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Microsoft releases out-of-band update to address privacy-defeating flaw in screenshot editing tool



Microsoft has released an update to address a privacy-defeating flaw in its screenshot editing tool for Windows 10 and Windows 11. The issue, dubbed aCropalypse, could enable malicious actors to recover edited portions of screenshots, potentially revealing sensitive information that may have been cropped out. Tracked as CVE-2023-28303, the vulnerability is rated 3.3 on the CVSS scoring system. It affects both the Snip & Sketch app on Windows 10 and the Snipping Tool on Windows 11. "The severity of this vulnerability is Low because successful exploitation requires uncommon user interaction and several factors outside of an attacker's control," Microsoft said in an advisory released on March 24, 2023. Successful exploitation requires that the following two prerequisites are met - However, it does not impact scenarios where an image is copied from the Snipping Tool or modified before saving it. "If you take a screenshot of your bank statement, save it to your desktop, and crop out your account number before saving it to the same location, the cropped image could still contain your account number in a hidden format that could be recovered by someone who has access to the complete image file," Microsoft explains. "However, if you copy the cropped image from Snipping Tool and paste it into an email or a document, the hidden data will not be copied, and your account number will be safe."

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