Security News
Microsoft has resolved a known issue preventing managed devices from receiving the May 2021 Patch Tuesday Windows security updates. "When checking for updates within Windows Server Update Services or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and managed devices that connect to these servers," this month's security updates "Might not be available or offered," as Microsoft explained on the Windows Health Dashboard.
Microsoft has launched a new open-source project that aims to add to Windows the benefits of eBPF, a technology first implemented in Linux that allows attaching programs in both kernel and user applications. Microsoft's effort builds on the work of the eBPF community by adding a compatibility layer that turns existing eBPF open-source projects into submodules that can work on top of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 and later.
Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out its scheduled monthly security update with patches for 55 security flaws affecting Windows, Exchange Server, Internet Explorer, Office, Hyper-V, Visual Studio, and Skype for Business. Another vulnerability of note is a remote code execution flaw in Hyper-V, which also scores the highest severity among all flaws patched this month with a CVSS rating of 9.9.
It's the smallest monthly update from the computing giant since 2020, but it does contain a patch for a concerning wormable vulnerability found in the Windows OS. The good news is that none of the vulnerabilities are being actively exploited in the wild, according to Microsoft, though three are listed as publicly known. CVE-2021-26419: A scripting-engine memory corruption vulnerability in Internet Explorer 11 and 9 allowing RCE. CVE-2021-31194: An RCE bug in the Microsoft Windows Object Linking and Embedding Automation.
As part of the May Patch cycle, Microsoft is rolling out a new cumulative update for all supported version of Windows. The cumulative update with security fixes is rolling out to PCs with October 2020 Update and May 2020 Update.
Adobe on Tuesday warned that a gaping security hole in one of the most widely deployed software products has been exploited in the wild in "Limited attacks targeting Adobe Reader users on Windows." Adobe's confirmation of the zero-day attack was buried in a security bulletin that documents at least 11 security vulnerabilities affected Adobe Acrobat and Reader on both Windows and MacOS platforms.
VideoLan has released VLC Media Player 3.0.14 to fix an issue affecting Window users and causing the software's auto-updater not to launch the new version's installer automatically. "VLC users on Windows might encounter issues when trying to auto update VLC from version 3.0.12 and 3.0.13," VideoLan explained.
Researchers at anti-malware vendor Kaspersky are documenting a previously unknown Windows rootkit being used in the toolkit of an APT actor currently targeting diplomatic entities in Asia and Africa. Dubbed Moriya, the rootkit provides the threat actor with the ability to intercept network traffic and hide commands sent to the infected machines, thus allowing the attackers to stay hidden within the compromised networks for months.
Some DDoS attacks are leveraging RDP servers to amplify their effect, and malware like Trickbot is employing scanners to identify vulnerable open RDP ports. RDP needs to be well protected, and direct access should never be provided to an RDP server.
The Windows 10 Notepad will soon include a built-in notification that alerts users when a new version is available. Finally, in March 2021, Microsoft announced with the release of Windows Insider build 21337 that Notepad is becoming an inbox app, which is updateable via the Microsoft Store outside regular Windows 10 updates.