The National Security Agency announced the presence of a major security flaw in Windows 10. The NSA notified the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), who later patched out the issue. The move by the NSA may be reflective of a change in priorities at the agency.
The NSA discovered the vulnerability in both Windows 10 and the 2016 and 2019 versions of Windows Server, immediately notifying Microsoft and recommending that the vulnerabilities be patched as soon as possible. Microsoft later issued patches fixing the issues and stated that they had found no evidence that hackers had been able to exploit the vulnerability before it was patched out. The NSA would outline the security vulnerabilities in a press release. The vulnerabilities were centered around the process in which Windows authenticates data, the vulnerability would have allowed hackers to make malware appear as a certified update, bypassing Windows 10's security. "The user would have no way of knowing the file was malicious, because the digital signature would appear to from a trusted provider," Microsoft commented.
The NSA's actions are being lauded for the agency's quick actions and placing user safety over the agency's goals. The NSA's actions are a departure from earlier incidents, such as the Eternal Blue incident, in which the NSA exploited a similar Windows vulnerability to make hacking tools that were later stolen by hackers and made public. NSA Cybersecurity Directorate Head Anne Neuberger explicitly stated that the NSA did not use the exploit, and instead stated that the agency's quick actions were part of an initiative for the NSA to work more quickly in disclosing vulnerabilities to protect users. "It's hard for entities to trust that we indeed take this seriously," Neuberger said, "and [that] ensuring that vulnerabilities can be mitigated is an absolute priority."
In general, the NSA has been more proactive as of late, participating in cybersecurity discourse more publicly and engaging with industry experts to protect against hacking. The NSA even released a specialized analysis tool to this end.