Month: July 2024

At least one North American firm was infected with Black Basta due to flaw in the VMware ESXi.

Ransomware gangs are actively exploiting a vulnerability in VMware ESXi hypervisors to deploy encryptors and wreak havoc among victim organizations, experts have warned.

In a blog post covering the issue, Microsoft claimed VMware’s ESXi was vulnerable to an authentication bypass flaw that allowed ransomware operators to obtain full administrative permissions on domain-joined hypervisors. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2024-37085, and has a severity score of 6.8 (medium), according to the NVD. 

The vulnerability “involves a domain group whose members are granted full administrative access to the ESXi hypervisor by default without proper validation,” Microsoft explained.

Storm-0506 and others

The Redmond giant notified VMware of its findings, and the company came back with a patch on June 25, BleepingComputer reported.

Since ransomware actors were observed actively exploiting the vulnerability to deploy encryptors, Microsoft urges all users to apply the patch immediately.

The company added in its report it had seen the Storm-0506 criminal gang deploying a variant of the Black Basta ransomware against an engineering firm in North America recently, and “during this attack, the threat actor used the CVE-2024-37085 vulnerability to gain elevated privileges to the ESXi hypervisors within the organization.”

Storm-0506 is a threat actor that was seen deploying Black Basta ransomware in the past, as well. Black Basta is one of the most proficient ransomware-as-a-service actors out there, most likely spawned from the defunct Conti organization. But Storm-0506 is not the only threat actor Microsoft mentions in its report – Storm-1175, Octo Tempest, Manatee Tempest, were all said to be selling and supporting ESXi encryptors, including Akira, Babuk, Lockbit, and Kuiper. 

“The number of Microsoft Incident Response (Microsoft IR) engagements that involved the targeting and impacting ESXi hypervisors have more than doubled in the last three years,” the company concluded. 

VMware ESXi is a hypervisor that enables the creation and management of multiple virtual machines on a single physical server, providing a platform for virtualization and efficient resource utilization. It is quite popular in the enterprise, which also made it a major target for cybercriminals. 

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FromSoftware has released a new Elden Ring patch, addressing a number of balance issues across the board.

FromSoftware has released a new Elden Ring patch, addressing a number of balance issues across the board.

Version 1.13 is now live across all platforms and features some huge changes, aimed mainly at weapons, spells, and summons. In particular, the majority of the available Spirit Ashes have all been nerfed, and will now no longer stagger as easily, while some have received a boost in health or attack power.

The patch notes explain that that the update has increased the attack power and damage negation of summoned spirits, however, this excludes the Mimic Tear when the Revered Spirit Ash Blessing is at [5] or more and when upgraded to +8 or higher.

It also looks like the developer has adjusted the placement of NPC summon signs in certain boss fight arenas, and to make things less overwhelming during intense battles, it has changed the default selection of the “OK / CANCEL” prompt to a default position of “OK” that shows up when trying to summon Torrent after it the Spectral Steed has died.

Earlier this month, FromSoftware said that it was aware that some Latin American translation staff were not credited in the end credits of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and confirmed it would be adding them “as soon as possible in an upcoming patch”.

It looks like the credits are still missing with the latest patch, but the developer did note that the “issue will be corrected in the next update.” You can read the full patch notes below.

Elden Ring – Patch Notes Version 1.13

PvP-exclusive balance adjustments:

Equipment

Increased poise damage of normal attacks for the following weapon types:
Light Great Swords / Backhand Blades / Hand-to-Hand Arts / Beast ClawsIncreased poise damage of dual wield attacks for the following weapon types:
Straight Swords / Thrusting Swords / Curved Swords / Katanas / Spears / Whips / Fists / ClawsIncreased poise damage of the Claws of Night throwing attacks.Decreased the backstep invulnerability window when the Fine Crucible Feather Talisman or the Talisman of All Crucibles are equipped.

Skills

Savage Lion’s Claw

The second hit of the follow-up attack is now easier to land.Decreased damage animation of the first attack against other players.

