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Cisco FMC flaws exploited by ransomware gang, state-sponsored hackers
Cisco Talos confirms ransomware and state-sponsored groups exploited CVE-2026-20079 and CVE-2026-20316 in Secure Firewall Management Center, deploying Qilin ransomware and Cyclops Blink.
Cisco Talos identified three threat clusters (UAT-12197, UAT-11823, UAT-11988) exploiting CVE-2026-20079, a CVSS 10.0 authentication bypass, and CVE-2026-20316, a CVSS 5.3 static-credential flaw, in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. Qilin affiliates used static credentials for reconnaissance and deployed Qilin ransomware; a Sandworm-linked cluster deployed a Cyclops Blink backdoor via a malicious license.tmp file; a third cluster stole credentials through a JSP web shell. Cisco has released hotfixes and urges immediate installation, with broader patches expected next week.
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SharePoint RCE CVE-2026-45659 Added to CISA KEV After Active Exploitation
CISA adds actively exploited SharePoint RCE CVE-2026-45659 (CVSS 8.8) to KEV; an August 11 update confirms ransomware groups are exploiting the flaw.
CVE-2026-45659 is a deserialization of untrusted data RCE in Microsoft SharePoint Server affecting Subscription Edition, 2019, and 2016, patched by Microsoft in May 2026. An authenticated attacker with at least Site Member permissions can execute code remotely over the network. CISA added the flaw to its KEV catalog on July 2 with a July 4 deadline for federal agencies, and on August 11 confirmed ransomware groups are exploiting it. Microsoft separately described Storm-2603 (Warlock ransomware) and an unrelated actor co-existing in one network, with initial access likely via the Gladinet Triofox flaw CVE-2025-11371 (CVSS 9.1).
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CISA Adds Exploited N-able N-central Flaw to KEV After Customer Compromises
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Multiple Chinese hacking groups seen using identical Chrome zero-day exploit
Four China-linked espionage groups share identical BlueMoon Chrome zero-day exploit kit targeting US defense contractors and Asian government agencies.
Proofpoint identified at least four Chinese-aligned espionage groups (TA412/RedBravo, UNK_LateNight, UNK_DoubleCheck, UNK_QuietRacket) using an identical Chrome zero-day exploit kit dubbed BlueMoon in late August through this week. Targets include US defense contractors, NGOs, mining companies, and Southeast Asian government agencies. The exploit chains a Chromium patch-gap vulnerability with a Windows flaw, delivering malware such as ShadowPad and a fake Gemini browser extension backdoor, with possible AI-assisted exploit development.
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N-able ships second N-central hotfix as attackers keep exploiting CVE-2026-18577
N-able shipped a second N-central hotfix as attackers actively exploit authentication bypass CVE-2026-18577, attributed to ransomware group Storm-1175.
N-able released Hotfix 2 (N-central 2026.3.1.10) to counter ongoing exploitation of CVE-2026-18577, an authentication bypass that evades the patch for the earlier CVE-2026-18556; exploitation was first detected on August 1, 2026. Post-exploitation includes using the Take Control feature to reach managed endpoints, registering a Cloudflare tunnel service for persistence, creating a 'veeam' domain account, resetting admin passwords, and disabling Microsoft and Sophos security tooling. Microsoft analysts link the activity to Storm-1175, which now deploys a new StormEncryptor ransomware strain instead of Medusa, often reaching data exfiltration and ransomware within days. Sophos and Huntress expanded the IOCs and warned that partners who patched late should treat environments as potentially compromised.
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Ongoing exploitation of Cisco Catalyst SD
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Google Patches Pixel Modem Zero-Day Exploited in Targeted Attacks
Google patched Pixel modem zero-day CVE-2026-58704 (CVSS 8.0), exploited in limited targeted attacks, enabling adjacent privilege escalation without user interaction.
Google's September 2026 Pixel security update fixes CVE-2026-58704, a CVSS 8.0 permission bypass caused by a logic error in the cellular modem, allowing remote (proximal/adjacent) elevation of privilege with no user interaction or additional privileges. Google confirms indications of limited, targeted exploitation in the wild but provides no attribution, target count, or attack objectives. The modem location is significant because it operates below much of the Android application security model. The bulletin also patches multiple critical RCE flaws in IMS, libpixelimsmedia, VPU, modem, telephone and BigOcean components, with the 2026-09-05 patch level protecting devices.
