microsoft
Microsoft 365 anti-phishing feature can be bypassed with CSS
Researchers have demonstrated a method to bypass an anti-phishing measure in Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), elevating the risk of users opening malicious emails. Specifically, the anti-phishing measure that can be hidden is the ‘First Contact Safety Tip,’ which warns email recipients on Outlook when they receive a message from an unfamiliar address. Certitude analysts who discovered […]
Microsoft Azure outage takes down services across North America
Microsoft has mitigated an Azure outage that lasted more than two hours and took down multiple services for customers across North and Latin America. The company says the incident started around 18:22 UTC and impacted services that leverage Azure Front Door (AFD), its modern cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN). “This issue is impacting multiple geographies, […]
Windows Smart App Control, SmartScreen bypass exploited since 2018
A design flaw in Windows Smart App Control and SmartScreen that enables attackers to launch programs without triggering security warnings has been under exploitation since at least 2018. Smart App Control is a reputation-based security feature that uses Microsoft’s app intelligence services for safety predictions and Windows’ code integrity features to identify and block untrusted (unsigned) […]
Microsoft says massive Azure outage was caused by DDoS attack
Microsoft confirmed today that a nine-hour outage on Tuesday, which took down and disrupted multiple Microsoft 365 and Azure services worldwide, was triggered by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Redmond says the outage impacted Microsoft Entra, some Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview services (including Intune, Power BI, and Power Platform), as well as Azure App […]
New Specula tool uses Outlook for remote code execution in Windows
Microsoft Outlook can be turned into a C2 beacon to remotely execute code, as demonstrated by a new red team post-exploitation framework named “Specula,” released today by cybersecurity firm TrustedSec. This C2 framework works by creating a custom Outlook Home Page using WebView by exploiting CVE-2017-11774, an Outlook security feature bypass vulnerability patched in October 2017. “In […]
Windows 11 taskbar has a hidden “End Task” feature, how to turn it on
Microsoft has added a feature to Windows 11 that allows you to end tasks directly from the taskbar, but it’s turned off by default. How It Works When the “End Task” feature is enabled, you can right-click on an app icon in the taskbar and see an “End Task” option. When you select this option, […]
Microsoft releases Windows repair tool to remove CrowdStrike driver
Microsoft has released a custom WinPE recovery tool to find and remove the faulty CrowdStrike update that crashed an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices on Friday. On Friday, CrowdStrike pushed out a faulty update that caused millions of Windows devices worldwide to suddenly crash with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and enter reboot loops. This glitch […]
Three games will leave the Xbox Game Pass by the end of July
Three games will be leaving the Xbox Game Pass on July 31. Until then, subscribers still have the chance to buy the respective games at a 20 percent discount with Microsoft’s member discount. Microsoft had already announced that only three new games would be added to the Xbox Game Pass by the end of July. […]
CrowdStrike update crashes Windows systems, causes outages worldwide
A faulty component in the latest CrowdStrike Falcon update is crashing Windows systems, impacting various organizations and services across the world, including airports, TV stations, and hospitals. The glitch is affecting Windows workstations and servers, with users reporting massive outages that took offline entire companies and fleets of hundreds of thousands of computers. According to […]
Windows 11 Update 23H2 is now in broad deployment after fixing critical bugs
Per Microsoft’s official Windows Release Health page for Windows 11 Version 23H2, it seems that the so-called 2023 Update is finally “broadly available” to all Windows 11 users with eligible devices, here in July 2024. This update’s release has been marred with some severe crashing and boot loop issues, particularly impacting users of virtualization software […]