All news with #microsoft tag

Windows 11 Store adds Ninite-style multi-app installer

🧰 The Microsoft Store web now enables Windows 11 users to create a Ninite-style multi-app installer that downloads and installs multiple apps from a single executable. Users can select apps on the Store website and click Install selected, which generates a background installer to run the installs. The capability currently works only in the Store web, is limited to a curated set of 64 apps, and restricts packages to 16 apps per download to avoid overwhelming Store servers.

Securing Critical Infrastructure: Europe’s Risk-Based Rules

🔒 In this Deputy CISO post, Freddy Dezeure of Microsoft explains how recent EU laws are reshaping cybersecurity for critical infrastructure. He argues that NIS2 and DORA broaden the CISO role across IT, OT, IoT, AI, and supply chains and push for stronger board-level accountability. The piece emphasizes a risk-based, prioritized approach—focusing on a few high-impact controls such as phishing-resistant multifactor authentication, comprehensive asset inventory, timely patching, and resilience testing.

October Windows Updates Can Trigger BitLocker Recovery

🔒 Microsoft warned that installing Windows security updates released on or after October 14, 2025 can cause some systems to boot into BitLocker recovery, prompting users to enter their recovery key on first restart. The issue mainly affects Intel devices that support Connected Standby (Modern Standby) and occurs during restart or startup on Windows 11 24H2/25H2 and Windows 10 22H2. Microsoft says devices should boot normally after the key is entered and offers a Group Policy mitigation via Known Issue Rollback (KIR), with affected customers advised to contact Microsoft Support for Business.

AWS Launch Wizard: SQL Server Developer Edition Deployments

🛠️ AWS Launch Wizard now provides a guided workflow to size, configure, and deploy Windows Server EC2 instances with Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition installed from your own media. The capability simplifies provisioning cost-effective, full-featured SQL Server instances on Amazon EC2 and is aimed at developers building non-production and test database environments. It supports customers migrating non-production databases from SQL Server Enterprise and Standard Editions to reduce licensing costs while preserving feature parity, and is available in all supported commercial AWS Regions and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

Microsoft Expands Sovereign Cloud Capabilities, EU Focus

🛡️ Microsoft announced expanded sovereign cloud offerings aimed at helping governments and enterprises meet regulatory and resilience requirements across Europe and beyond. The update includes end-to-end AI data processing within an EU Data Boundary, expanded Microsoft 365 Copilot in-country processing to 15 countries and additional rollouts through 2026, plus a refreshed Sovereign Landing Zone for simplified deployment of sovereign controls. Azure Local gains increased scale, external SAN support, and NVIDIA RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPUs for high-performance on-prem AI, along with planned disconnected operations. A new Digital Sovereignty specialization gives partners a way to validate and badge their sovereign-cloud expertise.

Microsoft to Remove Defender Application Guard from Office

🔒 Microsoft will remove Defender Application Guard for Office (MDAG) from supported Office builds beginning with version 2602 in early February 2026 and expects full removal with version 2612 by mid‑2027. Files that previously opened in Application Guard will open in Protected View instead. Microsoft recommends enabling Defender for Endpoint ASR rules and Windows Defender Application Control to preserve protections; no admin action is required to trigger the removal.

Generative AI for SOCs: Accelerating Detection and Response

🔒 Microsoft describes how generative AI, exemplified by Microsoft Security Copilot, addresses common SOC challenges such as alert fatigue, tool fragmentation, and analyst burnout. The post highlights AI-driven triage, rapid incident summarization, and automated playbooks that accelerate containment and remediation. It emphasizes proactive threat hunting, query generation to uncover lateral movement, and simplified, audience-ready reporting. Organizations report measurable improvements, including a 30% reduction in mean time to resolution.

OpenAI Assistants API Abused by 'SesameOp' Backdoor

🔐 Microsoft Incident Response (DART) uncovered a covert backdoor named 'SesameOp' in July 2025 that leverages the OpenAI Assistants API as a command-and-control channel. The malware uses an obfuscated DLL loader, Netapi64.dll, and a .NET component, OpenAIAgent.Netapi64, to fetch compressed, encrypted commands and return results via the API. Microsoft recommends firewall audits, EDR in block mode, tamper protection and cloud-delivered Defender protections to mitigate the threat.

Microsoft Teams Bugs Enable Message and Caller Spoofing

🔒 Check Point researchers disclosed four vulnerabilities in Microsoft Teams that let attackers alter message content, spoof senders, and manipulate notifications to impersonate colleagues. The issues were reported in March 2024 and remediated across multiple updates beginning with an August 2024 fix for CVE-2024-38197, followed by patches in September 2024 and October 2025. Exploitable by external guests and internal actors alike, the flaws could trick users into clicking malicious links, sharing sensitive data, or accepting fraudulent calls by making messages and caller notifications appear to originate from trusted executives or coworkers.

Windows 10 update bug shows incorrect end-of-support alerts

⚠️Microsoft says installing the October 2025 updates can cause some Windows 10 systems with active coverage to display an incorrect "Your version of Windows has reached the end of support" message in Windows Update settings. The cosmetic issue affects Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021, and Windows 10 22H2 devices enrolled in ESU. Microsoft has deployed a cloud configuration update to correct the message automatically, but devices that are offline or block dynamic updates may not receive it. Administrators can use Known Issue Rollback (KIR) by setting the KB5066791 251020_20401 value to Disabled to remove the alert on managed systems until a permanent fix ships in a future Windows update.

