Hideo Kojima’s newest game is set to come out in November of this year!
This is much different from how health class told us babies were born.
Sony released the newest trailer for Hideo Kojima’s long-awaited game Death Stranding. You can watch the nearly nine-minute long trailer here:
To make things even better, the trailer ends by showing the release date of Nov. 8, 2019.
The trailer finally showed us the gameplay we have been desperately hoping to see. We also got a bit of an idea of what the story will entail.
First, let’s talk about the story…
A fallen America
He looks like he could use a crossbow
In the game, you control Sam, played by Norman Reedus. Sam is on a mission to help save the former United States at the request of the former president.
In order to do so, he must help unite the country by traversing across the nation seeking out help.
A cataclysmic event has thrown the country into a post-apocalyptic future.
Although the trailer doesn’t fully explain how the U.S. plunged into chaos, the trailer does hint at a previous war. At the forefront of this war is the main antagonist Cliff, played by Mads Mikkelsen.
So THAT’S where Kaecilius went after the events of “Doctor Strange!”
Cliff appears to have been a soldier turned weapon researcher. Although his motivations remain unclear, he appears to have stumbled upon a connection to something demonic.
Demon-like monsters called BT threaten the world as well as agents who make it their goal to capture you. The agents are called Homo Demens, and they’re from an extremist militant group.
These guys remind us of the Skulls from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
When it rains, the agents will leave you alone, but that’s when the demons (BT) come out to try and nab you. In order to even see them, you need to use one of the weirdest tools in the game, a baby.
Talk about a helicopter parent.
These babies are known as “Bridge Babies” or “BBs.” The trailer suggests that Mikkelsen’s character Cliff is the reason they exist. Although their full origins are not yet known, the trailer suggests that they have a connection to the same demonic force Cliff discovered.
Exploration first, action second
“I’m going on an adventure!”
The world of Death Stranding looks massive. For the bulk of the game, you appear to be just traveling from one corner of the world to another. Luckily, you have plenty of gadgets to make the journey easier.
Sam carries a massive amount of tools on his backpack including a collapsible ladder and a spike for propelling down a cliffside. At times, he looks like less of a Kojima character, but more like Link from The Legend of Zelda with his huge array of tools you can’t quite believe he can carry.
The world’s your oyster!
Although your weapon wheel has a spot for guns and knives, the trailer shows more of an emphasis on evasion and stealth. When agents try to trap you, you bob and weave away from them rather than fill them with lead. When an enemy does get close, you can throw a few punches at them, or knock them out with their own gear.
However, you need to be careful when weaving around enemies. The trailer shows that if an enemy lands a hit on you, you can potentially drop some gear.
How Hideo Kojima created the characters of Metal Gear
We didn’t get to see much in terms of combat. Other Kojima games like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain encourage the players to fight however they want to fight. This game appears to have the same concept, but for exploration. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; we just want to make sure we get to see Reedus kick some butt, too.
The early November release date doesn’t spell great news for “The Last of Us 2,” which fans hoped was being released this year. A source told Kotaku that “The Last of Us 2” will more than likely be pushed to February of next year.
We’ve been waiting so long for more information on Death Stranding. The November release date almost seems too good to be true, but we are happy that Kojima’s next gem is nearly within reach.
Can you really be addicted to video games? The World Health Organization thinks so.
Remember when your mom used to yell at you to get off the darn Nintendo all the time when you were a kid? She might’ve been onto something.
Last weekend, the World Health Organization officially added what it termed “gaming disorder” to its official list – the International Classification of Diseases.
WHO defines gaming disorder as an affliction that causes people to prioritize gaming to the detriment of their everyday lives. On their website, they say that for gaming disorder to be diagnosed “the behavior pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.”
Gamers, never to be outshone in their sensitivity, have been complaining en masse online, seemingly unable to tell the difference between simply enjoying gaming as a hobby and letting it consume every facet of their lives.
The WHO is not saying that every passionate gamer who plays for multiple hours a day is some sort of addict. Addiction, in all of its forms, occurs when someone’s fixation starts to creep into and destroy all other aspects of a person’s life. If you game heavily but still balance it cleanly with your professional, social, and personal life, then the WHO’s verdict does not concern you at all.
Unsurprisingly, many large gaming organizations have protested the WHO’s decision, including the Entertainment Software Association, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, and the Korea Association of Game Industry. These organizations joined for a press release, saying “The WHO is an esteemed organization and its guidance needs to be based on regular, inclusive, and transparent reviews backed by independent experts. ‘Gaming disorder’ is not based on sufficiently robust evidence to justify its inclusion in one of the WHO’s most important norm-setting tools.”
