Windows 10 patched after NSA warning

[Eldorado]

"Microsoft is patching a serious flaw in various versions of Windows today after the National Security Agency (NSA) discovered and reported a security vulnerability in Microsoft’s handling of certificate and cryptographic messaging functions in Windows.

"The flaw, which hasn’t been marked critical by Microsoft, could allow attackers to spoof the digital signature tied to pieces of software, allowing unsigned and malicious code to masquerade as legitimate software."

Full report at the Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/14/21065563/microsoft-windows-security-flaw-nsa-patch-attribution-cryptography-update

 

"NSA identifies "critical vulnerability" in Microsoft Windows 10"

And CBS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-windows-10-nsa-identifies-critical-vulnerability-today-2020-01-14/

[acute]

I got my patch last night. Thank you Microsoft. I will sleep more soundly now, knowing that Windows 10 is a tiny bit less crap than it was on Monday.

[RoofGardener]

Why would the NSA alert Microsoft ? Surely they'd want to exploit the 'weakness' in order to hack into their enemies computers ? (such as the White House etc). 

[Buzz_Light_Year]

2 minutes ago, RoofGardener said:

Why would the NSA alert Microsoft ? Surely they'd want to exploit the 'weakness' in order to hack into their enemies computers ? (such as the White House etc). 

NSA and Microsoft openly admitted to working together to improve security starting with Win Vista. But I've always read that backdoors to the Microsoft O/S started with Win 95 OSR2.

[tmcom]

On 1/15/2020 at 10:48 PM, RoofGardener said:

Why would the NSA alert Microsoft ? Surely they'd want to exploit the 'weakness' in order to hack into their enemies computers ? (such as the White House etc). 

There is a weakness in the battle station!

PS l have Windows 7Pro, with no updates and no regular, ugly surprizes!