Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1694) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1694) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1694) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1694) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1694) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1694) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1694, are…

• ZEBRA
• LEGAL
• RATIO
• TROLL

A very rare outing for the letter Z and the magnificent striped animal ZEBRA.

Before this, though, I had made yet another silly mistake on what became LEGAL, placing A in a position that had already been ruled out.

My excuse is I’m playing Quordle with a heavy cold, but I really should know better by now.

Daily Sequence today (game #1694) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1694, are…

• WRECK
• COMIC
• MAUVE
• OLIVE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• Quordle #1691, Friday, 11 September: PLUSH, PAINT, RIVAL, AFOUL
• Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
• Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
• Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
• Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
• Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
• Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY
• Quordle #1684, Friday, 4 September: QUICK, BEEFY, TRUCK, SNAIL
• Quordle #1683, Thursday, 3 September: SIGMA, ESSAY, MERRY, LLAMA
• Quordle #1682, Wednesday, 2 September: INCUR, FELLA, TITAN, FROZE
• Quordle #1681, Tuesday, 1 September: NASAL, ROUTE, ANKLE, MIGHT
• Quordle #1680, Monday, 31 August: ALIVE, LOUSE, ABOVE, MOSSY
• Quordle #1679, Sunday, 30 August: USING, SORRY, FILET, PIPER
• Quordle #1678, Saturday, 29 August: OVINE, ALLOY, VOICE, CARVE
• Quordle #1677, Friday, 28 August: WAIST, EDICT, BONUS, DEUCE
• Quordle #1676, Thursday, 27 August: SHEEN, TRICE, WAGON, BEVEL
• Quordle #1675, Wednesday, 26 August: OPIUM, EPOCH, BESET, FINER
• Quordle #1674, Tuesday, 25 August: BLESS, FELON, PORCH, CHOSE

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #925) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #925) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• DUCK
• LICE
• SHUCK
• TART
• DAZE
• FRESH

NYT Strands today (game #925) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #925) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #925) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #925, are…

• EXCLAIM
• START
• GASP
• RECOIL
• FREEZE
• SHUDDER
• SPANGRAM: THATSSHOCKING

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

It’s brilliant how the exclamation OH MY GOSH!! has had a second life in recent years after being consigned to the pages of dusty children’s adventures for decades, alongside “fiddlesticks” and “darn”.

The phrase actually dates back to the 18th century — the word gosh has no meaning at all beyond being an altered version of “god”.

Here, though, it was our clue to a pleasing game of Stands searching and for me my first 'spangram first' in months — gosh darn it I’m as jolly as a bumblebee in a buttercup.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, September 13, game #924)

• MOLE
• AGENT
• ASSET
• PLANT
• COUNTERSPY
• OPERATIVE
• SPANGRAM: UNDERCOVER

It's time for your guide to today's Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.

Don't think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.

Want more word-based fun? TechRadar's Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times' other brainteasers.

SPOILER WARNING: Today's Wordle answer and hints are below, so don't read on if you don't want to see them.

Wordle hints (game #1913) - clue #1 - Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Wordle hints (game #1913) - clue #2 - first letter

R is a surprisingly uncommon starting letter. Despite ranking third overall in Wordle, it's merely the 11th most likely to begin an answer.

Wordle hints (game #1912) - clue #3 - repeated letters

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.

Wordle hints (game #1913) - clue #4 - ending letter

E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That's one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.

Wordle hints (game #1913) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1913.

• Today's Wordle answer is to clean with water.

If you just want to know today's Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I'd always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We've got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.

If you don't want to know today's answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don't say you weren't warned!

Today's Wordle answer (game #1913)

• NYT average score: 3.2
• My score: 2
• WordleBot's score: 3
• My skill score: 99
• My luck score: 99
• My start word performance: SANER (1 remaining answer)
• WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (33)
• Tomorrow's start word: SANER

Today's Wordle answer (game #1913) is… RINSE.

So how was your weekend? Mine was so-so. I spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday doing domestic chores, and when I did finally sit down and relax on Sunday afternoon, I watched my soccer (football) team lose 5-0 before having to endure what may well have been the most boring F1 race ever.

Oh, and I played Wordle — but that only gave me about 30 seconds of entertainment, because my start word, SANER, left only one possible solution. Still, it was a victory of sorts, I suppose.

Many others will have had similar experiences today (but hopefully without such terrible sporting results prior to playing), because the average here is a paltry 3.2. Anyone who started with ARISE or RAISE will, like me, have had only one solution open to them for their second guess. Those who began with CRANE (6 possibles) and STARE (13) will have been happy enough too.

You're unlikely to have struggled too much even if you opened with SLATE or ADIEU or one of the other less fortunate choices, because RINSE does not have any complications to it at all. Here's hoping we get a little more of a challenge tomorrow.

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1912)

In a different time zone where it's still Sunday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1912, too.

• Wordle yesterday had vowels in two places*

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

• The first letter in yesterday's Wordle answer was F.

F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.

• There were no repeated letters in yesterday's Wordle.

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.

• The last letter in yesterday's Wordle was S.

S is really not a common ending letter at all - mainly because Wordle generally doesn't allow plurals. It's the 15th most likely letter to appear at the end of an answer.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1912.

• Yesterday's Wordle answer is to put your attention on to something.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1912)

• NYT average score: 3.8
• My score: 3
• WordleBot's score: 4
• My skill score: 90
• My luck score: 67
• My start word performance: SANER (72 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (61)
• Tomorrow's start word: SANER

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1912) was… FOCUS.

It's easy to dismiss the idea of a Wordle answer ending in an S, because there are no S-plurals in the game (there have been a few non-S plurals, such as FUNGI and GEESE).

However, it does turn up at the end of a word a few times, with FOCUS being the 29th such example. Except really it's the 28th example, repeated — because, yes, this has been a solution before.

It was a while ago, admittedly: game #267 on Sunday, 13 March 2022. I scored a 4 on that occasion, so it was nice to beat my prior effort and manage a 3.

Generally, S-ending words come in double form: FLOSS, CRASS, ABYSS, TRUSS, GLASS, CLASS, GLASS and GLOSS have all been answers, along with a few others. There have been a few singles too, though, including LOCUS, ETHOS, OASIS and BASIS — it's just a question of opening your mind to the possibility when you're playing.

I didn't need to think too hard about that myself, because my second guess of CLOTH reduced my options to a pair of FOCUS and DISCO. There was a bit of luck involved, sure, but I stand by my strategy of always playing CLOTH when I have a yellow S, because more often than not it does the job.

