This week, once again we witnessed Microsoft struggling with Windows Defender issues. The tech giant managed to fix the flaw that was caused by the latest Windows Defender update. The flaw resulted in missing shortcuts, search results, and even the complete Office suite. Also this week, we had a chance to take a sneak peek into KDE Plasma 5.27. The beta version of the upcoming desktop environment has been released, which introduces new features. Another important news of the week was the hacking of Mailchimp. The popular email marketing service’s systems were breached by hackers.
Microsoft releases the patch for the Windows Defender issue
Earlier this week a new problem emerged from the latest Windows Defender update, causing the deletion of shortcuts, search results, and the complete Office suite from the system. This week, Microsoft announced that the fix for the issue is now available. According to the company’s announcement, it was caused by an Attack Surface Reduction rule after updating the Windows Defender security intelligence to version 1.381.2140.0. After this particular update, the devices with “Block Win32 API calls from Office macro” rule “on” resulted in many false positive detections.
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta is now available
The KDE Project has announced the release of the beta version of the upcoming Plasma 5.27 desktop environment, which is set to be released on 14th February. The new version brings a couple of new features among the components of the popular desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems. KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta introduces the Plasma Welcome application, which welcomes the user after the first installation of the operating system to help you configure the settings. It also brings a new configuration menu in the Applications to provide or remove the permissions for Flatpak applications.
Mailchimp is hacked again
The email marketing service, Mailchimp, was breached and some customer data was stolen. It is the second time Mailchimp was hacked in the last one year. The breach affected a relatively low number of customers, however, there are some big names among them. According to Mailchimp’s official announcement of the incident, threat actors have accessed one of the tools that are being used for customer support and account administration by conducting social engineering attack on the Mailchimp employees. Hackers managed to access 133 Mailchimp accounts, thus, the data connected to those accounts including their customers’ names, email addresses, and store URLs.
Git is patched for two critical vulnerabilities
Git has been patched to fix two critical security flaws. The vulnerabilities, which are rated “Critical”, have been discovered by security experts from X41 and GitLab, and they are fixed now. One of the vulnerabilities is a heap overflow in git archive and git log –format commands, which could result in a remote code execution attack. The other one is an integer overflow issue in the .gitattributes parser. This vulnerability allows heap reads and writes, thus, a remote code execution attack. These issues affect all of the Git versions, including v2.39.0, and are fixed with the v2.39.1 version.
AccelerateWP is now available on Plesk
CloudLinux announced that its recently introduced and popular optimization solution, AccelerateWP toolset is currently available on Plesk Control Panel. Plesk Control Panel and CloudLinux OS Solo, Admin, or Shared Pro users can activate AccelerateWP‘s powerful capabilities to boost the performance of WordPress instances. AccelerateWP was introduced 9 months ago and became popular quickly with CloudLinux customers. AccelerateWP turbocharges servers with fully automated site optimization, adds substantial business value, and makes WordPress offerings more competitive.
Nvidia helps users to maintain the eye contact
Nvidia announced the release of Nvidia Broadcast 1.4 with two new effects, Eye Contact and Vignette, along with enhancements to the virtual background and more. Eye Contact, as the name implies, simulates eye contact with the camera, by estimating and aligning gaze. Even if the speaker is looking elsewhere, the software regenerates it as looking directly at the camera and the eyes retain their natural color and blink. The effect, currently in beta, aims to improve engagement with the audience. Another new effect introduced in the latest release is, Vignette can be combined with a subtle Background Blur effect to get an AI-simulated bokeh visual instantly.
MX Linux “Wildflower” 21.3 is out with Xfce 4.18
MX Linux’s Wildflower’s 21.3 iteration is now out with Xfce 4.18 desktop environment, bug fixes, and updates. Less than 5 months after the release of its predecessor MX Linux “Wildflower” 21.2, MX Linux “Wildflower” 21.3 has been released. It comes with the latest Xfce 4.18 desktop environment and Debian 11.6 “Bullseye” base. The system is powered by Linux kernel 5.10 LTS whereas you can get the “Advanced Hardware Support” version to get the very recent 6.0 kernel and newer graphics drivers and firmware. Only 64-bit is supported. Packages are all available through the regular update channel.