Artifactory flaws chained in attacks deploying backdoor malware
Attackers chain JFrog Artifactory flaws CVE-2026-42018 and CVE-2026-42016 to gain admin tokens and deploy a Rust backdoor on self-hosted servers.
Wiz observed multiple threat actors chaining CVE-2026-42018 and CVE-2026-42016 against self-hosted JFrog Artifactory instances between August 15 and September 8, 2026, in some cases obtaining admin access in under five minutes. The critical authentication bypass CVE-2026-82329 was also exploited this month to mint administrator tokens. Attackers installed malicious Groovy plugins, dropped a Rust backdoor with C2 capabilities, uploaded webshells, stole configuration data and cluster join keys, and added SSH keys to new accounts. Wiz estimates 49-62% of internet-reachable Artifactory instances are vulnerable to at least one of the three flaws, and patched releases from 7.111.21 through 7.161.20 are available.
New Microsoft Defender 'ShieldCrash' zero-day grants SYSTEM access
Researcher Nightmare Eclipse released 'ShieldCrash', a zero-day exploit for Microsoft Defender that grants attackers SYSTEM-level access.
An anonymous researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse published a zero-day exploit for Microsoft Defender, dubbed 'ShieldCrash', that yields SYSTEM-level access. The release came immediately after Microsoft rolled out its September 2026 Patch Tuesday security updates. No CVE identifier has been assigned publicly and no in-the-wild exploitation has been reported yet. Microsoft Defender ships by default on Windows, so potential exposure is broad until Microsoft patches the flaw.
U.S. CISA adds Gitea flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
CISA added the actively exploited Gitea RCE flaw CVE-2026-60004 (CVSS 9.8) to its KEV catalog, with federal patching due by August 28, 2026.
CISA added CVE-2026-60004, a critical remote code execution flaw in Gitea (CVSS 9.8), to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The flaw affects Gitea versions since 1.17, fixed in 1.27.1, and lets attackers with repository write access execute shell commands via the diffpatch API and Git hooks. Open registration allows unauthenticated attackers to create accounts and exploit exposed instances, with a reported attack deploying a cryptocurrency-miner-like payload.