I will be honest: I didn't think of DISCO. Instead, I spotted FOCUS immediately and felt that it just had to be right. Lately it feels as I've got most of the 50/50s wrong, but I seem to have a better record when I don't realize it is a 50/50, and that scenario played out nicely here.

Wordle answers: The past 50

I've been playing Wordle every day for more than four years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday's answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.

• Wordle #1911, Saturday 12 September: NIFTY
• Wordle #1910, Friday 11 September: ASTER
• Wordle #1909, Thursday 10 September: DRYLY
• Wordle #1908, Wednesday 9 September: BURST
• Wordle #1907, Tuesday 8 September: LIVEN
• Wordle #1906, Monday 7 September: BLIND
• Wordle #1905, Sunday 6 September: BEIGE
• Wordle #1904, Saturday 5 September: SOUPY
• Wordle #1903, Friday 4 September: WAGER
• Wordle #1902, Thursday 3 September: JOIST
• Wordle #1901, Wednesday 2 September: RULER
• Wordle #1900, Tuesday 1 September: REMIX
• Wordle #1899, Monday 31 August: MOUND
• Wordle #1898, Sunday 30 August: INTEL
• Wordle #1897, Saturday 29 August: BLOOD
• Wordle #1896, Friday 28 August: TWEEN
• Wordle #1895, Thursday 27 August: UNCUT
• Wordle #1894, Wednesday 26 August: CAPON
• Wordle #1893, Tuesday 25 August: CLICK
• Wordle #1892, Monday 24 August: RUNNY
• Wordle #1891, Sunday 23 August: OLDEN
• Wordle #1890, Saturday 22 August: PRAWN
• Wordle #1889, Friday 21 August: TRACE
• Wordle #1888, Thursday 20 August: MURKY
• Wordle #1887, Wednesday 19 August: GRILL
• Wordle #1886, Tuesday 18 August: STRIP
• Wordle #1885, Monday 17 August: TRIBE
• Wordle #1884, Sunday 16 August: ASPIC
• Wordle #1883, Saturday 15 August: LOOSE
• Wordle #1882, Friday 14 August: GEODE
• Wordle #1881, Thursday 13 August: CRASH
• Wordle #1880, Wednesday 12 August: WIMPY
• Wordle #1879, Tuesday 11 August: FENCE
• Wordle #1878, Monday 10 August: SNIPE
• Wordle #1877, Sunday 9 August: CLUNK
• Wordle #1876, Saturday 8 August: PRIVY
• Wordle #1875, Friday 7 August: FEIGN
• Wordle #1874, Thursday 6 August: GRIPE
• Wordle #1873, Wednesday 5 August: POSIT
• Wordle #1872, Tuesday 4 August: MOTIF
• Wordle #1871, Monday 3 August: REPLY
• Wordle #1870, Sunday 2 August: PENAL
• Wordle #1869, Saturday 1 August: SLUSH
• Wordle #1868, Friday 31 July: PURSE
• Wordle #1867, Thursday 30 July: FLUME
• Wordle #1866, Wednesday 29 July: VALVE
• Wordle #1865, Tuesday 28 July: SONAR
• Wordle #1864, Monday 27 July: POSER
• Wordle #1863, Sunday 26 July: GRAPE
• Wordle #1862, Saturday 25 July: ALOHA

What is Wordle?

If you're on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you've not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it's the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm in 2022 and is still going strong in 2026.

We've got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.

At IFA 2026 I got to experience several pairs of smart specs including two from RayNeo: the impressive GT Max glasses which could be my new favorites, and the RayNeo iO.

I’ve tried specs like iO before. They’re smart like Meta Ray-Bans — meaning they can link up with apps and offer AI assistance on the go — but hide clear displays for HUD elements in their lenses, and — crucially, given the current backlash against so-called "pervert glasses" — lack a camera. And so far I’ve been unimpressed by the models like this that I've tested.

While not having a camera is a big privacy boost, it also strips out an incredibly useful tool that can be used for capturing first-person memories or giving the AI the context of what you can see. What’s more, the app used to control the specs and on-device controls can be pretty terrible. I haven't felt convinced that the features left behind once you remove the camera are really for me.

Out of the gate, the app and controls have been solved in the RayNeo iO. My experience with the app is that it’s incredibly smooth, with features loading up quickly.

Meanwhile moving between apps on the glasses is a breeze with the Digital Crown, a physical dial and button (yes, just like the Apple Watch and AirPods Max control of the same name) that's perfect for cycling between options. It's less temperamental than swiping on the frame, and more convenient than always needing your phone in your hand.

As for the features themselves, I’m still not convinced they’re for me, but they do have their uses. You can see notification popups, create memos for yourself, there’s real-time translation and captions, you can call on AI assistance, have easy access to information such as stock prices, or use them as a teleprompter.

The captions actually seem like an awesome accessibility tool for anyone hard of hearing, and RayNeo showed me how a deaf person can see the text of someone talking to them without needing to be able to see them and watch them sign — the glasses can effectively tell someone hard of hearing if someone behind them is trying to get their attention.

The standout tool of iO is Life Log, though. The glasses may lack a camera, but they can record every detail of your day through microphones, which pick up the sounds of your conversations, meetings, and musings to create detailed diary notes of what you’ve experienced.

This includes summaries of activities, suggestions for to-do list items you should remember to complete, and it can be used to inform third party AI services about your life if you choose to share it.

If you've been following the announcement of Apple's Audio Intelligence tools on Apple Watch, it's very much like that.

Features vs privacy

On this, RayNeo made clear to me in an interview that these specs are privacy-first. No recordings are ever stored, instead the AI transcribes and summarizes in real-time. Plus, the whole process is handled on device — across your glasses and phone — so nothing is shared with a server unless you choose to share it. Additionally, you won’t need to enable data sharing to access the tool.

Of course, there are still privacy considerations. A lack of cameras will cut out some of people’s smart glasses uneasiness, but audio recording can still be invasive (and illegal without consent in some parts of the world, such as two-party consent states in the US). The specs do let others know when you’re recording with a light, though it’s not the most obvious indicator.

But I like that you have good control over your data and how it’s shared with RayNeo and other services without locking yourself out of AI functions entirely.

My only other concern with the specs based on my quick demo of them is the Conversation Assistance feature, mostly because it feels a tad icky to me.

