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Google's Project Zero Reveals Zero-Day Exploit on Windows That Microsoft Hasn't Fixed Yet

Since Microsoft wasn't able to fix the bug in 90 days, Google's Project Zero team has now published the bug report.

HIGHLIGHTS
Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy has detailed the exploit on Twitter

The bug has been filed as "low severity"
Microsoft would bring the fix through the July Patch Tuesday release

Google's Project Zero team has revealed a zero-day exploit affecting Windows systems. Microsoft was informed about the bug that is claimed to allow attackers to "take down an entire Windows fleet relatively easily", though the Redmond company hasn't been able to bring its fix in the 90-day window proposed originally. The issue is said to have its presence in Windows' SymCrypt core cryptographic library that is available for symmetric algorithms since Windows 8. The open-source project also debuted as the primary crypto library for asymmetric algorithms on the Windows 10 1703 build.

Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy through a series of tweets has detailed the exploit. "It's a DoS, but this means basically anything that does crypto in Windows can be deadlocked (s/mime, authenticode, ipsec, iis, everything). Microsoft committed to fixing it in 90 days, then didn't," Ormandy tweeted.

Since Microsoft wasn't able to fulfil its commitment on time, the Project Zero team has now published the bug report on the Chromium site. Ormandy has also created an X.509 certificate to trigger the bug that is believed to prompt a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on Windows servers. However, the bug has been marked with "low severity".

Senior Security Engineering Manager at Google Tim Willis in the Chromium post mentioned that Microsoft is still working on the fix. "MSRC [Microsoft Security Response Center] reached out to me and noted that the patch won't ship today and wouldn't be ready until the July release due to issues found in testing. As today is 91 days, derestricting the issue," said Willis.

It is likely that Microsoft would bring a fix through the next month's July Patch Tuesday release. Meanwhile, server admins should be aware of the vulnerability to avoid any inevitable incidents.

Walmart is expected to pump in $1.2 billion to fund Flipkart's operations

Walmart is expected to pump $1.2 billion into Flipkart's operations Flipkart. The world’s largest retailer acquired homegrown e-commerce company Flipkart for $16 billion last year, pitching it in direct competition with its rival Amazon.com in a battle for dominance of India’s online retail market.

As of April 30, 2019, and January 31, 2019, Walmart reported cash and cash equivalents of $2.7 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively, according to filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission made by Walmart last week. Of the $2.7 billion of cash, approximately $1.2 billion can only be accessed through dividends or inter-company financing arrangements, subject to approval of Flipkart's minority shareholders. “However, this cash is expected to be utilised to fund the operations of Flipkart,” said the filing.
The net cash used by the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company in financing activities decreased $1.6 billion for the three months ended April 2019, compared to the same period in the previous financial year. This decrease was partially impacted by the Flipkart acquisition. Walmart reported a working capital deficit of $18.1 billion on April 30, 2019, compared to $21.5 billion in 2018. This decline was primarily due to higher current assets as a result of the consolidation of Flipkart.

Walmart is expected to pump $1.2 billion into Flipkart's operations Flipkart. The world’s largest retailer acquired homegrown e-commerce company Flipkart for $16 billion last year, pitching it in direct competition with its rival Amazon.com in a battle for dominance of India’s online retail market.

As of April 30, 2019, and January 31, 2019, Walmart reported cash and cash equivalents of $2.7 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively, according to filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission made by Walmart last week. Of the $2.7 billion of cash, approximately $1.2 billion can only be accessed through dividends or inter-company financing arrangements, subject to approval of Flipkart's minority shareholders. “However, this cash is expected to be utilised to fund the operations of Flipkart,” said the filing.
The net cash used by the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company in financing activities decreased $1.6 billion for the three months ended April 2019, compared to the same period in the previous financial year. This decrease was partially impacted by the Flipkart acquisition. Walmart reported a working capital deficit of $18.1 billion on April 30, 2019, compared to $21.5 billion in 2018. This decline was primarily due to higher current assets as a result of the consolidation of Flipkart.

Walmart’s total revenue increased $1.2 billion or 1 per cent in the three months to April 30, 2019, when compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. This increase was due to the addition of Flipkart’s net sales besides other factors.
During April-May this year, Walmart President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Doug McMillon and Judith McKenna, president and CEO of Walmart International, visited India to assess the progress made by Flipkart. They also met the senior leadership of Flipkart and group companies — Myntra and PhonePe — and is learnt to have discussed strategy to take on Amazon.

Amazon has stepped up its investment in India and recently pumped Rs 2,800 crore into its marketplace. The fresh investment comes at a time when the Seattle-headquartered firm has logged out from China. In December last year, Amazon invested Rs 2,200 crore in its Indian entity. Jeff Bezos-led Amazon has so far made over $5-billion investments in India. Some reports suggest that the company may have invested an additional $2 billion on top of that.

Google is disconnecting Photos from Drive because it’s “confusing” for most users

After offering sync between Google Photos and Google Drive for long, Google has now decided to end the sync service because the whole thing is too “confusing” for users.

In a blog post, Dan Schlosser and Jason Gupta, product managers at Google wrote, “We’ve heard feedback that the connection between these services is confusing, so next month, we’re making some changes to simplify the experience across Drive and Photos,”

The changes according to the blog post will take effect in July and separate the two services, simplifying the system in the process.

Photos and videos you save to Google Drive will no longer automatically be copied to Google Photos. The same rule applies when you save to Photos.

More importantly, file deletions too won’t be a problem as they will not sync between the two services. This means that a particular photo deleted in Photos will not be deleted from your Drive account in case they happen to be the same one.

There will soon appear an “upload from Drive” button in Google Photos that will allow users a way to copy videos and photos from Drive to Photos but you will end up having two versions of the same file. This also means that such a move would end up eating more space especially if the copied item is of “original” quality, as only “high” quality images do not count against storage space.

Indeed, the most important takeaway from this disconnection is that photo will no longer be accidentally deleted from both services. While this simplifies things drastically for users, it also means that both services will now have to monitored individually when it comes to storing photos and videos.

Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 Laptop Launched in India for Enterprise Customers

Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 laptop has been launched in the Indian market. Targeted at enterprise users, the new laptop is claimed to be “smallest 14-inch 2-in-1” and has been built from ground up. The Dell laptop comes with features like ExpressSign-in, ExpressConnect, and ExpressCharge. The Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 price in India will start at Rs. 1,35,000 (excluding taxes). There is no word on the exact availability of the laptop. To recall, the Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 was originally unveiled at CES earlier this year.

Featuring a 2-in-1 form factor, the Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 can be used in a number of modes, including the regular laptop mode, tent mode, and tablet mode. The laptop sports Titan Gray finish, with a machined aluminium body, a hairline brushed design, and diamond-cut edges.

Dell says the new laptop uses the world's first PC proximity sensor, enabled by Intel's Context Sensing Technology. This sensor allows the Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 laptop to detect user's presence and automatically wake up, letting the user to log in to the system using Windows Hello face recognition, without having to do anything. Dell calls the feature ExpressSign-in. The same sensor also detects when user is stepping away and the laptop locks itself to ensure security.