Security News
As it rolled out a laundry list of features in the latest version of Windows 11, namely version 22H2, this month, Microsoft has also detailed some of the added security mechanisms. Included among the features is Kernel Mode Hardware Enforced Stack Protection, with Rick Munck, cloud security solution architect at Microsoft, stressing its dependency on hypervisor-protected code integrity.
The changes in the latest release of the security configuration baseline touch on a range of areas, including hardware - which Microsoft has increasingly emphasized in recent years - drivers and printers as well as protections against credential theft and account lookout. The feature is part of a larger push Microsoft has been making for several years to more tightly integrate hardware and software security capabilities.
NVIDIA has acknowledged performance issues affecting systems with NVIDIA GPUs after installing the Windows 11 22H2 Update. The official fix for this known issue is to update the company's GeForce Experience software suite to the 3.26 Beta version, which addresses the problems.
Windows 11 22H2 was just released, and with it comes a new security feature called Enhanced Phishing Protection that warns users when they enter their Windows password in insecure applications or on websites. When enabled, Microsoft will detect when you enter your Windows password and then issue a warning prompting you to remove the password from an insecure file or, if entered on a site, to change your Windows password.
Microsoft says that KB5017383, this month's Windows preview update, has been accidentally listed in Windows Server Update Services and may lead to security update install problems in some managed environments. Such updates are optional and available for manual importing via Windows Updates and the Microsoft Update Catalog to avoid pushing untested releases into production.
Microsoft has acknowledged a known issue where copying files/shortcuts using Group Policy Preferences on Windows client devices might not work as expected after installing recent Windows cumulative updates released during this month's Patch Tuesday. On affected systems, files or shortcuts will not copy to the target drives or end up as zero-byte files when using Group Policy file operations.
The Windows 11 22H2 feature update released earlier this week is reportedly causing gaming performance issues on systems with NVIDIA GPUs. As detailed in reports shared across several online platforms and on Microsoft's online community, some users experience stuttering and massive lag while playing games due to what looks like significant drops in CPU usage after installing the Windows 11 2022 Update.
Data-stealing spyware disguised as a banking rewards app is targeting Android users, Microsoft's security team has warned. The Microsoft threat hunters' investigation began after receiving a text message claiming to be from India's ICICI bank's rewards program.
Microsoft and Canonical have teamed up to add systemd support to the Windows Subsystem for Linux, allowing a larger number of compatible apps to be installed. As systemd is responsible for launching all other services, it runs as the first process created by the Linux kernel on startup.
Microsoft announced that the Windows 11 SMB server is now better protected against brute-force attacks with the release of the Insider Preview Build 25206 to the Dev Channel. Redmond has enabled the SMB authentication rate limiter by default and tweaking some of its settings to make such attacks less effective, starting with the latest Windows 11 Insider dev build.