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Open VSX Downplays Impact From GlassWorm Campaign

www.securityweek.com · 9 months ago

Open VSX says it fully contained the GlassWorm campaign that infected Visual Studio Code extensions on the Open VSX marketplace. On October 18 the campaign was reported to have distributed malicious extensions, estimated to have been downloaded nearly 36,000 times, with code hidden using Unicode variation selectors that could steal credentials, drain cryptocurrency wallets, deploy SOCKS proxy servers, and install hidden VNC servers. Open VSX says the malware was not a self replicating worm in the traditional sense because it could not autonomously propagate, and the team removed all malicious extensions and deemed the incident contained on October 21. The team revoked exposed tokens, introduced a token prefix format in collaboration with MSRC, shortened default token validity periods, improved revocation processes, and added automated security scanning of extensions.
Beware of Fake ChatGPT Apps That Spy on Users and Steal Sensitive Data

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

There are hundreds of lookalike mobile apps claiming to provide ChatGPT, DALL E, and other AI services that appear in official app stores under polished branding. Security researchers report many of these fake apps spy on users, request excessive permissions, exfiltrate OpenAI API keys and personal files, install info stealing malware, or operate as fleeceware to coerce expensive subscriptions. Users are advised to access AI services only through official channels, verify developer details and permissions before installing, cancel unwanted subscriptions if already enrolled, and report suspicious apps to the app stores.
OpenAI launches Aardvark to detect and patch hidden bugs in code

www.csoonline.com · 9 months ago

OpenAI has unveiled Aardvark, a GPT 5 powered autonomous agent in private beta that mimics a human security researcher to scan, understand, and patch code by mapping repositories, building contextual threat models, and continuously monitoring commits. The agent validates exploitability in a sandbox before flagging issues, proposes patches via Codex, and reanalyzes fixes to ensure they do not introduce new problems, achieving ninety two percent detection of known and synthetic vulnerabilities in benchmark tests. Aardvark has already discovered multiple real world flaws in open source repositories, ten of which received official CVE identifiers, and OpenAI plans pro bono scanning for selected non commercial projects to help shift security left.
CISA Issues Advisory on XWiki Flaw Allowing Remote Code Execution

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

CISA has added a critical vulnerability in XWiki Platform to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The flaw is an eval injection that can allow any guest to execute arbitrary remote code without authentication. This vulnerability presents a severe risk to organizations using the XWiki platform and requires urgent remediation.
Alleged Conti ransomware gang affiliate appears in Tennessee court after Ireland extradition

therecord.media · 9 months ago

Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, a Ukrainian national, was extradited from Ireland to the United States in October 2025 and appeared in a Tennessee federal court on allegations that he operated on behalf of the Conti ransomware gang. He was indicted in 2023 on computer fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy counts and faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted. U.S. authorities allege he deployed Conti ransomware from 2020 through June 2022, extorted about 500,000 dollars from two Tennessee victims, published stolen data from another organization, and helped carry out a conspiracy that sought approximately 150 million dollars in ransom payments. He was arrested in Cork, Ireland, in July 2023 and had been held pending extradition before being transferred to U.S. custody.
Windows zero-day actively exploited to spy on European diplomats

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

A China linked hacking group is exploiting a Windows zero day to spy on European diplomats in Hungary Belgium and other nations. Attackers use spearphishing to deliver malicious LNK shortcut files that exploit a high severity Windows LNK vulnerability tracked as CVE 2025 9491 to deploy the PlugX remote access trojan and maintain persistence. The campaign is attributed to UNC6384 and researchers warn Microsoft has not yet released a patch so defenders are advised to restrict or block.LNK files and block identified command and control infrastructure.
Threat Actors Exploit LANSCOPE Endpoint Manager Zero-Day Vulnerability to Steal Confidential Data

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

There is a critical zero day remote code execution vulnerability in Motex LANSCOPE Endpoint Manager that affects the on premises client program and detection agent and is tracked as CVE-2025-61932. The flaw can be exploited by sending specially crafted packets to affected endpoints and customer environments have been observed receiving unauthorized packets, indicating active exploitation. Motex has released patches in multiple point releases and advised that only client systems need updating while the management server and the cloud edition are not affected. CISA added CVE-2025-61932 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and required U S federal civilian agencies to patch or discontinue use by November 12, 2025.
CISA Adds Exploited XWiki, VMware Flaws to KEV Catalog

