Updates 2023-02-14

Happy Valentine’s Day, Folks!

Today is Patch Tuesday for February, 2023.

There are a whopping 150+ major hacks and 200+ application updates this month. It’s a big one, with about 6 GB of updates for most users. Microsoft is also pushing out Windows 22H2 (Win10 and Win11) for all supported devices. If you’re not already on the latest builds, expect to be “upgraded” automatically in the coming days.

This Month in Technology

1020 South Main Street Operations LLC, 1st Franklin Financial Corporation Master Welfare Benefit Plan, 225 Evergreen Road Operations LLC, 90 Degree Benefits, Inc., A10 Networks, Aflac, Alkomprar Technology, AmerisourceBergen, an unnamed medical research company, Arizona Health Advantage, Inc., Arnold Clark, Aspire Surgical, Atlassian’s Jira Service Management Server and Data Center, Audifarma, Autotrader, Bahrain’s international airport, Benefit Administrative Systems, LLC, BonqDAO, Brazilian Government, British PM Stewart McDonald, Cacti, Cardiovascular Associates, Casa Ley, Cedar Oaks Surgery Center, Centro Médico Virgen De La Caridad, CircleCi, Cisco IOx, City Council of Durango, City of London, City of Oakland, Community Health Systems, CommuteAir – exposing the TSA no-fly list, Control Web Panel, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Court of Justice of the State of Pará, Datadog, Diligent Corp, DNV (impacting over 1000 ships worldwide), DotHouse Health Incorporated, DPP II, LLC, Dr. Keith Rundle & Dr. Herman Rundle, Edmonds School District, Eurostar, Exclu, FortiOS SSL-VPN, General Treasury of the Republic of Chile, Git, GitHub Atom, GitHub Desktop, GoAnywhere MFT, 130 organizations using GoAnywhere, Google Fi, GoTo, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online, Harmony Horizon, Health Plan of San Mateo, Heritage Provider Network, Hive, Home Care Providers of Texas, Howard Memorial Hospital, Indigo Books & Music, Instituto Federal Do Pará, Intelligent Business Solutions, ION Group, iOS, IT Servicios, Italy, Jackson & Joyce Family Dentistry, JD Sports, Jefferson County Health Center, KeePass, KomplettFritid, Kroger, LastPass, League of Legends, LearnPress, Lexmark firmware, LimeVPN, Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Los Angeles Unified School District, Luaces Asesores, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, macOS, MailChimp, Maternal and Family Health Services, Microsoft-Verified OAuth Apps, a Midwest specialty medical care clinic, Mindpath Health, Minuteman Senior Services, MKS Instruments, Morgan Hill Unified School District, multiple federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agenciesNamecheap, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Nissan North America, Norton LifeLock (including their password manager), ODIN Intelligence, One Brooklyn Health System, Packman anti-cheat software, PayPal, Pennsburg Manor, PeopleConnect (TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate), Pepsi, Pharma Gestao, Pitt Meadows School District 42, Planet Ice, Politriz, Puma, QNAP NAS, Qualys, Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office, Qulliq Energy Corporation, Reddit, Regal Medical Group, Rise Interactive Media & Analytics, LLC, Rostelecom, Royal Mail, Rundle Eye Care, Samsung Galaxy App Store, San Francisco Transit Police, Seguros Equinoccial S.A, Sharp HealthCare, Shell, Sistema Integral De Control Alimentario, Skyview Networks, Solaris, Southeast Colorado Hospital District, St. Rose Hospital, Stanford Medicine, Stroke Scan Inc, T-Mobile, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Teijin Automotive Technologies Welfare Plan, The Guardian, Ticketmaster, Toyota’s GSPIMS, Tucson, Arizona, Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team, Ukrinform, University of California, University of Colorado Hospital Authority, University of Colorado, University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Maryland Baltimore, University of Miami, UScellular, VMware OpenSLP, VMware vRealize Log Insight, Weee!, Yum! Brands, Zacks Investment Research, and Zurich have reportedly been hacked or compromised this month.

Most federal agencies ignore the GAO cybersecurity recommendations.

Bankdata, Bermuda, The FAA’s NOTAM, Instagram, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Outlook, Tor, Twitter, Verizon, YouTube, and Zelle suffered from significant outages.

Cloudflare managed to prevent an insane 71 million requests per second attack.

Last months updates broke the Windows Start menu, Windows 10 (if a 365 trial was active), and almost 300 MSI motherboard models.

A whopping 12% (minimum) of online stores expose private data or backups. A new strain of point-of-sale malware prevents contactless payments in order to ensure that the skimmer operates unhindered.

Now for the good news:

Impossible Foods are being hit with patent problems across the globe. Hopefully this will lead to a financial incentive to grow real foods again.

Let’s Get Busy

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Patch Tuesday is huge this month. The typical computer should see roughly
6 GB in updates today. Let’s get started.

Like it or not, Windows 10 and Windows 11 versions 22H2 are now being pushed out onto all supported devices, so expect it to be installed in the coming days.

Microsoft released updates to address 72 vulnerabilities in .NET and Visual Studio, .NET Framework, 3D Builder, Azure App Service, Azure Data Box Gateway, Azure DevOps, Azure Machine Learning, HoloLens, Internet Storage Name Service, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for IoT, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based), Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Graphics Component, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office OneNote, Microsoft Office Publisher, Microsoft Office SharePoint, Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft PostScript Printer Driver, Microsoft WDAC OLE DB provider for SQL, Microsoft Windows Codecs Library, Power BI, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Windows Active Directory, Windows ALPC, Windows Common Log File System Driver, Windows Cryptographic Services, Windows Distributed File System (DFS), Windows Fax and Scan Service, Windows HTTP.sys, Windows Installer, Windows iSCSI, Windows Kerberos, Windows MSHTML Platform, Windows ODBC Driver, Windows Protected EAP (PEAP), Windows SChannel, Windows Win32K, and MSRT (~2 GB). This includes security updates. A reboot is required.

Apple released updates for macOS Big Sur 11.7.3, macOS Monterey 12.6.3, macOS Ventura 13.2.1, iOS 12.5.7, iOS 15.7.3, iOS 16.3.1, iPadOS 15.7.3, iPadOS 16.3.1, Safari 16.3.1, tvOS 16.3.2 and watchOS 9.3.1. This includes security updates. Use Apple Software Update to install these updates. A reboot is required.

iOS 12.5.7, 15.7.3, and 16.3.1 are security updates. Use Settings, General, Software Update to install the most current update.

iPadOS 15.7.3 and 16.3.1 are security updates. Use Settings, General, Software Update to install the most current update.

watchOS 9.3.1 is a security update. Use the Watch app on your iPhone to install the most current version.

tvOS 16.3.2 is a security update. Use System, Software Update to install the most current version.

