Security News
Microsoft says a faulty CrowdStrike Falcon update, which caused widespread outages by crashing Windows systems worldwide, also resulted in Windows 365 Cloud PCs getting stuck in reboot loops, rendering them unusable. "We have been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows Client and Windows Server, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check and get stuck in a restarting state," Microsoft said on its Service Health Status page.
Microsoft says an Azure configuration change caused a major Microsoft 365 outage on Thursday, affecting customers across the Central US region. [...]
Microsoft has fixed a known issue preventing the Microsoft Photos app from starting on some Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2 systems. Last week, Redmond fixed two more Windows 11 issues causing update problems when using Windows Update automation scripts and triggering reboot loops and taskbar problems after installing the June KB5039302 preview update.
Microsoft says the Windows 11 2023 Update has entered the broad deployment phase and is now available to all seekers on eligible systems.Also known as Windows 11 23H2, this latest release will now be offered to all Windows devices not configured to defer feature updates and unaffected by compatibility holds.
Microsoft will introduce checkpoint cumulative updates starting in late 2024 for systems running devices running Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11, version 24H2 or later. This new type of update will deliver security fixes and new features via smaller, incremental differentials that include only changes added since the previous checkpoint cumulative update.
Microsoft says the Scattered Spider cybercrime gang has added Qilin ransomware to its arsenal and is now using it in attacks. "In the second quarter of 2024, financially motivated threat actor Octo Tempest, our most closely tracked ransomware threat actor, added RansomHub and Qilin to its ransomware payloads in campaigns," Microsoft said Monday.
Microsoft has finally fixed a known Outlook issue, confirmed in February, which was triggering incorrect security alerts after installing the December security updates for Outlook Desktop. The company acknowledged the bug in early February after many Microsoft 365 users reported seeing unexpected warnings that "This location may be unsafe" and "Microsoft Office has identified a potential security concern" when double-clicking ICS calendar files.
An advanced persistent threat group called Void Banshee has been observed exploiting a recently disclosed security flaw in the Microsoft MHTML browser engine as a zero-day to deliver an information stealer called Atlantida. "Variations of the Atlantida campaign have been highly active throughout 2024 and have evolved to use CVE-2024-38112 as part of Void Banshee infection chains," security researchers Peter Girnus and Aliakbar Zahravi said.
Microsoft has provided a temporary workaround for a known issue preventing the Microsoft Photos app from launching on some Windows 11 systems. [...]
Exclusive A Microsoft zero-day exploit that Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative team claims it found and reported to Redmond in May was disclosed and patched by the Windows giant in July's Patch Tuesday - but without any credit given to ZDI. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2024-38112, is in MSHTML - Microsoft's proprietary browser engine for Internet Explorer. This entire series of unfortunate events not only highlights problems with Microsoft's bug reporting program, but also the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process in general, according to Childs.