Discord Drops Persona Age Verification, SolarWinds Serv-U Critical RCEs, Splunk Windows Priv Esc, and Smart TV Screenshot Surveillance Lawsuits

In this episode of Cybersecurity Today, host Jim Love covers Discord ending its age-verification experiment with Persona after user backlash and researcher findings that Persona's front-end code suggested up to 269 verification checks, including watch list screening and risk scoring, amid already-thin trust following an earlier breach that exposed government ID images. The show also highlights SolarWinds Serv-U 15.5.0.4 patches for four critical (CVSS 9.1) remote code execution vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-40538, CVE-2025-40539, CVE-2025-40540, CVE-2025-40541), noting they require high privileges and that self-hosted Windows/Linux instances must be upgraded, with estimates ranging from under 1,200 to over 12,000 internet-exposed servers. Splunk discloses a high-severity Windows privilege escalation flaw (CVE-2025-2386, CVSS 8.0) caused by incorrect install-directory permissions in versions before 10.0.0.2, 9.4.0.6, 9.3.0.8, and 9.2.10, enabling local users to potentially escalate privileges and tamper with logging. Finally, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Samsung, Sony, LG, Hisense, and TCL, alleging smart TVs use automated content recognition to capture screen content—potentially up to twice per second—and transmit it without meaningful consent, with implications for both home viewing and confidential business use; the episode emphasizes reviewing and disabling ACR settings and accounting for network-connected screens in security models.

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00:00 Sponsor Message Meter 00:20 Discord Age Verification Backlash 01:37 Persona Code Raises Alarms 03:08 SolarWinds Serv-U Critical RCEs 04:51 Splunk Windows Priv Esc 06:18 Smart TV Screenshot Surveillance 08:35 Wrap Up and Sponsor Thanks