A few weeks ago, Microsoft officially announced that it is developing a new version of its Teams desktop app. The new version of its online meeting and collaboration tool is considered more efficient and easier to use. Today, the company revealed some security improvements it’s rolling out to the new Teams app.
In a blog post, Microsoft said that the new Teams app will use MSIX packages and app installers for deployment instead of using a custom-built installer and updater. According to the company, this change “reduces risk levels and maintenance costs”. He added:
We’re also moving away from installing Teams in a user profile. Although it is easy to install in a user profile and does not require elevated privileges, it simplifies common post-exploitation activities, such as maintaining persistence. New teams rely on the app installer for installations and will install to a privileged location, where non-admin users cannot tamper with its executable files.
The new Teams app will also switch from the older Electron executable to the Edge WebView2 runtime, allowing for faster app updates. Also, it will allow the Teams app to take up much less space, as it will be less than 12MB compared to 134MB in the current Teams app. A public preview of the new Teams app is available now for Windows users, and will expand to Mac users, and later for full general availability in late 2023.
