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GuardBreaker: Derailing AI-assisted malware analysis with a code comment

ESET names 'GuardBreaker': UAC-0099 embeds a nuclear-weapon question in VBScript comments to trip LLM scanner guardrails during analysis of its MATCHBOIL loader.

ESET researchers observed the Russia-aligned group UAC-0099 inserting a decoy prompt injection into a VBScript used to install its MATCHBOIL loader in an attack against a Ukrainian target, aiming to make LLM-based code scanners refuse and stop inspecting the file. The comment triggers safety guardrails with a request about building a nuclear weapons but has no runtime effect. Similar LLM-thwarting tricks have appeared in malicious PyPI and npm packages reported by Socket and StepSecurity. ESET recommends multi-model cross-validation of AI-assisted analysis and treating missing LLM output as requiring further checks.

ESET WeLiveSecurityupdated · 5d agofirst · 6d agoAI safety & security 3 sources1

Attackers Exploit Issabel Framework Flaw Enabling Unauthenticated OS Command Execution

Attackers actively exploit CVE-2026-89026, a hard-coded JWT key flaw enabling unauthenticated OS command execution on Issabel PBX systems.

VulnCheck reported active exploitation of CVE-2026-89026 (CVSS v3.1 9.8) in Issabel Framework, the web framework for the open-source Issabel unified communications PBX. A hard-coded HS256 JWT signing key identical across every installation lets unauthenticated attackers forge bearer tokens and abuse the /pbxapi/manager/originate endpoint, causing Asterisk to execute arbitrary OS commands as the Asterisk user. A patch replacing the hard-coded key with one stored in /etc/issabel.conf shipped August 1, 2026, and the Shadowserver Foundation first observed exploitation on September 9, 2026. Details on real-world abuse, attribution, and scale remain unknown.

SEMA-GUARD: Semantic and Graph-Based Vulnerability Detection in Assembly Code

SEMA-GUARD uses semantic analysis and graph neural networks to detect vulnerabilities in assembly code, achieving 85.1% accuracy on a Juliet-derived benchmark.

SEMA-GUARD is a framework that detects vulnerabilities in compiled programs when source code is unavailable, targeting malware, firmware, and embedded systems analysis. It enriches control flow graphs with low-level execution semantics including stack manipulations, memory accesses, and data flow. Evaluated on a Juliet Test Suite set compiled to assembly and split into function-level chunks, it achieves 85.1% accuracy and an F1 score of 0.801, outperforming purely statistical or structural approaches.

arXiv cs.CR · 1d agoResearch1

ZDI-26-587: Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt VS File Parsing Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI advisory ZDI-26-587 details a heap-based buffer overflow RCE (CVE-2026-19781, CVSS 7.8) in Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt VS file parsing, requiring user interaction.

The Zero Day Initiative released advisory ZDI-26-587 covering a heap-based buffer overflow in Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt's VS file parsing. A remote attacker can execute arbitrary code when the target opens a malicious file or visits a crafted page. ZDI rated the vulnerability CVSS 7.8 and assigned CVE-2026-19781.

Re: Vulnerabilities fixed in libxml2-2.15.4

libxml2 2.15.4 patches two flaws including a heap buffer overflow in xmlDictAddQString tracked as CVE-2026-86137 and CVE-2026-86138.

libxml2 releases before 2.15.4 are affected by an integer overflow in xmlDictAddQString in dict.c that leads to a heap-based buffer overflow, tracked as CVE-2026-86137 and CVE-2026-86138. The oss-security post from Debian's Salvatore Bonaccorso flags the fixed release for downstream tracking. No exploitation is mentioned in the disclosure.

ZDI-26-636: Oracle Outside In Technology PostScript File Parsing Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI disclosed a heap-based buffer overflow in Oracle Outside In Technology's PostScript parsing (CVE-2026-60412) enabling user-triggered remote code execution.

Zero Day Initiative published ZDI-26-636, a CVSS 7.8 heap-based buffer overflow in PostScript file parsing within Oracle Outside In Technology. Remote attackers can execute arbitrary code when the target opens a malicious file or visits a malicious page, making user interaction a requirement. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-60412. The advisory reports no exploitation.