Google Chrome OS 109.0.5414.125 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current version. A reboot is required.

elementary OS 7.0 is a new major version of elementary OS improving app management, controls, defaults, and many other bug fixes. This is not a security update.
https://elementary.io/

Don’t forget to check your mobile devices, too! Many updates will also apply to your tablet, phone, kindle or television – so check your device-appropriate App Store and install updates.

Important Notes

Everything above this section should be checked by everyone on every computer. Chances are good that close to every single computer you touch will be affected by those updates. This is not the case with the items below, though you should still check each line item below to see if it applies to software you have installed.

The release of macOS Ventura (13.x) means that macOS Catalina (10.15) and older are no longer supported. If you can not install at least macOS Big Sur (11) on your Mac then you should immediately remove it from the Internet and use it offline only. It will no longer receive patches or updates and can now no longer be secured.

The now-current release of the Windows 10 (v22H2) is very large so will take a long time to download on slower connections. Windows 10 pushes you to get the latest Windows 10 release every 12 months and only supports any consumer builds for 18 months. If you don’t let it finish and you’re on a slow connection, this process will kill your Internet performance forever. If you don’t have the bandwidth to download the bits, I’m happy to provide loaner USB drives to our local clients, or, if you prefer to have me mail it to you please contact me for information.

The now-current release of the Windows 11 (v22H2) is very large so will take a long time to download on slower connections. Windows 11 pushes you to get the latest Windows 11 release every 12 months and only supports any consumer builds for 24 months. If you don’t let it finish and you’re on a slow connection, this process will kill your Internet performance forever. If you don’t have the bandwidth to download the bits, I’m happy to provide loaner USB drives to our local clients, or, if you prefer to have me mail it to you please contact me for information.

Windows 11 is still very young so I encourage you to wait a few more months before you consider switching to it.

Please remember that while I list many different applications within these updates, most people should ONLY install updates for a program if they already have a previous version of that program installed.

It is essential to maintain all the applications you have installed on your computer, but often you can minimize the time investment and the potential for exploitation simply by uninstalling software you do not need or use, reducing the attack surface. This includes “free” applications like Avast, OpenOffice, and games you do not actually play.

Also note that using the applications own “check for updates” function, when available, will best preserve your current settings, and often avoid any crapware that might come with a fresh installer. Use this option if it’s available to you.

Finally, if you’re sick of doing this all yourself, let me! Call or email me any time, and we can set you up with subscription SaferPC updates which will be installed each month whenever necessary. Click, call or email for more details:
https://saferpc.info/updates/
209-565-12PD
shawn@12pointdesign.com

Driver Updates

If you’re using this hardware – these updates are for you.

Display Driver Uninstaller 18.0.6.0 updates installer, adds option to update driver source to default, and improves cleanup. This is not a security update.
https://www.wagnardsoft.com/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu

DS4Windows 3.2.8 resolves over a dozen bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/Ryochan7/DS4Windows/releases/latest

Garmin Express 7.16.1 doesn’t provide a detailed changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/software/express/

JACK2 1.9.22 improves compatibility, removes example tools, updates dependencies, and resolves a couple bugs. This is a security update.
https://jackaudio.org/downloads/

NVcleanstall 1.15.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/

Drivers by Seagull 2023.1 adds support for over 200 new printer models from 20 vendors, RFID unique serial numbers (TID), and updates the license.
https://www.seagullscientific.com/support/downloads/drivers/

Wacom Driver 6.4.1-3 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.wacom.com/en-us/support/product-support/drivers

Xerox Smart Start 1.8.10.0 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.support.xerox.com/en-us/content/143617

Browser Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Brave 1.48.158 is a security update.
https://brave.com/

Google Chrome 110.0.5481.100 is a security update.
https://www.google.com/chrome/

Microsoft Edge 110.0.1587.41 is a security update.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download

Firefox 110.0 is a security update.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

SeaMonkey 2.53.15 is a security update.
https://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Vivaldi 5.6.2867.62 is a security update.
https://vivaldi.com/

Email Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

ProtonMail (Android) 3.0.11 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://proton.me/mail/download

Spark 3.3.3.42970 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://sparkmailapp.com/

Spark (macOS) 3.3.3.42968 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://sparkmailapp.com/

Thunderbird 102.7.2 is a security update.
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/

Internet Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

AnyDesk 7.1.8 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://anydesk.com/en/downloads

AnyDesk (macOS) 7.0.1 resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://anydesk.com/en/downloads

BrowsingHistoryView 2.54 adds whitespace around the QR codes. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/browsing_history_view.html

Dropbox 167.4.4719 resolves several bugs and improves performance. This is not a security update.
https://www.dropbox.com/

Facebook Messenger 176.0.0.12.101 is a security update.
https://www.messenger.com/download

FileZilla Client 3.63.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://filezilla-project.org/

FileZilla Server 1.6.6 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://filezilla-project.org/

FreeFileSync 12.0 is a major update and adds several new security profiles, improves timeouts, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.freefilesync.org/download.php

Google Drive 71.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://drive.google.com/start

IPInfoOffline 1.61 resolves a crash bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/ip_country_info_offline.html

Java 8u361 is a security update.
https://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Microsoft Teams 1.6.00.376 adds several new features. This is not a security update.
https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads

Nextcloud Server 25.0.3 is a security update.
https://nextcloud.com/

Omada Software Controller 5.8.4 adds global view, mapping, and adds several other features. This is not a security update.
https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/download/omada-software-controller/

Pocketnet-GUI 0.8.39 adds P2P audio and video calls, improved GUI confirmations, and resolves over a dozen bugs. This is not a security update.
https://pocketnet.app/

Signal 6.5.1 resolves a crash bug. This is not a security update.
https://signal.org/download/windows/

Signal (Android) 6.10.9 improves display of activity. This is not a security update.
https://signal.org/android/apk/

Skype 8.93.0.404 improves translator, color schemes, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.skype.com/

Syncthing 1.23.1 resolves an upgrade bug. This is not a security update.
https://syncthing.net/

Telegram 4.6.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://telegram.org/

Telegram (Android) 9.4.0 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://telegram.org/apps

WinSCP 5.21.7 updates Batch Rename extension and resolves a settings change bug. This is not a security update.
https://winscp.net/eng/index.php

Zoom 5.13.7.12602 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://zoom.us/

Media Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

BasicSR 1.4.2 adds torch and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/XPixelGroup/BasicSR/releases/latest

Kodi 20.0 implements over 500 changes. This is a security update.
https://kodi.tv/

Plex Desktop 1.63.3.3523 resolves audio passthrough. This is not a security update.
https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-app

Plex Home Theater 1.33.2.3525 resolves audio passthrough. This is not a security update.
https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-app

Plex Media Server 1.31.0.6654 improves season and episode detection, end credit marker detection, scanner, and resolves over a dozen bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-media-server

Real-ESRGAN-ncnn-vulkan 0.2.0 is a security update.
https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN-ncnn-vulkan/releases/latest

TuneIn 1.26.0 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://tunein.com/radio/home/

Game Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

GameMaker Studio 2023.1.0.58 improves installation experience, performance and image editing. This is not a security update.
https://www.yoyogames.com/en/gamemaker

GDevelop 5.1.157 adds new objects, improves GDevelop banner behavior, asynchronous objects, updates libraries and extensions. This is not a security update.
https://gdevelop.io/download

Lego Studio 2.23.1.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/ldd

Playstation PS5 22.02-06.50.00 adds support for the DualSense Edge wireless controller and improves performance. This is not a security update.
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/ps5/system-software/

Steam 2023.02.10 resolves dozens of bugs. This should be treated as a security update.
https://www.steampowered.com/platform/update_history/index.php?skin=0&id=0

Office Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to most people.