Raging Beast

Decreased invulnerability window against other players’ attacks.

Blind Spot

Decreased invulnerability window against other players’ attacks.

Palm Blast

Decreased poise amount generated when charging this skill.

Spell and Incantations

Miriam’s Vanishing

Decreased invulnerability window against other players’ attacks.

Knight’s Lightning Spear

Increased attack power of the initial lightning spear.Decreased attack power of the spears launched after the first one.Decreased poise damage of all spears generated by this spell.

General balance adjustments

Increased damage animation of the Light Greatsword charge attacks against enemies (other than players).Increased the stats & status of the following NPCs that can be summoned in some areas:

Needle Knight Leda / Pureblood Knight Ansbach / Thiollier
Increased the attack power and damage negation of summoned spirits, excluding the Mimic Tear, when the Revered Spirit Ash Blessing is at [5] or more.Increased the attack power and damage negation of summoned spirits, excluding the Mimic Tear, when upgraded to “+8” or higher.

Armament

Increased attack power scaling when upgrading the following armaments: Repeating Crossbow / Spread Crossbow / Rabbath’s Cannon

Shield of Night

Increased damage negation when blocking physical attacks.

Euporia

Increased Holy damage when the weapon has its luster restored.Decreased the number of attacks required to restore the weapon’s luster.Increased the duration of the luster restoration effect.

Golden Lion Shield

Increase guard strength.

Golem Fist

Added a damage hitbox to the hand portion of the ranged fist attack.

Smithscript Greathammer

Increased poise damage of the swing portion of throwing attacks (the projectile is unchanged).

Spread Crossbow

Decreased the generated status buildup when used with Bolts that have status effects.

Ailment Talisman

After the onset of a status ailment, the status build up (or duration) of said ailment will now also be reduced immediately by a certain amount.

Clarifying Horn Charm / Clarifying Horn Charm +1 / Clarifying Horn Charm +2

Increased Focus resistance.

Skill

Savage Lion’s Claw

Increased attack power and poise damage of the first attack.

Swift Slash

Reduced movement distance when using this skillExtended recovery time.

Overhead Stance

Increased attack power against enemies (other than players).

Aspects of the Crucible: Wings

Increased attack power.Increased directional control, as well as amount of poised generated when using this skill.

Lightspeed Slash

The additional light attacks are now affected by the attack power and ability scaling of the weapon.

Rancor Slash

Increased attack power of the vengeful spirits.Increased stamina damage against guarding enemies.

Revenger’s Blade

Increased directional control for follow up attacks after a strong attack.

Horn Calling

Increased attack power against enemies (other than players).

Horn Calling: Storm

Increased attack power against enemies (other than players).

Weed Cutter

Increased the speed of attacks.

Romina’s Purification

Increased poise value when using this skill.

Red Bear Hunt

Increased attack power.Increased poise value when using this skill.

Rancor Shot

Decreased status buildup generation when used with Arrows that have status effects.

Repeating Fire

Adjusted attack power to compensate for increase in weapon damage

Feeble Lord’s Frenzied Flame

Reduced Frenzy status effect buildup against enemies.

Revenge of the Night

Increased poise damage and attack power when this skill is used immediately after guarding against an enemy attack.

Spell

Glintblade Trio

Increased attack power.

Blades of Stone

Adjusted attack power of the first, second and third charge attacks.Increased attack power of the non-charged attack.Increased attack power of the first hit of the charged attack, and reduced attack power of the second and third hits.Increased attack range and attack speed.

Glintstone Nail(s)

Increased attack power and improved enemy tracking.

Impenetrable Thorns

All generated Impenetrable Thorns will now track enemies.Decreased attack power and poise damage.Decreased the Hemorrhage status buildup and stamina damage against guarding enemies.

Rings of Spectral Light

Increased attack power and Frostbite status buildup.

Vortex of Putrescence

Increased attack power and Frostbite status buildup.

Incantation

Minor Erdtree

Increased HP recovery amount.

Land of Shadow

Improved enemy tracking.

