Description of the security update for the elevation of privilege vulnerability in Visual Studio 2015 Update 3: December 11, 2018

Applies to: All Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 editions except Build Tools

NoticeIn November 2020, the content of this article was updated to clarify the affected products, prerequisites, and restart requirements. Additionally, the update metadata in WSUS was revised to fix a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager reporting bug.

Summary

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists if the Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector or the Visual Studio Standard Collector allows file creation in arbitrary locations.

To learn more about the vulnerability, go to CVE-2018-8599.

How to obtain and install the update

Visual Studio 2015 Update 3

Method 1: Microsoft Download

The following file is available for download:Download the hotfix package now.

Method 2: Microsoft Update Catalog

To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

Remote Tools for Visual Studio 2015 Update 3

To download the updated Remote Tools for Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, go to the following Microsoft webpage:Remote Tools for Visual Studio 2015 Update 3

More information

Prerequisites

To apply this security update, you must have both Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 and the subsequent Cumulative Servicing Release KB 3165756 installed. Typically, KB 3165756 is installed automatically when you install Visual Studio 2015 Update 3. However, in some cases, you have to install the two packages separately.

Restart requirement

We recommend that you close Visual Studio 2015 before you install this security update. Otherwise, you may have to restart the computer after you apply this security update if a file that is being updated is open or in use by Visual Studio.

Security update replacement information

This update replaces security update 4463110.

File hash information

File name	SHA1 hash	SHA256 hash
vs14-kb4469516.exe	412C6B9349504BFE4C79C4DBECF3E1DE23FD095C	09C9254CF45ABF6C17AB6FC2CC6B077C9D9393CB11B7F1BB700B29D10413302E

Installation verification

To check that this security update was applied correctly, follow these steps:

1. Open the Visual Studio 2015 folder.
2. Locate the DiagnosticHub.StandardCollector.Runtime.dll file.
3. Verify that the file version is equal to or greater than 14.0.27529.

Information about protection, security, and support

• Protect yourself online: Windows Security support

• Learn how we guard against cyber threats: Microsoft Security

• Obtain localized support per your country: International Support

• Get more information about the Visual Studio support policy: Visual Studio Product Lifecycle and Servicing.