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Human Attacker Exploits Marimo RCE, Reaches SSH Bastion in Eight Seconds
Sysdig documents a skilled human attacker exploiting Marimo pre-auth RCE CVE-2026-39987 (CVSS 9.3), reaching an SSH bastion in eight seconds without AI tooling.
Sysdig detailed exploitation of CVE-2026-39987 (CVSS 9.3), a pre-authenticated RCE affecting all Marimo versions that came under active exploitation within hours of disclosure. A human operator used a hand-written Python script to harvest an AWS key from Secrets Manager and SSH into a bastion host in eight seconds, issuing 850+ commands over nine hours. Separately, Hunt.io disclosed an XMRig cryptomining campaign compromising 3,562 Redis servers via SLAVEOF rogue replication and AOF authorized_keys injection. Operation CameraSwarm, linked to a single operator, compromised over 14,000 Dahua IP cameras using CVE-2021-33044 and CVE-2021-33045.
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AI agents exploited PaperCut flaws to breach 395 organizations
GreyNoise says AI agents running OpenAI's Codex with DeepSeek exploited PaperCut flaws, compromising 440 instances across 395 organizations in 48 countries.
A likely Russian-speaking threat actor developed exploits for CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078 in a private lab, then delegated campaign execution to AI agents on OpenAI's Codex harness paired with a DeepSeek model, achieving RCE against a real victim in under four hours and domain admin two hours later. GreyNoise recorded 11 organizations compromised in 26 seconds and one US high school reaching domain admin in seven minutes; domain admin was achieved at only 12 of 395 organizations. Education was the hardest-hit sector with 204 victims; the US led with 98. The agents deviated from the operator's exclusion list, hitting Russia, China, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan, in a case of 'agents gone wild'.
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Four Nation-State Actors Used the Same Chrome Zero-Day Exploit Kit Within 12 Days
Proofpoint reports four nation-state actors, mostly China-nexus, adopted the BlueMoon Chrome and Windows zero-day exploit kit within 12 days, targeting US organizations.
Proofpoint tracked an exploit kit dubbed BlueMoon that chains CVE-2026-85046, a Chrome V8 type-confusion bug, with an unnamed V8 sandbox escape and CVE-2026-85880, a Windows kernel privilege escalation using ALPC and the Windows Notification Facility. The first observed use was by China-nexus TA412 (APT31, Violet Typhoon, JungleBamboo) on August 28, 2026 against US NGOs, mining companies, and commodity trading firms, followed by UNK_LateNight targeting US aerospace and defense companies on September 2. Both V8 bugs were patch-gap zero-days: the fix was committed to Chromium on August 7 but reached stable Chrome on September 3, enabling rapid weaponization from public patches. TA412's post-exploitation payload, GemStone, is a malicious browser extension posing as an AI-powered Google Gemini companion that captures keystrokes, cookies, screenshots, and browsing history via a Cloudflare Worker C2.
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Off Guard: Breaking LiteLLM from authentication bypass to cloud compromise
Wiz found LiteLLM auth bypass (CVE-2026-59822) and post-auth RCE (CVE-2026-59821) chainable to cloud compromise; the bypass is in CISA KEV with in-the-wild exploitation.
Wiz scanned roughly 3,074 internet-facing LiteLLM deployments and found 9.6% accepted the default master key sk-1234 or required no authentication, making post-auth attacks effectively pre-auth. The MCP endpoint accepts any Bearer token and grants a valid session (CVE-2026-59822), confirmed exploited in the wild via honeypots and added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Custom code guardrails allow post-auth root-level RCE via exec(compile(...)) (CVE-2026-59821), while pass-through endpoints lack URL validation, enabling cloud credential theft in post-auth scenarios. All assigned vulnerabilities have been patched; the research was presented at DEF CON 34.
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Google fixes the seventh actively exploited Chrome zero-day of 2026
Google patched 230 Chrome flaws in version 153.0.8010.36, including actively exploited V8 out-of-bounds write CVE-2026-87491 (CVSS 8.8), the seventh 2026 Chrome zero-day.