Louvre's Outdated Windows Systems Highlighted After Burglary

🏛 The Louvre has struggled for more than a decade with outdated software and unsupported Windows systems that control critical security infrastructure, French reports say. Audits in 2014 and 2017 found workstations running Windows 2000 and Windows XP, along with a video server still on Windows Server 2003 and weak, hard-coded passwords on surveillance applications. Procurement records also list multiple Thales systems as "software that cannot be updated." Authorities ordered governance and security reforms after a recent jewelry theft, though there is no indication the IT issues directly enabled that burglary.

Microsoft Teams Vulnerabilities Expose Trust Abuse Today

🔒 Check Point Research identified multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft Teams that could let attackers impersonate executives, manipulate message content, and spoof in-app notifications. The flaws exploit trust mechanisms built into real-time collaboration features used by more than 320 million monthly active users, turning expectations of authenticity into an attack vector. Researchers emphasize that trust alone isn’t a security strategy and urge rapid remediation by vendors and mitigations by organizations. Administrators should prioritize updates, review messaging policies, and increase user awareness to reduce exposure.

SesameOp Backdoor Abuses OpenAI Assistants API for C2

🛡️ Researchers at Microsoft disclosed a previously undocumented backdoor, dubbed SesameOp, that abuses the OpenAI Assistants API to relay commands and exfiltrate results. The attack chain uses .NET AppDomainManager injection to load obfuscated libraries (loader "Netapi64.dll") into developer tools and relies on a hard-coded API key to pull payloads from assistant descriptions. Because traffic goes to api.openai.com, the campaign evaded traditional C2 detection. Microsoft Defender detections and account key revocation were used to disrupt the operation.

Rhysida Ransomware Abuses Microsoft Code-Signing Trust

🔒Rhysida, a known enterprise-focused ransomware gang, is distributing malware via malvertising on Microsoft's Bing that redirects users to fake download pages for common tools such as Microsoft Teams, PuTTY, and Zoom. Victims who download receive an initial access trojan called OysterLoader, which establishes a persistent backdoor and is signed with Microsoft-like certificates to appear legitimate. The campaign pairs obfuscation/packing to lower static detection with trusted code signing to bypass allow-lists and AV. Experts urge behavior-based EDR, certificate pinning, DNS filtering, and tighter certificate oversight.

SesameOp Backdoor Uses OpenAI Assistants API Stealthily

🔐 Microsoft security researchers identified a new backdoor, SesameOp, which abuses the OpenAI Assistants API as a covert command-and-control channel. Discovered during a July 2025 investigation, the backdoor retrieves compressed, encrypted commands via the API, decrypts and executes them, and returns encrypted exfiltration through the same channel. Microsoft and OpenAI disabled the abused account and key; recommended mitigations include auditing firewall logs, enabling tamper protection, and configuring endpoint detection in block mode.

Microsoft Signing Transparency: Verifiable Code Signing

🔒 Microsoft has announced the preview of Signing Transparency, a cloud-managed service that records every software signature in an append-only ledger protected by confidential computing. The service verifies and countersigns COSE envelopes, issues cryptographic receipts tied to a Merkle-tree inclusion proof, and keeps signing keys in a secure enclave. Organizations and auditors can independently verify releases, detect tampering, and retain receipts for compliance and incident response.

CISA, NSA and Partners Issue Exchange Server Best Practices

🔐 CISA, the NSA and international partners have published the Microsoft Exchange Server Security Best Practices to help organisations reduce exposure to attacks against hybrid and on‑premises Exchange deployments. The guidance reinforces Emergency Directive 25-02 and prioritises restricting administrative access, enforcing multi‑factor and modern authentication, tightening TLS and transport security, and applying Microsoft's Exchange Emergency Mitigation service. It also urges migration from unsupported or end‑of‑life systems and recommends use of secure baselines such as CISA's SCuBA. Agencies stress ongoing collaboration and a prevention-focused posture despite political and operational challenges.

GDI Vulnerabilities in Windows Enable RCE and Data Leak

🔒 Microsoft has issued updates to address three previously unknown flaws in the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) that could permit remote code execution and information disclosure. The issues, rooted in malformed EMF/EMF+ records, cause out-of-bounds memory access in GdiPlus.dll and gdi32full.dll during image rendering, thumbnailing and print initialization. Patches were released across the May, July and August 2025 Patch Tuesdays (KB5058411, KB5062553, KB5063878); administrators should apply updates promptly and avoid opening untrusted EMF files.

Microsoft WSUS Patch Disrupted Windows Server Hotpatching

⚠️ An out-of-band update, KB5070881, that addressed CVE-2025-59287 for Windows Server Update Service inadvertently removed Hotpatch enrollment on a very limited number of Windows Server 2025 machines. Microsoft has stopped offering KB5070881 to Hotpatch-enrolled devices and released KB5070893 the next day to fix the flaw without breaking Hotpatch. Systems that installed the buggy update will receive regular monthly security updates requiring restarts in November and December and will rejoin Hotpatch after the January 2026 baseline. As part of mitigations, Microsoft also disabled the display of WSUS synchronization error details.

OAuth Device Code Phishing: Azure vs Google Compared

🔐 Matt Kiely of Huntress examines how the OAuth 2.0 device code flow enables phishing and highlights stark differences between Microsoft and Google. He walks through the device-code attack chain — generating a device code, social-engineering a user to enter it on a legitimate site, and polling the token endpoint to harvest access and refresh tokens. The analysis shows Azure’s implementation lets attackers control client_id and resource parameters to obtain powerful tokens, while Google’s implementation restricts device-code scopes and requires app controls that significantly limit abuse. Practical examples, cURL/Python snippets, and mitigation advice are included for defenders.