It’s unlikely that the WHO will reverse its decision, and claims that it’s impossible for video games to be addicted are disputed by mental health researchers. Gaming disorder’s place on the ICD will make it significantly easier for people who are addicted to gaming to receive treatment from medical professionals (and to have their insurance cover it). If anything, gamers should be happy that those who have succumbed to addiction can get the help they need.
More than 75,000 WhatsApp users sent authentication requests to the new WhatsApp tip line.
With so many Softonic readers being avid WhatsApp users, we always try to keep you up to date on what is going on with the Facebook-owned app. Unfortunately, this has meant reporting extensively on the spread of fake news across the network and WhatsApp’s attempts to fight it.
We’ve covered everything from limits to message forwarding to a tip line WhatsApp set up to learn more about how false information spreads. Today, we have some very encouraging news to report on the response to the tip line mentioned above.
WhatsApp tip line
The response has been strong to WhatsApp’s new fake news tip line.
The WhatsApp Checkpoint tip line was set up in the run-up to the recent Indian elections. More than 600 million people voted in the biggest democratic exercise on the planet – a prime target for people trying to push false political narratives. This has been done before in countries like Brazil.
Checkpoint allows WhatsApp users to request verification on news stories they receive via WhatsApp. WhatsApp has now revealed that in just two months about 75,000 people have sent verification requests to Checkpoint. However, it isn’t able to actually provide verification to all users. Instead, Checkpoint is a research project, designed to help the ubiquitous messaging app learn more about how people interact with fake news.
Working with an Indian media start-up company called PROTO, Checkpoint will now analyze the data. PROTO also plans to submit all the findings to the International Center for Journalists in a bid to help other organizations learn from how the project was designed and run.
Not everybody who asked for verification received it, but WhatsApp is now sitting on a huge cache of useful data. This data could help it fight fake news and all its awful consequences.
In an article with Economic Times, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, “ The response on the tip line has been tremendous and has received over 75,000 claims since the launch, in five languages — Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, and English.”
It is the large scale of the data that could make a difference, with one of the co-founders of PROTO saying, “As more data flows in, we continue to identify the issues, languages, regions that are most susceptible to or affected by this problem.”
Fake news has been a big problem for WhatsApp for quite some time now
What comes next?
WhatsApp’s fake news problem is far from over. If anything, the Checkpoint numbers show just how big the problem actually is. The messaging app is moving in the right direction. However, it has already built up a huge database of information relating to the types of false stories shared. This should help it prevent the spread in the future.
The other good news to take from this is the public response. A lot of people have felt suspicious enough to pass stories they’ve received on to a verification service, which is a very good sign. If WhatsApp can give people the tools to fight fake news themselves, the people will use them.
See how 1999’s biggest blockbuster changed movies forever.
Love them or hate them, the prequels are a part of the Star Wars universe. Jar Jar Binks is in the same universe as Yoda and Darth Vader, and Force ability is the result of midichlorians existing in the bloodstream. “‘The Phantom Menace’ is one of my favorite movies,” George Lucas said at this year’s Star Wars Celebration, “and, of course, Jar Jar is my favorite character. Ahmed [Best], you did a fantastic job. It was very very hard.”
When it comes to the N64, video games don’t get much better. However, which ones are the best?
Man, does this system even need an introduction?
The Nintendo 64 is one of the greatest systems of all time. While so many systems were struggling with the jump to 3D, Nintendo charged to the top creating games that set the industry standards.
Just look at how happy this kid was when he got an N64:
If you don’t feel like digging through boxes of your old Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers in your parent’s basement to find your N64, you can play these on your computer! We’ll tell you more about that later.
With so many amazing titles to choose from, some sadly could not make the list. If your fav didn’t make the cut, let us know in the comments below!
Top 10 Nintendo 64 games
10. Perfect Dark
Oh yeah, you can expect to see a bunch of Rare games on this list.
This game has a guided rocket launcher and a sniper rifle that can shoot through walls. Do we really need to say more?
Coming out three years after Goldeneye, Perfect Dark felt like the successor it deserved. This spy-shooter thriller had the player use futuristic weapons and technology to stop an alien conspiracy being played out by a rival agency.
Your unique arsenal of weapons mixed with the thrilling spy adventure made for a thrilling experience. There is a Perfect Dark game on Steam, so if you’re looking to dive into the franchise, this is a good starting point.