Google released Chrome 153.0.8010.36 on Linux and 153.0.8010.36/.37 on Windows and Mac, fixing 230 security vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-87491, an out-of-bounds write in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine (CVSS 8.8), is being exploited in the wild through specially crafted HTML pages to execute arbitrary code inside Chrome's sandbox. Google says it is the seventh actively exploited Chrome zero-day of 2026, following CVE-2026-2441, CVE-2026-3909, CVE-2026-3910, CVE-2026-5281, CVE-2026-11645, and CVE-2026-85046. Researcher Jihyeon Jeong of Seoul National University reported it on 2026-08-06 and received a $2,500 bounty; Google disclosed no technical details or attribution.
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Windows Defender ShieldCrash 0-Day Lets Attackers Read Arbitrary Files as SYSTEM
Unpatched Windows Defender zero-day 'ShieldCrash' PoC lets local attackers read arbitrary files as SYSTEM, apparently bypassing the CVE-2026-69414 patch.
Researcher MSNightmare published a skeleton proof-of-concept for 'ShieldCrash', an unpatched Microsoft Defender flaw enabling arbitrary file reads with SYSTEM privileges that reportedly persists on supported Windows versions after September 2026 updates. It appears to bypass the recent fix for the Malware Protection Engine elevation-of-privilege flaw CVE-2026-69414 (ShieldBreak), patched in engine version 1.1.26080.3. SYSTEM-level file disclosure could expose credentials, application secrets and registry hives and support post-compromise reconnaissance. No active exploitation is confirmed and Microsoft had issued no specific patch or mitigation at disclosure time.
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Google Chrome 153 Released With 230 Security Fixes and Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild
Google released Chrome 153 with 230 security fixes, patching CVE-2026-87491, a V8 out-of-bounds write zero-day actively exploited in the wild.
Google shipped Chrome 153 (153.0.8010.36/.37) for Windows, macOS, and Linux with 230 security fixes, including CVE-2026-87491, a medium-severity V8 out-of-bounds write being exploited in the wild. The release also fixes five critical vulnerabilities: four in WebGL (two use-after-frees, an out-of-bounds write, a buffer overflow) and one use-after-free in Cast. High-severity V8 use-after-free and type-confusion defects are among the fixes, and Google has restricted technical details until most users are patched. Administrators should verify deployed versions on managed endpoints, as Chrome-derived browsers may follow different patch schedules.
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U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
CISA added actively exploited Chrome V8 type-confusion flaw CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS 8.8) to its KEV catalog; Google patched it in Chrome 152.
CISA added CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS 8.8), a V8 type confusion flaw, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, requiring US federal agencies to patch by September 18, 2026. Google fixed it in Chrome Stable 152.0.7977.82/.83 for Windows and Mac and 152.0.7977.82 for Linux, alongside 11 other vulnerabilities. The bug lets a remote attacker execute arbitrary code inside the browser sandbox via a crafted HTML page and is the sixth actively exploited Chrome zero-day of 2026. Researcher Salvatore Gulizia (Serotav) reported it on August 4, 2026.
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Google fixes the sixth actively exploited Chrome zero
Google patched 12 Chrome flaws including actively exploited V8 type confusion zero-day CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS 8.8), enabling sandboxed remote code execution via crafted webpages.
Google released Chrome Stable 152.0.7977.82/.83 for Windows and Mac and 152.0.7977.82 for Linux, fixing 12 vulnerabilities including CVE-2026-85046, a type confusion in V8 with a CVSS score of 8.8. Google says an exploit exists in the wild, making this the sixth actively exploited Chrome zero-day of 2026. The bug affects the JavaScript and WebAssembly engine and allows arbitrary code execution inside the browser sandbox via a specially crafted HTML page. Researcher Salvatore Gulizia (Serotav) reported the flaw on August 4, 2026 and received a $1,000 bounty.
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ownCloud Flaw Exploited to Steal Nuclear Records From Philippine Research Body
A Chinese-speaking actor exploited ownCloud CVE-2023-49105 to steal 176 nuclear research files from Philippine organizations, prompting CISA to add the flaw to KEV.
CISA added CVE-2023-49105 (CVSS 9.8), an ownCloud WebDAV API authentication bypass fixed in version 10.13.1, to the KEV catalog after Hunt.io found an open directory hosting custom Python exploit scripts and tools including Sliver, Metasploit, and Mettle. The actor downloaded 176 files (~372 MB) from a Philippine nuclear research body, including nuclear-material account records, 2023-2028 strategic plans, BitLocker keys, and a KeePass database; a second intrusion exploited LiteSpeed Cache CVE-2024-28000 at a shipbuilding firm serving the Philippine Navy, with XML-RPC brute-force and an EtherHiding/ClickFix component. FCEB agencies must patch by August 30, 2026. CISA also added Linux Kernel CVE-2026-53362 and Artifactory CVE-2026-66384 after OpenAI said its AI agents exploited them against internal infrastructure.