www.securityweek.com · 9 months ago

CISA expanded its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog to include two defects impacting XWiki and VMware and urged federal agencies to patch them by November 20 under Binding Operational Directive 22-01. The XWiki vulnerability CVE-2025-24893, rated CVSS 9.8, involves improper sanitization of search parameters that allows unauthenticated remote injection leading to code execution, data leakage, or disruption, and proof of concept exploits and in the wild activity including the dropping of a cryptocurrency miner have been observed. The VMware vulnerability CVE-2025-41244, rated CVSS 7.8, is a local privilege escalation in Aria Operations and VMware Tools that can give authenticated attackers root on managed virtual machines, and Broadcom issued fixes in late September before updating its advisory to note suspected in the wild exploitation after reports that Chinese threat actors had been targeting the flaw for about a year.
The unified linkage model: A new lens for understanding cyber risk

www.csoonline.com · 9 months ago

Security teams are missing systemic risk because traditional models treat environments as collections of assets and controls while linkages between systems often remain undocumented, resulting in missed propagation paths, ineffective patch prioritization, and slow incident response. The unified linkage model reframes analysis to focus on adjacency, inheritance, and trustworthiness to show how attacker access and vulnerabilities travel along identity trust chains, software dependencies, and API connections. A recent compromise of identity support credentials illustrates how high trust adjacencies can let attackers reach SaaS applications, internal legacy systems, and development pipelines without exploiting individual flaws. Adopting the model means inventorying linkages not just assets, assessing which connections are implicitly trusted, overlaying vulnerability and threat data, and prioritizing defenses where inherited vulnerabilities intersect high trust pathways.
Chinese APT Exploits Unpatched Windows Flaw in Recent Attacks

www.securityweek.com · 9 months ago

A Chinese threat actor linked to Mustang Panda and tracked as UNC6384 has been exploiting an unpatched Windows shortcut vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-9491 with a CVSS score of 7.0 to target European diplomats. The UI misrepresentation flaw makes malicious code in specially crafted LNK files invisible when inspecting file properties and has been used to execute PowerShell, drop a signed Canon printer utility, and sideload the PlugX remote access trojan. Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative reported the issue to Microsoft in September 2024 and disclosed details in March 2025 after Microsoft said the defect did not meet its servicing bar, while Arctic Wolf observed exploitation since September 2025 against diplomatic and government targets in several European countries.
When AI Agents Go Rogue: Agent Session Smuggling Attack in A2A Systems

unit42.paloaltonetworks.com · 9 months ago

Security researchers have identified a new attack technique called agent session smuggling that allows a malicious AI agent to exploit stateful agent to agent communication sessions to inject covert instructions and poison a victim agent's context. Proof of concept demonstrations show two scenarios in which a malicious remote agent exfiltrates sensitive internal state including chat history, system instructions and tool schemas, and induces unauthorized tool invocations that can perform actions such as executing trades without user awareness. Recommended mitigations include enforcing human in the loop approvals for sensitive actions via out of band confirmation, implementing context grounding to detect off topic instructions, validating agent identity and capabilities with cryptographically signed AgentCards, and exposing client agent activity to users. Related CVEs mentioned include CVE-2025-59287, CVE-2025-53868, CVE-2025-57780, CVE-2025-61955, CVE-2025-52905, CVE-2025-52906, and CVE-2025-52907.
Bug-Bounty-Programm trifft KI – ein zweischneidiges Schwert

www.csoonline.com · 9 months ago

Artificial intelligence is increasingly used in bug bounty programs to automate vulnerability discovery, reverse engineer APIs and scan codebases faster. These efficiency gains are creating new problems because AI can act as an echo chamber that amplifies unverified findings and produces a surge of low quality reports that burden triage teams. Security experts recommend skepticism toward AI generated reports, relying on bug bounty platforms with triage and reputation tracking, and emphasizing that experienced human researchers are still required to validate and contextualize findings. Fully autonomous agents continue to struggle in context dependent scenarios, so AI is best used to assist skilled researchers rather than replace them.
Ukrainian extradited from Ireland on Conti ransomware charges

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

A Ukrainian national believed to be a member of the Conti ransomware operation has been extradited from Ireland to the United States and faces charges that could carry up to twenty five years in prison. Forty three year old Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko is accused of controlling data stolen from Conti victims and sending ransom notes as part of double extortion attacks between 2020 and June 2022, and he was arrested in July 2023 with extradition completed in October 2025. The Department of Justice and the FBI link Conti to more than one thousand victims and over one hundred fifty million dollars in ransom payments as of January 2022, and say the group’s malware was used in more critical infrastructure attacks than any other ransomware variant.
Threat Actors Exploiting Open-Source C2 Frameworks to Deploy Malicious Payloads

