ZDI-26-567: Norton Utilities Ultimate NortonUtilitiesSvc Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
ZDI discloses CVE-2024-13962, a CVSS 7.8 link-following local privilege escalation flaw in Norton Utilities Ultimate's NortonUtilitiesSvc service.
The Zero Day Initiative published ZDI-26-567, a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Norton Utilities Ultimate. An attacker must already be able to execute low-privileged code on the system before exploiting the symlink/link-following flaw in NortonUtilitiesSvc. The issue carries a CVSS score of 7.8 and is tracked as CVE-2024-13962.
Microsoft September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 966 flaws, 2 zero-days
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes a record 966 flaws, including two Windows zero-days actively exploited to gain SYSTEM privileges.
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday addresses a record 966 vulnerabilities, including 105 rated Critical, 81 of them remote code execution bugs. Two zero-days were actively exploited: a Windows Update Stack link-following flaw and a Windows ALPC heap-based buffer overflow, both allowing local elevation to SYSTEM privileges. The ALPC flaw was reported by Volexity and Proofpoint researchers, while the Update Stack flaw was credited to Romain Deperne and the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Centre. Microsoft shared no details on how the flaws were exploited in attacks.
Oracle Patches 800+ Vulnerabilities in September 2026 Security Update
Oracle's September 2026 Critical Patch Update fixes 800+ vulnerabilities, including over 100 critical flaws and 240+ remotely exploitable without authentication.
Oracle released 673 new security patches in its September 2026 Critical Security Patch Update, resolving 672 unique CVEs across 17 risk matrices plus 130+ additional CVEs. More than 100 flaws are critical severity and over 240 are remotely exploitable without authentication. Oracle E-Business Suite received the largest batch with 159 patches, followed by Fusion Middleware (153, including 78 unauthenticated remote flaws) and Hyperion (102). Oracle reports no exploitation of these specific flaws but warns attackers routinely exploit unpatched Oracle products.
CISA Warns Hackers Exploit 17 Active Directory Techniques to Gain Control of Enterprise Networks
CISA and Five Eyes agencies issued joint guidance detailing 17 Active Directory attack techniques like Kerberoasting and DCSync, with hardening and detection advice.
CISA, the NSA, and cyber agencies from Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand released joint guidance on September 15 covering 17 techniques attackers use to compromise Active Directory, including AD CS, Certificate Services, and Federation Services attacks. Named techniques include Kerberoasting, AS-REP roasting, password spraying, DCSync, NTDS.dit dumping, Golden and Silver Tickets, Golden SAML, and Skeleton Key. Recommendations include minimizing SPN accounts, enforcing AES encryption, disabling NTLM, account lockout thresholds of five attempts, phishing-resistant MFA, and Tier 0 prioritization. The guide also lists Windows event IDs 4769, 4768, 4625, 4771, and 2889 for detecting Kerberoasting and password spraying on domain controllers.
CISA Urges Service Providers to Provide Transparent Updates During Major IT and OT Outages
CISA and FBI issued guidance urging service providers to deliver timely, transparent communications during major IT and OT outages.
CISA, with the FBI and international partners, released 'Communicating Under Pressure: Best Practices for Service Providers', urging providers to prepare crisis-communication procedures, provide timely status updates during IT/OT outages, and maintain out-of-band communication channels. The guidance warns that disruptions to telecom, cloud, energy, and water services can cascade across critical infrastructure. It aligns with CISA's CI Fortify initiative supporting IT/OT isolation and recovery.
September 2026 Patch Tuesday forecast: All we need is more time
September 2026 Patch Tuesday forecast expects record CVE volume after August's 398 fixes, with SharePoint flaws CVE-2026-55040 and CVE-2026-63520 actively exploited.
This Patch Tuesday forecast column notes August 2026 Patch Tuesday was the second largest ever with 398 resolved CVEs, yet only one was confirmed actively exploited. SharePoint flaws CVE-2026-55040 and CVE-2026-63520 are being chained for authentication bypass and remote code execution in active attacks against unpatched servers. Microsoft Defender's ShieldBreak elevation of privilege flaw (CVE-2026-69414) is publicly disclosed with PoC code and a fix is expected, while Chrome CVE-2026-85046 was reported exploited in the wild. Several products, including Windows 11 24H2 Home/Pro and Exchange Server 2016/2019 ESU, reach end of support in October 2026.
September 2026 Patch Tuesday: Record patch count, 2 zero-days, and a SigRed successor
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday delivers a record patch count, fixing two exploited zero-days and a wormable DNS flaw dubbed a SigRed successor.
