Showing only posts in Ars Technica. Show all posts.

Patch for Windows Defender 0-day could allow attackers to fill hard disk

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A patch Microsoft released on Wednesday to fix a zero-day vulnerability in its Defender security engine may cause Windows machines to write files large enough to completely consume available disk space, the researcher who discovered the flaw said. RoguePlanet, tracked as CVE-2026-50656, came to public notice in June when …

Google pays $250K for Linux vulnerability allowing guest VM escapes

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A Linux vulnerability that allows untrusted virtual machines to gain root access to host machines is one of two high-severity flaws to surface this week in the open source operating system. The vulnerability resides in KVM, which is, in essence, a virtual machine app included in the kernel of …

Hackers can use 9 of the most popular AI tools to assemble massive botnets

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In the brief history of AI security, the prompt injection has quickly become the top threat. Large language models are inherently unable to distinguish between legitimate instructions provided by users and malicious ones sneaked into emails, source code, and other third-party content the models are processing. This makes it …

Newly discovered PamStealer isn't your typical macOS malware

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Researchers have found a never-before-seen piece of macOS malware that combines a series of clever tradecraft to infect Macs with stealthy, custom-developed credential-stealing code. The malware is delivered in two stages. The first is distributed in a disk image that masquerades as Maccy, a clipboard manager for Macs. It …

US offers $10 million for info on group behind Signal and WhatsApp hacking spree

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Federal authorities are offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of a Russian state cyber group that has compromised thousands of Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to investigative reporters and US government employees. The operation has been active since at …

One-two punch delivered in global operation disrupts cybercrime "assembly line"

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International authorities and a raft of private technology companies say they have disrupted a cybercrime “assembly line” that allowed crooks to collect millions of login credentials and steal more than $47 million in ransom payments and by other fraudulent means. The crux of the operation was the simultaneous targeting …

White House drastically shortens deadline for dropping quantum-vulnerable crypto

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The White House is drastically shortening the deadline for government agencies and organizations to adopt new quantum-resistant encryption systems that will withstand attacks that use quantum computers, as the federal government seeks to protect decades’ worth of secrets belonging to militaries, banks, governments, and most individuals on Earth. The …

Following user outcry, AMD reinstates memory encryption in consumer CPUs

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Consumer AMD CPUs will once again offer encryption protections against physical attacks after facing user backlash for silently removing the feature. As Ars reported last week, AMD stripped the protection, known as TSME, from consumer Ryzen processors. Short for Transparent Secure Memory Encryption, TSME encrypts the entire contents stored …

Microsoft discovers new lightweight backdoor that steals cryptocurrency

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Microsoft says it has detected new self-propagating malware that spreads through USB drives in search of cryptocurrency credentials, which it then sends to attacker-controlled servers. The company named the worm Crypto Clipper because it monitors the contents of device clipboards for patterns consistent with wallet addresses or seed phrases …

Apple patches high-severity eavesdropping vulnerability in Beats Studio Buds

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Apple has updated its Beats Studio Buds wireless earbuds to patch a high-severity vulnerability that could be exploited by nearby hackers to eavesdrop on users. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-20701, allowed improper authentication in the firmware running on the Bluetooth-related chips, enabling people within signal range to impersonate devices that had …

Massive breach spills credentials for thousands of sensitive networks

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Researchers have uncovered a massive breach of Fortinet firewalls that has given Russian-speaking attackers near-unrestricted access to some of the world’s largest and most powerful organizations, including Oracle, Chevron, Lenovo, Federal Express, a NATO defense contractor, and Fortinet itself. Nearly 74,000 Fortinet devices from more than 21 …

"Dangerous" AI models are coming no matter what

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Late last week, Anthropic took its new Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models offline following a United States government export-control directive barring “any foreign national” from using the services. The company has been in talks with the White House since Friday but has yet to secure an …

Windows and Linux users: The deadline to update Secure Boot keys is near

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The clock is ticking for Windows and Linux users to update cryptographic keys that protect their systems against firmware-based UEFI infections, a pernicious form of malware that loads before operating system and anti-malware protections start. Beginning June 24, three certificates that cryptographically verify that each piece of firmware and …

Critical Copilot vulnerability allowed hackers to steal 2FA code from users

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Last Tuesday, Microsoft patched a vulnerability it rated as max critical in its M365 Copilot AI platform. On Monday, the researchers who discovered the vulnerability and reported it to Microsoft revealed how their proof-of-concept exploit could retrieve 2FA codes and other sensitive data from emails accessible to Copilot. Microsoft …

Users cry foul after AMD stripped memory crypto from its consumer CPUs

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A decade ago, AMD added a protection to its high-end CPUs to protect them against cold boot attacks and other types of physical exploits that siphon sensitive data out of the connected memory chips. Short for Transparent Secure Memory Encryption, TSME encrypts the entire contents stored in memory, making …

PeopleSoft 0-day affecting hundreds of organizations steals gigabytes of data

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One of the world’s most active ransomware groups exploited a critical vulnerability in Oracle’s PeopleSoft software suite and used it to target about 100 customers and extort at least one of them to pay up in exchange for not leaking stolen data, researchers said. The group, tracked …

Locked in heated rivalry with researcher, Microsoft fixes 0-day they disclosed

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Microsoft on Tuesday released fixes for two high-severity zero-days that were disclosed by a researcher who has been locked in a testy beef with the software giant. Nightmare Eclipse, the pseudonym the researcher goes by, released a handful of high-severity vulnerabilities in recent months, making them zero-days that had …

High-severity vulnerability in Linux caused by a single faulty character

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Researchers have analyzed a high-severity vulnerability in Linux that’s able to escalate untrusted users to root by exploiting a bug you don't often see: a single errant character inside the kernel. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-23111, is located in nf_tables, a subsystem of the Linux kernel that provides …

For the 2nd time in weeks, Microsoft packages laced with credential stealer

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Dozens of cryptographically verified open source packages from Microsoft were compromised late last week to add advanced credential-stealing code that was triggered when developers opened them in AI coding agents. In all, multiple researchers said, 73 packages were flagged as malicious when automated systems on GitHub blocked them on …

How a USB-connected speaker can infect a PC without ever being touched

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Operating system makers take many steps to prevent their wares from accepting commands from remote devices. The safeguards, designed to thwart malicious attacks, typically require hackers to jump through all kinds of hoops to bypass the measures. But what if remote code execution were as simple as being within …

Dashlane explains how attackers managed to download encrypted password vaults

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Dashlane said that attackers mounted a coordinated hacking campaign against a large base of its users in an attempt to recover as many encrypted password vaults as possible. The password manager provider said fewer than 20 personal user vaults were downloaded before it shut down the operation. In a …

Can't make sense of Dashlane's vault theft notification? You're not alone.

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There’s a lot that doesn’t add up in a security advisory password manager Dashlane published Monday, warning that attackers managed to obtain 20 encrypted user vaults. “Starting on Sunday, May 31, 2026, an external party launched a brute force attack against certain Dashlane user accounts,” the company …

Dozens of Red Hat packages backdoored through its official NPM channel

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Official Red Hat NPM accounts have been compromised and used to push a malicious worm that spreads from machine to machine, where it pilfers sensitive credentials in hopes of stealing yet more confidential data, researchers said. The supply-chain attack began Monday and remained active at the time this post …

Botnet of more than 17 million devices dismantled

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Authorities in the Netherlands said they dismantled a botnet that comprised more than 17 million devices and were managed by 200 servers in a joint operation by the police and the National Cyber Security Center. The action, announced Thursday, came about after a security researcher reported the sprawling network …

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