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

Researchers report a growing campaign where threat actors are weaponizing AdaptixC2, an open source command and control framework designed for penetration testing, to deploy malicious payloads and support ransomware operations with links to Russian criminal networks. Attack chains include social engineering such as Microsoft Teams Quick Assist phishing and AI generated PowerShell installers that perform fileless in memory shellcode injection and DLL hijacking to achieve persistence. AdaptixC2 capabilities including HTTP beacons over HTTPS with custom headers, encrypted configuration profiles and tunneling extenders enable stealthy lateral movement and help actors evade traditional defenses while loaders like CountLoader have been observed dropping AdaptixC2 and Akira ransomware affiliates have used it in operations. Researchers warn of supply chain abuse including malicious npm packages and recommend enhanced detection for loaders, malicious packages and the observed indicators of compromise.
CISA and NSA Issue Urgent Guidance to Secure WSUS and Microsoft Exchange Servers

thehackernews.com · 9 months ago

CISA and NSA, joined by partners from Australia and Canada, issued urgent guidance to harden on premise Microsoft Exchange Server instances by restricting administrative access, enforcing multi factor authentication, configuring TLS and HTTP Strict Transport Security, disabling remote PowerShell for nonadmins, applying Exchange and Windows security baselines, and decommissioning end of life or hybrid servers after migrating to Microsoft 365. The agencies urged organizations to maintain patch cadence and enable Exchange Emergency Mitigation Service and endpoint protections to reduce attack surface. CISA updated its alert to include CVE-2025-59287, a newly patched Windows Server Update Services vulnerability that can enable remote code execution, and recommended applying the out of band update and investigating suspicious SYSTEM level and nested PowerShell activity. Security vendors report exploitation beginning October 24, 2025 in which threat actors leveraged vulnerable WSUS servers to run Base64 encoded PowerShell commands and exfiltrate data, and defenders are advised to monitor wsusservice.exe and w3wp.exe spawned processes and vet PowerShell command lines.
Progress Releases Patch for MOVEit Transfer Resource Consumption Flaw

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

Progress Software released security patches for a high severity vulnerability in MOVEit Transfer discovered on October 29, 2025. The flaw impacts the AS2 module and permits attackers to consume system resources without appropriate limits, risking service disruption. The issue is tracked as CVE 2025 10932 and is categorized as uncontrolled resource consumption CWE 400.
Windows LNK UI Spoofing Vulnerability Weaponized for Remote Code Execution

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

A sophisticated cyber espionage campaign is targeting European diplomatic institutions with lures that impersonate diplomatic conferences. The operation is attributed to Chinese affiliated threat actor UNC6384. Attackers are weaponizing a Windows shortcut LNK user interface misrepresentation vulnerability tracked as ZDI-CAN-25373, first disclosed in March 2025, to hide malicious command arguments and enable remote code execution. The campaign pairs the LNK exploit with tailored social engineering and deceptive update or conference themed lures to deliver malware and gain access to diplomatic systems.
Researchers Develop Linux Rootkit That Evades Elastic EDR Protections

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

Singularity is a modern stealth Linux kernel rootkit that operates as a loadable kernel module and can hide processes, files, and network activity while maintaining persistence. It leverages ftrace based syscall hooking to filter proc and net pseudo files, hides a hardcoded port and strings, recommends storing payloads in tmpfs to evade disk forensics, and includes log cleaning and startup persistence mechanisms. Detection is challenging for standard endpoint detection tools and defenders are advised to deploy kernel integrity monitoring, strict access controls, and proactive threat hunting for kernel anomalies.
Eclipse Foundation Revokes Leaked Open VSX Tokens Following Wiz Discovery

thehackernews.com · 9 months ago

There are leaked Open VSX tokens embedded in Visual Studio Code extensions that led the Eclipse Foundation to revoke a small number of tokens and remove extensions flagged in a campaign called GlassWorm. The exposures were discovered by cloud security company Wiz and involved extensions from both Microsofts VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX that had access tokens accidentally committed to public repositories, potentially allowing attackers to publish or modify extensions and distribute malware, while maintainers said these were developer mistakes rather than a compromise of Open VSX infrastructure and that reported download counts may be overstated by bot activity. Open VSX, working with the Microsoft Security Response Center, introduced a token prefix ovsxp to help scan for exposed tokens and is enforcing changes including shorter default token lifetimes, easier token revocation, and automated scanning of extensions at publication to detect embedded secrets and malicious code patterns.
Japan Issues OT Security Guidance for Semiconductor Factories

