Security News

During this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has patched an Excel zero-day vulnerability exploited in the wild by threat actors. Microsoft also patched a second Excel security flaw used during the Tianfu Cup hacking contest last month, a remote code execution bug tracked as CVE-2021-40442 and exploitable by unauthenticated attackers.

A growing number of Mac and Macbook owners report that their devices become unbootable after attempting to update to the latest version of macOS, codenamed 'Monterey. Since macOS Monterey has been released, social media is filling up with a growing number of complaints about their devices becoming "Bricked" or unbootable after upgrading.

Microsoft says it found new variants of macOS malware known as WizardUpdate, updated to use new evasion and persistence tactics. The trojan will deploy second-stage malware payloads, including a malware variant tracked as Adload, active since late 2017 and known for being able to slip through Apple's YARA signature-based XProtect built-in antivirus to infect Macs.

Another zero-day in Apple's software is being actively exploited by attackers, forcing the company to push out security updates for macOS Catalina and iOS 12. Flagged by researchers Erye Hernandez and Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Ian Beer of Google Project Zero, the vulnerability is a type confusion issue found in XNU, the kernel of Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems.

Apple has warned iPhone and Mac users that it's aware of a zero-day bug that's being actively exploited. It's a nasty flaw, as it's in the XNU kernel at the heart of Apple's operating systems including macOS and iOS. As Apple's advisory explains, that means "A malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges".

Apple has released security updates to fix a zero-day vulnerability exploited in the wild by attackers to hack into iPhones and Macs running older iOS and macOS versions. The zero-day patched today [1, 2] was found in the XNU operating system kernel and was reported by Erye Hernandez and Clément Lecigne of Google Threat Analysis Group, and Ian Beer of Google Project Zero.

Microsoft today started rolling out Office LTSC for Windows and macOS, the non-subscription Office version for commercial and government customers. Office LTSC 2021 is specifically designed for organizations running regulated devices where feature updates can't be installed for years at a time, for devices without internet connections, as well as specialty systems that require a long-term servicing channel.

Another article on the privacy risks of static MAC addresses and always-on Bluetooth connections. Several of the headphones which could be tracked over time are for sale in electronics stores, but according to two of the manufacturers NRK have spoken to, these models are being phased out.

Researchers have discovered a way for users on Telegram for Mac to keep specific self-destructing messages forever or view them without the sender ever knowing. New bugs discovered by Reegun Richard Jayapaul, Trustwave SpiderLabs' Lead Threat Architect, allow Telegram for Mac users to save self-destructing messages and attachments forever.

Now it's Apple's turn to be in the patch-right-now spotlight, with a somewhat under-announced emergency zero-day fix, just a few days after the company's last, and much broader, security update. These include elevation of privilege, where an otherwise uninteresting app suddenly gets the same sort of power as the operating system itself, or even remote code execution, where an otherwise innocent operation, such as viewing a web page or opening up an image, could trick the kernel into running completely untrusted code that didn't come from Apple itself.