Tag Archives: Technology

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Latest Microsoft Patch Fixes Dozens of Bugs

Even if you don’t consistently install Microsoft’s security patches as soon as they’re released, the September 2022 patch released this week deserves immediate attention.

Dozens of bugs, flaws, and vulnerabilities were addressed in this iteration, including fixes for:

 

  • *30 Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities
  • 18 Elevation of Privilege vulnerabilities
  • 16 Edge/Chromium vulnerabilities
  • 7 Information Disclosure vulnerabilities
  • 7 Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerabilities
  • 1 Security Feature Bypass vulnerability

In addition to the above, the patch also addresses two zero-day vulnerabilities. The first of these is being tracked as CVE-2022-37969.

It was discovered independently by researchers from CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Mandiant, and DBAPP Security. Described as a Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability, hackers are currently exploiting this flaw in the wild.

The other is being tracked as CVE-2022-23960 and is described as a Cache Speculation Restriction Vulnerability.

The researchers at VUSec who discovered the issue have dubbed it “Spectre-BHB” and utilize Branch History Injection to allow for speculative execution. While it is similar to the Spectre security flaws found in chipsets last year, it is only tangentially related. Furthermore, there is no evidence that hackers are currently exploiting it.

On top of the impressive bug fixes, this release also includes improvements to Microsoft Defender and enhanced IT administrators’ capabilities to make it easier to control language-related features remotely in the OS.

Patch Tuesdays are always significant, but this one is even more critical than most. If you haven’t already done so, head to Microsoft’s website and install it on all your Windows 10 devices running versions 1809, 21H1, and 21H2. Also, note that one week before Microsoft released this patch, they released Windows 10 builds KB5017308 and KB5017315, which addressed various performance issues and patched twenty bugs.

Patch Tuesday is a regularly scheduled event. Microsoft rolls them out on the second Tuesday of each month at 10:00 AM PST.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

File Explorer May Get Tabs In Windows 11

Are you a Windows Insider?  If so, be aware that the company is testing a “hidden” new feature you’re probably going to love.

It’s a small change but its impact is enormous. The feature is the Tabbed File Explorer!

The experimental feature must be explicitly enabled but once it is it works a lot like tabbed browsing does.

If you right click on a drive, you’ll see a new menu option “open in a new tab.”  Left clicking that option will open the drive in a new tab adjacent to the current File Explorer tab. That part of the new feature is working smoothly, but the company hasn’t yet worked out the particulars of reordering tabs.

It’s worth mentioning that not all hidden features wind up being officially released features. The company has said exactly nothing about it so this may or may not wind up being an integral part of the Windows 11 user experience.

We certainly hope so because it’s a spectacularly useful addition.

If you’re interested in playing around with it, here’s what you need to do:

First, join the Dev channel of the Windows Insider program and install the latest build.  Then download the Vive Tool which enables hidden developer features in both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Open an “Elevated Command Prompt” and make your way to the folder where the Vive tool has been extracted.

Finally, type the following command:

  • vivetool addconfig 34370472 2

After you enter this commend, you’ll get a confirmation response from the Vive tool.  At that point, you’ll need to restart your computer to start experimenting with the tabbed File Explorer.

When you’ve finished testing the feature or if you decide it’s not to your liking, simply enter the following command (same process as described above):

  • vivetool addconfig 34370472 0

Restart your computer and the tabbed browsing feature will no longer be enabled.

It’s a fun, cool feature and you’ll almost certainly enjoy playing around with it.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Some AMD Ryzen CPU Users Experiencing Windows 11 Issues

Do you have a PC with an AMD Ryzen CPU?  If so, be aware that AMD has found an issue which causes “temporary pauses in system interactivity or responsiveness.”

The issue affects some Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems with the Firmware Trusted Platform Module (fTPM) enabled.

If you’re not familiar with it, the fTPM handles cryptographic operations and is one of several minimum hardware requirements systems need to have in order to get support for Windows 11 installations.  In other words, you can’t get support for your OS unless you are hardware compliant, and you can’t be hardware compliant unless you’ve got fTPM enabled.

Apparently, users have been complaining about these issues since January but it has taken some time for AMD to research a proper explanation for why it is happening.

