News

• Unit 42 saw 4L4MD4R being deployed via ToolShell
• The crooks are asking for $500 worth of Bitcoin
• ToolShell is a Microsoft SharePoint Server bug patched in late July

The risk for businesses who haven’t patched the ToolShell vulnerability keeps growing after new reports suggest ransomware actors are also joining the exploitation party.

Researchers from Palo Alto Network’s cybersecurity arm, Unit 42, said they observed a threat actor known as 4L4MD4R using ToolShell to gain access and try to deploy the encryptor.

ToolShell is a nickname for a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability, recently discovered in on-premises Microsoft SharePoint Server instances. It is tracked as CVE-2025-53770, and was said to allow unauthenticated remote code execution, giving attackers control over unpatched systems simply by sending a crafted request. It was given a severity score of 9.8/10 (critical), and was patched in late July, 2025.

Less than two weeks after Microsoft issued an emergency mitigation, security researchers started noticing an uptick in attacks, and victim counts in the hundreds.

"There are many more, because not all attack vectors have left artifacts that we could scan for," Eye Security warned at the time.

Many high-profile organizations fell victim to different cyberattacks thanks to this flaw, including the US National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Education, Florida’s Department of Revenue, the Rhode Island General Assembly, and government networks in Europe and the Middle East.

Now, ransomware players are hopping onto the ToolShell bandwagon, as well. According to Unit 42, 4L4MD4R is based on open-source Mauri870 code. It was spotted on July 27, when the researchers were investigating a failed attack.

"Analysis of the 4L4MD4R payload revealed that it is UPX-packed and written in GoLang. Upon execution, the sample decrypts an AES-encrypted payload in memory, allocates memory to load the decrypted PE file, and creates a new thread to execute it," Unit 42 said.

The identity, or possible national affiliation, of the group is unknown at this time. However, the researchers said the hackers were demanding a payment of 0.005 Bitcoin, which translates to roughly $500.

Via BleepingComputer

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• Security researchers found three flaws in Nvidia Triton Inference Server
• When used together, they can grant remote code execution capabilities
• A patch has been released, so users should update immediately

Nvidia Triton Inference Server carried three vulnerabilities which, when combined, could lead to remote code execution (RCE) and other risks, security experts from Wiz have warned

Triton is a free open source tool working on both Windows and Linux which helps companies run AI models efficiently on servers, whether in the cloud, on-site, or at the edge.

It supports many popular AI frameworks and speeds up tasks by handling multiple models at once and grouping similar requests together.

Wiz found three flaws in the Python backend:

CVE-2025-23319 (out-of-bounds write bug with an 8.1/10 severity score), CVE-2025-23320 (shared memory limit exceeding vulnerability with a 7.5/10 severity score), and CVE-2025-23334 (an out-of-bounds vulnerability with a 5.9/10 score).

"When chained together, these flaws can potentially allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to gain complete control of the server, achieving remote code execution (RCE)," Wiz said in its security advisory.

The risk is real, too, they added, stressing that companies stand to lose sensitive data:

"This poses a critical risk to organizations using Triton for AI/ML, as a successful attack could lead to the theft of valuable AI models, exposure of sensitive data, manipulating the AI model's responses, and a foothold for attackers to move deeper into a network," the researchers added.

Nvidia said it addressed the issues in version 25.07, and users are “strongly recommended” to update to the latest version as soon as possible.

At press time, there were no reports of anyone abusing these flaws in the wild, however many cybercriminals will wait until a vulnerability is disclosed to target organizations that aren’t that diligent when patching and keep their endpoints vulnerable for longer periods of time.

Via The Hacker News

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• The Avid EVO TWO is an evolution of the EVO THREE
• Low-end frequency of just 28Hz, with a 3.5-way driver design
• £27,995 / €34,995 / $38,995 (about AU$57,589)

British hi-fi firm Avid has unveiled the new flagship in its EVO speaker range, the EVO TWO, as part of its ongoing 30th anniversary celebrations, which also recently included its first all-new turntable in 12 years.

Avid describes the EVO TWO as an "advancement" of the current EVO THREE speakers, with the new model delivering an enhanced bass response, a wider dynamic range and a more expansive sound stage.

The speakers will be available in the UK, Europe and the US, but they've been made with the US market in mind: according to managing director Conrad Mas, “It is particularly suitable for larger rooms and properties where wall construction may be less rigid, a common scenario in many North American homes."

