Month: May 2022

Enlarge (credit: BeeBright / Getty Images / iStockphoto)

Researchers said on Friday that they found a malicious backdoor in a WordPress plugin that gave attackers full control of websites that used the package, which is marketed to schools.

The premium version of School Management, a plugin schools use to operate and manage their websites, has contained the backdoor since at least version 8.9, researchers at website security service JetPack said in a blog post without ruling out that it had been present in earlier versions. This page from a third-party site shows that version 8.9 was released last August.

Obvious backdoor

Jetpack said it discovered the backdoor after support team members at WordPress.com reported finding heavily obfuscated code on several sites that used School Management Pro. After deobfuscating it, they realized that the code, stashed in the license-checking part of the plugin, was intentionally placed there with the goal of giving outsiders the ability to take control of sites.

Enlarge / Liver lesions in patient with chronic active hepatitis C. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

A sixth child has died in the United States from puzzling liver inflammation—aka hepatitis—and the number of unexplained cases has risen to 180 across 36 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The latest death was announced in a press briefing Friday, led by CDC Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases Jay Butler, who said it was reported to the agency Thursday. He did not indicate in which state the death occurred.

In addition to the deaths, 15 of the 180 cases required liver transplants, Butler reported. The cases all occurred in children under the age of 10 but skewed to preschool-age children, with the median age being around 2 years.

Enlarge / The prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, UK. A large Neolithic settlement known as Durrington Walls is less than two miles away and is believed to be where the people who built the famous site camped during the main stage of construction. (credit: Adam Stanford)

Nearly two miles away from Stonehenge, there is a large Neolithic settlement known as Durrington Walls, believed to be where the people who built the famous site camped during the main stage of construction. British archaeologists have analyzed fossilized fecal matter collected at the site and found that it contained the eggs of parasitic worms, according to a new paper published in the journal Parasitology. The preserved feces belonged to both dogs and humans, indicating that people brought dogs to the site with them for winter feasts and likely shared the scraps with the canines.

“This is the first time intestinal parasites have been recovered from Neolithic Britain, and to find them in the environment of Stonehenge is really something,” said co-author Piers Mitchell, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge. “The type of parasites we find are compatible with previous evidence for winter feasting on animals during the building of Stonehenge.”

For archaeologists keen on learning more about the health and diet of past populations—as well as how certain parasites evolved over the evolutionary history of the microbiome—preserved samples of ancient poo can be a veritable goldmine of information. For instance, ancient Iron Age miners in what is now Austria were quite fond of beer and blue cheese, according to a 2021 analysis of preserved paleo-poop excavated from the prehistoric underground salt mines of Hallstatt-Dachstein/Salzkammergut, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Fecal samples are usually found in dry caves, desert areas, frozen areas, or waterlogged environments (like bogs), where desiccation, freezing, and similar processes preserve the fecal matter for posterity.

Enlarge / When there's danger! (credit: Disney)

Traditionally, when Disney films skip theaters and go straight to video, it's not a good sign. That's changed somewhat now that the Disney+ content beast needs to be fed, yet the company still differentiates between "triple-A television" like The Mandalorian and "cheap, kid-friendly movies" like the Air Bud series.

Hence, today's Disney+ premiere of Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers—a PG-rated reboot with little in the way of advance press screenings—had us assuming the worst, despite of its comedy pedigree. The Lonely Island ("Lazy Sunday," "Mother Lover") is all over the film's credits, but how much of the group's boundary-pushing Saturday Night Live work could survive the family-friendly demands of a straight-to-Disney+ launch?

I'm here with surprisingly good news. Chip 'N Dale is a self-aware comedy romp that families will appreciate. What's more, it knows exactly when and how to toy with '80s and '90s gaming, cartoon, and pop-culture references without losing character development and physical comedy.

Enlarge (credit: Qualcomm)

Qualcomm's mid-cycle "plus" chip refresh—the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1—has been announced. As usual, Qualcomm is promising some modest improvements over the existing 8 Gen 1 chip. The company said the chip will provide "10 percent faster CPU performance," thanks to a 200 MHz peak CPU boost (up to 3.2 GHz now) and a 10 percent faster GPU. The real shocker is a "30 percent improved power efficiency" claim for the CPU and GPU.

For the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, Qualcomm is moving the chip from Samsung Foundry to TSMC, which is apparently where the power improvements are coming from. That's a serious slam against Samsung's 4 nm process versus TSMC's 4 nm process, but it lines up with earlier reports of troubles at Samsung Foundry.

Swapping foundries as part of a mid-cycle upgrade is not normal, and it seems that Qualcomm has a bit of a salvage operation on its hands with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The chip has not fared very well in the real world, with the CPU regularly turning in lower benchmark scores than 2021's flagship Snapdragon 888.

Enlarge (credit: Anker/YouTube)

If you have an M1-based Mac, Apple says you're limited to just one external monitor. But Anker, which makes power banks, chargers, docks, and other accessories, this week released a dock that it says will boost your M1 Mac's max monitor count to three.

The 4250 Anker 563 USB-C docking station, spotted by MacRumors, connects to a USB-C port on your computer (which doesn't have to be a Mac) and can also charge a laptop at up to 100 W. Of course, you'll also need to plug in the dock's 180 W power adapter. Once connected, the dock adds the following ports to your setup:

• 2x HDMI (version not specified)
• 1x USB-C (3.1 Gen 1): charges devices at up to 30 W
• 1x USB-A (3.1 Gen 1): charges devices at up to 7.5 W
• 2x USB-A (2.0)
• 1x 3.5 mm headphone jack
• 1x Ethernet

Port selection. (credit: Anker)

You'll need the two HDMI ports and DisplayPort to add three monitors to an M1 MacBook. There are some notable limitations, though.