Component Object Model (COM) is a fundamental Windows technology used by legitimate applications for object activation, inter-process communication, automation and language-independent component reuse. Those same qualities make it useful to threat actors.
Microsoft has released the KB5095093 preview cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, which fixes numerous bugs and begins rolling out new features, including the new Point-in-Time restore feature. [...]
Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 11 version 26H2 will be the next feature update and that devices running Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 will be able to upgrade using a small enablement package. [...]
A supply chain attack left some Windows users with a Monero crypto miner bundled right into their Hola Browser installation. Here is a breakdown of the incident.
Microsoft has confirmed a confusing Windows bug that causes different filenames to appear in the confirmation dialog when deleting a file from the Recycle Bin. [...]
Threat actors targeting cryptocurrency wallets have been distributing clipboard-stealing malware with self-spreading capabilities and using the Tor network to conceal communication. [...]
Read how Microsoft Security has advanced its agentic vulnerability detection system, codename MDASH, integrating into real-world workflows across Windows, Azure, and identity systems. The post Beyond the benchmark: Advancing security at AI speed appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog .
Microsoft is investigating a new issue preventing third-party applications from launching Microsoft Office applications or opening documents on up-to-date Windows systems. [...]
GhostTree uses recursive NTFS junctions to generate vast numbers of valid Windows file paths. Varonis explains how the technique could cause Microsoft Defender folder scans to never complete, leaving malware undetected. [...]
Discover how continuous control validation in Tenable One can improve your CTEM program by filtering out alert noise and factoring in your active cyber defenses. Focus your team on accessible and exploitable attack paths. Key takeaways: With vulnerability exploitation ranking as the top initial access vector and frontier AI accelerating vulnerability discovery, organizations must shift from managing theoretical cyber risks to validating actual, accessible exposure. Tenable One maps active security controls including EDR, MFA, and firewalls directly onto potential attack paths, allowing teams to automatically deprioritize weaknesses that existing defenses already neutralize. Ingesting penetration testing results via the Tenable One Open Connector allows organizations to layer real-world attack simulations over real-time exposure insights to identify toxic risk combinations that threaten critical assets. Your security tools probably indicate you have thousands, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands, of vulnerabilities across your environment. Maybe your tools prioritize these vulnerabilities based on CVSS scores or other criteria, but how do you know which vulnerabilities combine with other preventable security risks, like misconfigured cloud buckets and identity weaknesses, to create attack paths threat actors could realistically traverse? How do you validate which vulnerabilities an existing security control mitigates? You need this context to distinguish the real risks from the theoretical ones to ensure your team focuses on remediating what matters most. The work of validating, prioritizing, and remediating vulnerabilities alongside other security weaknesses to understand the true exposure they create has become much more urgent, as frontier AI models accelerate vulnerability discovery. In this environment, the traditional patch-based defense model will get crushed. Moreover, defenders cannot afford inaccurate decision-making and wasted remediation work that addresses low-priority vulnerabilities. They desperately need the context and validation that a continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) program provides. This is why security leaders are evolving their vulnerability management programs to exposure management programs. Exposure management allows you to continually assess your attack surface, prioritize risks , and orchestrate automated remediation of security weaknesses at machine speed. Exposure management also helps validate which exposures attackers can actually reach by understanding the accessibility and exploitability of an attack path. It uses validation to shift your organization from managing theoretical risks to executing on actual exposure. What is exposure validation in CTEM? Validation is one of the five steps in the CTEM lifecycle. It is the process of providing consistent, continuous, and automated evidence of an attack’s feasibility. It stress-tests your defenses against real-world attack conditions, using your own environment’s controls and configurations to confirm whether an exposure is genuinely reachable and exploitable. Validation moves security from a reactive “patch everything” mindset to a preemptive, evidence-based exposure strategy . It continuously confirms which weaknesses your existing defenses have already blocked and surfaces the ones that demand immediate attention. Expanded CTEM validation capabilities in Tenable One Validation isn’t new to Tenable: we’ve been using validation techniques in Tenable solutions for more than 25 years. Tenable developed nearly 3,000 direct check plugins to actively probe a vulnerability and prove its exploitability in situations where software version detection isn’t sufficient for our high-accuracy standards. These plugins actually mimic attack techniques and monitor the target’s response to confirm the presence of the vulnerability. What is new in Tenable One is the addition of continuous control validation in the platform. By factoring in your active security controls, Tenable One helps eliminate the noise of theoretically exposed assets that are functionally blocked from exploitation. Security teams can visually map their active prevention and detection controls directly onto potential attack paths, automatically prioritizing weaknesses that existing controls already neutralize. Analysts can also filter top attack paths based on the presence of security controls and whether you can prevent attack chains for faster triage and investigation. Common control validation examples include: Endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools that block Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) memory dump tools used to harvest credentials. