Microsoft published a new Defender update for Windows 11/10/Server installation images last month. This update package is necessary as a Windows installation image may contain old, outdated anti-malware definitions and software binaries. Aside from better security, these updates can also provide improved performance benefits in some cases.
When a new Windows installation is set up, there may be a temporary security risk due to outdated Microsoft Defender protection in the OS installation images. This happens because the antimalware software included in these images might not be up to date. Thus Microsoft says that these updated definitions essentially help close this protection gap.
Microsoft delivered the latest security definitions for Windows images via security intelligence update version 1.429.122.0. The Defender package version is also the same. These definitions include ones for the dangerous Lumma infostealer that is said to affect 394,000 Windows PCs worldwide. Almost all major browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and more, were found to be vulnerable.
It applies to Windows 11, Windows 10 (Enterprise, Pro, and Home editions), Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2016. Thus if you are someone looking to upgrade to Windows 11 from 10 (the minimum CPU requirement guidance for Windows 11 24H2 was recently updated), these definitions are critical.
Microsoft writes:
Version information
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Defender package version: 1.429.122.0
This package updates the anti-malware client, anti-malware engine, and signature versions in the OS installation images to following versions:
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Platform version: 4.18.25040.2
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Engine version: 1.1.25040.1
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Security intelligence version: 1.429.122.0
From Microsoft's security bulletin, we learn that the security intelligence update version 1.429.122.0 was released last month and aside for Lumma patches, it also adds threat detections for various backdoor exploits, trojans, among others. For those wondering, the latest intelligence update is version 1.429.293.0 at the time of writing.
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