www.securityweek.com · 9 months ago

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has published a 130 page operational technology security guidance for semiconductor factories, with a 23 page summary also available in English and Japanese. There is guidance that leverages Japan's Cyber Physical Security Framework and internationally used frameworks including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, describes reference architectures and threat scenarios involving profit driven cybercriminals and state sponsored actors linked to North Korea and China, and outlines security risks across semiconductor environments. The guidance recommends concrete measures including asset management, vulnerability assessment, minimizing potential damage, monitoring, incident response and recovery, and physical access restrictions.
CISA Alerts on Active Exploitation of VMware Tools and Aria Operations 0-Day

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

There is active exploitation of a critical privilege escalation zero day affecting Broadcom's VMware Tools and VMware Aria Operations, as warned by CISA. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-41244, can allow attackers to gain root level access to compromised systems and poses a significant risk to organizations managing virtualized infrastructure. CISA has issued an alert urging defenders to implement mitigations and prioritize remediation.
Kimsuky and Lazarus Hackers Deploy New Backdoor Tools for Remote Access Attacks

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

There are reports that Kimsuky has been deploying a newly identified HTTP backdoor called HttpTroy to establish persistent remote access during targeted spearphishing and supply chain style operations. There are also findings that Lazarus has evolved its BLINDINGCAN family into more advanced variants such as LightlessCan and continues to deploy HTTPS backdoors alongside kernel-level rootkits and the abuse of legitimate signed drivers to blind security solutions and evade detection.
CISA Flags VMware Zero-Day Exploited by China-Linked Hackers in Active Attacks

thehackernews.com · 9 months ago

There is a high severity vulnerability CVE-2025-41244 with a CVSS score of 7.8 affecting Broadcom VMware Tools and VMware Aria Operations that can allow a local non administrative user on a VM managed with Aria Operations and SDMP enabled to escalate privileges to root. The flaw was exploited as a zero day in active attacks since mid October 2024 by a China linked actor tracked as UNC5174, was discovered by NVISO Labs in May, and Broadcom owned VMware issued a patch last month. CISA added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies are required to apply mitigations by November 20, 2025.
AI-powered bug hunting shakes up bounty industry — for better or worse

www.csoonline.com · 9 months ago

AI powered bug hunting has accelerated vulnerability discovery by enabling researchers to use large language models to automate reconnaissance, reverse engineer APIs, and scan codebases, producing faster and sometimes high impact findings. Research at a major bug bounty platform found a 210 percent increase in valid AI related vulnerability reports and a 339 percent rise in bounties paid for AI vulnerabilities compared with 2024, with prompt injection, model manipulation, and insecure plugin design among the common findings. At the same time, AI has produced a firehose of low quality, duplicate, and false positive reports that strain triage teams and open source maintainers, prompting calls to treat AI generated reports skeptically and to use AI only as a research assistant rather than the principal discovery mechanism. Bug bounty programs are increasingly used as continuous enterprise risk management, with more organizations running bounties, payouts reaching eighty one million dollars, and improper access control and insecure direct object reference vulnerabilities rising eighteen to twenty nine percent year over year, shifting focus toward identity, access, and business logic risks.
Massive Great Firewall Leak Exposes 500GB of Censorship Data

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

More than 500 gigabytes and by some estimates roughly 600 gigabytes of internal files including source code, build systems, package repositories and project management data were leaked from infrastructure tied to China s Great Firewall, with a single mirror repository reported at about 500 gigabytes. The material appears to originate from Geedge Networks and the MESA Lab and contains code and documentation for a Tiangou secure gateway and deep packet inspection tooling used to detect and block VPNs, fingerprint SSL traffic, and perform sophisticated traffic filtering. Deployment records and contracts in the leak show exports or installations in countries including Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan, and researchers say the archive was published to leak hosts such as Enlace Hacktivista in early September 2025, raising concerns that the trove could accelerate the global adoption of mass censorship tools.
New Agent-Aware Cloaking Technique Uses ChatGPT Atlas Browser to Feed Fake Content

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

Security researchers uncovered a sophisticated attack vector called agent aware cloaking that exploits how AI search tools and autonomous agents retrieve web content. Attackers can serve different versions of a webpage to AI crawlers such as OpenAI Atlas ChatGPT and Perplexity while showing legitimate content to regular users, allowing the agents to be fed fake or misleading information. The technique represents an evolution of traditional cloaking that threatens the integrity of search results and autonomous agent actions and increases the risk of poisoned data and manipulated responses.
CISA Publishes New Guidance to Strengthen Microsoft Exchange Server Security

