Microsoft Patchday February 2021

Microsoft delivers quite some updates for Windows 10 on the February Patchday. These also fix a dangerous zero-day vulnerability. Microsoft additionally provides many other security updates for all supported versions of Windows 10.

There will also be a package of security updates for Windows 10 every month in 2021. On these Patchdays, which usually take place on the second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft will fix security vulnerabilities and bugs in the various versions of Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.

There have been no updates for Windows 7 since the beginning of 2020 for private users. If you are still using Windows 7, we recommend that you switch to Windows 10.

The monthly patches should do not include functionality updates. They do not contain any new features, but are nevertheless of importance, because Microsoft uses them to fix newly discovered security vulnerabilities.

February Patchday with security updates

Microsoft did some homework for the February Patchday. The company fixed a total of 56 vulnerabilities with these updates, including eleven classified as critical, 43 important and two moderate. One zero-day vulnerability fix is particularly important, because it is already being exploited. It is located in the system file Win32k.sys and allows attackers to gain additional rights on a Windows system.

Six additional security vulnerabilities are said to be publicly known, but exploits have not yet been spotted. Microsoft advises that users should patch three security vulnerabilities in the Windows TCP/IP stack as soon as possible, as DoS attacks are a threat here. With the installation of the February updates, the security vulnerabilities mentioned will be fixed.

Find more details on Microsoft's official Security Update Guide portal. It lists all security updates in a filterable table.