Tom's Hardware

Zero-day Windows NTLM hash vulnerability gets patched by third-party —credentials can be hijacked by merely viewing a malicious file in File Explorer

Back in June 2023, Microsoft officially announced it had deprecated support for its New Technology LAN Manager authentication protocol, which debuted in 1993 with Windows NT 3.1. It advised users to upgrade to Windows Negotiate but unfortunately, modern TLM vulnerabilities are still targeted at machines from Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 to Windows 11 Version 24H2… Read more

Russian Ex-ASML employee indicted for stealing critical trade secrets — currently in custody, faces 20-year Netherlands entry ban

The Ministry of Asylum and Migration of the Netherlands has imposed a 20-year entry ban on an ex-ASML employee. A Russia-connected individual is currently under investigation, suspected of potential espionage and theft of vital microchip documents from ASML, reports Dutch outlet NOS. Per the report from local media, the Netherlands rarely imposes such prohibitions, and… Read more

Intel XeSS 2 DLL files leaked days before launch — Frame Generation and Low Latency libraries surface at Nexus Mods

With the Arc B580 and B570, Intel introduced a new suite of upscaling and interpolating technologies under XeSS 2 – now sub-divided into XeSS-SR, XeSS-FG, and XeSS-LL. Modders over at Nexus Mods (h/t VideoCardz) have somehow managed to obtain the DLL files for these new modules possibly from leaked game patches that support XeSS 2…. Read more

U.S. House set to vote on $3B funding for the replacement of Chinese telecoms equipment — but swapping out all the Huawei and ZTE equipment will cost more

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on the 2025 defense budget this week, which includes a $3-billion allocation to replace telecommunications equipment previously acquired from Huawei and ZTE. According to Reuters, the equipment provided by these companies comes with security risks, especially as People’s Republic China (PRC)-affiliated hackers have been conducting a… Read more

Windows 11 battery indicator revamp delivers color coding and more pixels

A welcome redesign of the Windows 11 battery indicator is on the way with more pixels and colors. Windows sleuth PhantomOfEarth has tested this UI tweak and shared some images of the new look on Twitter/X. The new icons can be enabled in Insider build 26120.2510 which was released to the dev channel recently. Windows… Read more

NATO plans to deploy sea drones to monitor and protect undersea cables — Admiral expects drone fleet patrols to begin from June 2025

Following a spate of undersea cable disruptions in the recent weeks, with the most recent happening in November, NATO is drawing up plans for a fleet of naval surveillance drones to monitor the major bodies of water surrounding Europe — specifically, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. French Admiral Pierre Vandier, the current Supreme Allied… Read more

Intel looks beyond silicon, outlines breakthroughs in atomically-thin 2D transistors, chip packaging, and interconnects at IEDM 2024

(Image credit: Intel) Today, the Intel Foundry Technology Research team announced technology breakthroughs in 2D transistor technology using beyond-silicon materials, chip interconnects, and packaging technology, among others. The company will unveil its research in seven of its own papers, along with two more papers in collaboration with industry partners like imec, at the IEEE International… Read more

iFixit now sells genuine Xbox replacement parts but at ridiculous prices — $599 for an Xbox Series X motherboard when a new console costs $499

Yesterday, iFixit partnered with Microsoft to “bring official repair parts for Xbox Series and Xbox Series X consoles to gamers everywhere” to “keep Xboxes running longer and out of the waste heap.” The collaboration includes repair part store page listings for disc and digital models of both Xbox Series consoles and accompanying guides for installing… Read more

US govt says Cisco gear often targeted in China’s Salt Typhoon attacks on 8 telecommunications providers — issues Cisco-specific advice to patch networks to fend off attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released guidelines for network engineers, defenders, and organizations with enterprise-grade networking equipment as part of its continuing investigation into the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) massive cyber espionage campaign. While the agency has released general guidelines for increased visibility and hardening that apply to any network, it… Read more

Legendary video game developer imagines a future where GPUs don’t need PCs — John Carmack envisions a GPU with Linux onboard, so you would just add power and a display

Earlier today, legendary video games developer John Carmack, the leader programmer for iconic titles such as Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D, made the case for what one might casually describe as a standalone graphics card. Imagine connecting a graphics card to a display and a power source and running diagnostics before installing it or running… Read more

Arctic uses a fan to cool another fan — S12038-4K 120mm fan adds an extra fan in its center to cool its central shaft

Arctic has released a new cooling fan archetype for server use, the S12038-4K and -8K. The fan is instantly visually unique thanks to its seven bonus fan blades in its direct center, creating a fan-within-a-fan effect. The fan offers class-leading static pressure, though Arctic seems reticent to advertise its new standout. The S12038’s spec sheet… Read more

Valve preps mysterious ‘Fremont’ SteamOS device powered by AMD Ryzen processor — potential Steam Box may sport a Hawk Point CPU with Zen 4 and RDNA 3 graphics

As spotted by Reddit user coolbho3k on the r/SteamDeck subreddit, Valve appears to be testing a new SteamOS-based device. The mysterious device, which Valve calls Fremont, seems to be the long-awaited successor to the Steam Box. The Steam Deck kernel was updated a month ago for a device codenamed Fremont, which doesn’t correspond to any… Read more

Intel Nova Lake and Diamond Rapids CPU gain preliminary support in popular monitoring utility

FinalWire has added preliminary support for Intel’s Nova Lake and Diamond Rapids Xeon processors in the latest beta release of AIDA64—months or years before the CPUs hit shelves. This means that AIDA64 can now at least recognize these processors, though other functionality might be limited. Other updates include improved support on ASRock motherboards and a… Read more

Weak demand prevents Amazon from deploying AMD’s Instinct AI accelerators in the cloud — the company plans to strengthen its portfolio with Nvidia Blackwell GPUs

When AMD launched its Instinct MI300X accelerators for AI and HPC about a year ago, Amazon Web Services (AWS) expressed interest in deploying them in the cloud. However, according to Amazon, as reported by Business Insider, due to a lack of strong demand, the company still has not done so. “We follow customer demand,” Gadi… Read more

Broadcom unveils gigantic 3.5D XDSiP platform for AI XPUs — 6000mm² of stacked silicon with 12 HBM modules

(Image credit: Broadcom) Broadcom has introduced its 3.5D eXtreme Dimension System in Package (3.5D XDSiP) platform for ultra-high-performance processors for AI and HPC workloads. The new platform relies on TSMC’s CoWoS and other advanced packaging technologies. It enables chip designers to build system-in-packages (SiPs) of 3D-stacked logic, network and I/O chiplets, and HBM memory stacks. The platform… Read more