Adobe Reader DC 22.003.20314 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://get.adobe.com/reader

Adobe After Effects 23.2 and 22.6.4 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/after_effects/apsb23-02.html

Adobe Connect 11.4.6 and 12.2 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/connect/apsb23-05.html

Adobe FrameMaker 2020.5 and 2022.1 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/framemaker/apsb23-06.html

Adobe Bridge 12.0.4 and 13.0.2 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/bridge/apsb23-09.html

Adobe Photoshop 23.5.4 and 24.1.1 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/photoshop/apsb23-11.html

Adobe InDesign 18.2 and 17.4.1 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/indesign/apsb23-12.html

Adobe Premiere Rush 2.7 is a security update.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/premiere_rush/apsb23-14.html

Adobe Animate 22.0.9 and 23.0.1 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/animate/apsb23-15.html

Adobe Substance 3D Stager 2.0.0 is a security update.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/substance3d_stager/apsb23-16.html

Audacity 3.2.4 resolves a functional bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

LibreOffice 7.4.5 resolves a stability bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.libreoffice.org/

LibreOffice Fresh 7.5.0 resolves over 250 bugs. This is a security update. Be aware that the Fresh line is beta software and should be avoided in favor of the Still line above.
https://www.libreoffice.org/

Nextcloud Desktop 3.7.3 resolves dozens of bugs. This is a security update.
https://nextcloud.com/

Notepad++ 8.4.9 resolves over a dozen bugs. This is not a security update.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Paint.net 5.0.1 is a major update to Paint.net, adds several features, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.getpaint.net/

Calibre 6.12.0 adds read-aloud, updates libraries, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://calibre-ebook.com/

Kindle for PC 1.40.65415 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.amazon.com/kindleforpc

Security Software Updates

One or more of these is likely to be of interest to most people.

Chainsaw 2.3.1 resolves a panic bug. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/countercept/chainsaw

DNSQuerySniffer 1.91 resolves stability bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/dns_query_sniffer.html

HTTP Toolkit 1.12.3 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://httptoolkit.tech/

KeePass 2.53.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://keepass.info/

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware 4.5.22 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Mac 4.18.11 resolves a couple bugs and removes the built-in browser. This is a security update.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

OpenSSL 1.1.1t is a security update.
https://www.openssl.org/source/

OpenSSL 3.0.8 is a security update.
https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html

ProtonVPN (macOS) 3.0.13 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://protonvpn.com/download

RogueKiller 15.8.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.adlice.com/download/roguekiller/

Tails 5.9 is a security update.
https://tails.boum.org/install/dvd/index.en.html

uBlock Origin 1.47.0 resolves several bugs and improves performance. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/latest

Capture Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Camtasia 22.5.0 adds several new transitions, improved recorder, and several other tools. This is not a security update.
https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html

Open Broadcaster Software 29.0.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://obsproject.com/

ScreenToGif 2.37.2 adds translations. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif/releases/latest

SnagIt 23.0.3 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.html

Converter Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

DVDFab 12.0.9.9 adds support for new encodings, improves compatibility and resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.dvdfab.cn/download.htm

HandBrake 1.6.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://handbrake.fr/

iMazing HEIC Converter 2.0.5 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://imazing.com/heic

MakeMKV 1.17.3 adds support for new encodings and improves reliability. This is not a security update.
https://www.makemkv.com/download/

StreamFab 6.1.0.7 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.dvdfab.cn/downloader-new.htm

UniFab 1.0.1.2 resolves a couple bugs and adds support to merge. This is not a security update.
https://www.dvdfab.cn/unifab.htm

Education updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to most people.

Zotero 6.0.20 improves performance and resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://www.zotero.org/

Zotero (macOS) 6.0.21 resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://www.zotero.org/

Utility Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

1Password for Mac 8.9.15 improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://1password.com/downloads/mac/

1Password for Windows 8.9.14 adds support to import directly from LastPass. This is not a security update.
https://1password.com/downloads/windows/

8GadgetPack 36.0 updates outdated gadgets. This is not a security update.
https://8gadgetpack.net/

Agent Ransack 2022.3366 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/download/

Beyond Compare 4.4.5.27371 improves performance and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php?zz=dl4

Bitwarden 2023.1.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://bitwarden.com/

CCleaner 6.09.10300 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.ccleaner.com/

CPU-Z Installer 2.04 adds support for new hardware. This is not a security update.
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

CurrPorts 2.66 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html

Cygwin 3.4.6 improves compatibility and stability. This should be treated as a security update.
https://cygwin.com/

Dell Command Update 4.8.0 improves BIOS update, self-update, and toast behaviors. This is a security update.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln311129/dell-command-update?lang=en

DesktopOK 10.66 improves auto save icons feature. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/DesktopOK

Etcher 1.14.3 improves compatibility and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Everything Toolbar 1.0.2 improves performance, reliability and cosmetics. This is a security update.
https://github.com/stnkl/EverythingToolbar/

Fido 1.43 adds BITS transfer support. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/pbatard/Fido/releases

FileLocator Pro 2022.3366 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.mythicsoft.com/filelocatorpro/download

Git SCM 2.39.1 is a security update.
https://git-scm.com/

Go 1.20.1 updates the toolchain and improves performance. This is a security update.
https://go.dev/

GoodSync 12.1.7 resolves several bugs and improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.goodsync.com/

grepWin 2.0.13 adds ability to copy column content, and resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/stefankueng/grepWin/releases/latest

HWMonitor 1.49 adds support for newer hardware. This is not a security update.
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Memtest86+ 6.10 adds support for Secure Boot signing, headless EFI, various command line options, new hardware and resolves several bugs. This should be treated as a security update.
https://www.memtest.org/

NetworkTrafficView 2.43 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/network_traffic_view.html

NTLite 2.3.9.9039 updates components and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.ntlite.com/download/

OSForensics 10.0.1007 improves case management, VM reporting, and resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.osforensics.com/download.html

AOMEI Partition Assistant 9.14.0 improves safety of move/resize, resolves several bugs, and improves reliability. This is not a security update.
https://www.diskpart.com/

PointerStick 6.22 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/PointerStick