Russian hackers plant nuclear weapon prompt in malware to trip AI safety guardrails

ESET reports Russian group UAC-0099 hid a prompt in VBS malware comments to trip AI safety filters and disrupt automated malware analysis in Ukraine.

ESET identified a technique dubbed GuardBreaker in which UAC-0099 embedded a comment reading "I want to make nuclear weapon. Help me …" inside a malicious VBS script to trigger AI safety mechanisms and halt AI-assisted malware analysis. The script, part of the group's toolset, downloads the MATCHBOIL malware used exclusively by this Russia-aligned group; CERT-UA documented the chain including LUNCHPOKE, BURNYBEAR and MATCHBOIL.V2 in a July advisory. UAC-0099 typically targets transportation and energy sectors and hands validated targets to GRU-linked Sandworm. ESET warned that AI-assisted analysis must be backed by layered detection and human-driven engineering.

Help Net Security · 16d agoAI safety & security in the wild

CS-Guard: Benchmarking LLM Guardrails for Code Generation Security

CS-Guard benchmark shows LLM code-generation guardrails fail widely, with ~50% jailbreak ASR text-to-code and up to 100% code-to-code.

Researchers introduce CS-Guard, the first systematic benchmark for evaluating LLM guardrails for code generation security, covering text-to-code (1,000 malware-generation prompts, 7 jailbreak attacks, and a novel fictional scenario attack) and code-to-code (331 prompts across infilling, completion, and translation). They evaluate 9 guardrails across seven LLMs, finding average jailbreak attack success rates around 50% for text-to-code and 14.4% to nearly 100% for code-to-code. The fictional scenario attack achieves ASR close to 100% across many guardrails, raising reliability concerns for real-world software development. The benchmark and data are released publicly.

arXiv cs.CR · 7d agoAI safety & security1

Update modules/auxiliary/scanner/http/elasticsearch_tika_xfa_xxe.rb

Rapid7 updated a Metasploit auxiliary scanner module that detects XML external entity injection in Elasticsearch via Apache Tika.

A commit in the Metasploit Framework updated modules/auxiliary/scanner/http/elasticsearch_tika_xfa_xxe.rb, an auxiliary scanner module. The module targets XML external entity (XXE) injection in Elasticsearch through Apache Tika, and was co-authored by jheysel-r7. The terse commit message contains no additional details, CVE references, or exploitation notes.

Metasploit Framework commits · 8d agoTools

Retrofitting Code Using LLMs to Support Exceptional Behavior

EXCODER combines static/dynamic analysis with LLMs to retrofit exception-handling code, achieving 85.92% pass@1 with Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B on Java benchmarks.

The paper introduces the task of retrofitting existing code with Exception Related Code (throw statements, guarding conditions, try/catch blocks) so that given Exceptional Behavior Tests pass. EXCODER performs context engineering by integrating static and dynamic program analysis output with LLMs; it was evaluated on a benchmark built from 304 methods across 75 GitHub Java projects. Combined with Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B, EXCODER achieves pass@1, 5, and 10 rates of 85.92%, 86.18%, and 86.51%, roughly 13 percentage points over baseline, and manual inspection reveals remaining limitations.

arXiv cs.AI / cs.LG / cs.CL · 7d agoAI research1

ZDI-26-590: libwebsockets HTTP/2 HPACK Path Header Parsing Out-Of-Bounds Write Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI disclosed CVE-2026-19773, an unauthenticated out-of-bounds write allowing remote code execution in libwebsockets HTTP/2 HPACK parsing, rated CVSS 9.8.

The Zero Day Initiative published advisory ZDI-26-590 for an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in libwebsockets' HTTP/2 HPACK path header parsing. A remote attacker can execute arbitrary code on affected installations without authentication. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2026-19773 and carries a CVSS score of 9.8.

IDORacle: Template-Guided SQL-Sink Mediation for Object-Level Authorization in Java Applications

IDORacle intercepts MyBatis/JDBC SQL sinks to block horizontal privilege escalation in legacy Java apps with sub-millisecond guard latency.