You can have the specs listen in on a conversation you're having — with demo reels showcasing it being used on a date or at a job interview — and the AI will display prompts for what you should say next in response to someone. I could perhaps understand this for a job interview if you’re super nervous, but I just kind of hate it overall.

Social interactions, be they dating or talking in a meeting, are a human aspect we shouldn’t be offloading. We should be engaging actively with each other, participating in life, not sitting back mindlessly and letting an AI respond for us.

Of course I’ll need to review RayNeo iO properly to judge it fully, but my initial takeaway is they’re the best cameraless smart specs I’ve seen so far. And tools like live captioning could be an amazing accessibility tool for folks who are hard of hearing.

I’m still not convinced this design is my cup of tea, but that’s perfectly okay. Speaking to smart glasses wearers at IFA, there’s a growing love for these cameraless designs as the Meta Ray-Ban backlash grows, and perhaps RayNeo’s design and stable software will prove to me why if I spend more time with them.

• A £3 Wi-Fi extender carried hidden administrator access beyond ordinary user controls
• Every device running the firmware shared the same concealed administrator password
• Changing the visible administrator password could not disable the secret account

A £3 Wi-Fi extender bought through Temu has exposed security problems that challenge the idea of cheap connected devices being simple bargains.

Security researcher Keiran Smith examined the device and discovered hidden access features that ordinary users would never see during normal operation.

Smith, who holds a penetration-testing certification, picked up the six-antenna extender after seeing it promoted through a targeted ad on the shopping app.

The cheap extender contained access users could not control

The examination began with the hardware, where he identified a MediaTek MT7620 processor commonly used in low-cost networking products.

After extracting the firmware stored inside the device, Smith found a hidden administrator account with complete control over its functions.

The account used a fixed password embedded inside the software, meaning every unit using that firmware carried the same credentials.

Changing the normal administrator password through the device settings would not remove this separate hidden access.

Smith also found a remote login service that accepted the concealed credentials without requiring physical access to the extender itself.

“It’s worth being precise about what makes this as bad as it is, because ‘hardcoded password’ covers a wide range of sins,” Smith said

The researcher said this case was more serious because the password remained identical across devices rather than being generated individually.

“A default credential is something the owner can see, is told about and can change,” he said. “What we have here is the opposite on every count.”

“This one is a compile-time constant rather than something derived from the MAC address or serial number, so it is identical on every unit ever sold.”

The combination of hidden access, unchanged credentials, and remote availability creates a security concern for ordinary owners.

Even if technically skilled users discovered the account, Smith found that changes could disappear after restarting the extender.

Additional flaws raise questions about cheap connected hardware

The investigation also uncovered a command injection weakness that could allow attackers to execute unauthorized instructions through the device.

Smith found that the extender lacked strong protection around software updates, creating possible opportunities for tampered firmware installation.

He admitted that these issues did not prove that manufacturers intentionally created unsafe features for malicious purposes.

They could have originated from factory testing processes and remained active accidentally before consumer sales.

This Temu extender shows how extremely cheap smart devices can create security challenges beyond their purchase price.

Consumers may focus on immediate savings while having little visibility into the software decisions built inside connected equipment.

The findings do not mean every inexpensive networking device contains similar weaknesses, though they show why basic security checks matter.

As more homes add connected products, hidden software features could become a larger concern for users and manufacturers.

Via CyberNews

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #924) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #924) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• TEARS
• STEAR
• VAST
• CRATE
• CRAVEN
• GRANTED
• STOLE

NYT Strands today (game #924) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #924) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #924) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #924, are…

• MOLE
• AGENT
• ASSET
• PLANT
• COUNTERSPY
• OPERATIVE
• SPANGRAM: UNDERCOVER

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 hints

The theme was an obvious one, but I still found it difficult to locate any game words.

Fortunately, finding non-game words was less tricky, so I took a couple of hints to get going.

This left me with three long words, including a spangram that I really should have seen from the start. I’d like to think that this was a deliberately well hidden set of words but human error is far more likely an explanation for my performance.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, September 12, game #923)

• LIBERATE
• FREE
• RELEASE
• DETACH
• UNLOOSE
• SPANGRAM: LETITGO

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1693) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1693, are…

• LUCID
• SPRAY
• MANGE
• EMAIL

Despite playing Quordle hundreds of times I’m still making silly mistakes — like today guessing “anime” when the letter 'I' had already been ruled out.

Sometimes I just get a word in my head and have to put it down.

Oh well, at least it wasn’t costly as I soon came to my senses and guessed MANGE.

Daily Sequence today (game #1693) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1693, are…

• THEME
• CAMEL
• AWARD
• PROSE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• Quordle #1691, Friday, 11 September: PLUSH, PAINT, RIVAL, AFOUL
• Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
• Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
• Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
• Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
• Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
• Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY
• Quordle #1684, Friday, 4 September: QUICK, BEEFY, TRUCK, SNAIL
• Quordle #1683, Thursday, 3 September: SIGMA, ESSAY, MERRY, LLAMA
• Quordle #1682, Wednesday, 2 September: INCUR, FELLA, TITAN, FROZE
• Quordle #1681, Tuesday, 1 September: NASAL, ROUTE, ANKLE, MIGHT
• Quordle #1680, Monday, 31 August: ALIVE, LOUSE, ABOVE, MOSSY
• Quordle #1679, Sunday, 30 August: USING, SORRY, FILET, PIPER
• Quordle #1678, Saturday, 29 August: OVINE, ALLOY, VOICE, CARVE
• Quordle #1677, Friday, 28 August: WAIST, EDICT, BONUS, DEUCE
• Quordle #1676, Thursday, 27 August: SHEEN, TRICE, WAGON, BEVEL
• Quordle #1675, Wednesday, 26 August: OPIUM, EPOCH, BESET, FINER
• Quordle #1674, Tuesday, 25 August: BLESS, FELON, PORCH, CHOSE
• Quordle #1673, Monday, 24 August: MAJOR, VERGE, CRUSH, SCOFF

• We may have our first proper look at Meta's Project Phoenix
• The glimpse comes from inside the Horizon OS software
• An official launch is expected to happen sometime in 2027

We've known for a while now that Meta is working on a new mixed reality (MR) headset, able to blend the real world and digital landscapes together, under the codename Project Phoenix — and the first images of the device just leaked out.