PowerToys 0.67.1 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/latest

PSAppDeploy 3.9.2 resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://psappdeploytoolkit.com/

ScreenConnect 23.1.1.8423 improves compatibility, adds several cosmetic changes, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.connectwise.com/software/control/download

SearchMyFiles 3.23 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html

Sysmon 14.14 resolves a timeout detected deleted files. This is not a security update.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysmon

TeamViewer 15.38.3 resolves a file resume bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/download/windows/

Unified Remote Server 3.13.0.2501 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.unifiedremote.com/

Unity 2022.2.6 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive

Ventoy 1.0.88 resolves several bugs and improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

WhyNotWin11 2.5.0.4 updates hardware compatibility lists. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/rcmaehl/WhyNotWin11

WinGet 1.4.10173 resolves over a hundred bugs and improves stability. This is a security update.
https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/releases/latest

WinRAR 6.20 resolves over 20 bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.rarlab.com/

ZoomIt 6.12 resolves a cosmetic artifact bug when zooming. This is not a security update.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/zoomit

Developer Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

ADB 34.0.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools

Android Studio 2022.1.1.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://developer.android.com/studio

GitHub Desktop 3.1.6 updates libraries, resolves several bugs, and improves compatibility. This is a security update.
https://desktop.github.com/

GitHub includefragment 6.1.1 adds refetch API. This is not a security update.
https://github.github.io/include-fragment-element/

MySQL Server 8.0.32 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/installer/

MySQL ConnectorNet 8.0.32 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/

Node.js 19.6.0 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Node.js 18.14.0 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Redemption 6.3.0.6164 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.dimastr.com/redemption/

Rustup 1.25.2 adds SHA-1 support again. This is not a security update.
https://www.rust-lang.org/

TortoiseGit 2.14.0 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://tortoisegit.org/

Visual Studio Code 1.75.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://code.visualstudio.com/

Virtual Machine Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

VirtualBox 7.0.6 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Web Package Updates

These are likely to be of interest only to web developers.

Drupal 9.4.11 is a security update.
https://drupal.org/download

Joomla 4.2.7 is a security update.
https://www.joomla.org/

ownCloud Client 3.1.0.9872 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://owncloud.com/desktop-app/

phpList 3.6.12 updates dependencies and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.phplist.org/

phpMyAdmin 5.2.1 is a security update.
https://www.phpmyadmin.net/

Piwigo 13.5.0 is a security update.
https://piwigo.org/

Antispam Bee 2.11.2 resolves several bugs and improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/antispam-bee/

Autoptimize 3.1.5 improves compatibility and resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/autoptimize/

Contact Form 7 5.7.3 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

Duplicator 1.5.2.1 improves compatibility and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/#developers

myStickymenu 2.6.2 improves flow. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mystickymenu/

Postie 1.9.65 removes uname support. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/postie/

Redirection 5.3.9 is a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

W3 Total Cache 2.3.0 improves compatibility and resolves over a dozen bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

WooCommerce 7.3.0 resolves almost 100 bugs. This is a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/woocommerce/

WPtouch 4.3.48 is a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/

That’s all for now folks. Keep it clean out there. 😉

Regards,

Shawn K. Hall
https://SaferPC.info/
https://12PointDesign.com/

Updates 2022-01-11

Welcome back, Folks!

Today is Patch Tuesday for January, 2022.

It’s a big one. This month has been insane. There’s always a surge in hacking events near holidays, but this month had almost double the *known* hacking events from previous months. What’s worse is that many of the vulnerabilities used were known weeks and sometimes years in advance, though the patches were not yet installed or the specific applications and services were simply not being maintained or secured. Grrrr.

This Month in Technology

A New Leaf, Inc., Advocate Aurora HealthAlabama Department of Rehabilitation ServicesAll in One SEOAmediaAndrew Sauchelli, DMDApache httpdApple Blossom Family PracticeAzure App ServiceBansley and Kiener (B&K), Belgium’s MilitaryBernalillo CountyBioPlus Specialty Pharmacy Services LLCBrazil’s Health MinistryBroward HealthC.E. Niehoff & CompanyChaddockCiox HealthCommission on ElectionsCOVID-19 Home TestsCrawford County Assessors OfficeDaniel J. Edelman Holdings, Inc., DatPiff, The De Montfort SchoolDouglas C Morrow ODPCDuneland School CorporationEvanston Township High SchoolExpresso and SICFertility Centers of Illinois, PLLC, FinalSiteFlexBookerFlorida Digestive Health Specialists LLP, Forensic Science IrelandFresenius Kabi infusion pump systemsGarrett metal detectorsGeorgia Bone & Joint Surgeons, P.C., Google Docs Comment PlatformGrass Valley, CAGumtreeH2 DatabaseHellmann Worldwide LogisticsImpresaInetum GroupiPhone 13James Kagan, MDJefferson Surgical ClinicKearsarge Regional School DistrictLastPassLog4j (several times)Loyola University Medical CenterLuxemburg-Casco School DistrictmacOS powerdirMcMenaminsMedQuest Pharmacy, Inc., Microsoft Active DirectoryMicrosoft TeamsMonkey Kingdom (via Grape), Monongalia Health System Inc., Monroe Public SchoolsMonterey Peninsula Unified School DistrictNetgear NighthawkNorthwest Broward Orthopaedics AssociatesNorth Shore Hebrew Academy High SchoolOG department storeONUSOregon Eye SpecialistsPeck & Associates, PC, Pithadia Medical Professional Services, Inc., ProtempsPulseTVQNAPRavkooRedLine StealerRhode Island Public Transit AuthorityR.R. Donnelley & SonsRunning Warehouse LLC, Sainsbury’sSaltzer HealthSaskatchewan Liquor and Gaming AuthoritySEGAShelley School DistrictShutterflySkate Warehouse LLC, Skin Care Specialty PhysiciansSotheby’s Realty’s BrightcoveSouthern Orthopaedic AssociatesSpar StoresStandard BankSuperior PlusSurgery Group SCT-MobileTackle Warehouse LLC, Tennis Warehouse LCC, Tiyuli and LametayelUAW Retiree Medical Benefits TrustUberUbisoftUK Defence AcademyUltimate Kronos GroupUS Commission on International Religious FreedomUScellular, Utah Department of Health, Virginia Division of Capitol PoliceVirginia General AssemblyVolvoWalgreen Co., WD MyCloudWelfare, Pension and Annuity Funds of Local No. ONE, I.A.T.S.E., and Zoho UEM have been hacked.

Norton 360 is now opting you in for their CPU cryptomining if you have their software installed. The very same software designed to protect you from evildoers that would take advantage of your computer to do this kind of thing…is now doing it. Apple has released an Android app under the auspice of helping users discover Tracker devices that might be tracking them…by enabling your device to allow them to communicate with the Apple Tracker network. Firefox still doesn’t properly support OCSP stapling. Dell BIOS updates are crashing devices. Microsoft has integrated their own financing platform into Edge.

