Microsoft has patched a vulnerability in the Cortana smart assistant that could have allowed an attacker with access to a locked computer to use the smart assistant and access data on the device, execute malicious code, or even change the PC's password to access the device in its entirety.
The issue was discovered by Cedric Cochin, Cyber Security Architect and Senior Principle Engineer at McAfee. Cochin privately reported the problems he discovered to Microsoft in April.
The vulnerability is
CVE-2018-8140, which Microsoft classified as an elevation of privilege, and
patched yesterday during the company's monthly Patch Tuesday security updates.
Cochin says the issue was present because of different quirks in how Cortana allows users to interact with the underlying Windows 10 OS, while in a locked state.
The researchers discovered several features that could be combined into one larger attack:
...
.....