The EVO TWO feature a 28mm (1.1-inch) hand-coated soft dome tweeter, two 160mm (6.3 inch) mid-range drivers and a 250mm (9.84 inch) low-frequency driver with a low end of 28Hz – the addition of the latter means that Avid is referring to this as a 3.5-way speaker system.

That's not something the company has made up – 3.5-way speakers aren't common, but there's a history of great, hefty, floorstanding speakers with hidden bass drivers.

The drive units are mounted on a rigid anodized aluminum baffle and rear plate, and the speakers are available in two finishes: black or gloss white.

As Conrad Mas explains: "The EVO TWO was developed in response to customer feedback requesting a speaker with great presence and low-end articulation, whilst maintaining the clarity and openness characteristic of the EVO series."

The EVO TWO will be available through authorized dealers from September 2025 and the price is £27,995 / €34,995 / $38,995 (about AU$57,589). I'm not sure it'll crash our list of the best stereo speakers at that price, but I'd love to find out with a nice long listening session myself…

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Can you believe it? Little Bobby is all grown up in King of the Hill season 14, which takes us back to the beating heart of Middle America. It’s not surprising considering the show had a release date of August 4 – almost exactly 16 years after it initially stopped airing in 2009. Set in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas, we’re picking back up with Hank (Mike Judge) and Peggy (Kathy Najimy) as they move back to town after Hank’s retirement, while Bobby (Pamela Adlon) is making a new life for himself as a fully-fledged adult,

The new Hulu show (which is also available on Disney+ in the UK and Australia) has been praised as being charming and a slow-grower, much like the original series when it debuted in 1997. It’s both ridiculous and familiar all at once, managing to incorporate a brand-new world while keeping tabs on everything that made the comedy the animated success story it was. As we know, the world has changed a great deal since 2009 (let alone 1997), and it’s almost strange to see a version of Middle America largely unaffected by politics.

But that’s not the change I think we need to keep an eye on. Cultural, societal and political shifts while King of the Hill has been off air go without saying, yet the biggest change affecting the show itself is the rise of streaming services. It’s not something the comedy has ever had to deal with before, and according to its creators, the viewing landscape has undoubtedly changed what we’re watching in season 14.

“Everybody’s trying to figure out how to match audience viewing behavior to the way business models used to work,” showrunner Saladin K. Patterson told The Hollywood Reporter. “So, a microcosm of that is this whole thing that a season is 10 episodes now, and that certainly affects the stories we can tell, but not all in a bad way. In some ways, 10 episodes is creatively more refreshing than having to do 22 episodes. Trust me, the unspoken secret that we always had was it’s hard doing 22 episodes, and by time you get to episode 17, you’re starting to repeat yourself probably. But monetarily speaking, that was a great model. Now for streamers like Hulu and Disney+, it’s a little different.”

He continued, “When we were breaking out the season arc, it certainly made us skip ahead, I think, in a way that we wouldn’t necessarily have skipped ahead in the first 10 episodes under the broadcast model. Think about the Connie ( Lauren Tom) and Bobby relationship. We wanted the season to end with them getting together, so that meant, along the way, we had to jump that relationship ahead faster than we would have had we had 22 episodes to get them together. That fit to how we brought the stories and what we had to pick and choose in terms of what we showed.

“The word that comes to the top of my head is it makes you be more ‘efficient.’ It also makes you figure out, assuming I want to get from A to B, what in between has to be shown to make it make sense when we get to B. Versus if I had to get to A to H, I have B, C, D, E, F and G to hit along the way. It makes us have to be a little more selective with what we have our characters experience if we’re trying to get them to the same place by the end of a season.”

Of course, the fact the King of the Hill reboot is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu rather than one of the other best streaming services around also changes what we’re seeing. In Patterson’s own words, the comedy never hugely pushed the boundaries of speaking out, but now season 14 is so heavily tied to family-friendly brands, that’s even more constricted.

“On the one hand, the Hulu execs for the show were fans of the original, so we all were on the same page in terms of wanting to recapture what made the original special,” he explained. “But there were situations where the Disney of it all put some limiters on us that I know Fox would not have, even though we were on Hulu and streaming, which theoretically has broader S&P [standards and practices] than Fox. But for us, staying true to the show meant we weren’t ever going to be too gratuitous with the curse words and things, but we do take some liberties. The characters do curse in ways they can’t curse on broadcast.