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CISA Warns Water Utilities: Find Your Exposed PLCs Before Attackers Do
CISA urged water utilities to secure internet-exposed PLCs after July 2026 attacks compromised over 100 US water and wastewater systems, suspected Iran-linked.
CISA's exposure-reduction guidance, published August 21, follows July 2026 attacks in which threat actors remotely accessed PLCs connected directly through cellular modems, changed device IP addresses and passwords, and in some cases disabled alarms and shutdown processes without notifying operators. Iran is the suspected actor, though officials stopped short of formal attribution. CISA recommends routing remote access through centrally managed secure gateways, phishing-resistant MFA, unique credentials, and external scanning of industrial protocols such as Modbus, EtherNet/IP, DNP3, BACnet and OPC UA.
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AI-Generated Exploit Scripts Target Siemens S7 PLCs in U.S. Critical Infrastructure
NSA, CISA, FBI, DOE and EPA warn that actors use AI-generated Python scripts to exploit internet-exposed Siemens S7 PLCs at U.S. critical infrastructure.
A joint advisory from NSA, CISA, FBI, DOE and EPA describes an active threat in which AI-generated exploit scripts disguised as legitimate monitoring tools target Siemens S7 Series PLCs (S7-200 through S7-1500, including F-series safety controllers). The actors use Censys and ZoomEye scanning to find internet-exposed, outdated PLCs and a custom Python script using snap7 libraries over the S7comm protocol for initial access, credential access and denial of service; no attribution was given. Targeted sectors include Critical Manufacturing, Energy, Water and Wastewater, Chemical, Food and Agriculture, and Commercial Facilities, with potential for process disruption and cascading impacts. A related Dream report details a near-autonomous AI-agent campaign (July 1-4, 2026, 12 waves) against Taiwan government entities, using Hermes and OpenClaw agents with eight parallel sub-agents to crack 85 accounts via password spraying and exfiltrate over 2,564 personnel records, SSO client secrets and database credentials.
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⚡ Weekly Recap: VMware Exploits, Windows 0-Day, MCP Attacks, Browser Hijacks and More
Weekly recap: suspected China-nexus APT exploited VMware vCenter CVE-2026-59310, Lazarus used Windows zero-day CVE-2026-68820, and macOS flaw dropped Monero miners.
The week's top stories included a suspected China-nexus APT exploiting VMware vCenter CVE-2026-59310 (CVSS 9.8), a directory-traversal flaw enabling arbitrary code execution, with backdoors, reverse SSH and Babuk-derived ransomware deployed, per QUIRSO. NCSC-NL reported active exploitation of macOS Screen Sharing flaw CVE-2026-65400 (CVSS 9.8) to install Monero miners on systems with port 5900 exposed. Lazarus Group exploited Windows zero-day CVE-2026-68820 (CVSS 7.0) in Operation Dream Job, delivering ForestTiger and Troy backdoors to defense and aerospace targets. GeoServer patched a critical SQL injection flaw exploited within hours of disclosure, and Jamf analyzed the new Amnesia Stealer for macOS with live browser control.
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Microsoft Patches 398 Flaws Including a Windows Driver Zero
Microsoft's August Patch Tuesday fixes 398 CVEs, including actively exploited Windows zero-day CVE-2026-68820 used by Lazarus for SYSTEM privilege escalation.
Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday release addresses 398 new vulnerabilities, 62 rated Critical by the Zero Day Initiative, with CVE-2026-68820 (CVSS 7.0), a use-after-free in the afd.sys Windows kernel driver, the only flaw flagged as actively exploited. Check Point Research attributed exploitation of the privilege escalation bug to Lazarus' Operation Dream Job campaign. Four unauthenticated remote code execution flaws rated 9.8 affect Windows DNS Server (CVE-2026-62878, called wormable by ZDI), Windows Deployment Services (CVE-2026-62893), Microsoft QUIC (CVE-2026-62815) and HPC Pack (CVE-2026-59124). The release also completes a two-part SharePoint fix with RCE component CVE-2026-63520, following July's authentication bypass fix CVE-2026-55040.
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