Before kids lied to their parents saying that Grand Theft Auto was a fun racing game, we were telling them that Conker’s Bad Fur Day was a game about an innocent, little squirrel. What we didn’t tell them was that this innocent little squirrel was a drunk, foul-mouthed womanizer who fights a hangover the entire game.
The game was filled to the brim with hilarious pop-culture references as well as a ton of original humor.
And, of course, there was also the Great Mighty Poo:
The game had all of the same great components of other Rare 3D platformers like Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo Kazooie, but it was also so non-Nintendo. Nintendo had a reputation of being very innocent and typically deviated from adult content in games, and they still do. Conker’s Bad Fur Day wasn’t a step out of their comfort zone, it was a flying leap. And honestly, it’s a jump they need to take more often.
8. Diddy Kong Racing
While making this list, Mario Kart 64 was occupying this spot. However, the more we thought about it, there’s nothing about that game that makes it better than Diddy Kong Racing.
In this game, the levels just feel so much more alive as you maneuver through the jungle and around dinosaurs. You can also take to the skies for the trademark plane races.
In this game, you could also race as some of the characters from other Rare titles including Conker and Banjo.
Sure, Mario Kart 64 is a phenomenal game, but we struggle to find an area where the Italian plumber bests Diddy.
7. Banjo Kazooie
See what we meant? Lots of Rare games.
First off, let’s watch one of the greatest openings in video game history:
It killed us to not put Banjo Kazooie higher on this list. However, there are just too many other great games more worthwhile. That should be a testament to how amazing the N64 was.
There isn’t another 3D platformer like Banjo Kazooie. You control a bird and bear duo who traverse through different levels collecting jigsaw puzzle pieces until they can finally face down a witch. That might sound weird, but think of it as Super Mario 64 meets a Grimm fairy tale.
The game had so many amazing power-ups. You could use the bird, Kazooie like a Swiss Army knife. She can be used to shoot eggs like a machine gun, acts as your own personal airplane, or use her beak as a battering ram.
Banjo Kazooie was a weird fantasy story mixed in with incredible and unique mechanics. If you’re looking for something that feels totally fresh, you can’t go wrong with the bird and bear.
6. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”
There’s no game that has the same feel as The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Majora’s Mask follows Link on his quest to stop the moon from falling to the Earth, thus obliterating the world of Termina. However, even with their impending doom, the people of Termina just seem damaged beyond repair.
You come across tragic story after tragic story. When you finally find a moment with even a shred of joy you hold onto it as one of the few things that make Link’s mission worthwhile.
Who didn’t cry at this part?
Majora’s Mask has one of the most unique mechanics in any game. Termina is alive. The people all have schedules that they maintain. You can always expect the Goron with your name to arrive at the hotel at a precise hour. You can expect aliens to invade a farm on a certain day. And you can always expect a beautiful wedding to nearly fall apart just minutes before the moon destroys everything. This feature encourages you to want to save Termina even more. You want the wedding to happen. You want the Zora to get to raise her babies. Finally, you want the Skull Kid to atone, and find a way to live in a world without chaos.
If you can play through Majora’s Mask without feeling some sort of emotion pass over you, check your pulse because you might’ve met with a terrible fate yourself.
5. Star Fox 64
Back in the days of the NES, space shooters were everywhere and they all felt the same.
It’s not like they weren’t all fun, it’s just that the market was saturated with them, so they just felt like the same. When Star Fox 64 was released, it knocked us all on our butts and completely annihilated the space shooter genre. In certain levels, you can pilot your ship across the entire map, shooting down enemies as you fly like Luke Skywalker on Hoth.
The boss fights?
Phenomenal.
You can beat the game in about an hour, but you’ll need to be an expert of the game to figure out how to play each and every stage so that you can get to the true ending.
You play the game alongside fellow pilots Falco, Peppy, and Slippy. Rather than just hearing the pew-pew-pews of your laser, the game is filled with their banter as well as that of your enemies. Slippy is constantly getting into binds and asks you to save him. Falco is cocky is talks like he’s the best pilot in the galaxy. Peppy is the veteran pilot who is teaching you as your journey continues.
Plug this one in, and go show Andross who’s boss.
4. Goldeneye
While the Call of Duty franchise is trying to act like the standard for first-person shooters, Goldeneye is just running circles around it.
Nintendo somehow made a 3D first-person shooter where you run and aim all with the same control stick. You know what, it works incredibly well.