“That being said, Hulu still made us go through and pull out all the F-bombs because they don’t want the TV-MA label, and it’s fine.”

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• Consumers given until January 2026 to update Office to retain support for voice tools
• A backend update means older versions will no longer be supported
• A broader Office/Windows update push is ongoing

Microsoft is warning users of older versions of Office that they will soon be losing access to certain voice tools, including transcription, dictation and read aloud, as of January 2026.

The dropped features include systems to read documents and emails aloud, speech-to-text conversions and voice-to-text input, but those who fail to update to Office version 16.0.18827.20202 or newer will lose out.

This is for most casual users, however Government Cloud users including GCC, GCC High and DoD environments will have an additional two months to apply the change.

"To ensure continued high-quality performance of the Read Aloud, Transcription, and Dictation features in Microsoft 365 Office apps, we're upgrading the backend service that powers these capabilities," the notice warned.

Microsoft justified the change by adding it is upgrading the backend service which powers these voice features, therefore older versions must lose support to ensure ongoing compatibility with newer versions.

Word, Outlook, OneNote and PowerPoint are among the most commonly used apps to lose support for voice tools, and there will be no local fallback once the deadline is passed. Perpetual license holders will already be used to limited functionality, lacking most cloud-powered voice tools already.

This isn't the only change that Office users are facing in the coming months – by October 14, 2025, Office 2016 and 2019 will reach end of extended support. Office apps on Windows 10 also lose support later this year, with Windows 10 itself going out of date in October too.

With numerous Microsoft-related deadlines all approaching at rapid speed, the company is finally seeing an uptick in adoption of its latest software. Windows 11 installs finally overtook Windows 10 installs for the first time in July 2025, after a moment of crossover in June.

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• The 6600 ION delivers up to 88PB per rack, and at 122TB, Micron is scaling SSDs far beyond typical limits
• With 36 SSDs in 2U, Micron enables 4.42PB in a compact server configuration
• Micron projects daily energy savings equivalent to powering 124 U.S. homes with 2EB installations

Micron has announced a major expansion of its storage lineup with a new entry in the high-capacity SSD space, the 6600 ION.

The company says this PCIe Gen5-based SSD is now available in a 122TB configuration and is expected to scale up to 245TB in early 2026.

The company is positioning its new model as a direct challenge to hard disk drives in hyperscale and enterprise data centers, aiming to offer greater efficiency in terms of power consumption, physical space, and storage density.

The 6600 ION is part of a broader portfolio that also includes the 9650 PCIe Gen6 and the 7600 SSD for low-latency tasks.

All three products are built on Micron's G9 NAND, which the company claims enable significant performance and capacity gains.

“With the industry’s first PCIe Gen6 SSD, industry-leading capacities and the lowest latency mainstream SSD—all powered by our first-to-market G9 NAND—Micron is not just setting the pace; we are redefining the frontier of data center innovation,” said Jeremy Werner, senior vice president and general manager of Micron’s Core Data Center Business Unit

Micron claims the 6600 ION can deliver up to 88PB per rack which is huge considering that many of its rivals are still below 40PB per rack.

With support for up to 36 E3.S SSDs in a 2U server, the design enables up to 4.42PB per server.

“With Supermicro’s broadest selection of Petascale storage optimized servers supporting up to 36 E3.S SSDs, the Micron 6600 ION enables up to 4.42PB per 2U server delivering the highest density and power efficiency for large capacity AI workloads,” said Michael McNerney, senior vice president, Marketing and Network Security at Supermicro.

The 6600 ION reportedly delivers a 67% density improvement over previous alternatives.

Micron suggests this could become the largest SSD available commercially, allowing data centers to store exabytes of information with improved energy efficiency.

However, its role in actually replacing hard drives will depend on long-term endurance, cost-per-terabyte economics, and compatibility across platforms.

That said, the 6600 ION reportedly uses only 1 watt per 4.9TB, a figure that undercuts the power draw of traditional HDD arrays.

Micron projects that installations scaling to 2 exabytes could result in daily energy savings equivalent to powering 124 U.S. homes.

These claims point to significant operational savings, but large-scale deployment will depend on more than just power metrics.

As Micron eyes leadership in fastest SSD and largest SSD categories, the actual shift from HDDs will rely on sustained performance under pressure and meaningful cost advantages across the board.

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