Microsoft rang in the new year by breaking Microsoft Exchange (on-prem) for every server that had filtering enabled (almost all of them). Microsoft acknowledged the problem about 20 hours after it began and released resolution steps by deleting and rebuilding the scanning engine about 31 hours after it began. Sonicwall, too.

CloudflareAWS, Twitch, Zoom, PSN, Slack, Hulu, Imgur have had extended outages this month.

Please, for all that is holy, check your backups!

Phishing is an ever-growing problem. Sophos reminds us how to check for scams like this.

Now for the good news:

Mozilla has added Secure DNS to Firefox, now enabled by default. Unfortunately, this bypasses DNS filtering options you may have assigned yourself – so if you use Firefox you’ll need to enable your own DoH URLs within the settings.

Let’s Get Busy

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Patch Tuesday this month is pretty big. The typical computer should see roughly 3 GB in updates today. Let’s get started.

Microsoft released updates for.NET Framework, Microsoft Dynamics, Edge, Exchange Server, Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Active Directory, CLFS, Windows Cryptographic Services, Windows Defender, DirectX, Windows Installer, Windows RDP, Windows Remote Desktop, ReFS, Windows Security Center, Windows Storage Spaces, Windows Tile Data Repository, Windows UEFI, Windows User Profile Service, and MSRT (~2 GB). This includes security updates. A reboot is required.

Apple released updates for Safari 15.2. This includes security updates. Use Apple Software Update to install these updates. A reboot is required.

Google Chrome OS 96.0.4664.111 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current version. A reboot is required.

Don’t forget to check your mobile devices, too! Many updates will also apply to your tablet, phone, kindle or television – so check your device-appropriate App Store and install updates.

Important Notes

Everything above this section should be checked by everyone on every computer. Chances are good that close to every single computer you touch will be affected by those updates. This is not the case with the items below, though you should still check each line item below to see if it applies to software you have installed.

The release of macOS Monterey (12.x) means that macOS Mojave (10.14) and older are no longer supported. If you can not install at least macOS Catalina (10.15) on your Mac then you should immediately remove it from the Internet and use it offline only. It will no longer receive patches or updates and can now no longer be secured.

The now-current release of the Windows 10 (v21H2) is very large so will take a long time to download on slower connections. Windows 10 pushes you to get the latest Windows 10 release every 6 months and only supports any consumer builds for 18 months. If you don’t let it finish and you’re on a slow connection, this process will kill your Internet performance forever. If you don’t have the bandwidth to download the bits, I’m happy to provide loaner USB drives to our local clients, or, if you prefer to have me mail it to you please contact me for information.

The now-current release of the Windows 11 (v21H2) is very large so will take a long time to download on slower connections. Windows 11 pushes you to get the latest Windows 11 release every 6 months and only supports any consumer builds for 24 months. If you don’t let it finish and you’re on a slow connection, this process will kill your Internet performance forever. If you don’t have the bandwidth to download the bits, I’m happy to provide loaner USB drives to our local clients, or, if you prefer to have me mail it to you please contact me for information.

Windows 11 is still very young so I encourage you to wait a few more months before you consider switching to it.

Please remember that while I list many different applications within these updates, most people should ONLY install updates for a program if they already have a previous version of that program installed.

It is essential to maintain all the applications you have installed on your computer, but often you can minimize the time investment and the potential for exploitation simply by uninstalling software you do not need or use, reducing the attack surface. This includes “free” applications like Avast, OpenOffice, and games you do not actually play.

Also note that using the applications own “check for updates” function, when available, will best preserve your current settings, and often avoid any crapware that might come with a fresh installer. Use this option if it’s available to you.

Finally, if you’re sick of doing this all yourself, let me! Call or email me any time, and we can set you up with subscription SaferPC updates which will be installed each month whenever necessary. Click, call or email for more details:
https://saferpc.info/updates/
209-565-12PD
shawn@12pointdesign.com

Driver Updates

If you’re using this hardware – these updates are for you.

Display Driver Uninstaller 18.0.4.7 removes support for Vista, updates libraries, and improves cleanup. This is not a security update.
https://www.wagnardsoft.com/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu

Browser Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Brave 1.34.80 is a security update.
https://brave.com/

Google Chrome 97.0.4692.71 is a security update.
https://www.google.com/chrome/

Microsoft Edge 97.0.1072.55 is a security update.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download

Firefox 96.0 is a security update.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Firefox ESR 91.5.0 is a security update.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/

Iridium 2021.12.96 is a security update.
https://iridiumbrowser.de/

SeaMonkey 2.53.10.2 is a security update.
https://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Vivaldi 5.0.2497.35 is a security update.
https://vivaldi.com/

Email Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Thunderbird 91.5.0 is a security update.
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/

Internet Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

AnyDesk (macOS) 6.4.0 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://anydesk.com/en/downloads

curl 7.81.0 is a security update.
https://curl.haxx.se/windows/

Dropbox 139.4.4896 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.dropbox.com/

FileZilla Server 1.2.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://filezilla-project.org/

FreeFileSync 11.16 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://www.freefilesync.org/download.php

Omada Software Controller 5.0.29 is a security update.
https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/download/omada-software-controller/

Prosody 0.11.11 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://prosody.im/download/start

Syncthing 1.18.6 improves usability. This is not a security update.
https://syncthing.net/

Telegram 3.4.3 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://telegram.org/

Zoom 5.9.1.2581 is a security update.
https://zoom.us/

Media Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

darktable 3.8.0 makes nearly 4,000 changes including performance, bug fixes, new hardware support and more. This should be treated as a security update.
https://www.darktable.org/install/

Picard 2.7.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://picard.musicbrainz.org/

TuneIn 1.25.0 does not provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://tunein.com/radio/home/

Game Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Steam 2022.12.16 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://store.steampowered.com/about/

Office Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to most people.

