Security News

A new multi-platform backdoor malware named 'SysJoker' has emerged in the wild, targeting Windows, Linux, and macOS with the ability to evade detection on all three operating systems. The discovery of the new malware comes from researchers at Intezer who first saw signs of its activity in December 2021 after investigating an attack on a Linux-based web server.

A new multi-platform backdoor malware named 'SysJocker' has emerged in the wild, targeting Windows, Linux, and macOS with the ability to evade detection on all three operating systems. The discovery of the new malware comes from researchers at Intezer who first saw signs of its activity in December 2021 after investigating an attack on a Linux-based web server.

Dubbed SysJoker by Intezer, the backdoor is used for establishing initial access on a target machine. A possible attack vector for SysJoker is an infected npm package, according to Intezer's analysis - an increasingly popular vector for dropping malware on targets.

Microsoft has acknowledged an issue triggered by a Windows 10, version 21H2 security update released during the December 2021 Patch Tuesday that leads to search issues in Outlook for Microsoft 365. "After you install update KB5008212, recent emails may not appear in search results," Microsoft explained in a recently published Office support document.

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Microsoft has released an emergency out-of-band update to address a Windows Server bug leading to Remote Desktop connection and performance issues. Affected platforms include Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012 R2. The updates that address this issue are not available from Windows Update and will not install automatically on affected systems.

"The Microsoft Pluton is a security processor, pioneered in Xbox and Azure Sphere, designed to store sensitive data, like encryption keys, securely within the Pluton hardware, which is integrated into the die of a device's CPU and is therefore more difficult for attackers to access, even if they have physical possession of a device," explained David Weston, Director of Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft. In November 2020, Microsoft announced it would integrate its Pluton security processor into Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm CPUs as an on-die chip to reduce the available attack surface on Windows PCs. First introduced with the XBOX One and Azure Sphere, Pluton emulates a Trusted Platform Module to protect the boot process, encryption keys, and credentials directly on the CPU with the end goal of blocking threat actors from gaining access to such sensitive data.

Microsoft has confirmed a new issue impacting devices running Windows 11, version 21H2, where apps using Win32 APIs to render colors on some high dynamic range displays may not work as expected. HDR displays come with a notably increased range of color because they support a wider color gamut, resulting in more vivid colors than standard dynamic range ones, a well as more precise colors due to added support for more color shades.

Microsoft has confirmed a new issue impacting devices running Windows 11, version 21H2, where apps using Win32 APIs to render colors on some high dynamic range displays may not work as expected. HDR displays come with a notably increased range of color because they support a wider color gamut, resulting in more vivid colors than standard dynamic range ones, a well as more precise colors due to added support for more color shades.

One of the payloads that the researchers called Blister, acts as a loader for other malware and appears to be a novel threat that enjoys a low detection rate. The threat actor behind Blister has been relying on multiple techniques to keep their attacks under the radar, the use of code-signing certificates being only one of their tricks.