Goldeneye was a game that you could break out and play with all of your friends and family. Multiplayer with three other people was a wild time unless some jerk picked Oddjob.
Although we love this game, we have to admit that it plays so much better on mouse and keyboard. If only there was a convenient link you could click on to play this game online…
If you’ve never played it before, it might take a while to get used to the unique control scheme. However, once you do, you’re in for a treat.
3. Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. seems like one of the most obvious ideas for a game: take the beloved characters from various titles and put them in a tournament fighter.
Often duplicated, never replicated, Super Smash Bros. was THE staple multiplayer game for the N64. You and your friends could settle debates like, “Who would win in a fight between Mario and Link?”
Also, it had one of the greatest commercials ever made:
Although Smash has gone on to bigger and better things since this title, we can still pick this one up any day of the week.
Even at nearly 25 years old, Super Mario 64 is tapdancing around modern platformers. The game is all about control. Mario seems like he can move however you need him too.
Need to get on top of a steep ledge? Mario, can triple-jump into a wall-jump and then dive to make his way up there. The controls are so crisp and clean, that it is one of the most popular games to speedrun out there.
Mario 64 has so many memorable moments. How many of us dropped the baby penguin off the ledge after getting the Star from its mom? Who else, spent hours surfing around levels on a Koopa shell? Who else swore like a trucker at the screen as you failed to catch the bunny after your 20th attempt?
So many video games want you to play the game how the developers made it. They don’t encourage you to play the game like how you want, but how they want you to play it. Mario takes the concept and throws it out the window. You can complete the levels in whatever order you want, and collect Stars in whatever creative ways you can concoct.
Mario 64 is a phenomenal game. However, there is one clear winner that can even surpass this titan.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Look, there are a lot of game reviewers that will tell you that Ocarina of Time is actually overrated and that putting it at the top of the list is a pleb’s point of you.
They’re all wrong.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time deserves all the praise it gets. Calling something “the greatest game of all time” seems stupid given the sheer amount of games on the market, and different types of video games out there. However, saying it about Ocarina of Time just makes sense.
It’s one of the most incredible stories in all of video games. It has one of the best adventures in all of gaming, with some of the coolest weapons, and best combat. Even the soundtrack is one of the best in all of video games:
Call us basic or bandwagon for making this our number 1; we’ll wear that badge with honor. There just isn’t another game on the console that even comes close.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time turns 20. Here’s how it changed gaming forever
A bunch of games that didn’t make this list that really hurt us to exclude. Donkey Kong 64, Mischief Makers, Wave Race 64, and All-Star Baseball 2001 are just a few of them. However, you can play all of these games and more through Project 64.
Click the link below to download the emulator. Finally, all of your favorite N64 games will be at your fingertips.
The really hilarious thing about the Google research, however, is that it came not long after Google began implementing its Material Design philosophy, which relied heavily on clean, white backgrounds. Since then, however, Google has been moving through its core products and adding dark modes. There is also a lot of chatter going on that says when Android Q drops, it’ll have a system-wide dark mode option. For this to work though, all Google apps will need their own dark modes, and this is where we’re at today, letting you know about the newest Google apps to get dark modes.
Google Calendar and Google Keep on Android get dark modes
The Google G Suites update blog has released the news that the Android versions of Google Keep and Google Calendar now have dark modes. As mentioned earlier, the release of these new dark modes relates to the upcoming system-wide dark mode that Google will introduce when it rolls out Android Q. Both apps will automatically work in dark mode when Android is set to dark mode, but there are slightly different instructions to follow to enable dark mode on both apps individually.
How to activate dark mode on Google Calendar and Google Keep
The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure that you’ve updated Google Keep and Google Calendar to the latest version. Then to enable dark mode in Google Calendar, you need to go to Settings, then General, and finally Theme. You then click Enable Dark Mode.
To enable dark mode in Google Keep, you simply need to go to Setting and hit Enable Dark Mode.
The dark mode for Google Calendar is available to all users of Android versions Nougat onward and the dark mode on Google Keep is available to users of Android versions Lollipop through Pie.
If you can’t see the dark modes in our versions of the apps just yet, don’t worry. The roll-out for Calendar began on May 16 and the roll-out for Keep began on May 20. In both cases, Google has said that the feature is getting a gradual roll-out and should take up to 15 days for full feature visibility. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to go dark very soon.
WhatsApp will soon allow users to post status updates on Facebook.
