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Attackers are weaponizing the gap between Chromium fixes and Chrome patches
Espionage actors use the BlueMoon exploit kit to chain Chrome V8 and Windows kernel zero-days via spear phishing, gaining full admin on unpatched endpoints.
Proofpoint, working with Google Threat Intelligence Group, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center and Volexity, reports that the BlueMoon exploit kit chains V8 type confusion CVE-2026-85046, V8 sandbox escape CVE-2026-87491 and Windows kernel LPE CVE-2026-85880, all rated high severity. The V8 flaws were fixed in upstream Chromium source but had not yet reached Chrome stable releases, creating a patch gap that attackers reverse-engineered and weaponized. A China-aligned state-sponsored actor used the kit from August 28 against a small number of US NGOs, mining and commodity trading firms via rapport-building spear phishing, and within days several mostly China-linked espionage clusters adopted BlueMoon. The chain yields full Windows admin privileges from a single phishing click; defenders should patch Chrome and Windows, apply Proofpoint detections and hunt for leftover artifacts.
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Attackers Hijack MikroTik Routers Through Internet-Exposed SSH Without Authentication
CERT Polska warns attackers exploit internet-exposed MikroTik SSH for unauthenticated full admin control; attacks observed since at least September 2.
CERT Polska warned on September 5 that attackers exploit MikroTik routers with internet-reachable SSH to gain full administrative control without authentication, calling the two-flaw combination 'MikroTrick'. Successful attacks date to at least September 2; no victim count or attacker identity was disclosed. MikroTik shipped fixed RouterOS releases: 6.49.21, 7.23.4 (with 7.23.5 fixing an IPv6 DHCP regression), 7.24.2, and 7.25beta3. CERT recommends immediate updates, checking for unauthorized configuration changes, and restricting SSH, WWW/WWW-SSL, and bandwidth-test services on unpatched devices.
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Microsoft patches 400+ vulnerabilities, one zero-day under attack (CVE-2026-68820)
Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 400+ vulnerabilities, including an actively exploited Windows zero-day (CVE-2026-68820) used by North Korean attackers.
Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes over 400 vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-68820, a use-after-free in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver exploited in the wild by North Korean actors deploying a kernel-mode rootkit in Operation Dream Job. Critical unauthenticated remote code execution flaws in Microsoft QUIC (CVE-2026-62815) and Windows DNS (CVE-2026-62878) were also patched, alongside a SharePoint RCE chain combining CVE-2026-63520 with CVE-2026-55040. Researcher Nightmare-Eclipse released ShieldBreak, a PoC bypassing the July RoguePlanet Microsoft Defender patch (CVE-2026-50656), confirmed working by Will Dormann on Windows 11.
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Google Pixel owners urged to patch actively exploited modem flaw
Google's September 2026 Pixel bulletin fixes 110 vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-58704, a modem permission bypass under limited targeted exploitation enabling remote privilege escalation.
Google released the September 2026 Pixel Update Bulletin addressing 110 vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-58704, a high-severity logic error in the cellular modem that allows remote escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges or user interaction required. Google says there are indications the flaw may be under limited, targeted exploitation; attackers need adjacent network access and some existing foothold on the device, which the bulletin does not explain how to obtain. The fix ships at the 2026-09-05 patch level and appears only in the Pixel-specific bulletin, so other Android vendors do not receive this specific fix.
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Hackers target WordPress sites via third-party WooCommerce plugin
Attackers exploit unauthenticated file-upload flaw CVE-2026-27540 in WooCommerce Wholesale Lead Capture plugin to install PHP webshells; Wordfence blocked 100,000+ attacks.
CVE-2026-27540 is an unauthenticated arbitrary file-upload vulnerability in the WooCommerce Wholesale Lead Capture premium plugin (versions 2.0.3.1 and older), caused by the exposed wwlc_file_upload_handler AJAX action trusting a user-controlled file_settings allowlist. Discovered by researcher Teemu Saarentaus, it was fixed in version 2.0.3.2 released February 20. Defiant reports Wordfence blocked over 100,000 attacks, with exploitation spikes between June 4-17, July 1, and August 30, delivering shell.php webshells for reconnaissance and additional payload uploads.