Spira

Increased attack speed.

Watchful Spirit

Improved enemy tracking.

Divine Beast Tornado

Increased attack power.Enemies hit by the tornado will now be launched upwards.The tornado will be less likely to disappear due to collision with the terrain.

Rain of Fire

Increased attack power.Reduced the interval between each hit.

Roar of Rugalea

Increased poise damage and attack power.

Furious Blade of Ansbach

Increased attack power.

Rotten Butterflies

Increased Scarlet Rot status buildup.
Reduced the interval between damage ticks.
Increased attack range.

Ash

Wandering Noble: Will no longer stagger as easily.Noble Sorcerer: Will no longer stagger as easily.Nomad Ashes: Will no longer stagger as easily.Putrid Corse: Will no longer stagger as easily.Skeletal Militiaman: Will no longer stagger as easily.Skeletal Bandit: Will no longer stagger as easily.Albinauric: Will no longer stagger as easily.Winged Misbegotten: Will no longer stagger as easily.Demi-Human: Will no longer stagger as easily.Clayman: Will no longer stagger as easily.Oracle Envoys: Will no longer stagger as easily.Man-Fly: Will no longer stagger as easily.Lone Wolf Ashes: Will no longer stagger as easily.Rotten Stray Ashes: Will no longer stagger as easily.Giant Rat Ashes: Will no longer stagger as easily.Warhawk: Increased HP, physical attack power and Fire attack power. Increased Stance status.Land Squirt: Increased HP. Will no longer stagger as easily.Spirit jellyfish: Increased HP, physical attack power and poison status ailment buildup on enemies. Will no longer stagger as easily.Spider Scorpion: Increased physical attack power, poison status ailment buildup on enemies and damage negation except for strike and fire attributes. Will no longer stagger as easily.Fingercreeper: Will no longer stagger as easily.Fanged Imp: Will no longer stagger as easily.Bigmouth Imp: Increased HP and Fire attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Gravebird: Increased HP and magic attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Soldjar of Fortune: Will no longer stagger as easily.Archers: Will no longer stagger as easily.Greatshield Soldiers: Will no longer stagger as easily.Page: Will no longer stagger as easily.Vulgar Militia: Will no longer stagger as easily.Marionette Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Avionette Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Kaiden Mercenary: Increased HP and physical attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Mad Pumpkin Head: Increased physical attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Fire Monks: Increased HP and Fire attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Ancestral Follower: Increased physical attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Horned Warrior: Increased HP and damage negation except for pierce attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Azula Beastman: Increased HP and lightning attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Man-Serpent: Will no longer stagger as easily.Crystalian: Will no longer stagger as easily. Increased physical attack power.Kindred of Rot: Will no longer stagger as easily.Bloodfiend Hexer’s: Increased hemorrhage status ailment buildup on enemies. Will no longer stagger as easily.Glintstone sorcerer: Will no longer stagger as easily.Twinsage Sorcerer: Will no longer stagger as easily.Inquisitor: Increased HP. Will no longer stagger as easily.Godrick Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Raya Lucaria Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Leyndell Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Radahn Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Haligtree Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Mausoleum Soldier: Will no longer stagger as easily.Messmer Soldier: Increased Hp and physical attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Stormhawk Deenh: Increased HP and physical attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily. Increased duration of effect to increase the attack power given to allies.Banished Knight Oleg: Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Banished Knight Engval: Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Bloodhound Knight Floh: Increased HP, physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Black Knight Captain Huw: Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Black Knight Commander Andreas: Increased damage negation and guard boost against Holy and Physical attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Fire Knight Hilde: Increased Fire attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Fire Knight Queelign: Increased Vigor and Faith.Swordhand of Night Jolán: Increased Vigor and Dexterity.Jolán and Anna: Increased Vigor and Dexterity.Battlemage Hugues: Increased physical attack power and magic attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Latenna the Albinauric: Increased HP, physical attack power, and magic attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Perfumer Tricia: Increased HP. Will no longer stagger as easily.Depraved Perfumer Carmaan: Increased fire attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Omenkiller Rollo: Increased HP, physical attack power, and Fire attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Blackflame Monk Amon: Increased HP and Fire attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Curseblade Meera: Increased HP and physical attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Demi-Human Swordsman Yosh: Increased HP, physical attack power, and magic attack power. Will no longer stagger as easily.Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff: Increased Lightning attack power and damage negation against Physical, Lightning, and Holy Attack affinities. Will no longer stagger as easily.Redmane Knight Ogha: Increased physical attack power and damage negation against Physical and Fire attack affinities. Will no longer stagger as easily.Lhutel the Headless: Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Cleanrot Knight Finlay: Increased physical attack power and damage negation against Physical, Magic, and Holy Attack affinities. Will no longer stagger as easily.Black Knife Tiche: Will no longer stagger as easily.Divine Bird Warrior Ornis: Increased HP and damage negation against Physical attacks except Pierce attacks. Will no longer stagger as easily.Ancient Dragon Florissax: Increased Arcane. Increased damage negation against all affinities. Increased Skills and Incantations usage rate. Increased the speed and poise values during some attacks.Finger Maiden Therolina Puppet: Increased Vigor and Faith.Jarwight Puppet: Increased Vigor.Dolores the Sleeping Arrow Puppet: Increased Vigor.Nepheli Loux Puppet: Increased Vigor and Strength.Dung Eater Puppet: Increased Vigor.Nightmaiden & Swordstress: Increased HP and physical attack power.

