Security News
Microsoft will block third-party printer driver delivery in Windows Update as part of a substantial and gradual shift in its printer driver strategy over the next 4 years. "With the release of Windows 10 21H2, Windows offers inbox support for Mopria compliant printer devices over network and USB interfaces via the Microsoft IPP Class Driver," Microsoft says.
A new cyber attack campaign is leveraging the PowerShell script associated with a legitimate red teaming tool to plunder NTLMv2 hashes from compromised Windows systems primarily located in Australia, Poland, and Belgium. "In this campaign, the threat actors steal and exfiltrate NTLMv2 hashes using customized versions of Nishang's Start-CaptureServer PowerShell script, executing various system commands, and exfiltrating the retrieved data via Mockbin APIs," security researchers Niraj Shivtarkar and Avinash Kumar said.
Microsoft is rolling out a new version of the Paint application on Windows 11 Insider builds that can remove the background from any picture with the click of a button. You can see a demonstration of the background removal below using the Windows wallpaper.
Cybercriminals are leveraging a legitimate Windows tool called 'Advanced Installer' to infect the computers of graphic designers with cryptocurrency miners. The attackers promote installers for popular 3D modeling and graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk 3ds Max, and SketchUp Pro, likely through black hat search engine optimization techniques.
Microsoft says Storm-0558 Chinese hackers stole a signing key used to breach government email accounts from a Windows crash dump after compromising a Microsoft engineer's corporate account. While investigating Storm-0558's attack, Microsoft found that the MSA key was leaked into a crash dump after a consumer signing system crashed in April 2021.
MSI has released BIOS updates to fix a known issue that triggers blue screens of death on Windows computers after installing August 2023 preview updates. "The new BIOS coming will include an update on the Intel CPU uCode which will prevent any more messages regarding the 'UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR' issues. This upcoming update will correspond to both 13th-generation and newer ones," MSI said on Wednesday.
The risk of running obsolete code and hardware was highlighted after attackers exfiltrated data from a UK supplier of high-security fencing for military bases. The initial entry point? A Windows 7 PC. While the supplier, Wolverhampton-based Zaun, said it believed that no classified information was downloaded, reports indicated that attackers were able to obtain data that could be used to gain access to some of the UK's most sensitive military and research sites.
Microsoft has reminded users that TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will soon be disabled by default in Windows. SQL Server 2008 R2 finally dropped out of Extended Security Updates in July, although Microsoft has published instructions for adding TLS 1.2 support.
The highly anticipated Windows 11 23H2 update is around the corner, and Microsoft has released its best features to testers in the Beta Channel. Windows Copilot: The AI Assistant Unified in PC. Taking a step forward in the integration of artificial intelligence, Windows 11 is set to debut Windows Copilot, an AI assistant that unifies Bing Chat and additional plugins.
Microsoft reminded users that insecure Transport Layer Security 1.0 and 1.1 protocols will be disabled soon in future Windows releases. The original TLS 1.0 specification and its TLS 1.1 successor have been used for nearly two decades, with TLS 1.0 initially introduced in 1999 and TLS 1.1 in 2006).