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13 Feb 2026 5:05am GMT

Microsoft has patched a high-severity vulnerability in Windows 11's Notepad that allowed attackers to silently execute local or remote programs when a user clicked a specially crafted Markdown link, all without triggering any Windows security warning. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-20841 and fixed in the February 2026 Patch Tuesday update, stemmed from Notepad's relatively new Markdown support -- a feature Microsoft added after discontinuing WordPad and rewriting Notepad to serve as both a plain text and rich text editor. An attacker only needed to create a Markdown file containing file:// links pointing to executables or special URIs like ms-appinstaller://, and a Ctrl+click in Markdown mode would launch them. Microsoft's fix now displays a warning dialog for any link that doesn't use http:// or https://, though the company did not explain why it chose a prompt over blocking non-standard links entirely. Notepad updates automatically through the Microsoft Store.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

13 Feb 2026 3:45am GMT

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13 Feb 2026 3:33am GMT

An anonymous reader shares a report: Just weeks after a dramatic purge of China's top general, the CIA is moving to capitalize on any resulting discord with a new public video targeting potential informants in the Chinese military. The U.S. spy agency on Thursday rolled out the video depicting a disillusioned mid-level Chinese military officer, in the latest U.S. step in a campaign to ramp up human intelligence gathering on Washington's strategic rival. It follows a similar effort last May that focused on fictional figures within China's ruling Communist Party that provided detailed Chinese-language instructions on how to securely contact U.S. intelligence. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that the agency's videos had reached many Chinese citizens and that it would continue offering Chinese government officials an "opportunity to work toward a brighter future together."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

13 Feb 2026 1:30am GMT

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13 Feb 2026 12:54am GMT

This was the first launch of the Ariane 64, the most powerful rocket in European space history.

13 Feb 2026 12:34am GMT

OpenAI's new GPT‑5.3‑Codex‑Spark is 15 times faster at coding than its predecessor.

12 Feb 2026 10:56pm GMT

FDA's top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, is known for overruling scientists.

12 Feb 2026 10:36pm GMT

IBM said it will triple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026, even as AI appears to be weighing on broader demand for early-career workers. From a report: While the company declined to disclose specific hiring figures, it said the expansion will be "across the board," affecting a wide range of departments. "And yes, it's for all these jobs that we're being told AI can do," said Nickle LaMoreaux, IBM's chief human resources officer, speaking at a conference this week in New York. LaMoreaux said she overhauled entry-level job descriptions for software developers and other roles to make the case internally for the recruitment push. "The entry-level jobs that you had two to three years ago, AI can do most of them," she said at Charter's Leading With AI Summit. "So, if you're going to convince your business leaders that you need to make this investment, then you need to be able to show the real value these individuals can bring now. And that has to be through totally different jobs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Feb 2026 10:30pm GMT

Podman 5.8 now supports installing multiple Quadlet files at once and automatically migrates BoltDB databases to SQLite in preparation for Podman 6.0.

12 Feb 2026 8:23pm GMT

Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS is now officially available, powered by Linux kernel 6.17, and featuring refreshed packages and bug fixes.

12 Feb 2026 4:23pm GMT

Canonical drops the Software & Updates tool from Ubuntu 26.04 LTS defaults, citing usability and maintenance concerns.

12 Feb 2026 1:59pm GMT