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Hackers target exposed Vite dev servers to steal AWS, Azure secrets
Mass scanning campaign exploits CVE-2026-39364 in exposed Vite dev servers to steal AWS, Azure, and Terraform credentials.
F5 honeypots detected over 800 attacks and roughly 32,000 events in a month against internet-exposed Vite development servers, abusing CVE-2026-39364 (file access control bypass in Vite 7.1.0-7.3.2 and 8.x before 8.0.5) via parameters like ?raw and ?import&raw. Attackers used extensive wordlists to harvest .env files, AWS/Azure credentials, Terraform state, and /proc/self/environ, with double-encoded traversal to bypass WAFs. The same IPs also leveraged older Vite flaws CVE-2025-30208, actively-exploited CVE-2025-31125, and CVE-2024-45811, primarily from US, Belgium, and Netherlands using Google Cloud ranges.
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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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Microsoft posts nearly 1,000 bugs for Patch Tuesday as CISA warns two being exploited
CISA confirms exploitation of two Windows zero-days among 973 Microsoft patches; 22,000 Exchange servers remain unpatched.
Microsoft's September Patch Tuesday sets a record with 973 vulnerabilities, and CISA confirms CVE-2026-81963 and CVE-2026-85880 are being exploited, giving federal agencies until September 22 to patch. Nightwing estimates over 22,000 corporate Exchange servers are unpatched against weaponized exploit code. Analysts describe CVE-2026-81963 as an early link in ransomware chains where phishing leads to privilege escalation, and note year-to-date Microsoft disclosures exceed 2,600 bugs.
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WeChat Worm Can Hijack Accounts Without Victims Answering Calls
Researchers demoed WeWorm, a zero-click WeChat worm hijacking accounts via incoming VoIP calls using a memory corruption flaw; Tencent patched it in August.
Researchers at Calif exploited a memory corruption bug in WeChat's VoIP system, taking over accounts through an incoming call even if the victim never answers or touches the phone. The attacker must already be a WeChat contact, but compromising a friend's account bypasses this, and chained calls spread the worm across three Android and iOS test phones in seconds. Tencent fixed the flaw in Android 8.0.77 and iOS 8.0.76 released in August, and researchers found no evidence of real-world exploitation. WeChat and Weixin reported 1.418 billion combined monthly active users at the end of 2025.
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Liquid Hackers Return 3,400 Bitcoin Taken via Elements Bug, Still Holding $47M in BTC
Hackers exploited an Elements bug to take ~4,000 BTC from Liquid Network, returned 3,400 BTC (~$265M), and still hold ~598.5 BTC (~$47M).
Attackers exploited a bug in Elements, the software behind Blockstream's Liquid Network Bitcoin sidechain, to create L-BTC and withdraw roughly 4,000 BTC (about $320 million) via SideSwap's Peg-out Authorization Key, roughly 95% of Liquid's reported reserves. They returned 3,400 BTC (about $265 million at ~$78,000 per BTC) to the federation address on September 7, keeping about 598.5 BTC (roughly $47 million). The group called itself white hats, demanded node patches before returning funds, and negotiated via on-chain and PGP-encrypted messages; Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet characterized the arrangement as extortion. Blockstream says the peg-out key and other keys were not compromised, updated software is deployed, and the network remains paused pending a coordinated restart.
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Rogue ScreenConnect Installations Across Unrelated Hosts Suggest Worm-Like Activity
Huntress observed rogue ScreenConnect deployments with worm-like VBScript propagation across unrelated organizations, prompting a ConnectWise advisory on file transfer behavior.
Huntress identified multiple incidents in late August 2026 where social engineering led to rogue ScreenConnect remote access clients deployed on victim machines, which then spawned wscript.exe to run four VBScript payloads (1.vbs through 4.vbs) for profiling, telemetry collection, and persistence via a WindowsServiceHost Run key. Modified ScreenConnect clients propagated the VBScript chain to connected endpoints, creating worm-like spread. ConnectWise published an advisory on September 3, 2026, confirming an issue affecting file transfer behavior in both cloud and on-premises ScreenConnect deployments, with a CVE and fix expected within the week; partners were advised to review and disable TransferFiles permissions in the interim.