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday sets another record patch count, fixing two vulnerabilities exploited as zero-days: CVE-2026-81963, a Windows Update Stack low-privilege-to-SYSTEM escalation reported by MSTIC, and CVE-2026-85880, a Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call escalation reported by Proofpoint. Zero Day Initiative's Dustin Childs urges priority on a cluster of 20 potentially wormable bugs including DNS RCE CVE-2026-69730, described as a spiritual successor to SigRed, plus Kerberos authentication bypass CVE-2026-69676 that could give any authenticated domain user RCE on domain controllers, and Exchange RCE CVE-2026-55007 via a malicious Visio attachment. All Windows fixes are bundled in cumulative updates, and experts stress prioritizing exploitable, reachable flaws over raw patch counts.
China-Based Artificial Intelligence Companies Conducting Industrial-Scale Distillation Campaigns Against U.S. AI Companies
NSA, CISA, and FBI warn DeepSeek, Alibaba, and other Chinese AI firms ran industrial-scale distillation of U.S. frontier models, threatening U.S. AI leadership.
A joint NSA, CISA, and FBI Cybersecurity Advisory (AA26-251A) says China-based firms DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI extracted billions of tokens from U.S. frontier models including Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok, likely with Chinese government knowledge. Campaigns running since at least late 2024 used native APIs, cloud providers, third-party aggregators, gray-market proxy "transfer stations", and shared premium subscriptions to bypass geographic restrictions, evade safeguards, and violate providers' terms of use. The agencies recommend detecting anomalous prompts, accounts, and usage patterns; subtly altering responses to suspected distillers; and cross-organization intelligence sharing. They also call DeepSeek's publicly cited $5.6M training cost misleading because it excludes data acquired through distillation.
USN-8733-1: Gzip vulnerabilities
Ubuntu issued USN-8733-1 fixing two Gzip flaws: insecure gzexe temp files allowing file overwrites, and a crafted-file DoS/info exposure bug.
USN-8733-1 updates Gzip in Ubuntu to fix CVE-2026-41991, where the gzexe utility created temporary files insecurely when mktemp was unavailable, letting a local attacker overwrite arbitrary files. It also fixes CVE-2026-41992, incorrect handling of certain compressed files that could expose sensitive information or crash Gzip in a denial of service. Both issues have local impact and are addressed via updated Ubuntu packages.
AI-fueled attacks pose ‘active threat’ to water, other sectors, U.S. agencies warn
NSA, CISA, FBI, DOE and EPA warn hackers are using AI-generated scripts to actively attack Siemens S7 PLCs across critical-infrastructure sectors.
A joint cybersecurity advisory from the NSA, CISA, FBI, Department of Energy and EPA warns of an active threat campaign targeting water, food, energy, chemical, manufacturing and commercial facilities via Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers. The actors use internet scanning to find exposed or poorly protected PLCs, then deploy AI-generated exploitation scripts disguised as legitimate monitoring tools, an OT first that dramatically lowers the expertise required for ICS attacks. Siemens says no new S7 vulnerabilities are involved, only exploitation of misconfigurations, and it is coordinating with CISA's ProductCERT. The warning follows a joint FBI-EPA advisory confirming attacks at water and wastewater utilities in at least 12 states since July 27.
US agencies warn of AI-powered attacks on Siemens industrial controllers
NSA, CISA, FBI, DOE, and EPA warn threat actors use AI-assisted scripts and snap7 libraries to access internet-exposed Siemens S7 PLCs in critical infrastructure sectors.
NSA, CISA, FBI, DOE, and EPA issued a joint advisory warning that threat actors combine open-source snap7.dll/python-snap7 libraries with AI-generated scripts to gain read/write access to Siemens S7-200 through S7-1500 PLCs over the S7comm protocol. Actors use Censys and ZoomEye to find internet-exposed devices and abuse default or weak credentials, with activity assessed as persistent reconnaissance and positioning for future write operations. Agencies urge device inventory, patching, removing PLCs from the internet, and hardening; the pattern resembles Iran-linked CyberAv3ngers targeting of Rockwell, Schneider, and Siemens PLCs.
Wireshark 4.6.8 patches 28 security bugs, nine in file parsers
Wireshark 4.6.8 fixes 28 security bugs, including nine crash-prone capture file parsers, misdecoded 5G fields, and memory-safety issues.
Wireshark 4.6.8 fixes 28 security bugs spanning advisories wnpa-sec-2026-64 through wnpa-sec-2026-91, including nine crash bugs in file parsers such as pcapng, Endace ERF and Tektronix K12xx that trigger when opening capture files. Fixes cover dissectors for RDP, SSH, Kerberos, H.245, CMS, C12.22 and several Bluetooth protocols, plus unnumbered memory-safety issues like a stack buffer overflow in the K12/RF5 writer. The release also corrects eight misdecoded 5G NAS/5GSM fields and moves the Unix extcap path to /usr/libexec/wireshark/extcap.