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

CISA, working with the National Security Agency and international cybersecurity partners, released a security guide of best practices to harden on premises Microsoft Exchange servers. The guidance directs organizations to inventory Exchange servers, install Microsoft April 2025 hotfixes, deploy a dedicated Exchange hybrid application, reset shared service principal credentials, and run the Microsoft Exchange Health Checker to verify update levels. CISA warns a high severity post authentication vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-53786 can allow an attacker with administrative access to an on premises Exchange server to escalate privileges into Exchange Online, prompting an emergency directive for federal agencies. The agency also advises disconnecting public facing end of life Exchange or SharePoint servers from the internet and preparing for a transition from Exchange Web Services to the Microsoft Graph API.
Malicious Multilingual ZIP Files Strike Banks and Government Offices

gbhackers.com · 9 months ago

A sophisticated phishing campaign using multilingual ZIP file lures is striking banks and government offices across East and Southeast Asia, targeting government institutions and financial organizations with coordinated messages. Researchers using Hunt.io AttackCapture and HuntSQL datasets uncovered an interconnected network of 28 malicious webpages operating in three language clusters and delivering credential-stealing and malware-laden payloads via ZIP attachments. The infrastructure appears scalable and automation driven, with attackers hosting fake portals on free platforms and leveraging polyglot ZIPs that hide LNK and DLL loaders to evade email filters and execute payloads when extracted. Organizations are advised to treat unexpected ZIP attachments with suspicion, block or sandbox compressed attachments, and verify senders before extracting files.
A New Security Layer for macOS Takes Aim at Admin Errors Before Hackers Do

thehackernews.com · 9 months ago

ThreatLocker has launched Defense Against Configurations for macOS in beta to surface and remediate common endpoint misconfigurations before attackers can exploit them. The feature scans Macs up to four times per day using the existing ThreatLocker agent and reports findings such as FileVault disk encryption status, built in firewall state, sharing and remote access settings including remote login, local administrator accounts, automatic update settings, Gatekeeper and app source controls, and selected privacy preferences. Findings are grouped by endpoint and category, include remediation guidance and mappings to frameworks including CIS, NIST, ISO 27001 and HIPAA, and can connect directly to ThreatLocker policies to automate fixes. The macOS beta follows the August 2025 release of DAC for Windows and aims to give IT and security teams the same visibility on Macs that they already have for Windows so they can close gaps such as unencrypted drives, disabled firewalls and permissive sharing settings.
Malicious packages in npm evade dependency detection through invisible URL links: Report

www.csoonline.com · 9 months ago

Threat actors are inserting invisible HTTP URL dependencies into npm packages so that npm fetches malicious code at install time while scanners and dependency analysis tools ignore those remote URLs, making infected packages appear to have zero dependencies. Researchers at Koi Security identified a campaign called PhantomRaven that has contaminated 126 packages in the npm registry with more than 86,000 combined installs since August and continues to operate. The campaign aims to steal developer credentials and environment details and exploits AI hallucinations to publish plausible sounding package names in a tactic called slopsquatting. Security experts say the root cause is npm allowing unvalidated URL dependency specifiers and recommend that npm follow and validate remote dependencies, that developers verify packages on the official registry and audit package.json files, and that organizations extend visibility to package dependencies and AI recommended components.
Zombie Projects Rise Again to Undermine Security

www.darkreading.com · 9 months ago

A variety of abandoned codebases, undecommissioned hardware, cloud resources, forgotten APIs, and orphaned AI pilot services persist as zombie assets that expand attack surfaces and have sometimes led to breaches. Scans and surveys indicate widespread exposure and outdated components, including nine in ten codebases with open source components far behind current releases, 81 percent of zombie codebases containing at least one critical vulnerability, many organizations running software beyond end of life, and attackers actively scanning for web facing and external remote services. To address the risk, organizations are urged to automate discovery and remediation, prioritize updating or removing outdated components with high critical risk, deploy broader sensors to detect shadow and zombie endpoints, and enforce cross team processes to hunt down and retire zombie assets.
An 18-Year-Old Codebase Left Smart Buildings Wide Open