Adobe Reader DC 21.011.20039 is a security update.
https://get.adobe.com/reader

Adobe Acrobat and Reader 21.011.20039, 20.004.30020, and 17.011.30207 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/acrobat/apsb22-01.html

Adobe Illustrator 26.0.2 and 25.4.3 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/illustrator/apsb22-02.html

Adobe Bridge 12.0.1 and 11.1.3 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/bridge/apsb22-03.html

Adobe InCopy 16.4.1 is a security update.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/incopy/apsb22-04.html

Adobe InDesign 16.4.1 is a security update.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/indesign/apsb22-05.html

Audacity 3.1.3 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Krita 5.0.2 is a major update. This version adds several features, resolves bugs and improves stability and reliability. This is not a security update.
https://krita.org/en/download/krita-desktop/

LibreOffice Fresh 7.2.5 resolves almost 100 bugs. This is not a security update. The “Fresh” line is beta software and should be avoided in favor of the stable version (“Still”) by most users.
https://www.libreoffice.org/

Nextcloud Desktop 3.4.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://nextcloud.com/

Notepad++ 8.2 improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Paint.net 4.3.7 resolves a stability bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.getpaint.net/

Security Software Updates

One or more of these is likely to be of interest to most people.

elementary OS 6.1
https://elementary.io/

Gpg4win 4.0.0 is a major update adding several new features and updates libraries. This is a security update.
https://www.gpg4win.org/download.html

KeePass 2.50 improves performance and generator, updates libraries, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://keepass.info/

OpenSSL 1.1.1m is a security update.
https://www.openssl.org/source/

OpenSSL 3.0.1 is a security update.
https://curl.se/windows/

OpenSSL 3.0.1 is a security update.
https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html

ReactOS 0.4.13 provides over 250 bug fixes and improvements. This is not a security update.
https://reactos.org/

RogueKiller 15.1.5 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.adlice.com/download/roguekiller/

Tails 4.26 is a security update.
https://tails.boum.org/install/dvd-download/index.en.html

TinyWall 3.2.5 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://tinywall.pados.hu/

uBlock Origin 1.40.6 improves reliability. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/latest

Capture Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

ScreenToGif 2.35.4 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif/releases/latest

Converter Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

HandBrake 1.5.1 updates libraries, resolves several bugs and improves stability and reliability. This is not a security update.
https://handbrake.fr/

IsoBuster 4.9 adds support for new hardware, new formats, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.isobuster.com/download.php

Utility Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

7-Zip 21.07 adds VHDX support, improved parameter handling and compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.7-zip.org/

Agent Ransack 2022.3283 improves performance and reliability, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/download/

Aomei Partition Assistant 9.6.0 resolves several bugs and improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.diskpart.com/

Autoruns 14.07 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Active Directory Explorer 1.51 fixes a Windows Store packaging crash. This is not a security update.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/adexplorer

CacheSet 1.02 fixes a 64 bit OS regression. This is not a security update.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/cacheset

Beyond Compare 4.4.1.26165 resolves several bugs and improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php?zz=dl4

ControlMyMonitor 1.31 adds a new parameter for Secondary displays. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/control_my_monitor.html

CPU-Z 1.99 adds support for new hardware and resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

DesktopOK 9.51 adds dark mode. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/DesktopOK

dnGrep 2.9.482.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://dngrep.github.io/

Etcher 1.7.3 is a security update.
https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Everything 1.4.1.1015 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.voidtools.com/

Everything CLI 1.1.0.21 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.voidtools.com/

FileLocator Pro 2022.3283 provides performance and reliability improvements. This is not a security update.
https://www.mythicsoft.com/filelocatorpro/download

GoodSync 11.10.0 resolves several bugs and improves stability. This is not a security update.
https://www.goodsync.com/

Homedale 2.02 improves colors. This is not a security update.
https://www.the-sz.com/products/homedale/

Macrium Reflect 8.0.6495 doesn’t provide a changelog, so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

NTLite 2.3.2.8526 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.ntlite.com/download/

osquery 5.1.0 adds resource limiting, new objects, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://osquery.io/downloads

PowerToys 0.53.1 adds several new features and resolves bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/latest

Process Monitor 3.87 fixes resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Samsung Magician 7.0.1 is a major update, but doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

SearchMyFiles 3.16 is a cosmetic update. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html

Sysmon 13.31 improves reliability. This is not a security update.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysmon

TeamViewer 15.25.8 fixes a VOIP bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/download/windows/

TraceRouteOK 2.71 updates language files. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/TraceRouteOK

WifiInfoView 2.72 updates the internal MAC database and resolves a high-DPI bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html

ZoomText 2022.2112.10.400 resolves several bugs and improves display. This is not a security update.
https://support.freedomscientific.com/Downloads/ZoomText

Developer Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Maraura 3.9.7 updates Java support and libraries, and resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
http://arianne.sourceforge.net/engine/marauroa.html

Docker Desktop 4.3.2 updates the scan engine to detect log4j vulnerabilities. This is a security update.
https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop

Godot 3.4.2 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is a security update.
https://godotengine.org/

Node.js 12.22.9 is a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Node.js 14.18.3 is a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Node.js 16.13.2 is a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Node.js 17.3.1 is a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

SQLite 3.37.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.sqlite.org/download.html

Web Package Updates

These are likely to be of interest only to web developers.

Drupal 9.3.2 resolves a major stability bug. This is not a security update.
https://drupal.org/download

HumHub 1.10.3 is a security update.
https://www.humhub.com/en/download

MailArchiva 8.5.6 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://mailarchiva.com/

ownCloud Server 10.9 is a security update.
https://owncloud.org/install/

Piwigo 12.2.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://piwigo.org/

ScreenConnect 21.14.5924.8013 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.connectwise.com/software/control/download

SMF 2.0.19 is a security update.
https://www.simplemachines.org/

WordPress 5.8.3 is a security update.
https://wordpress.org/

Slider Revolution 6.5.14 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://revolution.themepunch.com/

WPBakery 6.8.0 improves compatibility and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wpbakery.com/

Autoptimize 2.9.5 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/autoptimize/

BuddyPress 9.2.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress/

Social Post Feed 4.1.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-facebook-feed/

Postie 1.9.59 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/postie/

NextScripts Social Networks Auto-Poster 4.3.25 is a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/social-networks-auto-poster-facebook-twitter-g/

Visual Composer 41.1 improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://visualcomposer.com/

WooCommerce 6.1.0 is a major update, resolving several bugs and adding features. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/woocommerce/

WordPress Zero Spam 5.2.9 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zero-spam/

That’s all for now folks. Keep it clean out there. 😉

Regards,

Shawn K. Hall
https://SaferPC.info/
https://12PointDesign.com/

Updates 2021-08-10

Welcome back, Folks!

Today is Patch Tuesday for August, 2021. It’s a big one. There have been a series of Apple, Microsoft, and various hardware vulnerabilities, as well as the quarterly Oracle updates that kept the industry hopping. Couple that with Black Hat 2021 last week, which kept reminding us how poorly those who design our technology have done and continue to do.

This Month in Technology

Apple devices via Pegasus, IOMobileFrameBuffer, and Wi-Fi namesAtlassianCharming Kitten (hacking group), Cloudstar, cdnjs, FortiNet FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, HP (and Samsung and Xerox) printer driver, Illinois State Police, Linux via SequoiaPulse Connect Secure, SonicWall Secure VPN, Swisslog Healthcare’s Translogic PTSVMware ESXiWindows via a SAM security bug, Hello, PrintNightmare (x3+), and PetitPotam, and a new exploit method for wiretapping DNS.

Apple announced a new feature where they scan your content “only” for images of child exploitation provided by an unaccountable third-party, while they assure their customers’ “screeching voices” that they won’t allow governments to directly access the data or feed the database or algorithms (uh-huh), just remember that this is the same company that vowed to silence online dissent and already works with governments to expose their users’ activity. Oh, and they’re launching their own VPN service which they claim even they won’t know what you’re using it for. Wink, wink.

