Security News
Microsoft has shipped an emergency out-of-band security update to address a critical zero-day vulnerability - known as "PrintNightmare" - that affects the Windows Print Spooler service and can permit remote threat actors to run arbitrary code and take over vulnerable systems. "The Microsoft Windows Print Spooler service fails to restrict access to functionality that allows users to add printers and related drivers, which can allow a remote authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges on a vulnerable system," the CERT Coordination Center said of the issue.
Microsoft is urging Azure users to update the PowerShell command-line tool as soon as possible to protect against a critical remote code execution vulnerability impacting. The issue, tracked as CVE-2021-26701, affects PowerShell versions 7.0 and 7.1 and have been remediated in versions 7.0.6 and 7.1.3, respectively.
Free micropatches addressing the actively exploited PrintNightmare zero-day vulnerability in the Windows Print Spooler service are now available through the 0patch platform. The buggy code behind this remote code execution bug is present in all versions of Windows, with Microsoft still investigating if the vulnerability can be exploited exploitable on all of them.
Microsoft has told Azure users to update PowerShell - if they are using versions 7.0 or 7.1 - to address a remote code execution vulnerability patched earlier this year. The tech giant has advised customers who manage their Azure resources using affected versions of the PowerShell task automation solution to update to versions 7.0.6 or 7.1.3.
USENIX, the not-for-profit advanced computing association, has decided to put an end to its beloved LISA sysadmin conferences, at least as a standalone event. In an online announcement, the LISA steering committee said that after 35 years of producing the "Best systems engineering content" the event "Will no longer be scheduled as a standalone conference."
UPDATE. An October patch for a critical remote code execution bug in a SonicWall VPN appliance turned out to be insufficient. SonicWall originally patched the stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the SonicWall Network Security Appliance, tracked as CVE-2020-5135, back in October.
Open-source Tor browser has been updated to version 10.0.18 with fixes for multiple issues, including a privacy-defeating bug that could be used to uniquely fingerprint users across different browsers based on the apps installed on a computer. In addition to updating Tor to 0.4.5.9, the browser's Android version has been upgraded to Firefox to version 89.1.1, alongside incorporating patches rolled out by Mozilla for several security vulnerabilities addressed in Firefox 89.
Google has rolled out yet another update to Chrome browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux to fix four security vulnerabilities, including one zero-day flaw that's being exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2021-30554, the high severity flaw concerns a use after free vulnerability in WebGL, a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within the browser.
Microsoft's Patch Tuesday announcement was bad enough, with six in-the-wild vulnerabilities patched, including one buried in the vestiges of Internet Explorer's MSHTML web rendering code. It's been followed by Google's latest Chrome security advisory, which includes a zero-day patch to Chrome's JavaScript engine amongst its 14 officially listed security fixes.
Intel has pushed out a raft of security advisories for June, bringing its total discovered "Potential vulnerabilities" for the year to date to 132, only a quarter of which were reported by external contributors and the company's bug bounty programme. "Today we released 29 security advisories addressing 73 vulnerabilities," Intel's Jerry Bryant said of the company's latest updates.