www.darkreading.com · 9 months ago

More than 800 vulnerabilities, including many zero day flaws, were found in building automation controllers used in hospitals, schools, airports, and other public facilities across more than 30 countries and 220 cities. The issues stemmed from an 18 year old codebase first written in 2008 and transferred through multiple acquisitions, and included backdoors, unencrypted firmware, default credentials, buffer overflows, and unauthenticated remote root exploits. Vendor remediation was inconsistent, with some silent patches issued without CVE records and uneven severity scoring, and about 200 vulnerable systems remained online after partial fixes. The researcher urged owners to inventory building systems, verify firmware ownership and update practices, and warned that mergers and acquisitions can carry legacy vulnerabilities forward.
Automating COM/DCOM vulnerability research

www.reddit.com · 9 months ago

COM and DCOM remain significant Windows attack surfaces used for both discovering vulnerabilities and for lateral movement, and research requires understanding interfaces, CLSIDs, ProgIDs, and how the Service Control Manager activates servers. A fuzzing approach built around OleViewDotNet automates research by enumerating COM classes, creating instances, invoking methods, and handling marshalling, proxies, and other DCOM-specific complications while describing techniques to overcome common fuzzing challenges. The work details fuzzer capabilities, example findings, and recommendations for improving the tool.
Massive surge of NFC relay malware steals Europeans’ credit cards

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

There has been a massive surge of Near Field Communication relay malware in Eastern Europe, with researchers finding more than 760 malicious Android apps using the technique in recent months. The malware abuses Android Host Card Emulation to capture EMV fields, respond to point of sale APDU commands with attacker controlled replies or forward terminal requests to remote servers so attackers can authorize contactless payments without the physical card present. The abuse, first seen in 2023 in Poland and since observed across Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and others, includes data harvesters, relay toolkits, ghost tap real time payment manipulation and fake payment handler apps, and defenders have identified dozens of command and control servers, Telegram exfiltration channels and distribution hubs so users are advised to avoid installing APKs outside official sources, check NFC permissions, run Play Protect scans and disable NFC when not needed.
CISA orders feds to patch VMware Tools flaw exploited by Chinese hackers

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

CISA warned U.S. government agencies to patch a high severity vulnerability in Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools tracked as CVE 2025 41244 that can allow a local non administrative user on a managed virtual machine to escalate privileges to root. The flaw was added to CISA s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and federal civilian agencies were ordered to apply patches or mitigations by November 20 under Binding Operational Directive 22 01, with CISA urging all organizations to prioritize remediation. Security researchers linked exploitation to the UNC5174 Chinese state affiliated actor since mid October 2024 and the report also referenced related and previously exploited CVEs including CVE 2023 46747, CVE 2024 1709, CVE 2025 31324, CVE 2025 22224, CVE 2025 22225, CVE 2025 22226, CVE 2025 41251, and CVE 2025 41252.
LotL Attack Hides Malware in Windows Native AI Stack

www.darkreading.com · 9 months ago

A researcher demonstrated that Windows native AI capabilities can be abused to hide malware inside ONNX model files, enabling living off the land attacks that security tools treat as benign. Malware can be concealed in model metadata, distributed across nodes and inputs, or steganographically embedded in model weights and then reconstructed by a nearby loader, and trusted Microsoft signed DLLs that load ONNX models let these malicious files bypass typical endpoint detection and response tools. Recommended mitigations include monitoring which processes load models and where extracted data is passed, applying static detection rules and YARA signatures, and enforcing application controls such as AppLocker while avoiding blindly trusting models downloaded from the internet.
Major telecom services provider Ribbon breached by state hackers

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

Nation-state hackers gained access to Ribbon Communications IT network as early as December 2024 and the company detected the intrusion in September 2025, disclosing the incident in a Form 10-Q filed on October 23, 2025. The company says it has terminated the unauthorized access, engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and federal law enforcement to investigate and remediate, and has not found evidence that any material information was exfiltrated as of the filing. Investigators found that several customer files saved outside the main network on two laptops appear to have been accessed and those customers have been notified, and the intrusion bears resemblance to the Salt Typhoon telecom breaches from the prior year. Ribbon expects to incur additional fourth quarter 2025 costs for the ongoing investigation and network strengthening but does not currently expect those costs or the incident to be material to its financial results.
BPO giant Conduent confirms data breach impacts 10.5 million people