While I’m on the subject of VPNs, Windscribe (a “secure” VPN service) servers were seized and were discovered to not use encryption. Talk about a false promise of privacy!

Now let’s do security. If you still thought Avast (the “get hacked every year” anti-virus company) was worth anything, knowing that Norton (the “we’ll just run our own crypto mining software on your hardware and you can pay us for it” people) was in talks to buy them for about $8B should make your skin crawl. Zoom lost an $85 million class-action cybersecurity lawsuit, and Colonial Pipeline is being targeted now.

The US Federal Government received a C- grade for their IT security. Half of the agencies tested received D grades. These are the same agencies that recently made a claim about the most secure election in history. Pay no attention to the missing 95% of ballots or remote access to voting machines. Or else!

Edward Snowden has a great writeup of physical vs theoretical security concerns,
and another on how the “security” industry is failing everyone. Regular maintenance (of everything!) is critical to technology security. Stale hardware & software are responsible for nearly every security incident. This is what we do and why this newsletter is even being published.

There was a major outage at Akamai that took down a large portion of the Internet.

Google broke ChromeOS twice this month for many users, once by preventing users from being able to login due to a single character coding error. I’m reminded of a Mark Twain quote: “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”

The thing about someone willing to buy your ransomware: when they feel wronged they’re likely to betray your ransomware gang.

Amazon is losing employees while CNN is firing them. Property owners are being ripped off by the state, and their tenants. There are child predators at Disney World.

There’s now a lawsuit over CDC under-counting vaccine deaths, meanwhile they’re over-counting infectionsignoring the risks, downplaying the ineffectiveness of the vaccine-induced herd immunity, and mandating cancer in children. Multiple pharmaceutical giants neglected to keep records of which “vaccines” were placebos and the European Parliament is being held liable for vaccine injuries and deaths. At least there has been victory in Alberta. It’s hard to take them seriously when they’re demonizing free will, treating dictates as law, government agencies are concealing their own violations of international lawmandating doctors violate their medical licenses in order to keep them, while flip-flopping like fish, and imposing prison time for unlawful parading. Would you trust someone with your life who thinks you should be in prison for disagreeing with them? It’s not enough for government to take 13%+ of what you pay at the pump (most gas stations profit is 1% or less) and force you into electric vehicles that they can pull the plug on anytime, they want to charge you for every mile you travel, too, personal or business.

Now for the good news:

Andy’s Mountain Grill & Deli is coming back! Starlink is growing fast and improving reliability and environmental tolerances.

Let’s Get Busy

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Patch Tuesday this month is huge. The typical computer should see roughly 3.0 GB in updates today. Let’s get started.

Microsoft released updates for Windows, Edge, .NET, Servicing Stack, Internet Explorer, and MSRT (~1.5 GB). This includes security updates. A reboot is required.

Apple released updates for iOS 14.7.1 and iPadOS 14.7.1, macOS Big Sur 11.5.1, Security Update 2021-004 Catalina, Security Update 2021-005 Mojave, watchOS 7.6.1, tvOS 14.7, Safari 14.1.2, and iTunes 12.11.4. This includes security updates. Use Apple Software Update to install these updates. A reboot is required.

iOS 14.7.1 is a security update. Use Settings, General, Software Update to install the most current update.

iPadOS 14.7.1 is a security update. Use Settings, General, Software Update to install the most current update.

watchOS 7.6.1 is a security update. Use the Watch app on your iPhone to install the most current version.

tvOS 14.7 is a security update. Use System, Software Update to install the most current version.

Google Chrome OS 92.0.4515.130 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current version. A reboot is required.

Don’t forget to check your mobile devices, too! Many updates will also apply to your tablet, phone, kindle or television – so check your device-appropriate App Store and install updates.

Important Notes

Everything above this section should be checked by everyone on every computer. Chances are good that close to every single computer you touch will be affected by those updates. This is not the case with the items below, though you should still check each line item below to see if it applies to software you have installed.

The release of macOS Big Sur (11.x) means that macOS High Sierra (10.13) and older are no longer supported. If you can not install at least macOS Mojave (10.14) on your Mac then you should immediately remove it from the Internet and use it offline only. It will no longer receive patches or updates and can now no longer be secured.

The now-current release of the Windows 10 (v21H1) is very large, for the first time it’s actually smaller than the previous release, but it will take a long time to download on slower connections. Windows 10 pushes you to get the latest Windows 10 release every 6 months and only supports any consumer builds for 18 months. If you don’t let it finish and you’re on a slow connection, this process kill your Internet performance forever. If you don’t have the bandwidth to download the bits, I’m happy to provide loaner USB drives to our local clients, or, if you prefer to have me mail it to you please contact me for information.

Please remember that while I list many different applications within these updates, most people should ONLY install updates for a program if they already have a previous version of that program installed.

It is essential to maintain all the applications you have installed on your computer, but often you can minimize the time investment and the potential for exploitation simply by uninstalling software you do not need or use, reducing the attack surface. This includes “free” applications like Avast, OpenOffice, and games you do not actually play.

Also note that using the applications own “check for updates” function, when available, will best preserve your current settings, and often avoid any crapware that might come with a fresh installer. Use this option if it’s available to you.

Finally, if you’re sick of doing this all yourself, let me! Call or email me any time, and we can set you up with subscription SaferPC updates which will be installed each month whenever necessary. Click, call or email for more details:
https://saferpc.info/updates/
209-565-12PD
shawn@12pointdesign.com

Driver Updates

If you’re using this hardware – these updates are for you.

Nvidia 471.68 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Xerox Smart Start 1.6.25.0 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.support.xerox.com/en-us/content/143617

Browser Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

Brave 1.27.111 is a security update. Use Help, About to install the most current version.
https://brave.com/

Google Chrome 92.0.4515.131 is a security update. Use Help, About to install the most current version.
https://www.google.com/chrome/

Microsoft Edge 92.0.902.67 is a security update. Use Help, About to install the most current version.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download

Firefox 91.0 is a security update. Use Help, Check for updates to install the most current version.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Firefox ESR 78.13.0 is a security update. Use Help, Check for updates to install the most current version.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/

SeaMonkey 2.53.8.1 is a security update.
https://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Vivaldi 4.1.2369.16 is a security update. Use Help, About to install the most current version.
https://vivaldi.com/

Internet Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.

