Bonum Certa Men Certa

Eye on Security: 'F1' Keystrokes Made Safe Again, XP Unpatched, Goodbye to Vista, Vista 7 Flaw

Windows XP is sad



Summary: A big heap of security news from the past week, hopefully showing the really sad state of Windows

Patchfest



Microsoft Targets Media Flaws In April Patches

Another big Microsoft Patch Tuesday coming

Big Patch Tuesday On Way

Microsoft Schedules Major Patch Tuesday

It's likely that at least a few Microsoft employees had to work overtime in preparation for tomorrow's Patch Tuesday activities. The company's supposed to release 11 security bulletins in order to address 25 vulnerabilities, which may send signals about both its dedication to fixing stuff and the state of some popular software.


Microsoft to fix F1 bug

Microsoft plans to fix the 'F1' security bug that has been plaguing Internet Explorer users for six weeks in its monthly set of security patches tomorrow.


XP Neglect



MS kernel patch skirts infected machines (mentioned a few days ago)

Microsoft's latest batch of patches contains a kernel update designed not to install on machines infected with a rootkit.


Microsoft Tries to Avoid Windows Blue Screen Repeat (same here)

Microsoft Will Not Patch Newest XP Virus

Microsoft Advises Some XP Users to stay Unpatched (interesting headline, but not entirely accurate)

Vista Neglect



Microsoft slams coffin lid on Vista

Microsoft has killed support for its unloved Windows Vista operating system today.

The company announced in February that the service pack-free version of its post-XP, pre-Windows 7 OS would hit end of life support in April.

This means that from today, the OS which hit manufacturers in late 2006 is left entirely at the mercy of hackers who might wish to exploit the now unsupported code.


Windows Vista SP1 needed for support to continue

Microsoft Ends Original Vista Support

Microsoft ends support for original Windows Vista

Microsoft Ending Support For Windows Vista [Redmond Decides Not Worth It Support Non-Service Pack Vista, Although They Still Support XP]

Microsoft to end support for earlier Windows versions

End of the road for Windows Vista RTM

Microsoft To Stop Supporting Windows Vista RTM

No more support for Microsoft Windows Vista - so now what do you do?

Microsoft is now using fake numbers about Vista 7. These are fake for reasons we explained before (it was the same with Vista).

Vista 7 Spin



Microsoft to Patch Unhackable Windows 7 Bug (also here)

Later today, Microsoft will play it safe by patching a Windows 7 bug that it says can't be exploited.

Of the 11 security bulletins that will be released in a few hours, "Bulletin 7" will address one or more vulnerabilities in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.


Worth seeing:



Zeus (Windows Spyware/Botnet)



Zeus spyware pretends to be Royal Mail PDF

Once infected, compromised machines 'phone home' to hacker controlled servers in China.


Zeus botnet exploits unpatched PDF flaw

Researchers find bugs in archive file formats

Most antivirus vendors have patched their applications in order to detect the tampered archive file formats, such as ".rar," and ".zip," said Tomislav Pericin, founder of the commercial software protection project RLPack.


New Malware



Hentai malware publishes web history of marks online

Some bogus files posing as games from Abel software attempt to trick victims into handing over personal information as part of a supposed game registration process. Meanwhile, in the background, the malware is collecting information on the victim's computer including domain, OS version, file use history and IE favourites.


Fake anti-virus scams on the rise, Google says

In a blog post previewing a 13-month study on the prevalence of fake AVs on the Web, Google said that more than 11,000 individual domains were involved in the distribution of these scams. According to Google, that figure accounts for roughly 15 percent of all malicious software on the Internet.


Conficker



China Reports Millions of Conficker Worm Infections (Conficker is good for GNU/Linux)

China had about 7 million Internet Protocol (IP) addresses infected with Conficker B at the end of last year, according to a recent annual security report posted on the Web site of China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT). The number of infections varied during the second half of the year, which the report covered, but was higher than 5 million during all but one week.


Recent Techrights' Posts

More Microsoft-Red Hat Cross-Pollination as the Company Loses a Managing Director
some people move from Microsoft to Red Hat and some do the opposite
Cloudflare Gives Us All Another Reason to Boycott Cloudflare
If Cloudflare wants to use its vast surveillance network (which is what it does as a CDN) to foist paywalls and maybe something worse (like DRM on top), then Cloudflare should be more widely rejected as a company
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
 
Science is Under Attack
Oligarchy prefers a dumbed-down population
Someone Expiring Certificates on the Day of the 9/11 Attacks is Not Someone I Would Want Controlling My PC (or Deciding What's Authorised for Booting)
"social justice warriors"
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has Reportedly Failed People With Wrong Advice
At the moment the SRA has a PR blunder
The Man Suing Brett Wilson LLP and Gervase de Wilde (5RB)
Now he's probably using the (almost) 200,000 pounds he's supposed to receive to sue Brett Wilson LLP and former colleagues/partners
Slopwatch: A World Wide Web That's Rotting for Companies That Won't Even Exist in a Few Years
some of the junk Google News is promoting
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Links 24/09/2025: Qt Creator 18 Beta, Microsoft Cannot Bail Out "ChatGPT" Anymore, China and US Intensify Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/09/2025: Gemlogs and Politics
Links for the day
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025