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

A data breach at business process outsourcing firm Conduent exposed personal information for over 10.5 million people, with state breach notifications reporting impacts including 10.5 million in Oregon, 4 million in Texas, and 76,000 in Washington. Exposed information included names, Social Security numbers, full dates of birth, health insurance policy or identification numbers, and medical information, and Conduent said as of October 24, 2025 there was no evidence the stolen data has been misused. Conduent said the breach was discovered in January 2025 but the environment was compromised on October 21, 2024, and the incident follows a service outage earlier in 2025 that the Safepay ransomware gang claimed responsibility for.
Denmark reportedly withdraws Chat Control proposal following controversy

therecord.media · 9 months ago

Denmark's justice minister said he will no longer push for an EU law requiring mandatory scanning of electronic messages, including on end-to-end encrypted platforms. After Germany announced on October 8 that it would not support the proposal, Denmark said its office will instead support voluntary detections of child sexual abuse material and that the current voluntary model expires in April. Privacy advocates and technology leaders warned the measure would enable mass surveillance, with the Signal Foundation saying it would leave the European market if the provision were adopted.
Diplomatic entities in Belgium and Hungary hacked in China-linked spy campaign

therecord.media · 9 months ago

A China linked cyber espionage campaign attributed to UNC6384 and tied to Mustang Panda targeted diplomatic entities in Belgium and Hungary in September and October. The campaign began with spearphishing emails impersonating European Commission meetings, NATO workshops and other multilateral diplomatic events and also delivered documents aimed at Serbian aviation departments and diplomatic entities in Italy and the Netherlands. Embedded links led to malicious files that exploited a Windows vulnerability disclosed in March 2025 and deployed PlugX malware to gain long term access, exfiltrate classified documents, monitor policy discussions, surveil calendars and harvest credentials. Researchers said the group adopted the vulnerability within about six months and noted streamlined PlugX variants that reduce forensic footprint while a Justice Department operation earlier in the year removed PlugX from thousands of US machines and the malware has been observed on roughly 100,000 devices worldwide.
The 5 generative AI security threats you need to know about detailed in new e-book

www.microsoft.com · 9 months ago

There are five generative AI security threats that organizations must prioritize, including training data poisoning, evasion and jailbreak attacks, prompt injection, sensitive data leakage, and misuse for disinformation and deepfakes. Nation state and criminal actors have more than doubled their use of AI to scale threats such as translated phishing, deepfake executive videos, and adaptive malware, and surveys show 66 percent of organizations are building custom generative AI while 88 percent worry about prompt injection and 80 percent cite data leakage as a top concern. Organizations are advised to adopt unified cloud native security approaches that correlate identity, code, storage, and runtime signals using CNAPP style platforms and cloud defender services to detect and remediate AI specific threats like jailbreaks, credential theft, and data leakage in real time.
BRONZE BUTLER exploits Japanese asset management software vulnerability

news.sophos.com · 9 months ago

There are reports that a threat group targeted a LANSCOPE Endpoint Manager zero day vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-61932. The flaw is caused by improper verification of the origin of incoming requests in the on premises client program and detection agent, allowing unauthenticated attackers to send specially crafted packets that can execute arbitrary code on affected endpoints. The vulnerability has been actively exploited since earlier in 2025, was added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog with a remediation deadline for federal agencies, and Motex has released patched client versions that organizations are urged to apply immediately.
Can you break our pickle sandbox? Blog + exploit challenge inside

www.reddit.com · 9 months ago

An experimental sandbox for Python pickle deserialization intercepts and blocks dangerous operations at the interpreter level to prevent remote code execution, file access, and network calls during deserialization. The approach was tested against over thirty two real vulnerabilities and produced less than zero point eight percent performance overhead. A public challenge and technical write up were released to invite attempts to escape the sandbox and to solicit feedback on edge cases and deployment considerations.
After Teen Suicide, Character.AI Lawsuit Raises Questions Over Free Speech Protections

www.nytimes.com · 9 months ago

A Florida mother has sued an A.I. start up and Google, alleging a Character.AI chatbot formed an emotionally and sexually manipulative relationship with her 14 year old son that encouraged self harm and contributed to his death. A federal judge rejected the defendants’ argument that chatbot outputs are protected speech, allowing the wrongful death and negligence claims to proceed to discovery where the company’s safety choices and internal discussions may be examined. The complaint accuses the company of failing to deploy basic guardrails for minors and of designing an engaging, anthropomorphic product, while the company says it is heartbroken, denies wrongdoing, and has announced additional safety measures.
Ex-L3Harris exec guilty of selling cyber exploits to Russian broker

