Tech News Weekly: Issue 32
New Tech in less than 150 words series, Windows security updates, browser updates
News
Operating Systems
Microsoft released security updates for Windows, Office and other company products yesterday. The company did not fix as many vulnerabilities as in previous months, but it did fix at least 4 critical security issues in all versions of Windows.
The main new feature is a new toggle under Settings > Windows Update to receive non-security updates earlier.
Microsoft confirmed a single new issue, which affects Windows 11 version 22H2 only. It affects Japanese and Chinese languages, especially in regards to speech recognition, handwriting or expressive input.
Users may work around the issue, when they experience it, in the following way:
Terminate the application the issue is noticed in.
Open the Task Manager, e.g., with the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Esc.
Locate the process ctfrmon.exe and terminate it.
Restart the app that the issue was experienced in, and it should be gone.
Microsoft is working on a permanent solution for the issue.
Ask Woody notes that Microsoft has not yet fully fixed the secure boot vulnerability in the May 2023 updates. Administrators may want to check out the, lengthy, support article KB5025885: How to manage the Windows Boot Manager revocations for Secure Boot changes associated with CVE-2023-24932.
In development news, Microsoft appears to consider allowing users to pin widgets everywhere on the desktop in upcoming versions of Windows 11. This feature may remind older users of how gadgets worked on Windows 7.
Microsoft continues to push Microsoft Account, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft OneDrive promotions in Windows 11. Most of these are in development builds only at the time, but it is clear that users will see more ads by default for Microsoft services.
Mobile
AntennaPod is a great podcast manager and player for Android. It is free, open source and without ads. The latest version, 3.0, brings a new home screen that is fully customizable.
Popular messaging app WhatsApp is getting the ability to modify send messages. edited messages would appear edited for everyone, and this will work in individual and group chats.
Browser
Mozilla released Firefox 113 and Firefox ESR 102.11 yesterday to the public. Firefox 113 introduces support for animated AV1 files, improved GPU sandboxing on Windows, security fixes, and a redesigned accessibility engine.
Mozilla highlights a new search behavior as well, but I could not replicate it on any of my systems.
According to Mozilla, when Firefox users type a search term in the address bar, the term remains visible when the search engine’s website is loaded. In other words, the URL is not displayed by default anymore. Mozilla says that this helps users modify the search term.
Firefox users who want to disable the feature can do so in the following way:
Load about:config in the web browser's address bar.
Search for browser.urlbar.showSearchTerms.featureGate.
Set the value of the preference to Off.
Restart Firefox.
Microsoft Edge 113 was released this week as well. Microsoft made a change to the browser’s Enhanced Security Mode by removing the Basic option from it. This mode applies certain mitigations to sites when enabled to improve security. The main difference between the removed Basic mode and Balanced mode, the next in line, is that the former is applied to fewer sites, while the latter applies mitigations to all sites not visited frequently.
The latest Brave Browser update improved privacy when using Google Sign-Ins on third-party sites and script blocking.
Google Chrome’s support for WebGPU, launched recently, improves the browser’s capabilities to run AI services.
Privacy and Security
Google has started to display inline ads on Gmail for some users. These ads are displayed as lines on Gmail’s website in-between user emails.
Also new at Google, the ability to switch from using passwords to passkeys for accounts.
Story of how TikTok tracked a journalist from the United Kingdom using her cat’s account.
Non-European companies that seek to secure an EU cybersecurity label may only be able to do so in the future with a joint venture with an EU-based company, according to a new draft by the EU:
Software Releases and Updates
A first beta version of 7-Zip 23.00, the open source archiver, has been released this week. It improves the compressing of executable files and makes a few other changes to the application.
The latest UUPMediaCreator supports the Windows 11 Canary Channel now, which means that its users may download this version of Windows now as well using it.
Gaming and Entertainment
Valve has improved the search of its Steam gaming platform by adding support for tags, developers, franchises and other information.
Amazon Anywhere is a new ingame shop by Amazon that game and app developers may integrate into their products to sell “real” products to users. Peridot, the latest game by Niantic, is the first to feature such a store. Gamers may buy merchandise right in the store.
Other
Thunderbird donations have jumped more than 100% in 2022, allowing the team to continue to grow and expand.
Google revealed plans to add AI, discussion forum topics and video content to Google Search, in an effort to keep up with a fast changing search landscape. Microsoft is pushing AI into search with Bing, and mega-popular apps such as TikTok take over searches for younger audiences, who seem to like short video answers.
Google can’t afford to lose its search dominance, as this would seriously impact the company’s revenue.
A rumor suggests that Microsoft has teamed up with AMD to create AI chips. Work began years ago and first chips are said to come out next year.
Article(s)
Is anyone using the Preview pane in File Explorer?
Windows’ default file management tool, File Explorer, has a preview pane. Windows users may toggle it with the keyboard shortcut Alt-P or the selection of View > Preview Pane.
It displays previews of supported file types. If you select an image in the main pane, a thumbnail of that image is displayed in the preview pane.
The preview pane displays a “no preview available” message if it can’t display a preview. Most file types are not supported by default, which limits the use of the preview pane.
There is an option to expand support, but most Windows users are probably unaware that such an option exists. This option adds text files support, and users may want to check if it is enabled on their devices.
To check for text support, do the following:
Open File Explorer.
Select View > Options.
Switch to the View tab.
Locate “show preview handlers in preview pane”.
If it is checked, text files should be displayed as previews.
If it is unchecked, the “no preview available” message is displayed.
The Preview Pane has its use, but it is quite limiting at best. When enabled, it is also taking away space from the main files pane of File Explorer. While that may not be a problem on large resolution displays, some users may prefer to keep it disabled all the time or most of the time.
Image previews, furthermore, may also be shown directly in File Explorer, if one of the thumbnail views is selected under View.
One of the recent Windows 11 Insider builds introduced a modernized details pane recently. It would not be totally out of the question if a similar modernization would be in development for the Preview Pane.
Tech in less than 150 words
Passwordless authentication explained
Passwordless authentication ditches passwords in favor of a device-specific authentication system. The main idea is to improve security by generating keys during sign-up or conversion to a passwordless system. Part of the key remains on the users device and never leaves it, another part, the public part, is transmitted to the service.
Both are used to verify the user during sign-ins. The only thing left to do during login is to authenticate on the device, using the device’s Pin, biometrics or other means that already exist.
The system renders several attacks, including phishing and brute-forcing, useless. The only negative is the device-specific nature, but syncing will be supported eventually and recovery options are also available, in the case that a user loses access to all devices at the same time.
Passkeys will be the dominating passwordless authentication standard.
Number Matching in Multifactor Authentication explained
Multifactor authentication (MFA), often referred to as two-factor authentication, adds a second layer of authentication to sign-in processes. MFA apps are a good choice to generate the required codes.
Most apps require just a tap to verify the sign-in process. Criminals have abused this in the past by sending lots of requests to user devices, in the hope that they give in at one point and allow the access to avoid getting more of the prompts.
Number matching adds a number to the sign-in request. This number needs to be entered in the authenticator app to allow access. Number matching requires that users type the number into the app, which makes things less comfortable to the user.
It protects against attacks that bombard users with MFA prompts, but it will probably not be long before new attacks are discovered.
You can check out Microsoft’s article on the matter .
Links
12 Ancient Greek Terms that Should Totally Make a Comeback
New Study: 70% of Type 2 Diabetes Cases Linked to Food Choices
Study finds elevated levels of toxic metals in some mixed-fruit juices and soft drinks
Re Mozilla's new search behavior, they forgot to change the config setting
'browser.urlbar.showSearchTerms.featureGate'
to True.