China-Linked Hackers Chain Chrome Zero-Day With Windows Kernel Flaw in Attacks
Volexity reports China-linked UTA0560 and JungleBamboo chained Chrome zero-day CVE-2026-85046 with kernel flaws to spy on NGOs.
Volexity documented campaigns detected on September 1, 2026, in which China-linked actors UTA0560 and JungleBamboo (APT31) chained CVE-2026-85046 (V8 type confusion), CVE-2026-87491 (WebAssembly sandbox escape), and CVE-2026-85880 (Windows kernel privilege escalation in RtlpCreateServerAcl). Victims were lured via links on legitimate U.S. university sites vulnerable to reflected XSS, then served hidden exploit iframes behind a donation-form image. Although a V8 fix had landed in Chromium's source after private August reporting, Chrome had not yet shipped it, creating a patch gap the actors exploited. The two groups installed distinct payloads: UTA0560 delivered the GRIMWEDGE JScript backdoor via DLL side-loading, while JungleBamboo used the SUPERSTOMP loader to install the LONGTALE credential-stealing Chrome extension disguised as Google Gemini.
Threat Brief: Atlassian Confluence Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2022
Unauthenticated Confluence RCE CVE-2022-26134 was exploited in the wild; Volexity observed intrusions and Cerber ransomware on unpatched servers.
Volexity identified exploitation of CVE-2022-26134, an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence Server and Data Center, during Memorial Day weekend 2022, with Atlassian issuing a patch. Cortex Xpanse found 19,707 potentially affected Confluence instances, concentrated in the US, Germany, China, and Russia, plus 1,251 end-of-life versions exposed. Unit 42 and Cortex Managed Threat Hunting observed successful exploitation leading to reconnaissance commands and a Cerber ransomware deployment that was blocked by Cortex XDR. A public PoC has increased exploitation risk.
New 'BlueMoon' kit exploited Windows and Chrome zero-day flaws
Multiple China-linked espionage groups share the BlueMoon exploit kit chaining Chrome V8 zero-days and a Windows ALPC LPE to deploy backdoors.
Proofpoint and Volexity report that multiple espionage clusters share the BlueMoon exploit kit, chaining Chrome V8 zero-days CVE-2026-85046 and CVE-2026-87491 with the Windows ALPC local privilege escalation CVE-2026-85880. Proofpoint observed spearphishing use since August 28 by JungleBamboo (APT31), while Volexity saw UTA0560 targeting NGOs from September 1; UNK_LateNight hit US aerospace/defense with ShadowPad and UNK_DoubleCheck targeted Vietnamese manufacturers. The kit's maintainers reverse-engineer public Chromium fixes before stable Chrome releases, and Proofpoint suspects the ALPC exploit has existed since 2025.
SonicWall Patches Two New Actively Exploited Zero
SonicWall patches two actively exploited SMA 1000 VPN zero-days: CVSS 10.0 pre-auth SSRF CVE-2026-83548 and post-auth command injection CVE-2026-83549, chained for RCE.
SonicWall released hotfixes for two zero-day vulnerabilities in its SMA 1000 VPN appliances, with SonicWall PSIRT confirming active exploitation in the wild. CVE-2026-83548 (CVSS 10.0) is a pre-authentication SSRF in the Appliance Work Place interface allowing unauthenticated unauthorized operations; CVE-2026-83549 (CVSS 7.8) is a post-authentication OS command injection in the Appliance Management Console enabling arbitrary command execution and RCE. The flaws affect models 6210, 7210 and 8200v running 12.4.3-03453 or earlier and 12.5.0-02835 or earlier, fixed in versions 12.4.3-03526 and 12.5.0-02952. This follows a July Volexity report on threat actor UTA0533 chaining two SMA 1000 zero-days to gain root access and deploy the KNUCKLEBALL Python backdoor.