Three security bypasses have been discovered in Ubuntu Linux’s unprivileged user namespace restrictions, which could be enable a local attacker to exploit vulnerabilities in kernel components.
The issues allow local unprivileged users to create user namespaces with full administrative capabilities and impact Ubuntu versions 23.10, where unprivileged user namespaces restrictions are enabled, and 24.04 which has them active by default.
Linux user namespaces allow users to act as root inside an isolated sandbox (namespace) without having the same privileges on the host.
Microsoft has removed the ‘BypassNRO.cmd’ script from Windows 11 preview builds, which allowed users to bypass the requirement to use a Microsoft Account when installing the operating system.
This change was introduced in the latest Windows 11 Insider Dev preview build, which means it will likely be coming to production builds.
“We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11,” reads the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5516 release notes.
University of Melbourne hydrology professor Dongryeol Ryu and his collaborator Ki-Weon Seo were on a train to visit Ryu’s family when they found something startling. Stopped at a station for technical issues, Seo had pulled out his computer to pass the time with some work when a result popped up in their data that Ryu could hardly believe: It suggested a “remarkable” amount of Earth’s water stored on land had been depleted.
“At first we thought, ‘That’s an error in the model,’” Ryu said.
After a year of checking, they determined it wasn’t.
The effects of quantum mechanics—the laws of physics that apply at exceedingly small scales—are extremely sensitive to disturbances. This is why quantum computers must be held at temperatures colder than outer space, and only very, very small objects, such as atoms and molecules, generally display quantum properties.
By quantum standards, biological systems are quite hostile environments: they’re warm and chaotic, and even their fundamental components—such as cells—are considered very large.
But a group of theoretical and experimental researchers has discovered a distinctly quantum effect in biology that survives these difficult conditions and may also present a way for the brain to protect itself from degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store excess renewable energy for later use, supporting the clean energy transition.
Australia produces more than 3,000 metric tons of lithium-ion battery waste a year. Managing this waste is a technical, economic and social challenge. Opportunities exist for recycling and creating a circular economy for batteries. But they come with risk.
That’s because lithium-ion batteries contain manufactured chemicals such as PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The chemicals carry the lithium—along with electricity—through the battery. If released into the environment, they can linger for decades and likely longer. This is why they’ve been dubbed “forever chemicals”
