Security News
Malware hunters at Guardicore are warning that an aggressive botnet operator has turned to SMB password brute-forcing to infect and spread like a worm across the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. The malware campaign, dubbed Purple Fox, has been active since at least 2018 and the discovery of the new worm-like infection vector is yet another sign that consumer-grade malware continues to reap profits for cybercriminals.
Lawrence Abrams Lawrence Abrams is the owner and Editor in Chief of BleepingComputer.com. Lawrence's area of expertise includes malware removal and computer forensics.
Microsoft has shared a workaround for customers experiencing 0xc004c003 activation failures on Windows 10, version 2004 and 20H2 devices after installing the January 2021 monthly "C" release KB4598291 preview update. "This issue might occur when you try to activate the operating system with an OEM Activation 3.0 Digital Product Key," Microsoft explains.
The printer fixing roller coaster continues as Microsoft is once again rolling out the KB5001649 out-of-band update to users via Windows Update. After installing the March 2021 Patch Tuesday updates, users began reporting that Windows 10 would crash when printing or print jobs would be missing graphics elements, have blank pages, or other issues.
With the release of the latest Windows 10 preview 'Dev' build, Microsoft is offering a glimpse at some of the new features and changes they are developing. For those unfamiliar, Microsoft added a virtual desktops feature in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and it allows you to maintain different desktops for open apps, instances of Microsoft Word, etc.
Microsoft has paused the Windows 10 KB5001649 cumulative update rollout, likely due to installation issues and reported crashes. Microsoft is now offering the previously released KB5001567 emergency update instead. The March 2021 updates have been a complete mess when printing, with update after update causing new issues to arise.
Project Zero, Google's zero-day bug-hunting team, discovered a group of hackers that used 11 zero-days in attacks targeting Windows, iOS, and Android users within a single year. The Project Zero team revealed that the hacking group behind these attacks ran two separate campaigns, in February and October 2020.
Microsoft is now classifying Windows Terminal as an inbox app, which means that it will now ship by default in upcoming versions of Windows 10. Starting with Windows 10 Insider build 21337, Microsoft has classified Windows Terminal as an inbox app, which means it will be automatically installed as an essential application.
Microsoft has released the Windows 10 KB5001649 emergency update to fix printing issues plaguing users since the March 2021 Patch Tuesday updates. Many users have reported that Windows 10 would crash when printing with an "APC INDEX MISMATCH for win32kfull.sys" error or printed pages would have missing graphics, black bars, or blank pages.
The REvil ransomware operation has added a new ability to encrypt files in Windows Safe Mode, likely to evade detection by security software and for greater success when encrypting files. Windows Safe Mode is a special startup mode that allows users to run administrative and diagnostic tasks on the operating system.