It was only recently, that Facebook announced it planned to pull together its three biggest apps. The code behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp would be transformed so that it would all resemble one single system. Although Facebook assured everybody that each would retain their independent qualities, the move was a controversial one as it was exactly what Facebook said it wouldn’t do when it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp way back when.
The links between WhatsApp and Facebook are beginning to show
For the users, the move is controversial as each app collects data from us in different ways, which means they collect different data. Putting the three together offers Facebook a much more complete picture of each of us to sell to advertisers and whoever else is willing to pay.
The flip side is that it might make it easier for us to start communicating across all three networks. Have a friend who is on Instagram but doesn’t have WhatsApp? No problem, soon you might be able to shoot them a message anyway. It looks like we might be about to start seeing these cross-platform features land on Facebook’s three big apps.
WhatsApp will soon allow users to post status updates on Facebook
The latest beta version of WhatsApp for Android, version 2.19.151, has a very interesting new feature. For WhatsApp users who also have Facebook installed on their phones, a new button appears in the WhatsApp Status tab. Just below the My status button there should be the brand new “ADD TO FACEBOOK STORY” button.
Tapping the new add to Facebook button gives WhatsApp users the chance to post status updates on Facebook. For now, the feature is pretty limited. Users will be able to post status updates including images, videos, GIFs, and text but it’ll all have to be done manually. It isn’t as simple as just sharing your WhatsApp status on Facebook just yet. But then again, who posts WhatsApp status updates anyway? When users tap the “add to Facebook” button, they’ll be redirected to Facebook where they’ll be able to share their story.
In itself, this new feature is not something to get too excited about. It is, however, the very thin end of what is looking like a very large wedge. As time goes by, we can expect to see many more of these inter-compatibility features coming to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. As to whether they’ll be worth the privacy sacrifices that go with them, that’ll be up to you.
The “add to Facebook story” button is currently in beta testing, so you shouldn’t expect to see it on your regular version of WhatsApp just yet. If we hear anymore about when to expect it, you’ll be the first to know.
What are the differences and similarities between WhatsApp’s two major multi-message sending tools?
Everybody knows about WhatsApp groups chats. We’re willing to bet that everybody is a member of at least one WhatsApp group. Broadcast, however, is much more mysterious and less well-known than the ubiquitous group chat. It is funny really because both offer ways for WhatsApp users to message more than one user at a time and both are useful in their own right and in certain situations. Let’s have a good look then at the main differences between WhatsApp groups and WhatsApp broadcast.
WhatsApp groups allow you to set up multi-directional chat rooms with your friends and family. Once people have been added to the group, they can send a group message and all other members of the group will receive it. They’ll also receive every message sent to the group by other group members.
You can tag users in group chats to grab their attention, but the rest of the group will still be able to see the message
There are a number of WhatsApp group features like user tagging and Reply privately that allow you to aim messages at certain members of the group, but as long as you send a message to a WhatsApp group every member of the group will get to read it. Reply privately actually sends a message to the individual user you’re replying to, opening up in their chat with a quoted reply taken from the group.
WhatsApp broadcast also allows you to send messages to lots of people at once, just in a different way to WhatsApp groups. You create a broadcast list in much the same way to create a group, too. You open WhatsApp and then click the more settings icon in the top-right. Once you’ve done that, you select all the members you want to add to the list and a chat window will pop up just like it does with a group chat. That’s where the similarities stop.
When you send a message to a broadcast list, it will appear to everybody who receives it as a normal chat would. They’ll receive a message from you, and it’ll appear in your normal chat window underneath the last messages that you sent to each other. When a user replies to a message you’ve broadcast, you’ll see the reply in much the same way, in your regular chat window beneath your broadcast.
The other big difference between WhatsApp groups and WhatsApp broadcast is that you can only broadcast messages to contacts who have your phone number saved in their phone book. If they don’t have your number saved, they won’t receive any broadcasts from you. Also, unlike with a group chat, you can’t create a broadcast list from WhatsApp Web.
When to use WhatsApp groups and when to use WhatsApp broadcast
WhatsApp group chats are great ways to keep groups of friends and coworkers talking to each other, even if they’re separated by great distances. They’re also good for arranging social events and managing complex tasks across teams.
WhatsApp broadcast, however, is more about one-way communication. The admin who creates the broadcast list is the only person who can talk to everybody on it at once. This makes WhatsApp broadcast lists excellent tools for sending out important messages and alerts, like a birthday invitation or a prompt to ensure your tax information is up to date on your employee records.