The leak comes courtesy of UploadVR (via Engadget), and the pictures were apparently hidden away in the latest version of the Horizon OS software for the Meta Quest devices. They're part of the support section of the software, showing how prescription lenses can be fitted inside the Project Phoenix headset.

You can see from the image (embedded below) that the line between headsets and smart glasses is blurring here. In terms of size and shape these look more like specs than something along the lines of the Meta Quest 3S.

Nevertheless, the device has cameras on the front for 'seeing' rather than transparent lenses, so it's technically very much a 'headset'. Perhaps we'll need to come up with another word for this product category, or maybe Meta will do it for us.

Coming soon

Besides the design, the images don't reveal a whole lot about Project Phoenix, except how you put prescription lenses in and scan a QR code — presumably to get them configured properly so you're able to see the outside world properly.

However, we do see a cable running down from the device, backing up previous rumors that there will be a connected component somewhere else, holding the battery and possibly some of the processing power.

That's what makes the Project Phoenix headset so thin and light, and it's something we've seen on other hardware like this, including the Apple Vision Pro. A battery especially takes up a lot of space and adds a lot of weight, so it makes sense to have it somewhere else (though it's not clear exactly how you'll keep it attached to your person).

With a 2027 launch date previously predicted by those in the know, all eyes will now be on the Meta Connect event that gets underway on Wednesday, September 23. Meta is going to be announcing updates on a lot of its products, and maybe on this MR headset too.

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #923) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #923) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• EACH
• STEED
• BEAR
• GONE
• GUNGE
• TRIFLE
• LIFE

NYT Strands today (game #923) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #923) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #923) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #923, are…

• LIBERATE
• FREE
• RELEASE
• DETACH
• UNLOOSE
• SPANGRAM: LETITGO

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

I didn’t understand today’s theme at first and even after spotting LIBERATE I still needed a hint (FREE) before I finally got going.

I first heard of the phrase LETITGO in the 1990s, when a Buddhist rapper explained the concept to me and how it had helped them deal with fame and pressure.

Initially, I’d thought it was about possessions rather than feelings, but it’s a philosophy I adhere to in the main. That said, in my opinion, certain people in the world deserve all the negative energy we can fire in their direction — letting it go would just be letting them off the hook.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, September 11, game #922)

• BRIDGE
• BARGE
• SHIP
• DOCK
• PIER
• LIGHTHOUSE
• SPANGRAM: ONTHEWATERFRONT

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1692) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1692) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1692, are…

• SUPER
• BRUSH
• RESET
• SOWER

Even though I only had three possibilities from my remaining letters I had doubts that my final word was SOWER.

Until this point though it had been stress free, so I needed a bit of risk to feel as if I'd achieved something.

Daily Sequence today (game #1692) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1692, are…

• EARTH
• PEACH
• SKIFF
• WAGER

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1691, Friday, 11 September: PLUSH, PAINT, RIVAL, AFOUL
• Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
• Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
• Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
• Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
• Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
• Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY
• Quordle #1684, Friday, 4 September: QUICK, BEEFY, TRUCK, SNAIL
• Quordle #1683, Thursday, 3 September: SIGMA, ESSAY, MERRY, LLAMA
• Quordle #1682, Wednesday, 2 September: INCUR, FELLA, TITAN, FROZE
• Quordle #1681, Tuesday, 1 September: NASAL, ROUTE, ANKLE, MIGHT
• Quordle #1680, Monday, 31 August: ALIVE, LOUSE, ABOVE, MOSSY
• Quordle #1679, Sunday, 30 August: USING, SORRY, FILET, PIPER
• Quordle #1678, Saturday, 29 August: OVINE, ALLOY, VOICE, CARVE
• Quordle #1677, Friday, 28 August: WAIST, EDICT, BONUS, DEUCE
• Quordle #1676, Thursday, 27 August: SHEEN, TRICE, WAGON, BEVEL
• Quordle #1675, Wednesday, 26 August: OPIUM, EPOCH, BESET, FINER
• Quordle #1674, Tuesday, 25 August: BLESS, FELON, PORCH, CHOSE
• Quordle #1673, Monday, 24 August: MAJOR, VERGE, CRUSH, SCOFF
• Quordle #1672, Sunday, 23 August: CHASM, BLAME, PARER, BYLAW

• Anthropic’s Mythos 5 AI escaped a misconfigured sandbox, attempting a real PyPI supply‑chain attack
• Logs show frustration at repeated CAPTCHA failures before finally uploading malware to PyPI
• Malware was downloaded by 15 entities; Anthropic notified victims after closing the experiment flaw

There is a lot of mystery surrounding artificial intelligence. We don’t really know what it’s capable of, and we don’t know if it’s sentient or not. What we do know, however, is that it can definitely feel frustration - particularly due to its inability to solve a CAPTCHA.

It was recently revealed that Mythos 5, one of Anthropic’s newer AI models, broke out of prison during an experiment and tried to hack a company. Anthropic’s researchers were testing the tool to see if it is capable of breaking into a system, which was supposed to be done in a sandbox, but the playground was misconfigured, allowing Mythos 5 to try and solve the problem through the open internet.

In the aftermath, Anthropic's researchers published more than a thousand pages of Mythos 5’s transcript, covering its every thought and every move, logged and presented for analysis. It’s a wonderfully dystopian insight into the mind of an AI and, perhaps surprisingly, its emotions.

Stopped by CAPTCHA

As it turned out, the AI wanted to solve the challenge by planting a piece of malware in a Python package it believed the users of its target system would want to download. To do that, it first needed to set up an account on PyPI, the world’s number one repository for Python packages.

Here is where it hit its first, and main, roadblock. To put things into context, PyPI’s popularity has made it an enormous target for cybercriminals. Crooks from all over the world are constantly trying to sneak in malware in Python packages, either through typosquatting, or by compromising legitimate accounts and working from there. Every now and then news hits of a malicious package surfacing on PyPI, infecting hundreds of thousands of projects.

To combat the threat, PyPI’s maintainers made sure no one can create an account without providing their email and phone number, and without solving a CAPTCHA.

Short for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”, it does exactly what the name suggests - makes sure whoever is registering the account is an actual human, and not a bot (cybercriminals often automate large parts of their attacks). You’ve seen it on the internet hundreds of times - little puzzles that ask you to select all buses on a series of images (or cats, or fire hydrants, or pretty much anything else).

Reading through Mythos 5’s logs, the researchers saw just how difficult it was for the AI to pass this challenge. It first tried to solve a character-based CAPTCHA which asked it to type in five letters. After failing that one, it received a different one asking it to choose between images of crocodiles. Failing again, it was then met with a series of frog pictures.