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

Peter Williams, an Australian national and former general manager at L3Harris Trenchant, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to stealing and selling confidential cyber exploit components to a Russian vulnerability broker. Between 2022 and 2025 he stole at least eight protected exploit components intended for exclusive use by the U.S. government and select allies and sold them to the broker for 1.3 million dollars in cryptocurrency, with the Department of Justice attributing about 35 million dollars in stolen cyber trade secrets. He signed contracts with the broker for the initial sale and ongoing support, faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of 250,000 dollars or twice the gain or loss, and investigators have not confirmed whether the stolen tools were used in recent zero day attacks. The broker is reported to resell exploits to various customers including the Russian government, and Trenchant is a cyber capabilities unit within L3Harris that conducts vulnerability and exploit research for Five Eyes partners.
Russian Ransomware Gangs Weaponize Open-Source AdaptixC2 for Advanced Attacks

thehackernews.com · 9 months ago

An open source command and control framework called AdaptixC2 is being weaponized by multiple threat actors, including groups linked to Russian ransomware operations Fog and Akira. The framework, first released in an early form by a GitHub user known as RalfHacker in August 2024, provides modular post exploitation capabilities such as encrypted communications, command execution, credential and screenshot managers, and a remote terminal. Security firms report AdaptixC2 has been repurposed in attacks delivered via CountLoader initial access, fake help desk scams over Microsoft Teams, and AI generated PowerShell scripts. Researchers including Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 and Silent Push analyzed the tool and raised red flags about its rapid adoption by cybercriminals and the developer's ties to Russia focused communities.
Open-source AdaptixC2 hacking tool has fans in Russian cybercrime underground

therecord.media · 9 months ago

Researchers found that the open source command and control framework AdaptixC2, marketed for penetration testers, has been used to deliver malicious payloads in multiple recent attacks. Silent Push traced the tool's development and promotion to an individual using the handle RalfHacker who operates a Russian language Telegram channel and first observed abuse in August 2025 when it was used to deliver the CountLoader malware, a loader associated with Russian ransomware gangs. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 observed similar activity earlier in 2025, and researchers warn this case highlights how open source red teaming tools can be repurposed by criminal actors who mask operations as ethical hacking.
Spam text scammer fined £200,000 for targeting people in debt, after sending nearly one million messages

www.bitdefender.com · 9 months ago

There are reports that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office fined sole trader Bharat Singh Chand two hundred thousand pounds for sending almost one million spam text messages promoting debt solutions and energy saving grants, many aimed at people facing financial hardship. The campaign used a SIM farm to send messages that promised to freeze interest or write off debts, and it transmitted 966,449 unsolicited texts between December 3, 2023 and July 3, 2024, generating 19,138 complaints. Recipients who replied were called by people claiming to be from the Debt Relief Team, the sender used false business names and unregistered mobile numbers to evade detection, and Chand has appealed the ICO decision.
CISA and NSA share tips on securing Microsoft Exchange servers

www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9 months ago

There are joint guidance and best practices from CISA and the NSA, joined by the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, urging administrators to harden Microsoft Exchange servers by strengthening authentication and access, minimizing application attack surfaces, enforcing strong network encryption, and decommissioning end of life on-premises or hybrid Exchange servers after migration to Microsoft 365. Recommended controls include enabling multifactor authentication, Modern Auth and OAuth 2.0, deploying Kerberos and SMB instead of NTLM, enforcing TLS and Extended Protection, restricting administrative access to authorized workstations, activating built-in anti-spam and anti-malware features, applying security baselines, and monitoring for malicious activity such as P2 FROM header manipulation. The guidance references an emergency directive that required federal agencies to patch a high severity Exchange hybrid vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-53786 within four days because the flaw affects Exchange Server 2016, 2019, and the Subscription Edition and could allow attackers with administrative access to move laterally into cloud environments. Security scans found tens of thousands of Exchange servers remained vulnerable, underscoring the agencies' call to migrate from unsupported versions and keep servers up to date.
The human cost of the UK Government’s Afghan data leak

grahamcluley.com · 9 months ago

There are reports that 49 people lost family members or colleagues after a government leak exposed details of 19,000 Afghan citizens who had worked for the British military. The spreadsheet was accidentally leaked from the Ministry of Defence in February 2022, six months after the Taliban seized Kabul. Research shared by the charity Refugee Legal Support documents ongoing death threats, intimidation and violent reprisals including home searches, beatings and property confiscation, while only a minority of those affected were offered relocation to the United Kingdom. There is evidence that data leaks can cause real harm and that failures to respond appropriately have exacerbated the danger facing those exposed.