The key factor with WhatsApp broadcasts is the private nature of responses. Once the original information has been sent out, all subsequent communication remains between the admin and the individual user. This also means that everybody’s inbox remains clutter free and safe from everybody else’s annoying messages.
Google Maps will soon help you dodge a speeding ticket.
Google has long been trying to turn Google Maps into the perfect car navigation system. Recently, we’ve seen a whole raft of new features including accident and incident reporting, improved Assistant integration to remove dangerous distractions for the driver, and most recently a speed limit and speed trap notification system. The last one, however, only received a limited roll-out in San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro. This looks set to finally change as Google Maps’ speed camera feature is rolling out to more countries worldwide.
Countries including the US, UK, India, Australia, and Canada will soon have access to the Google Maps speed trap feature
According to a report by Android Police, Google Maps users in Denmark, Poland, and the UK have started reporting that the Google Maps speed trap feature is now live for them. The same report goes on to list Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the U.S. as all receiving the feature, too.
A user in the Netherlands posted this screenshot to Reddit
Speed trap alerts are just the latest Waze feature that Google Maps has cannibalized since Google bought the navigation app back in 2013. It comes after the addition of the accident and incident reporting we’ve already mentioned. If anything, it is quite surprising that Google has taken this long to add speed traps to Google Maps.
If you live in a country that isn’t listed above, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that the feature won’t be coming to your country, too. All that list represents is countries where the feature has been spotted and reported online by Maps users. Google still hasn’t published an official list of countries that will see the feature and until it does, we’ll not know for sure where the feature will roll-out too.
Google Maps just said “there’s a speed camera ahead” I didn’t know it did that.
The other option for anybody wanting to access this feature now, whether it is live in their country or not, is to download and use Waze. Google has always maintained Waze as an independent navigation app despite cherry-picking all of the app’s best features to add to Maps.
The fact that Waze already has the feature, however, makes it very likely will roll-out speed traps globally, rather than just to a select group of countries, as it shows that Google already has the data and is already running the feature globally. If you haven’t got speed traps on your version of Google Maps yet, you can expect to have it sometime soon.
A new zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in Windows 10 that could lead to a malicious attack.
Zero-day vulnerabilities are potential security weak points found in programs after they’ve been released. Obviously, the program developers are unaware of the vulnerabilities, so it is often third parties who discover them and then share their findings so that they can be closed up by the developers in question. We’ve reported a couple of times on Google’s dedicated zero-day hunting team and the bugs they’ve found.
A new zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in Windows 10 that could lead to a malicious attack
According to a report by ZDNet, the new vulnerability was discovered by security researcher SandboxEscaper. The vulnerability relates to Windows Task Scheduler but is unable to take control of a victim’s computer alone. However, if it is used in conjunction with other nefarious methods it could prove very harmful to the victim’s online security. When done so, the vulnerability allows the hacker to run a specific .job file within Task Scheduler to grant admin privileges.
SandboxEscaper published the details and code of the vulnerability to GitHub, without notifying Microsoft. This means there is still no official word on when a patch for the exploit will be available. As to whether it is responsible behavior to publish a vulnerability, including code and demonstration video, online without first notifying the developers that could close it off is for you to decide. Hackers now know of this vulnerability and we now have to wait for Microsoft to patch it.
Researcher also released a demo video of the LPE zero-day in action. See below: pic.twitter.com/ZX8XWLQ74z
This isn’t the first time SandboxEscaper has acted in this way either. According to the same ZDNet report, she released four other Windows zero-day vulnerabilities in the same manner last year. Three of these were patched by Microsoft without any problems but one of them was used in active malware campaigns for weeks after its release.
It took Microsoft between one or two months to patch the four vulnerabilities SandboxEscaper published in 2018 which means there will be a lot of pressure at Microsoft HQ, if the software giant wants to fix this latest vulnerability in time for its next scheduled patch on Tuesday, June 11. Microsoft has two weeks if it wants to hit that deadline.
So, who exactly is vulnerable to this potential exploit? It has only been confirmed so far on Windows 10 32-bit systems but it is believed, however, that, in theory at least, it could be adapted to work on all Windows systems all the way back to Windows XP and Server 2003.
When a hacker gains administrative privileges over a system it gives them complete access to everything on it. This potential vulnerability should be taken seriously, but all we can do for now is hope that Microsoft gets a patch out before hackers start trying to exploit it.
Even at nearly 25 years old, Super Mario 64 is tapdancing around modern platformers. The game is all about control. Mario seems like he can move however you need him too.