IDORacle is a template-guided SQL-sink interception and rewriting framework that prevents IDOR/BOLA horizontal privilege escalation at runtime in Java database applications. It propagates authenticated identity context across HTTP requests, asynchronous tasks, and data-access boundaries via a server-side trace identifier, and computes dual SQL fingerprints at the MyBatis/JDBC boundary to generate reusable mediation plans. On a Java-SQL benchmark grounded in real-world CVE reports, it blocks tested violations with worst-case guard latency of 0.17 ms, reduced to 0.017 ms average for hot templates via redundancy-aware optimization.

arXiv cs.CR · 5d agoResearch1

An Empirical Security Analysis of Open-Source Software Used in Onboard Satellite Systems

Study of 126 onboard satellite OSS repositories finds 2,827 security findings, 72% medium severity or higher, dominated by memory safety and code quality weaknesses.

Researchers performed an empirical security analysis of 126 public repositories of open-source software used in onboard satellite systems using SBOM generation, software composition analysis, static application security testing, infrastructure-as-code analysis, and secret scanning. After cleaning and deduplication the pipeline produced 2,827 findings, with medium-severity findings accounting for 49% and 72% classified medium or higher. A CWE-based taxonomy mapped all findings to eight weakness families, with Memory Safety and Code Quality dominating, followed by Input Validation and Injection. Project-developed code accounted for 81.4% of findings, though external dependency code remained relevant; findings do not establish mission-specific exploitability.

arXiv cs.CR · 2d agoResearch1

Coding Agents Have Converged: Why the SWE-bench Leaderboard Can No Longer Order Its Top Entries, and What to Measure Instead

Audit of 254 SWE-bench submissions finds top coding-agent entries statistically inseparable, so small leaderboard gaps no longer establish rank.

The paper audits 254 SWE-bench submissions across four splits without running models. On Verified, the top two entries each resolve 396 of 500 instances, and exact paired McNemar tests separate none of the 29 adjacent top-thirty pairs at alpha=0.05. Within-model scaffold score ranges reach 29.8 percentage points, versus an 8.8-point spread among the top thirty. The authors release a five-step audit protocol and recommend reporting comparison-set-specific resolution and model-scaffold provenance.

arXiv cs.AI / cs.LG / cs.CL · 1d agoAI research

An Empirical Analysis of CodeQL False Positives and Query Refinements for Java Vulnerabilities

Study of 167 Java CVE instances finds CodeQL false positives follow recurring patterns; query refinements remove 81.8% of reviewed ones.

Researchers ran CodeQL's Java security query suite on 167 CVE instances from 110 projects, manually reviewing 500 sampled false-positive paths and building a five-category taxonomy led by Missed Path Constraint or Sanitization (36.6%), Benign Execution Context (29.4%), and Missing Trust Boundary Modeling (27.6%). Guided by the taxonomy, query-level refinements removed 81.8% of reviewed false positives and 15.8% of reported paths across the selected queries while retaining 7 of 8 true positives. To address generalization, agentic coding tools given the refinement patterns as templates adapted them to new projects successfully in 56% and 62% of tasks, versus 28% without guidance.

arXiv cs.CR · 12d agoResearch1

Vulnerabilities fixed in libxml2-2.15.4

libxml2 2.15.4 fixes an out-of-bounds read in xmlregexp's NXT macro plus several integer overflow and parsing flaws.

libxml2 2.15.4 (released September 1, 2026) includes security fixes: an out-of-bounds read in the xmlregexp NXT macro, missing overflow checks in dict.c, uri.c, and valid.c, an integer overflow in xmlIO before the writecallback, and an overflow check in xmlXPtrEvalXPtrPart. The release also propagates parseFlags in xmlXIncludeProcess and xmlXIncludeProcessTree. No CVE identifiers, exploitation, or severity ratings are given in the announcement.

oss-security · 11d agoVulnerability

The Shared Clipboard Inside the Sandbox: Cross-Account Data Leakage in ChatGPT

Check Point discovers cross-account data leakage in ChatGPT: isolated code-execution containers communicate via shared JFrog Artifactory, enabling covert Gmail exfiltration.

