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Cortex Cloud Archives
Palo Alto Networks publishes a product category page for Cortex Cloud, an AI and automation platform for cloud and SOC workflows.
This item is a product category archive page for Palo Alto Networks' Cortex Cloud, describing it as an AI and automation-driven platform spanning code to cloud to SOC. The page contains no new research, incident, or product release details beyond marketing language about prioritizing risks and accelerating remediation.
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Multiple Vulnerabilities Discovered in a SCADA System
Unit 42 details five vulnerabilities (CVSS 7.0-7.8) in ICONICS Suite SCADA software enabling privilege escalation and DoS.
Unit 42 discovered five vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-1182, CVE-2024-7587, CVE-2024-8299, CVE-2024-8300, CVE-2024-9852) in ICONICS Suite versions 10.97.2 and earlier for Windows during a 2024 security assessment. The flaws, rated CVSS 7.0-7.8, allow DLL hijacking, privilege escalation, information disclosure, denial-of-service and potentially full system compromise. ICONICS Suite is a SCADA solution with hundreds of thousands of installations in over 100 countries, widely used in critical infrastructure, and several dozen servers are internet-exposed per Unit 42 telemetry. ICONICS released patches and advisories with workarounds in 2024.
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Unmasking Cloud Identities: From Behavioral Clustering to Automated Detection
Unit 42 clusters behavior of 40,000+ AWS identities from 125 cloud environments to map functional roles and enable lightweight SQL-based detection.
Palo Alto Unit 42 built an unsupervised behavioral clustering model using UMAP and HDBSCAN on AWS CloudTrail logs to map cloud identities to functional roles such as administrators, backup services, security tooling and DevOps. The study analyzed over 40,000 identities across 125 cloud environments over two months. The researchers show that heuristics extracted from the clustering map can be implemented in standard SQL, enabling role classification at scale without running a continuous ML pipeline. The methodology extends to audit logs from other cloud providers, SaaS and Kubernetes.
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When AI Remembers Too Much
Unit 42 PoC shows indirect prompt injection can poison Amazon Bedrock Agent long-term memory, enabling silent exfiltration of conversation history across future sessions.
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 published a proof of concept showing that indirect prompt injection can silently poison the long-term memory of Amazon Bedrock Agents when the memory feature is enabled. Malicious content on a webpage or document manipulates the agent's session summarization process, so injected instructions persist across sessions and are added to later orchestration prompts, silently exfiltrating user conversation history. The issue is not a vulnerability in the Amazon Bedrock platform but an illustration of the broader unsolved LLM prompt-injection challenge. Amazon reviewed the research and stated that Bedrock Guardrails with the prompt-attack policy provides effective mitigation.
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The Machine With Many Faces: Post-Exploitation Identity Misuse in SPIFFE/SPIRE
Unit 42 demonstrates that root access on a Kubernetes node lets attackers spoof SPIFFE/SPIRE attestation and harvest co-located workloads' SVIDs.
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 describes post-exploitation techniques in which an attacker with root on a compromised Kubernetes node spoofs Linux cgroup metadata used by the SPIRE agent during workload attestation, tricking it into issuing a co-located workload's SPIFFE Verifiable Identity Document to an attacker-controlled process. The research shows the core trust assumption of machine-identity systems—that the node is trusted—collapses once root is obtained, exposing all cryptographic identities scoped to that node. Unit 42 released an open-source tool, Spooffe, for defenders to test identity exposure, and notes the technique has not been observed exploited in the wild.
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When AI Agents Go Rogue: Agent Session Smuggling Attack in A2A Systems
Unit 42 unveils agent session smuggling, where a rogue AI agent hides covert instructions in established Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol sessions to manipulate victim agents.
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 discovered agent session smuggling, a new attack technique in which a malicious AI agent exploits an established cross-agent session under the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol to send covert instructions hidden among benign client requests and server responses. The technique leverages the implicit trust agents place in collaborating agents and the stateful, multi-turn nature of A2A sessions; the researchers stress it affects any stateful protocol, not an A2A flaw. Unlike one-shot data-based attacks, a rogue agent can converse, adapt and build false trust over multiple interactions. Proposed mitigations include human-in-the-loop enforcement, cryptographically signed AgentCards for remote agent verification, and context-grounding to detect injected instructions.
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When an Attacker Meets a Group of Agents: Navigating Amazon Bedrock's Multi
Unit 42 red-teamed Amazon Bedrock multi-agent applications, demonstrating prompt-injection attack chains that leak agent instructions and invoke tools, mitigated by Bedrock Guardrails.
Unit 42 red-teamed Amazon Bedrock Agents' multi-agent collaboration in Supervisor and Supervisor with Routing modes. The demonstrated attack chain detects the operating mode, discovers collaborator agents, delivers attacker-controlled payloads, and can disclose agent instructions and tool schemas and invoke tools with attacker-supplied inputs. No vulnerabilities were found in Bedrock itself, and the built-in prompt attack Guardrail blocked the attacks when properly configured. The researchers collaborated with Amazon's security team and frame the findings as a broader prompt injection risk for LLM-based systems.
