Microsoft patches bug in video game Age of Empires II

On Tuesday, Microsoft patched a historic record number of security bugs across its product lines, in large part due to the use of AI to help the company and external researchers discover bugs. Among the fixed vulnerabilities was one for the remastered version of the classic 25-year-old war strategy video game Age of Empires II. The flaw allowed hackers to take over a victim’s computer by sending a custom malicious game invite, according to security researchers. A video posted on X shows how the flaw could be exploited by hackers. According to cybersecurity firm Rapid7, a successful attack would have allowed hackers to place malicious files on the victim’s computer, opening the door for the hacker to achieve the ability to run malicious code on the victim’s machine. That means, effectively, the hacker could have taken over control of the hacked computer. There is no evidence that this bug was successfully exploited in the wild by hackers. But targeting video gamers can be an effective way to install malware on a high number of victims’ computers and steal their passwords, for example.