Stormcast Podcast Highlights Cybersecurity Threats and Updates

The Stormcast podcast from February 19, 2026, hosted by Johannes Ullrich from Jacksonville, discusses several vulnerabilities and malicious techniques. A malicious actor is using an MSI image (wallpaper) as a vector for malware, identified in hundreds of submissions on VirusTotal, with some not marked as malicious. Dell has released an update for Recovery Point for Virtual Machines, addressing a fixed credentials vulnerability that has been exploited for several months, according to Google. Attackers are adding network interfaces and iptables rules to maintain access post-patch. Microsoft has fixed a privilege escalation flaw in Windows Admin Center, deemed exploitable but not yet exploited. Let’s Encrypt introduces DNS Persist 01, a DNS authentication method for certificates, allowing long-term validation without frequent updates to records, with options for expiration and restriction of wildcard certificates.