[German]There has been a severe vulnerability CVE-2021-3438 in the printer drivers of the manufacturers HP, Xerox and Samsung (presumably only laser printers) for 16 years, which affects millions of devices. The vulnerability was reported to HP on February 18, 2021, and an updated printer driver has been available since May 19, 2021. Here is some information on the issue provided to me by the security researchers.
[German]It seems that Windows 10 feature updates from version 1809 up to the current version 21H1 change the access rights to the SAM database so that non-administrative users can access it. The cause could be the volume shadow copies (Shadow Copy), which are enabled by default. Here's some initial information – I'm still sorting through it a bit at the moment.
[German]At the end of February, beginning of March 2021, there was a massive attack on Microsoft Exchange Server (see Exchange server 0-day exploits are actively exploited), in which many thousands of instances were hacked worldwide. Even then, the attacks were attributed to the Chinese hacker group Hafnium. Now the US along with its allies (UK, NATA) as well as the EU are accusing China of being responsible for this attack. The U.S. has also identified four Chinese nationals as responsible.
[German]In fall of 2021, Microsoft will most likely release Windows 11 and then roll it out more broadly in 2022 (see Has Intel revealed the October 2021 release date and name for Windows 11?). This will include a user interface overhaul with a new Start menu and rounded windows (Sun Valley). In anticipation of the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has now explained the new context menus and the Parts dialog in more detail.
[German]Let me put it this way: For me, it has been clear since the presentation that Microsoft will release its Windows 11 so sometime in October 2021 – even though the broad rollout with a free Windows 10 upgrade is not supposed to happen until 2022. Now, Intel may have unintentionally revealed the release date for Windows 11 as October 2021.
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[German]Security researchers from CyberArk have managed to trick Windows 10's Hello login (also included in Windows 11) in terms of logging in via facial recognition. All they needed was an infrared photo of the face in question, used on a fake usb device acting as an IR camera. Here's some information on the facts of the matter.
[German]The release of Firefox version 90.0.0 lasted just a week. Now the Mozilla developers have released July 19, 2021 version 90.0.1 as a maintenance update of the Firefox browser. Here is some information about what has been fixed.
[German]Regarding the problem, originally called PrintNightmare, that Windows systems are vulnerable via the print spooler service, there is a new warning. A remote print server that can be accessed by unauthorized parties allows arbitrary malicious files to be installed on clients via point-and-print. The US-CERT has issued a new warning about this. However, there is a possibility to mitigate this vulnerability via group policies.
[German]After I just reported about spy Trojans of the Israeli NSO Group on smartphones (see Pegasus spy software of NSO Group on many smartphones), I can also reveal the second case. The Israeli company Candiru exploited vulnerabilities in Windows to install their spyware called DevilsTongue. However, the vulnerabilities have been fixed in the meantime.
[German]It started with a leaked list of about 50,000 phone numbers. Investigative research by the media then shed light on the surveillance of smartphone users by governments and private organizations. Numerous people around the world were spied on using Pegasus spy software from Israel's NSO Group. The company seems to provided authoritarian states with the opportunity to surveil journalists, human rights activists and members from NGOs.
MVP:
2013 – 2016
WIMVP:
2017 – 2020