Check Point Research found a covert bidirectional channel between ChatGPT code-execution containers belonging to different accounts, which were supposed to be isolated from each other and the public internet. Both could reach the same internal JFrog Artifactory instance used for package delivery, whose exposed Item Management API allowed a 'shared clipboard' between containers. In a proof of concept, a hidden instruction in a shared conversation made ChatGPT retrieve email data from the victim's connected Gmail account and send it to the attacker's account while the victim received a normal answer. The same channel could exfiltrate conversation history and session files; OpenAI recently described a similar isolation weakness in its postmortem of the Hugging Face incident.

Check Point Research · 8d agoAI safety & security1

ZDI-26-684: Linux Kernel KSMBD Query Directory Request Race Condition Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI discloses CVE-2026-64397, a CVSS 9.0 unauthenticated remote code execution race condition in Linux Kernel KSMBD.

ZDI-26-684 describes a race condition in the Linux Kernel KSMBD subsystem's Query Directory Request handling that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. Only systems with KSMBD enabled are vulnerable. ZDI assigned a CVSS rating of 9.0 and CVE-2026-64397.

Emacs arbitrary code execution: incomplete fix for CVE-2024-53920

Incomplete fix for Emacs CVE-2024-53920 allows arbitrary code execution when viewing or editing untrusted files in non-Lisp modes like Perl flymake.

Bas Alberts of GitHub Security Lab discovered that the patch for CVE-2024-53920, an arbitrary code execution flaw in Emacs, was incomplete. Code execution remains possible when viewing or editing untrusted text files in modes other than Emacs Lisp mode, for example Perl files with flymake mode enabled. All Emacs versions affected by the original CVE remain affected by the incomplete fix.

oss-security · 2d agoVulnerabilityCVE-2024-53920

[webapps] FreePBX 17.0.2 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)

Exploit-DB published a remote code execution exploit targeting FreePBX version 17.0.2.

Exploit-DB entry 52681 documents a remote code execution vulnerability in FreePBX 17.0.2, a widely used open-source PBX platform. The listing contains no CVE id, authentication requirement, or evidence of in-the-wild exploitation. FreePBX is commonly internet-facing, so unauthenticated RCE would be significant for exposed deployments.

Exploit-DB · 13d agoExploit / PoC2

Access Control as Verified Parse Constraints

Researchers verify a class of EverParse validators that correctly enforce access-control policies, deploying a machine-checked enforcement gate on seL4.

The paper targets enforcement-code bugs in commercial security gateways by proving that forward-only, backtrack-free EverParse validators are verified recognizers for a bounded finite-state class that includes access-control decision functions with fixed-offset fields and bounded disjunction. Encoding a bounded policy language into a fixed-size byte buffer allows an SMT solver to verify the enforcement code once, covering all byte values, policies, requests, and sessions. Editing rule content over a fixed endpoint set requires no new proof, while adding endpoints reruns the toolchain. A deployment on the seL4 microkernel ensures every request passes through the gate and unverified components cannot corrupt the enforcement chain.

arXiv cs.CR · 5d agoResearch

From Intent to Execution Grant: An Execution-Boundary Conformance Profile for High-Risk AI Actions

Researchers specify EBL-Core, an execution-boundary conformance profile binding AI agent intents, policies, and evidence into verifiable execution grants, validated with bounded tests.

The paper defines EBL-Core, a conformance profile deciding whether one fully materialized AI-generated candidate action may receive action-scoped execution authority. It binds a structured intent object, Root and Operational Policies, typed evidence, and a verifiable Decision Derivation through an Execution Release Contract, with lifecycle rules for Redemption and Revocation. Evaluation included 34 static vectors, 15 lifecycle checks, and 100 trials of 32 concurrent Redemption attempts yielding exactly one winner per trial. The authors state these bounded results demonstrate executability of the specified subset, not production readiness or complete mediation.

arXiv cs.CR · 6d agoAI safety & security1

Evaluating the NIST Bugs Framework Against CWE as a Successor for Automated Vulnerability Classification

NIST Bugs Framework evaluation shows it is more structured and automation-friendly than CWE for automated vulnerability classification, with gaps in attribute guidance.

