Security News
A new Windows 10 utility called TaskbarGroups lets you group shortcuts on the taskbar so they can easily be launched without taking up a lot of space. Once you pin a group to the taskbar, you can click on the pinned group to open a small overlay containing all of the grouped programs.
Microsoft's December 2020 Windows 10 updates are conflicting with the Corsair Utility Engine software and causing the operating system to go into a BSOD crash loop. After the December 2020 Patch Tuesday updates were released, Windows 10 users began reporting that the operating system would go into a crash loop where Windows would restart and automatically crash and restart again.
Newly discovered Windows info-stealing malware linked to an active threat group tracked as AridViper shows signs that it might be used to infect computers running Linux and macOS. The new trojan, dubbed PyMICROPSIA by Unit 42, was discovered while investigating AridViper activity, a group of Arabic speaking cyberspies focusing their attacks on Middle Eastern targets since at least 2011. While PyMICROPSIA is a Python-based malware that specifically targets Windows systems using a Windows binary generated using PyInstaller, Unit 42 has also found code snippets showing that its creators are potentially working on adding multi-platform support.
Researchers have discovered a new information-stealing trojan, which targets Microsoft Windows systems with an onslaught of data-exfiltration capabilities- from collecting browser credentials to targeting Outlook files. "AridViper is an active threat group that continues developing new tools as part of their arsenal," researchers with Palo Alto's Unit42 research team said in a Monday analysis.
Microsoft is working on a new built-in command-line 'Disk Usage' utility that reports how much disk space a folder uses. In the past, users would need to download free tools like TreeSize to list folders using the most space.
Microsoft has removed a safeguard hold blocking Windows 10 updates on systems affected by a known issue causing blue screen of death crashes when users plugged in a Thunderbolt NVMe Solid State Drive. After discovering the BSOD issue, Microsoft added a compatibility hold to prevent impacted devices from being offered Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows 10, version 20H2 upgrades.
Microsoft has partially addressed known issues impacting Windows 10 devices with certain Conexant or Synaptics audio devices after investigating ongoing errors since May 2020. The known issue impacting computers with Conexant audio drivers has been under investigation since May 2020 when Microsoft released Windows 10, version 2004.
With the Windows 10 October 2018 update release, Microsoft had quietly added a built-in command-line network packet sniffer called Pktmon to Windows 10. Compared to a network monitor with a graphical user interface, the command-line interface of Pktmon takes a bit more time to get used to it.
According to sources, Windows 10X compatibility levels with Win32 apps were not great and Microsoft decided to focus on Windows 10X without native support for Win32. Microsoft is believed to be working on a premium service called 'Cloud PC' that will allow business users to stream their desktop apps to Windows 10X. It's also worth noting that Windows 10X won't be released for beta testing and it is not something that you can install on your current hardware.
Details and a proof-of-concept exploit have been released for an unpatched privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows related to the PsExec administration tool. According to Wells, the vulnerability is a local privilege escalation issue that can be exploited by a non-admin process to elevate privileges to SYSTEM when PsExec is executed remotely or locally on the targeted computer.