code, Azure Service Fabric Container, Windows Defender, and BitLocker. Microsoft classified 11 vulnerabilities as critical and 87 as important. The vulnerability categories reported in January’s reviews were:
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Elevation of privilege | 39 |
| Remote code execution | 33 |
| Information disclosure | 10 |
| Denial of service | 10 |
| Security feature bypass | 4 |
| Spoofing | 2 |
Microsoft’s “critical” and “important” labels are severity classifications, not a complete deployment order. Exploit status, attacker prerequisites, potential impact, and whether a product is exposed should also shape remediation priority.
Why CVE-2023-21674 required urgent attention
CVE-2023-21674 was an actively exploited elevation-of-privilege flaw in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call (ALPC). A local attacker with low privileges could exploit it to gain SYSTEM-level privileges. Security researchers also described a possible chain involving escape from a Chromium-based browser or Microsoft Edge sandbox. At the time of publication, full exploit details were not public. Action1 assigned the vulnerability a CVSS score of 8.8.
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The reported attack characteristics—local access, low complexity, low privileges, and no user interaction—help explain why this flaw merited attention even though it was an elevation-of-privilege bug rather than a remote-code-execution vulnerability. Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative communications manager Dustin Childs warned, “This is not a ‘patch it and move on’ sort of bug.”
Action1’s January 2023 coverage identifies support beginning with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. That describes the affected-version coverage reported for this flaw; it should not be read as a statement that those are the only Windows products or versions receiving January updates.
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SharePoint administrators had an additional step
CVE-2023-21743 was a critical SharePoint Server security-feature bypass. An unauthenticated attacker could bypass authentication and establish an anonymous connection. Microsoft’s update included a SharePoint upgrade, and installing the patch alone was not sufficient: administrators also had to trigger that upgrade. SharePoint owners should verify both that the update is installed and that the included upgrade action has completed.
Other vulnerabilities worth distinguishing
Windows SMB Witness Service: publicly known, not reported exploited
CVE-2023-21549 affected the Windows SMB Witness Service. It was publicly known and had a working proof of concept, but exploitation had not been reported when the January updates were released. A low-privilege attacker could use the flaw to invoke RPC functions normally restricted to privileged accounts.
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Exchange Server: spoofing and privilege escalation
The release addressed Exchange Server spoofing vulnerabilities CVE-2023-21745 and CVE-2023-21762, along with elevation-of-privilege vulnerabilities CVE-2023-21763 and CVE-2023-21764. Childs described the volume as concerning, “especially given the Exchange patches and SharePoint updates.”
Windows kernel and Print Spooler
January’s fixes also included numerous Windows kernel and Print Spooler vulnerabilities. These issues add to the case for including Windows systems and server roles in a deliberate asset inventory rather than treating the release as a single desktop-only update.
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How to prioritize and deploy the updates
- Inventory affected systems. Identify Windows endpoints and servers, Exchange Server installations, and SharePoint Server deployments, along with other products covered by the release.
- Prioritize by risk and exposure. Start with systems affected by the actively exploited ALPC flaw, then account for exposed server roles and the SharePoint authentication bypass. Treat the publicly known SMB Witness flaw as a distinct risk: it had a proof of concept, but exploitation was not reported at release.
- Apply updates through your normal change process. Use your organization’s established update-management workflow and account for service dependencies and maintenance requirements.
- Complete SharePoint’s upgrade action. For affected SharePoint Server deployments, trigger the upgrade included with the update; do not regard patch installation by itself as complete remediation.
- Validate service health and protection. Check that updated services are operating as expected and that antivirus and endpoint-detection tools are enabled and current.
Microsoft’s recommendation, as reproduced by Dark Reading, was to install the latest Windows updates and ensure antivirus and endpoint-detection products are enabled and up to date with the latest signatures. These are general recommendations; organizations should follow their own change controls and product-specific deployment guidance.
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