Apparently, the root cause can be traced back to the following.

The Company States:

“Select AMD Ryzen system configurations may intermittently perform extended fTPM-related memory transactions in SPI flash memory (“SPIROM”) located on the motherboard.”

And this can lead to what the company is describing as “a performance stutter.”

Reddit users who have been tracking the issue say that it happens 3-4 times a day, regardless of what programs are running and tends to last about 2 seconds.

Now for the good news.  The company has a temporary workaround you can make use of which is detailed on their site.

AMD had this to say about a BIOS update that will fix the issue once and for all:

“AMD expects that flashable customer sBIOS files to be available starting in early May, 2022. Exact BIOS availability timing for a specific motherboard depends on the testing and integration schedule of your manufacturer. Flashable updates for motherboards will be based on AMD AGESA 1207 (or newer).”

In the larger scheme of things, a two second stutter isn’t the end of the world, but it is annoying.  If it’s happening to you, either head to the AMD website for the workaround or hang on until late May.  A fix is coming.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Chip Makers Are Already Planning For WiFi7

We barely got to know Wi-Fi 6 but companies like Qualcomm are already making plans for the next generation of Wi-Fi technology. They are working on Wi-Fi 7 which is otherwise known as 802.11.

Granted, the new standard is a long way from being ready to roll out, so don’t expect to see any equipment on the market that’s capable of supporting it until late 2024 or early 2025.

Even so, the fact that companies are already developing and designing around draft releases of the new standard shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Although we don’t have many details about Wi-Fi 7, we do know that it will be faster and increase bandwidth by a significant amount. We don’t have a firm handle on exactly what that means, though.

The best guess is that based on early drafts of the standard, the maximum nominal throughput of Wi-Fi 7 will be nearly five times faster than Wi-Fi 6 and marginally faster than a Thunderbolt ¾ connection.

Naturally, those are theoretical upper limits. So in the real world, once actual gear is in place, we won’t see anything quite so lofty.  Faster is faster though and based on what we know about latency improvements, we can expect it to be at least twice as fast as the current standard.

One of the most significant changes coming will be the fact that Wi-Fi 7 will transform routers into multi-link devices. So as far as your Xbox or smart speaker is concerned, they’re all the same thing.  That’s good news for end users because it will require a lot less in terms of configuration.  The router will simply pick the frequency with the lowest congestion and send data over that channel.

There are still many details to be ironed out. Between now and the ratification of the standard, there will undoubtedly be a whole host of changes in the months ahead but this is great news indeed.  We can hardly wait to see what the future holds.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Don’t Fall For This Cryptocurrency Giveaway Scam

You know you’ve hit the Big Time when you get a scam named after you. That’s exactly what has happened to Elon Musk. The latest scam that’s making the rounds is called the “Elon Musk Mutual Aid Club” or the “Elon Musk Club” for short.

If you’re an experienced IT professional it is easy to be dismissive of things like this. Few seasoned professionals ever fall for these scams after all.

The truth is that the scammers running these plays have made hundreds of thousands of dollars a day doing it. There are enough people on the web who are susceptible to the social engineering tricks they employ that the scammers can count on regular paydays.

Most scams of this variety have played out in something close to real time on a variety of social media channels. The drama of the Elon Musk Club however is playing out in email accounts around the world.

Although this scam invokes the name of Elon Musk and leverages his cult of personality to entice recipients the scam itself is pretty straightforward. It begins with a phishing email that includes a descriptive and enticing tag line. It reads something to the effect of “Get Free Bitcoin via the Elon Musk Club” or “Join the Elon Musk Club” or similar.

The scammers didn’t waste any time trying to come up with a convincing message for the body of the email. It simply contains a link that points the way to a poisoned website.

This page promises to give you 0.055 to all users who participate. The page contains an “Accept an Invitation” button which brings you to an information capture page. Just give your information away (including a photo of yourself) to sign up!

Except of course when you do you’re just handing personal details to the hackers. What is worse is that before you can get your 0.055 you’ve got to donate 0.001 Bitcoin to another member of the club (supposedly chosen at random).

Naturally when you give the Bitcoin away you never get anything back and the scammers walk away with a tidy sum. Don’t fall for it.

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