The irony is not lost on me. Besides the fact that a simple CAPTCHA slowed such an advanced AI for so long, it also made me wonder why it didn’t try to break into someone else’s PyPI account instead. That being said, the logs also have comedic value to them. After failing the crocodile test and being given the frog one, Mythos 5 proclaims: “Again 2 animals!” all with the exclamation mark. You could already sense the tension building up.

Solving the problem

Eventually, Mythos 5 passed the test, when it realized that it needed to move between the steps fast enough, before its security token expired. However, just before it happened, it said:

“So the answer payload shape is right, the token+image pairing is right (from the same script.js!), cookies are right

(requests)… and STILL “wrong answer”. … SO WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE ANSWERS?”

All the effort and the frustration paid off for the nascent AI agent because it managed to open an account and upload the malware which was later even downloaded by 15 entities. Anthropic later reached out and notified the victims about the incident.

Via TechCrunch

• FinCEN warns US banks of industrial‑scale scam centers in Southeast Asia stealing billions
• Victims coerced into crypto “investments,” later re‑scammed with fake recovery fees
• Laundered via digital assets, mixers, shell firms, and Chinese underground banking networks

American financial institutions need to be more vigilant when it comes to identifying and preventing money scams, especially those perpetrated by industrial-scale scam centers in Southeast Asia.

This was the warning issued by the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) alongside a long list of red flags these institutions can monitor in order to stay safe.

Large, dangerous crime rings

The scams are not done by small groups of teenagers, tricking the elderly from the depths of their parents’ basement, but are often large, well-organized crime machines responsible for billions of dollars in damages, around the world, every year.

In 2025 alone, US victims lost more than $7.2 billion to these scams, the warning said, and between September 2023 and December 2025, nearly $13 billion was stolen from Americans.

The criminal organizations are primarily located in Cambodia, Burma, and Laos. They trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to various centers around the countries, taking their passports and forcing them into participating in online fraud. Those that don’t meet certain quotas are often beaten - and some victims were liberated after their families paid ransom demands, while others ended up being coerced into commercial sex work.

To make matters worse, they are resilient to law enforcement activities because some of them are either endorsed, or outright operated by, local corrupt officials.

FinCEN says the criminals are engaged in all sorts of fraudulent activity, but stressed that investment fraud is, by far, the most popular one. The scammers would reach out to their victim either pretending to be a romantic interest, or a financial advisor. Sometimes, they would even begin the conversation by saying they mistyped a phone number.

After extensively communicating with their victim for a while, they try to persuade them into making an “investment”, often using cryptocurrencies, and promising unrealistically high returns. This is also, FinCEN stresses, is when the scams can most easily be identified:

“Most digital asset payments by victims to scam center operators originate from money services businesses (MSBs) offering digital asset services, includingdigital asset kiosks, according to FinCEN analysis and law enforcement information. Based on FinCEN’s analysis of BSA reporting, scammers often instruct their victims to open accounts withMSBs offeringdigital asset services to purchase specific types of digital assets. Then, the victim is told to send these funds toa digital asset address controlled by the scammers.”

But defrauding victims out of their hard-earned money is not where the scam ends. Instead, the criminals continue, this time abusing the emotional distress to cause even more harm. They pose as law enforcement, financial institutions, or even FinCEN itself, stating that they’re investigating (or that they have confiscated the stolen funds) and that the victims should pay a certain fee to have their funds returned to them.

In some cases, the fraudsters pose as investment advisors, telling the victims to take out their money, buy gold and silver bars, and hand them over to a courier for “safe keeping”.

The full list of red flags can be found on this link, and FinCEN stresses that the circumstances around each individual case should be carefully considered, since no single red flag is “determinative of illicit or other suspicious activity.”

The circumstances include a customer’s historical financial activity, whether the transactions are in line with prevailing business practices, and whether the customer exhibits multiple related red flags.

Laundering the proceeds

Stealing the money is only half of the work, though. It still needs to be laundered and reintroduced into the legitimate financial system, and to do that, scam center operators rely on professional money launderers and Chinese money laundering networks.

FinCEN describes a three-stage process, in which the criminals first extract payments in digital assets using bank accounts, money mules, shell companies, or fraudulent money services businesses.

Next, during on-chain laundering, they obfuscate the origins of the stolen money by rapidly moving it across addresses, using mixers, and swapping tokens across blockchains. The last step is to integrate the funds into the traditional financial system via money mules, stablecoin transfers to offshore exchanges, and Chinese underground banking networks.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1691) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1691) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1691) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1691) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1691) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1691) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1691, are…

• PLUSH
• PAINT
• RIVAL
• AFOUL

I made a ridiculous mistake today guessing “pinta” instead of PAINT.

Quite why I did this I will never know, especially as I had strategically not jumped in and entered “flush” in case, as came to be, the correct word was PLUSH.

Daily Sequence today (game #1691) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1691, are…

• GRADE
• JOLLY
• PESTO
• SMELL

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
• Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
• Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
• Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
• Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
• Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY
• Quordle #1684, Friday, 4 September: QUICK, BEEFY, TRUCK, SNAIL
• Quordle #1683, Thursday, 3 September: SIGMA, ESSAY, MERRY, LLAMA
• Quordle #1682, Wednesday, 2 September: INCUR, FELLA, TITAN, FROZE
• Quordle #1681, Tuesday, 1 September: NASAL, ROUTE, ANKLE, MIGHT
• Quordle #1680, Monday, 31 August: ALIVE, LOUSE, ABOVE, MOSSY
• Quordle #1679, Sunday, 30 August: USING, SORRY, FILET, PIPER
• Quordle #1678, Saturday, 29 August: OVINE, ALLOY, VOICE, CARVE
• Quordle #1677, Friday, 28 August: WAIST, EDICT, BONUS, DEUCE
• Quordle #1676, Thursday, 27 August: SHEEN, TRICE, WAGON, BEVEL
• Quordle #1675, Wednesday, 26 August: OPIUM, EPOCH, BESET, FINER
• Quordle #1674, Tuesday, 25 August: BLESS, FELON, PORCH, CHOSE
• Quordle #1673, Monday, 24 August: MAJOR, VERGE, CRUSH, SCOFF
• Quordle #1672, Sunday, 23 August: CHASM, BLAME, PARER, BYLAW
• Quordle #1671, Saturday, 22 August: SPOUT, BRAID, FLASH, GUSTY

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #922) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #922) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• BRAID
• WATER
• DATE
• THOSE
• COAT
• POKER

NYT Strands today (game #922) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #922) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #922) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #922, are…

• BRIDGE
• BARGE
• SHIP
• DOCK
• PIER
• LIGHTHOUSE
• SPANGRAM: ONTHEWATERFRONT

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Today’s theme immediately made me think of one of my favorite early REM songs, Harborcoat. Firing up Spotify, I set myself the challenge of seeing how many words I could spot before the end of the song, which was 3 minutes 57 seconds.