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Attackers Chain Two PaperCut Flaws to Execute Code Without Authentication
Attackers chain PaperCut NG/MF flaws CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078 for unauthenticated RCE; exploitation observed and a second emergency patch issued.
Two flaws in PaperCut NG and MF — CVE-2026-81578 (CVSS 8.8, improper access control enabling auth bypass) and CVE-2026-82078 (CVSS 9.4, unsafe dynamic class loading) — are being chained for unauthenticated remote code execution. Huntress observed limited exploitation on two customer environments, including Base64-encoded commands, 'whoami & ver' fingerprinting, SimpleHelp execution, and AnyDesk installation for persistence. PaperCut released a second emergency patch for v24, v25, and v26, but watchTowr reports additional patch bypasses may still affect the latest version. Shared IoCs include crafted jdbc strings in server.log and attacker-written .class/.cmd files.
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13 Malicious Packagist Packages Target Unpatched iPhones to Steal Crypto Wallet Seeds
Trojanized Packagist themes inject JavaScript into Vietnamese streaming sites, exploiting unpatched iPhone WebKit and kernel flaws to install spyware and steal crypto wallet seeds.
Socket researchers found 13 malicious Composer theme packages across five vendor namespaces (including vsmov, vsphim, and ophimcms) that inject JavaScript into Vietnamese movie and comic streaming sites. On iPhones running iOS 18.4-18.6.x, the injected code fires a WebKit-to-kernel exploit chain using CVE-2025-31277 and CVE-2025-43529, pivoting through the GPU process and the AppleM2ScalerCSCDriver IOKit user client to gain kernel read/write. Since around August 12, 2026 the payload also steals cryptocurrency wallet seeds and mnemonics from Bitget, BitKeep, Bitpie, Phantom, Tonkeeper, Trust Wallet, and OKX, alongside keychain databases, Wi-Fi passwords, SMS, photos, cookies, and location history, uploaded via HTTPS to rotating C2 domains. The group is believed to be Vietnamese-operated, hosts exploits on Funnull infrastructure, and Apple patched the kernel escape flaw in iOS and macOS 26.1.
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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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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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New Mirai Variant Targeting Network Security Devices
New Mirai botnet variant exploits nine vulnerabilities in SonicWall, D-Link, Netgear, and other devices, with attacks ongoing at publication.
Unit 42 observed attacks exploiting VisualDoor (SonicWall SSL-VPN), CVE-2020-25506 (D-Link DNS-320), CVE-2020-26919 (Netgear ProSAFE Plus), and other flaws, with infrastructure rotating across at least three IP addresses between February 16 and March 13, 2021. Payloads were updated hours after CVE-2021-27561 and CVE-2021-27562 (Yealink Device Management, unauthenticated root RCE) and later added CVE-2021-22502 (Micro Focus Operation Bridge Reporter) and CVE-2019-19356 (Netis WF2419). Successful exploitation invokes wget to fetch shell scripts that download Mirai binaries compiled for multiple architectures and brute-forcers, and attacks were still ongoing when reported.
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CISA gives federal agencies two weeks to patch Microsoft bug exploited in DPRK campaign
CISA orders federal agencies to patch exploited Windows Winsock zero-day CVE-2026-68820 by August 25, used by Lazarus in Operation Dream Job.
CISA ordered federal agencies to patch Windows Winsock vulnerability CVE-2026-68820, rated 7/10, by August 25 after confirming exploitation; no workaround exists and a restart is required. Check Point found Lazarus Group hackers impersonated Lockheed Martin and Enveil recruiters on LinkedIn, sent malicious PDFs enabling long-term remote access, then used the zero-day to escalate from limited access to full system control. Targets spanned defense sectors including surveillance, drones and robotics in France, Germany, Brazil and India, as part of Operation Dream Job tracked since 2020.
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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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Linux Kernel Dirty Frag LPE Exploit Enables Root Access Across Major Distributions
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