This week, the software giant, Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Defender for Individuals with Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions. The new solution is built on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint technology. Also this week, Linux Kernel 5.17 reached end-of-life and became the shortest-lived Linux Kernel release with less than 3 months. We also had a sneak peek of WordPress 6.1 release. Matias Ventura has shared the roadmap for the next big update of WordPress.
Microsoft Defender for Individuals is now available
Microsoft announced that its new security solution for personal smartphones and computers is now available for everyone. Microsoft Defender for Individuals is now available with Microsoft 365 Personal ($6.99 per month) and Family ($9.99 per month) subscriptions. simplified online security that brings multiple protections together into a single dashboard. The new solution offers tips and recommendations and includes continuous antivirus and anti-phishing protection.
Linux Kernel 5.17 reaching end of life
Linux Kernel 5.17 is now marked as the end of life on kernel.org. Users are urged to upgrade to Linux 5.18 as soon as possible. It was released on March 20th and became the shortest-lived Kernel series. The announcement came along with the latest maintenance update, Linux Kernel 5.17.15, which is also the last one. Distribution maintainers are urged to upgrade to the 5.18 kernel series now.
Some details of WordPress 6.1 have emerged
The lead architect of the Gutenberg block editor of WordPress, Matias Ventura has revealed some of the key information about the next big release, WordPress 6.1. WordPress 6.1 will bring the ability to browse, visualize, and edit the structure of the website while providing more clarity between global elements. It will also unify the Template Editor with Post Editor experiences. The global styles interface will receive some new features as well, such as support for restrictions, privileges, curated presets, ability to manage web fonts while being able to implement responsive typography.
AlmaLinux OVAL stream is now available
AlmaLinux OS Foundation has announced the availability of the OVAL data stream for its AlmaLinux 8 and 9 operating systems. Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language is an API-like security standard written in XML for declaring the flaws and other security risks. It is designed to provide information about vulnerabilities and inform the related repositories. AlmaLinux OS has implemented the Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language in both 8 and 9 versions.
Firefox’s Total cookie Protection is now available as default
Firefox announced the release of Total Cookie Protection by default to all users, making the popular web browser more secure. Firefox claims that the new release makes Firefox the most private and secure major browser available. It is a protection method against tracking without affecting the browsing experience. The method is built around creating a separate “cookie jar” for each visited website. Thus trackers can only see the users’ behavior on an individual site. If a website or any embedded content deposits a cookie in the browser, that cookie is confined to the cookie jar assigned only to that website.
A new Linux rootkit, Syslogk spotted in the wild
Avast security researchers announced that they found a new Linux rootkit, based on Adore-NG, an open-source rootkit released in 2004, which is under heavy development. It allows an attacker to get full control over the compromised system. The new rootkit is capable of force-load modules by using the force flag, hiding directories, and network traffic, and loading a backdoor named Rekoobe. While it is hard to detect, it is also hard to code it compared to other malware. Once it is revealed, the rootkit can be removed from memory with the rmmod Linux command.
Windows finally patches the Follina vulnerability
Microsoft’s June 2022 Windows Updates addresses a critical zero-day vulnerability that is being exploited. Microsoft’s 2022 cumulative Windows Updates is addressing Follina, a critical zero-day vulnerability that is under attack for two weeks. While Microsoft offered mitigation as a solution on the 30th of May, CISA urged users to disable the MSDT service. The Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool remote code execution flaw affects all Windows versions and allows attackers to execute PowerShell commands.