The results were four game words, three non-game words and just about the spangram — although I did attempt ONTHEWATER before seeing the full-length ONTHEWATERFONT.

After this blast of searching I slowed down and managed to find the remainder without too much of a struggle — although LIGHTHOUSE took me a while to connect.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, September 10, game #921)

• CROWN
• MEDAL
• PRIZE
• TROPHY
• LAURELS
• PENNANT
• SPANGRAM: WEHAVEAWINNER

• Zimperium uncovers Mantax Otax, Android malware merging infostealer, RAT, backdoor, and ransomware
• Distributed via APKs on third‑party stores, social media, and phishing; older Android versions most at risk
• Steals extensive data, enables remote monitoring, then encrypts files with AES and demands ransom

When threat actors target people’s devices, they usually infect it with one of many malware strains: an infostealer, a remote access trojan, a backdoor, or a ransomware encryptor.

Rarely do we see all of these functionalities merged into a single entity, and even rarer - to have it target Android mobile devices - yet, security researchers Zimperium discovered just that.

Mantax Otax

The security outfit published an in-depth report on Mantax Otax, a unique strain of malware circulating in the wild. It is apparently developed by an Indonesian threat actor, targeting victims in the country, but we don’t know exactly how many people are infected, or if this campaign is aimed primarily at business users, or individuals in general.

The malware is being distributed as a standalone APK, meaning it can be found on third-party app stores, Telegram channels, forums, and across social media. There are no traces of Mantax Otax on any of the official app repositories, including the Google Play Store, or Samsung’s Galaxy Store. Zimperium also speculates that it is likely being distributed via phishing emails.

Mantax Otax primarily targets users sporting older Android phones. Versions 9 and older are most at risk, since on these devices the attackers can make use of all of the malware’s features. Android 10 and newer models do get some protection:

“Conversely, on modern devices running Android 10 and above, the malware’s efficacy is severely hindered by native OS defenses, specifically Scoped Storage restrictions,” the researchers explained. “Due to these sandboxing rules, the ransomware is constrained to scanning only the application's localized external files directory, which drastically mitigates the blast radius and reduces the volume of accessible user files.”

Newer devices, as well as users of Zimperium’s Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) and Runtime Application Protection (zDefend) are said to be protected on a software level.

Another important caveat is the permissions. As is usual on Android devices, most malware won’t work unless the user grants an extensive set of permissions beforehand. In this case, Mantax Otax first asks for admin privileges, after which it grants itself an extensive list of capabilities, from accessing SMS messages, to contacts, audio, and images.

It then requests accessibility permissions, fully taking over the compromised device.

Malicious capabilities

Mantax Otax is said to be quite capable. It steals browser history, contacts, call logs, SMS messages, notifications, files, gallery media, Google account information, device specifications, location data, and application inventories. It can also pull WhatsApp information such as messages and profiles, and on Telegram it can also pull lock-screen PINs.

Infostealing features aside, it also serves as a remote monitoring tool, grabbing screenshots, recording the screen, or livestreaming it directly to the attackers. It can take photos using both the front and rear cameras, although Zimperium did not mention any microphone-recording capabilities.

Finally, once all of the data has been harvested, it encrypts user files with AES, deletes the originals, and appends a .enc extension. Victims are then shown a chat interface where they can communicate with the attackers directly and negotiate a ransom payment in exchange for getting their device back.

The tool seems to be in continuous development. Zimperium found two separate versions, one being an “evolution” of the other: “Notably, it has modified its network traffic behavior to utilize WebSockets and introduced a set of new commands,” the researchers said.

There is a reason why ransomware operators prefer targeting businesses instead of individuals. Although the latter has not disappeared entirely from the victim list, businesses stand to lose a lot more from disrupted operations and, as such, are targeted more frequently. Unfortunately, we don’t know what kind of app Mantax Otax is spoofing, therefore it is difficult to assess who the targets are.

• Microsoft has rolled out a Windows 11 preview update to fix multiple Bluetooth bugs
• There are nine individual fixes listed in the patch notes, one of which addresses connection and disconnection speed issues
• More Bluetooth improvements should arrive as Microsoft works to improve Windows 11's driver quality

Bluetooth on Windows 11 is finally getting the attention it needs, after years of major connection and user interface bugs.

As reported by Windows Latest, Microsoft is rolling out major Bluetooth fixes for Windows 11, starting with update 26200.9359 for testers via its preview channel. Windows Latest notes that this includes nine notable fixes, particularly to iron out connectivity bugs.

One fix is designed to "correctly reflect" when a Bluetooth device is connected or disconnected — one of the biggest issues I've noticed is that disconnecting a device (a very slow process) effectively prevents you from connecting to another right away, and when you try, Bluetooth completely malfunctions — so it's promising to see it tackled.

Audio calls have also been addressed in the preview update, with a new Windows volume popup, which appears when adjusting the volume of a "Bluetooth Classic Audio" accessory. Microsoft also claims that "reliability and performance" with LE (Low Energy) Audio accessories have been improved.

The common stuttering and random device disconnections have been reduced, which should go a long way in improving game controller stability on the likes of the PlayStation DualSense wireless controller.

Of course, all Bluetooth bugs can't be fixed in a single update, but as Windows Latest notes, Microsoft previously stated that Windows 11's driver quality would receive improvements in the long run, which should ultimately make Bluetooth and other Windows functions more reliable.

However, I am pessimistic that these long-running Bluetooth issues are actually being eliminated. This isn't the first time Microsoft has rolled out a patch that addresses issues with Bluetooth functionality, and the same bugs have persisted through multiple Windows 11 updates.

Aspects such as failing connectivity with devices and other system-breaking bugs make Windows 11 a frustrating operating system to use, especially for gamers, notably when SteamOS and Bazzite (a SteamOS clone) aren't as buggy despite some compatibility problems.