Bug Fixes

Changed the default selection of the OK / CANCEL prompt that shows up when using the “Spectral Steed Whistle” while the spectral steed is dead. The default selection position is now OK.Adjusted the placement of NPC summon signs in certain boss fight areas.Changed the NPC summon signs in certain boss fights to allow the user to summon NPCs simply by pressing the action button once.Fixed a bug where the damage of some normal attacks of the Dark Moon Greatsword were lower than intended.Fixed the physical attack attribute menu display of the “Warpick” weapon.Fixed a bug where some attacks of the “Swift Spear” weapon were different than expected in terms of power, damage motion and hitbox generation timing.Fixed a bug that prevented the “Twinblade Talisman” from affecting the Perfume Bottles weapon type when equipped and used in the left hand.Fixed a bug where the physical attack attributes of some attacks of the Thrusting Shields weapon type were different than expected.Fixed a bug that allowed the use of Arrows / Great Arrows / Bolts / Great Bolts that should not be usable for the following weapon types:
Light Bows / Long Bows / Greatbows / Crossbows / BallistasFixed a bug where the effect of increasing the power of the Incantation “Light of Miquella” of the “Circlet of Light” helmet was not applied correctly.Fixed a bug that caused FP consumption when using the “Unending Dance” Skill while not meeting the ability requirements of the weapon “Dancing Blade of Ranah”.Fixed a bug where the physical attack attribute of some attacks of the “Deadly Dance” Skill was different than expected.Fixed a bug where the physical attack attribute of the “Scattershot Throw” Skill of the “Claws of Night” weapon was different than expected.Fixed a bug where the following Skills did not change correctly when performed with or without FP.Dynastic Sickleplay / Raging Beast / Repeating Crossbow Fire