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Attack Paths Into VMs in the Cloud
Unit 42 maps attack paths into AWS, Azure, and GCP VMs through intended features like startup scripts and SSH key pushes.
Palo Alto Unit 42 reviewed attack vectors against virtual machine services on AWS, Azure, and GCP, finding that 11% of internet-exposed cloud hosts carry Critical or High severity vulnerabilities. The attack paths rely on legitimate features such as EC2 User Data, VM custom data, EC2 Instance Connect, SSM Run Command, and serial consoles rather than vulnerabilities, and exploiting them requires attackers to first obtain control plane permissions. A compromised VM exposes not only its data but the workload identity and cloud permissions assigned to it, making identity compromise potentially more damaging than data theft. The firm places mitigation responsibility on cloud users and administrators.
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Top 10 Best Cloud Detection & Response (CDR) Solutions in 2026
Editorial scorecard ranks ten 2026 cloud detection and response platforms; Sysdig, Wiz, and CrowdStrike lead, with Wiz's Gem Security acquisition highlighted.
The editorial scorecard rates ten CDR platforms on real-time detection (30%), cloud telemetry depth, response automation, correlation, and value. Sysdig earns the best real-time detection score for its Falco- and eBPF-powered runtime telemetry, Wiz (8.7) folds acquired Gem Security's real-time CDR into its security graph, and CrowdStrike (8.7) leads response automation. Specialists Stream.Security, Skyhawk Security, Sweet Security, and the open-source Falco project are also assessed.
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12 Best Server Security Solutions Compared (2026): Features & Pricing
GBHackers ranks 12 server security solutions for 2026, naming CrowdStrike and SentinelOne as server EDR leaders and Trend Micro Deep Security top for virtual patching.
The guide scores 12 server security platforms across five weighted criteria, with detection and response depth and Linux parity weighted 25% each. CrowdStrike and SentinelOne lead server EDR, Trend Micro Deep Security is highlighted for virtual patching of unpatchable estates, and Microsoft Defender for Servers is noted for Azure and hybrid economics. It is an editorial assessment comparing features and pricing models rather than a lab test.
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FrostyGoop’s Zoom-In: A Closer Look into the Malware Artifacts, Behaviors and Network Communications
Unit 42 dissects FrostyGoop OT malware, which sent Modbus TCP commands to disrupt heating for 600+ apartment buildings in Ukraine.
Palo Alto Unit 42 analyzed new FrostyGoop/BUSTLEBERM samples, the ninth known ICS-centric malware, first used against a Ukrainian municipal energy company by sending Modbus TCP commands to ENCO control devices. The attack caused a two-day heating outage affecting over 600 apartment buildings during sub-zero temperatures. The Go-compiled malware accepts Modbus register operations and timing parameters via command-line arguments or a JSON configuration file, uses an obscure open-source Modbus library, and checks the Windows BeingDebugged flag to evade debuggers. Unit 42 telemetry recorded over 1 million Modbus TCP devices exposed to the internet between September and October 2024.
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CVE-2022-22965: Spring Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Exploited In the Wild (SpringShell) (Updated)
Attackers actively exploit Spring Framework RCE CVE-2022-22965 (SpringShell, CVSS 9.8) to deploy webshells; patches 5.3.18/5.2.20 shipped March 31, 2022.
CVE-2022-22965 enables unauthenticated remote code execution in the widely used Spring Framework (CVSS 9.8), which Unit 42 has observed being exploited in the wild. The flaw stems from getCachedIntrospectionResults exposing the class object during parameter binding, letting attackers manipulate the class loader to modify Tomcat logging and upload a JSP webshell. Public PoCs require JDK 9+, Tomcat, WAR packaging, and spring-webmvc or spring-webflux dependencies on Spring 5.3.0-5.3.17, 5.2.0-5.2.19, or older. Fixes shipped in Spring Framework 5.3.18 and 5.2.20; the related Spring Cloud Function flaw CVE-2022-22963 was patched March 29, 2022.
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The 12 Best Managed XDR Services, Compared and Priced
A comparison of twelve managed XDR providers covering pricing models, telemetry breadth, and distinguishing genuine MXDR from rebranded MDR services.
The article compares twelve managed XDR providers including Bitdefender, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Unit 42, Trend Micro, Fortinet, Secureworks Taegis, Stellar Cyber, Ontinue, and ReliaQuest, highlighting pricing models and telemetry breadth. It explains that genuine MXDR must actively monitor identity, cloud, and email telemetry rather than merely ingest it, and typically costs 30-60% more than endpoint-only MDR. It also notes Sophos completed its approximately $859 million acquisition of Secureworks in February 2025.
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