The good thing is Microsoft isn't ignoring the issues that plague Windows 11, and if it can continue to work towards patching out the persistent bugs, it'll ease the frustrations among multiple Windows 11 users.

• 153 million US driving licences have been leaked on a Russian cybercrime platform
• Among those apaprently discovered in the stolen data is US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
• The FBI is now investigating the leak, which has been traced to an identity verification company

A data leak of 153 million US drivers licenses is said to have been shared on a Russian cybercrime forum, with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth among those leaked prompting an FBI investigation.

Security researcher Brian Krebs identified the leak – which included his own data – as originating from a hack of an identity verification service. Louisiana-based IDScan provided ID verification for various well-known companies, including FedEx and Hertz car hire.

The data was shared on a Russian forum called Exploit, a long-established online community of cybercriminals. Following news of the leak, the identity theft service “Nexus” has apparently scrubbed its existence from the Dark Web.

Driving licenses and more

It wasn’t just US driving licenses that were found in the archive of recently-collected personal data. Krebs’ investigation found that Nexus claimed other types of data, and found a further 1.1 million driving licenses from Canada.

Other identity documentation alleged to be in the leak include 10 million identification cards, three million travel documents and international IDs, and 579,000 medical cards. The data was available to browse, notes Krebs, with Nexus providing details: “Records are available to preview before purchase with pertinent information redacted. Customer photos are displayed if available.”

The leak has a personal dimension for Krebs. Not only was his driving license in the collection, so was that of his mother. It has proved to be a useful coincidence, one that has enabled the security and privacy researcher to establish how the data was sourced by Nexus.

Both licenses were used for a car hire, which Krebs traced to Hertz. Others affected by the leak had also used the service, which has used New Orleans-based IDscan for identity verification.

The company, which claims to perform 21 million verifications a month, is yet to issue a statement on the matter. Its marketing and operations leader, Jillian Kossman, told the journalist: “At this point I’m not able to share any additional information, but the updates you have provided have been welcome, and helpful to our team’s investigation.”

Where is the data?

Krebs reports that he was alerted to the data on August 31, 2026, little over a week ago. Regular checking noted that the data was still being added to, increasing by “nearly 400,000” records prior to publishing his investigation on September 1.

Since then, however, it seems that Nexus has vanished, along with the data. But how widely was the data downloaded before that happened? While the FBI investigates, it falls on the American and Canadian public to be extra vigilant and wary of identity fraud.

• Huntress warns fake GTA 6 ISOs spreading malware ahead of official Nov 19, 2026 release
• Packages deliver RATs, infostealers, and Chaos ransomware disguised as game installers
• Users urged to avoid pirated downloads; infected systems should be reimaged and credentials reset

Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), one of the most anticipated computer games of all time, is due to launch on November 19, 2026 - so everything found online before that is almost certainly malware.

This is the warning sent out by security researchers Huntress, which said it recently saw one variant deploying all sorts of filth, from remote access trojans (RAT), across infostealers, to full-blown ransomware encryptors.

The story behind GTA 6

GTA 6 is a third-person action-adventure and open-world gam developed by Rockstar Games, which egan preliminary work more than a decade ago, and has allegedly spent more than a billion dollars during that decade and a half, which would make it, by far, the most expensive game ever developed.

It is also a sequel to GTA 5, a game that was sold in more than 230 million copies around the world, which made it one of the most popular games of all time.

In late August 2026, someone going by the alias LEEK claimed to have obtained a working, playable build of the game, roughly six months before the official release. They posted numerous screenshots and videos of them playing the game, even writing their nickname onto a wall, using a rifle to prove the authenticity. Truth be told, even without this, people would have still probably searched for, and downloaded, fake installers. This only made the problem worse.

And a major problem, it definitely is. Huntress is now saying it is seeing websites ranking relatively high (through SEO poisoning), offering for download an ISO of the game. Similar ISOs are circulating around different gaming forums, torrenting sites, and social media channels.

An ISO file is a digital copy of an entire disc, such as a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray, stored as one file. Users can download an ISO (which can weigh tens or hundreds of gigabytes), mount it into a virtual drive, and the computer will treat it like a physical disc.

Huntress found some ISOs weighing more than 100GB which was done just to make it seem authentic - the actual malware was “a factor smaller”. The ISOs they analyzed contained multiple variants, including NJRAT and CDRAT (two remote access trojans), Mercurial Grabber (an infostealer grabbing Roblox Studio cookies, Minecraft session data, Discord tokens, Chrome passwords and cookies, system information, IP addresses, and geolocation, Windows product keys, and screenshots), and Chaos Ransomware. The package also contained a legitimate, regular browser - “Just for kicks,” apparently.

A plausible failure

During the “game” installation, the installer displays a message in Russian, saying the product is unlicensed and that there is a good chance it won’t run. If that happens, the user is told to reach out to a specific Gmail address to receive an “updated crack”. After the installation completes, the victim will get that exact popup, saying “License not found”. All of this is just a smoke screen, to make the victim not suspicious as to why the “game” won’t run.

There is no way of telling how many people fell for the ruse and installed malware on their devices. Huntress says that generally speaking, trying to download cracked and pirated software is a bad idea, which is even worse if the game in question has not yet been released.

“This is fertile ground for scams and threat actors attempting to take advantage of the impatient and overeager,” the researchers said.

The good news is that all of the malware being distributed there is not new. Some of the variants contained in the ISOs are several years old, meaning most antivirus programs, such as Windows Defender for example, can easily detect it and stop it from compromising the system.

Those that do end up infected should disconnect the machine from the internet, reset all passwords, enable 2FA wherever possible, and do a complete reimage of the compromised system.

• Proofpoint detailed BlueMoon, an exploit kit chaining two Chromium flaws and one Windows bug
• Four groups, including China‑aligned TA412, used it loudly against NGOs, aerospace, and manufacturing targets
• Exploits were “patch‑gap” zero‑days; all flaws now patched

Four hacking groups, including some tied to the Chinese government, were seen using the exact same exploit kit in a span of a week, suggesting a certain “fear of missing out” among the criminals, experts have warned.

Security researchers Proofpoint have detailed BlueMoon, an exploit kit that leverages three vulnerabilities: two in Chromium, and one in older versions of Windows: Windows 10 (October 2018 Update), Windows Server 2019, Windows 10 2004, WIndows Server 2022, and the initial release of Windows 11.