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods that prevent unauthorized access via password guessing , password spraying , or credential stuffing . Firewall and data loss prevention (DLP) tools that prevent data exfiltration by detecting data staging and enforcing egress rules. See how continuous control validation works in Tenable One. Proactively manage risk prioritization with continuous security control validation. Eliminate noise from theoretical risks that are functionally blocked by existing defenses by integrating compensating security controls into the exposure prioritization process. Access a unified dashboard where assets, vulnerabilities, and exposure risks are consolidated. Filter attack paths to identify which are protected by compensating controls. View types of compensating controls deployed in the environment. Examine attack paths that could be protected with endpoint protection tools. Review security controls associated with specific attack paths, including SIEM and EDR controls. Inspect individual nodes within attack paths to determine which security controls are protecting them. Identify assets monitored by SIEM tools such as Splunk. Verify endpoint protection coverage on assets, including Microsoft Defender installations. Filter attack techniques to focus on specific threats like LSASS Memory techniques, which extract credentials from compromised systems and can be mitigated by endpoint protection tools. Identify attack paths and assets lacking appropriate EDR coverage. Prioritize remediation by examining high-priority attack paths where compensating controls are absent. Collaborate with security control owners to confirm coverage and address gaps in protection for critical assets. Integrate penetration testing data into Tenable One Beyond direct check plugins and continuous control validation, security teams can also integrate penetration testing results into Tenable One that simulate real-world attacks against your cyber defenses. This is another way to validate which exposures are truly exploitable and contextualizes them against your broader attack surface. The Tenable One Open Connector makes it easy to ingest the latest pentest results and layer them with real-time exposure insights to turn your findings into active, continuous defenses. Integrating pentest data into an exposure management program adds critical context to help you understand toxic risk combinations and enrich your understanding of high-severity weaknesses that threaten your most critical business assets. Context is essential in exposure management In the AI era, your security team can’t waste precious time on the wrong issues. With exposure management, context is essential to pinpoint the most critical risks to your organization. Security control validation, coupled with asset criticality, threat activity, entitlement privileges, and attack pathways, give your security team the advantage it needs to stay ahead of threat actors. Learn more about Tenable One , the exposure management platform for the modern attack surface.
Yesterday, a reader reported to us a malicious ZIP archive (SHA256: a0104921a2d37ab87482ac9a9f5c3713479c118846c3e999178e75b81620c094[1]). Once unzipped, it contains a VHDX file that discloses a malicious JavaScript after being mounted (which is automatic on modern Windows OSs):
Microsoft has fixed a known issue that caused Windows updates released since May 2025 to fail when installed via the Windows Update Standalone Installer (WUSA) from a network share. [...]
Microsoft has resolved a known issue causing some Windows Server 2025 devices to boot into BitLocker recovery after installing the April 2026 security update. [...]
Bulletin ID: 2026-042-AWS Scope: AWS Content Type: Important (requires attention) Publication Date: 06/10/2026 11:15 AM PDT Description: s2n-quic is a Rust implementation of the QUIC protocol. We identified CVE-2026-10740, an issue of unbounded memory allocation in the CRYPTO frame reassembler in s2n-quic before 1.82.0. An unauthenticated user can attempt to exhaust server memory on an s2n-quic endpoint by sending crafted CRYPTO frames with high offsets. The buffer used for processing CRYPTO frames does not enforce a maximum size. In the worst case, a single 1200-byte packet can cause approximately 9.4 MB of allocation. By repeatedly sending such packets, the resulting memory pressure could cause denial of service. No valid handshake is required. Impacted versions: < v1.82.0 Please refer to the article below for the most up-to-date and complete information related to this AWS Security Bulletin.
Exploiting a race condition in Microsoft Defender, the exploit leads to local privilege escalation to SYSTEM. The post New Windows Zero-Day Exploit ‘RoguePlanet’ Released appeared first on SecurityWeek .
Microsoft warned customers on Tuesday that they may have issues installing the latest monthly updates on some Windows devices that were upgraded to Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2. [...]
On Tuesday, Microsoft patched two zero-day vulnerabilities that let attackers gain SYSTEM privileges on fully patched Windows systems, and a third one that grants access to BitLocker-protected drives. [...]
Microsoft released a record number of security updates in June 2026, addressing nearly 200 vulnerabilities across Windows operating systems and supported software. Approximately three dozen of these vulnerabilities are rated as critical by Microsoft. Public exploit code is available for at least three of the fixed vulnerabilities. This Patch Tuesday cycle represents an unusually large and severe set of security fixes.