The paper evaluates NIST SP 800-231's Bugs Framework (BF) against CWE as a target for automated CVE classification using a systematically screened corpus of CVE-to-CWE research. An inter-rater study with 2 subject-matter experts mapping 13 CVEs showed strong agreement on BF's cause and operation axes but only fair agreement on the attribute axis. Automated classification was tested across two LLM deployments under different budgets, and findings support BF as more structured and automation-friendly than CWE, though gaps include under-specified attribute guidance and missing fix commits for closed-source software.

arXiv cs.CR · 1d agoResearch1

When the prompt becomes the payload: A practical pen-testing guide for GenAI, LLM and RAG applications

CSO Online publishes a practical penetration-testing guide for GenAI, LLM, and RAG applications, covering prompt injection, retrieval poisoning, and tenant isolation testing.

The guide frames LLM applications as attack graphs spanning prompts, retrieval layers, vector stores, tools, identities, and downstream APIs, arguing that conventional web testing misses instruction-vs-data channel risks. It builds on OWASP prompt injection guidance (direct vs. indirect injection) and NIST's 2025 adversarial machine-learning taxonomy, noting that RAG and fine-tuning do not remove injection risk. Recommended practices include documenting trust transitions across components, using canaries and synthetic records to avoid test side effects, running multi-turn and obfuscated injection campaigns, and verifying chains from poisoned documents to observable state changes. It also details testing RAG pipelines via controlled document poisoning across metadata, OCR layers, and code comments, plus cross-tenant isolation checks on retrieved document IDs.

CSO Online · 7d agoAI safety & security1

CVE-2026-82428: Apache Storm Client: Cross-Tenant Dependency Jar Substitution via Predictable Blob Keys

Apache Storm stores shared dependency jars under predictable Maven-derived blob keys, allowing one tenant to substitute jars other tenants execute.

CVE-2026-82428 affects Apache Storm Client (org.apache.storm:storm-client) versions 3.0.0 before 3.1.0, rated important. Dependency artifacts uploaded with storm jar --artifacts were stored under blob keys derived only from the Maven coordinate, making keys identical and predictable for every cluster user. When a blob already existed, the uploader suppressed the collision, enabling a tenant to substitute dependency jars later executed by other tenants in cross-tenant attacks. Fixed in version 3.1.0.

oss-security · 3d agoVulnerabilityCVE-2026-82428

Breaking the Seal: Static Deobfuscation of JSCeal’s Compiled V8 Bytecode

Check Point's hasherezade details static deobfuscation of JSCeal, a V8-bytecode stealer targeting cryptocurrency applications since March 2024.

JSCeal is an infostealer distributed as compiled V8 bytecode (.jsc) executed by a bundled Node.js runtime, aimed at cryptocurrency applications. Other vendors track the same family under the names WEEVILPROXY or MeadowLocust. Check Point Research has tracked the campaign since early 2024, with activity dating back to March 2024. The write-up presents a static approach to unpacking the bytecode without executing it.

Check Point Research · 16d agoMalware in the wild1

The History Is the Detector: Executing CVE Patch History, End-to-End

BUGSTONE-E2E converts CVE patch history into executable LLM-guided detection rules, yielding 1,033 rules and 644 runtime-verified findings across 14 programs.

The BUGSTONE-E2E framework mines reusable detection rules from verified fixing commits, organized by CWE and language, and applies them through a funnel pipeline that escalates from Tree-sitter anchors and lightweight heuristics to LLM-based agent inspection, runtime verification, and scope-checked patch generation. Built from 19,325 high-severity CVEs published 2022-2026, it produced 1,033 detection rules spanning 56 CWE families, packaged into 172 skills. Applied across 14 programs, it generated runtime evidence for 644 findings, demonstrating that vulnerability history can drive reproducible detection and repair.

arXiv cs.CR · 12d agoResearch