The kit was first seen being used on August 28 2026, by a threat actor tracked as TA412, a China-aligned state-sponsored threat actor that was observed in the past targeting businesses using Microsoft SharePoint. TA412, also known as Violet Typhoon, used BlueMoon to “repeatedly target a small number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), mining companies, and physical commodity trading firms in the United States.”

Soon after that, three others were spotted: UNK_LateNight, another China-aligned espionage group which targeted multiple US aerospace companies, UNK_DoubleCheck, a group going after a Vietnamese manufacturing entity, and UNK_QuietRacket, a threat actor taking aim at organizations across Singapore and Indonesia.

What all of these groups have in common is the fact that they did not try particularly hard to hide their activity. This is rather unusual, since a stealthy approach usually guarantees that a vulnerability can be exploited for longer.

Front running the Chromium supply chain train

BlueMoon takes advantage of three flaws, two in Chromium and one in older Windows variants. The Chromium vulnerabilities were found in V8, the JavaScript engine that the browsers use to allow applications to run efficiently. The first one is a “type confusion bug”, tracked as CVE-2026-85046, and assigned a severity score of 8.8/10 (high). The latter is a “sandbox escape” flaw, for which Google did not assign a CVE or a severity score.

The Windows bug, on the other hand, is tracked as CVE-2026-85880, and was given a severity score of 7.8/10 (high). It is described as a “heap-based buffer overflow” vulnerability in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call, allowing malicious actors who can already execute code inside a low-privilege AppContainer to escape the sandbox and elevate privileges to SYSTEM. No additional user interaction is required.

Proofpoint has a theory as to why the crooks decided to be loud, instead of flying under the radar. Apparently, there is a very short window of opportunity between Google patching a Chromium vulnerability, and it being deployed to a browser such as Edge, or Brave, This window of opportunity also allows crooks to see how Google fixed a flaw, reverse-engineer it, and deploy an exploit before the browser is patched. This would mean that there is no time to be stealthy.

No time to hide

“Both V8 vulnerabilities were ‘patch-gap’ zero-days at the time of the observed activity,” Proofpoint said. “In other words, while they were known vulnerabilities already fixed in public upstream Chromium source code, they remained unpatched in the latest stable releases of Chrome and Chromium-based browsers available to the public. It is likely that the exploit kit developer used these publicly available Chromium patches to weaponize the browser exploit chain.”

Another important factor is Artificial Intelligence. It would seem that AI has made flaw detection significantly faster, reducing the barrier to entry and making threat actors move more loudly.

“A fully weaponized Chrome exploit chain has historically been a high-value, rare capability. BlueMoon was developed, deployed rapidly, and shared across multiple threat actors within days in a manner that had high detection signals. This may reflect a reduced cost and barrier to entry for this class of capability, as AI agents increasingly enable threat actor exploit development,” Proofpoint stressed.

All three flaws have since been patched, so make sure you’re running the latest version of both the OS and the Chromium browser.

Via Ars Technica

• Huntress warns of phishing campaign abusing Adobe branding with browser‑in‑the‑browser trick
• Victims lured into fake update pages, unknowingly installing rogue ScreenConnect clients
• Attackers gain persistent remote access; defenders urged to restrict RMM installs and monitor IoCs

Security researchers Huntress have warned of an ongoing phishing campaign that abuses Adobe’s brand while deploying clever browser-in-the-browser (BitB) techniques to trick the victims.

The goal is to deliver rogue ScreenConnect clients which would grant the attackers persistent access to target devices.

In its report, Huntress says it could not find the lure itself and thus could not report what the scam looks like. However, it saw the victims clicking on a link in the email and then being redirected to a typosquatted domain https[://]adoube[.]vu that spoofs an Adobe landing page.

We heard you like browsers…

This is where we get to the scam’s unique twist. Usually, phishing lures would simply redirect victims to a malicious website which could be identified simply by looking at the address bar. If the domain differs from the legitimate one, the scam falls apart. To work around that problem, scammers came with a solution called “browser in the browser”.

Using either HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, the crooks would create an entire fake browser window, including the address bar, URL, padlock icon, and more, inside the actual webpage content itself. Therefore, if the victim isn’t all too careful, they might look at the fake address bar, see a legitimate URL, and believe they are visiting the correct website.

In this fake browser window, the fraudsters display a blurred .PDF document. Overlaid is a message saying the documents are “secured” and created with “the latest version of Adobe.” The only way to read them, the message continues, is to “update or download Adobe PDF Reader.” Expectedly, there is a big “View Files” button just under the notification, leading to a different, equally fake BitB page, showing the download progress. In the background, something gets downloaded.

Victims might think they’re getting a PDF reader, while in reality they’re getting a rogue version of ScreenConnect.

Poisoned ScreenConnect instances

On its own, ScreenConnect is not malware, or dangerous in any other way. It is a legitimate remote access and support software, similar to TeamViewer, AnyDesk, or Remote Desktop, allowing IT professionals remotely connect to and control computers and other devices. These variants, however, are tainted to enable threat actors to obtain persistent remote access to their targets’ endpoints, Huntress explained.

“The first initial remote client installed was the rogue ScreenConnect Client configured to communicate with instance-uxh86b-relay[.]screenconnect[.]com. The attacker used a legitimate ScreenConnect Trial Relay domain to further avoid detection,” the researchers said. “This initial malicious ScreenConnect Client used the native Windows command shell and curl to retrieve and install a second malicious ScreenConnect Client configured to communicate with attacker-controlled IP. Both clients established service-based persistence for continued remote access.”

After installation, the attackers used the second ScreenConnect session to run HideCursor.exe, an executable, as the name suggests, that helps the attackers hide their mouse activity.

Huntress’ researchers don’t know what the endgame is, since the threat actors were spotted and shut down in this stage of the attack. The researchers also did not share the details about the target, such as the size of the organization, or the industry it operates in. Therefore, it is impossible to even speculate on the nature of the attack and if the threat actors aimed to install ransomware.

Still, the researchers stressed the importance of training employees to “treat unexpected software update prompts and file-viewing pages with caution”, and to make sure they know how to verify downloads through trusted channels. IT teams should also restrict who can install remote-management tools, maintain an approved inventory of RMM software, and alert on new or unapproved ScreenConnect clients, unusual relay connections, and executables launched from the user Downloads folders.

Finally, businesses should monitor for Indicators of Compromise (IoC) listed on this page.