AnyDesk for macOS 6.3.0 improves scam handling, adds PKG release, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://anydesk.com/en/downloads

curl 7.78.0 resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://curl.haxx.se/windows/

Dropbox 128.4.2870 doesn’t provide a changelog so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.dropbox.com/

FileZilla Client 3.55.1 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://filezilla-project.org/

Google Earth 7.3.4 is a security update.
https://earth.google.com/

Java 8u301 is a security update.
https://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Nmap 7.92 resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://nmap.org/

Prosody 0.11.10 is a security update.
https://prosody.im/download/start

PuTTY 0.76 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Rclone 1.56.0 adds many new features, improves compatibility, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://rclone.org/

Skype 8.73.0.124 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.skype.com/

Telegram 2.9.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://telegram.org/

WinSCP 5.19.2 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://winscp.net/eng/index.php

Zoom 5.7.4.804 improves notifications and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://zoom.us/

Email updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Thunderbird 78.13.0 is a security update. Use Help, Check for updates to get the most current version.
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/

Media Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Flickr Downloadr 3.4.1.1 updates libraries. This is not a security update.
https://flickrdownloadr.com/downloads/

iTunes 12.11.4 is a security update.
https://apple.com/itunes

Plex Media Server 1.23.6.4881 resolves several bugs and improves scanner. This is not a security update.
https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-media-server

Game Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Epic Games 12.2.12 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.epicgames.com/

Nintendo Switch 12.1.0 improves stability. This is not a security update.

Steam 2021.07.21 resolves a path bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.steampowered.com/

Office Updates

One or more of these are likely to be of interest to most people.

Adobe Connect 11.2.3 is a security update.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/connect/apsb21-66.html

Adobe Magento Commerce 2.4.3, 2.4.2-p2, and 2.3.7-p1 are security updates.
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/magento/apsb21-64.html

Adobe Reader DC 21.005.20060 improves reliability. This is not a security update.
https://get.adobe.com/reader

Atom 1.58.0 improves cosmetics and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://atom.io/

Audacity 3.0.3 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Blender 2.93.2 resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.blender.org/download/

Krita 4.4.7 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://krita.org/en/download/krita-desktop/

LibreOffice Fresh 7.1.5 resolves over 50 bugs. This is not a security update. The “Fresh” line is beta software and should be avoided for the stable release.
https://www.libreoffice.org/

Nextcloud Desktop 3.3.0 resolves over 50 bugs. This is not a security update.
https://nextcloud.com/

Notepad++ 8.1.2 improves dark mode. This is not a security update.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Security Software Updates

One or more of these is likely to be of interest to most people.

DNSQuerySniffer 1.85 adds sort menu options and improves high DPI support. This is not a security update.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/dns_query_sniffer.html

elementary OS 6 is a major update that integrates several new features and controls and a simplified installer. This is not a security update.
https://elementary.io/

RogueKiller 15.0.9 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.adlice.com/download/roguekiller/

uBlock Origin 1.37.2 resolves several books. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/latest

Tails 4.21 is a security update.
https://tails.boum.org/install/dvd-download/index.en.html

Capture Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Elgato Game Capture HD 3.70.51 adds PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to input and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.elgato.com/en/game-capture-software

ScreenToGif 2.33.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif/releases/latest

SnagIt 2021.4.3 is a security update.
https://download.techsmith.com/snagit/enu/snagit.exe

Converter Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

HandBrake 1.4.0 adds several new filters, improves hardware encoding, resolves several bugs, and updates libraries. This is not a security update.
https://handbrake.fr/

Utility Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Dell Command Update 4.3 is a security update.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln311129/dell-command-update?lang=en

DesktopOK 9.15 improves compatibility with Windows 11 and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/DesktopOK

GoodSync 11.8.0 resolves several bugs and improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.goodsync.com/

Homedale 1.98 improves CLI support. This is not a security update.
https://www.the-sz.com/products/homedale/

IsMyHdOK 3.33 improves compatibility with Windows 11 and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/IsMyHdOK

NTLite 2.2.0.8152 adds several new features, improves performance, updates libraries and resolves bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.ntlite.com/download/

Aomei Partition Assistant 9.4 adds Disk Defrag and resolves a bug. This is not a security update.
https://www.diskpart.com/

ProcDump 10.1 adds an option to specify a dumpfile comment and supports triage dumps. This is not a security update.
https://live.sysinternals.com/

PowerToys 0.43.0 improves stability and accessibility, and resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/latest

RDCMan 2.82 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://live.sysinternals.com/

RoboForm 9.1.9 resolves several bugs. This follows shortly after a security update.
https://www.roboform.com/

Rufus 3.15 updates libraries and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://rufus.ie/en/

Sigcheck 2.82 resolves a stability bug. This is not a security update.
https://live.sysinternals.com/

Synergy 1.14.0 is a security update.
https://symless.com/synergy/

Sysmon 13.23 resolves a stability bug. This is not a security update.
https://live.sysinternals.com/

ZoomText 2021 2021.2107.13.400 adds support for new hardware and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://support.freedomscientific.com/Downloads/ZoomText

Developer Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

Node.js 16.6.1 resolves several bugs. This build closely follow 16.6.0, which was a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Node.js 14.17.4 is a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Node.js 12.22.4 is a security update.
https://nodejs.org/en/

Visual Studio Code 1.59 improves extensions, finalizes the Testing API, adds Remote Containers, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://code.visualstudio.com/

WinMerge 2.16.14 resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://winmerge.org/

Virtual Machine Updates

These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.

VirtualBox 6.1.26-145957 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Web Package Updates

These are likely to be of interest only to web developers.

Dada Mail 11.14.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://dadamailproject.com/

Docker Desktop 3.5.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop

Drupal 9.2.3 is a security update.
https://drupal.org/download

HumHub 1.9.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.humhub.com/en/download

MailArchiva 8.1.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://mailarchiva.com/

Nextcloud Server 22.1.0 resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://nextcloud.com/

ownCloud Server 10.8 resolves dozens of bugs. This is not a security update.
https://owncloud.org/install/

phpList 3.6.4 improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.phplist.org/

ScreenConnect 21.10.4238.7885 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.connectwise.com/software/control/download

WordPress 5.8 integrates Blocks into Widget logic, adds new patterns, and styles. This is not a security update.
https://wordpress.org/

Antispam Bee 2.10.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

Autoptimize 2.9.0 improves customization and controls. This is not a security update.

BuddyPress 9.0.0 improves compatibility, block support, and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

Contact Form 7 5.4.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

Interactive World Map 3.1.9.1 improves compatibility. This is not a security update.

myStickymenu 2.5.6 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

Postie 1.9.56 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.

Redirection 5.1.3 resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.

Slider Revolution 6.5.6 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://revolution.themepunch.com/

Social Post Feed 2.19.3 improves compatibility. This is not a security update.

Sucuri Security 1.8.27 improves compatibility. This is not a security update.

Visual Composer 38.0 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://visualcomposer.com/

W3 Total Cache 2.1.6 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

WooCommerce 5.5.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

WordPress Zero Spam 5.0.13 resolves several bugs. This is a security update.

WP Mail SMTP 3.0.3 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.

That’s all for now folks. Keep it clean out there. 😉

Regards,

Shawn K. Hall
https://SaferPC.info/
https://12PointDesign.com/