Fixed a bug where a different Rage Art was sometimes performed when following up with a strong attack after using the “Raging Beast” and “Dynasty Sickleplay” Skills.
Fixed a bug that caused certain Skills to perform differently than expected under certain circumstances.Fixed a bug that prevented some Spells / Incantations that can be used in the air from being used in the air under some conditions.Fixed a bug that caused the “Golden Arcs” Incantation to generate attacks slower when cast with the left hand.Fixed a bug where the “Rain of Fire” Incantation sometimes did not hit enemies.Fixed a bug where the “Furious Blade of Ansbach” Incantation did not apply Hemorrhage status build up.Fixed a bug where under some circumstances, the move distance when casting some Spells / Incantations was different than expected.Fixed a bug that sometimes interrupted the cast of the “Roar of Rugalea” Incantation.Fixed a bug where the “Cherishing Fingers” magic attack sometimes did not hit.Fixed a bug in the behavior of the Mimic Tear spirit when casting Spells, Incantations and Skills.Fixed a bug where  NPCs could be summoned when the maximum number of cooperative multiplayer members had been reached.Fixed a bug that caused some items to display different icons than expected.Fixed a bug where exiting the game or going through a loading screen immediately after defeating “Count Ymir, Mother of Fingers” could make the dropped items unobtainable.Fixed a bug that prevented the player from performing Critical hits on some enemies.Fixed a bug in which some attacks on certain enemies were interpreted differently than expected.Fixed a bug that prevented rune gains when defeating some enemies.Fixed a bug that prevented some enemies from working properly under certain circumstances.Fixed a bug where the Multiplayer area borders were different than intended in some areas.Fixed a bug where the player would spawn in a different place than intended when invading another player’s worldFixed a bug in the map menu that caused some NPC icons in the Realm of Shadow to not display properly.Fixed a bug in the design of the map of Realm of Shadow and the “Map Fragment” icon.Fixed a bug where some cutscenes were not displayed correctly under certain circumstances.Fixed a bug where some sound effects did not play correctly.Fixed a bug where some effects were not displayed correctly.Several performance improvements and other bug fixes.

Steam-only adjustments

Fixed a bug where “Anti-aliasing Quality” was unintentionally set to “High” each time the game was restarted.

Correction of end credits

In update 1.12, an error was included in the credits of the game. This issue will be corrected in the next update.

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OpenAI has officially started rolling out ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode –with some Plus subscribers claiming that they already have it.

ChatGPT’s impressive new Advanced Voice Mode, which it demoed back in May during the launch of GPT-4o, is now rolling out to some Plus subscribers. But a new OpenAI comment suggests that a full release for the feature may not happen until the end of the year.

As noted on Reddit’s ChatGPT subreddit, a new message is appearing in the ChatGPT app (below) stating that “our rollout of Advanced Voice Mode has started”. OpenAI says that “we’re slowly enrolling users in the alpha to ensure the quality of the experience”.

While that’s promising news for those who’ve been waiting to chat to what could be the world’s smartest voice assistant, there’s also a slight sting at the end of the note. It states that “all Plus users will have access by the end of fall”, which is a subtle difference from previous guidance that it would roll out for everyone “in the fall”.

Technically, that means the new feature’s full rollout – which will let you create customizable character voices or act as a live translator – should happen somewhere between late September and December 24. It could be earlier if OpenAI is referring to a meteorological ‘fall’, but ‘by the end of 2024’ is perhaps more realistic guidance for a release to all Plus subscribers.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to get the feature aside from waiting –OpenAI says “we’ll let you know as soon as you’re in”. Still, with some Plus subscribers claiming that they now have the feature, we should start to see some real-world demos to whet our appetites and see what the next-gen version of ChatGPT’s voice mode is capable of.

Why the long wait?

Users of the ChatGPT app are starting to see messages like the one above stating that the Advanced Voice Mode rollout has started. (Image credit: CAMPFIREAI)

OpenAI previously hinted in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that its delayed rollout of ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode was for safety reasons, as it was “improving the model’s ability to detect and refuse certain content”.

But another factor is also scaling the feature while maintaining the near-instantaneous response times we’ve seen in OpenAI’s demos. It previously stated that it was spending extra time to work on “improving the user experience and preparing our infrastructure to scale to millions while maintaining real-time responses”.

There was always the possibility for delays with OpenAI stating that “exact timelines depend on meeting our high safety and reliability bar”. But with some Plus users stating that they now have the feature, those kinks will hopefully be ironed out in the next few weeks in the run-up to a full launch.

Another potential reason for the delay is that OpenAI’s resources may well be stretched right now, as it’s also just announced the beta launch of SearchGPT. You can now join the waitlist for the Google-rivaling search engine, but as it’s only at a “prototype” stage a full release will likely come after ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode.

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