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Certificate failures can cost firms over $250,000

DigiCert survey finds certificate failures cost firms over $250,000 per incident, with 47-day TLS certificates set to multiply management workloads by 2029.

DigiCert's Certificate Management Outlook reports that 34% of companies experienced outages from expired certificates and 40% from mismanagement, with nearly one in four citing incidents costing over $250,000. The CA/Browser Forum's move to 47-day certificate lifespans by 2029 will require renewals eight times more often and 40 times as many domain validations. Over half of organizations manage more than 1,000 certificates, yet only 10% have automation in place, with budget constraints and legacy systems cited as key barriers.

Help Net SecuritySep 14, 04:30 UTC · 2d agoIndustry

Forgery of C2PA on a Pixel 10

Researcher forged a Google Pixel 10 C2PA content credential with genuine signatures, showing root-level attackers can fake photo provenance.

A Hacker Factor blog post demonstrates an AI-generated 'unicorn glitter milk' news photo carrying a valid, cryptographically signed C2PA manifest traceable to Google's Pixel camera certificate chain, passing validation in Adobe Inspect and the CAI Verify tool with a verified timestamp. The author, working with UMBC's PASAWG working group, reported to Google and C2PA in November 2025 that root access on a Pixel device could sign arbitrary images as camera captures; after 90 days without resolution, details were published. The finding undermines C2PA Assurance Level 2 claims made for Pixel 10 Content Credentials.

Lobsters · security13:24 UTC · 8h agoResearch

AD Rights Management Service (Part 2): Extraction, Offline Decryption, and the Unrotatable Key

Huntress research shows AD RMS SLC root key is unrotatable and never expires, so its compromise permanently exposes all RMS-protected documents.

Part 2 of Huntress's AD RMS series details server-side attacks: extracting the Server Licensor Certificate (SLC) private key and performing offline decryption of protected documents. The SLC key has no expiry or rotation mechanism, with a 255-year certificate validity (2002–2258), so whoever recovers it can decrypt every document the deployment ever protected, indefinitely. The author released SharpRMS, a unified tool combining the 2016 DisARMS client-side attacks with new server-side key extraction and decryption capabilities. The research frames the SLC as comparable to KRBTGT and the DPAPI domain backup key, though not equivalent to domain compromise.

HuntressSep 10, 04:00 UTC · 6d agoResearch

I've factored the RSA keys of a Certificate Authority from the 90s

Security researcher factored two 512-bit RSA root CA keys from defunct 1990s certificate authority E-Certify using CADO-NFS on a desktop in roughly 30 hours each.

A researcher extracted legacy root certificates from archived Netscape and Internet Explorer installers, identifying two 512-bit RSA roots shipped with Netscape 4.51 in 1999 by the defunct Canadian CA E-Certify. Using CADO-NFS on a Ryzen 9 5950X desktop, the keys were factored in 32 and 29 hours respectively, allowing private key reconstruction. The work comes shortly after RSA-260 (862-bit) was factored, the largest known factorization to date. The researcher also built a legacy TLS server and published keys and tools on GitHub.

Hacker News · securitySep 8, 01:16 UTC · 8d agoResearch HN 411↑ · 86 comments

CISA Shares 17 Techniques Used by Hackers to Compromise Active Directory

CISA and five international agencies publish joint guidance detailing 17 techniques attackers use to compromise Microsoft Active Directory environments.

CISA, NSA, and the Australian Signals Directorate's ACSC, with contributions from Canadian, UK, and New Zealand cyber centers, released technical guidance on 17 Active Directory attack techniques. It covers AD Domain Services, AD Certificate Services, and AD Federation Services, including Kerberoasting, DCSync, Golden Ticket, Golden SAML, Skeleton Key, and Shadow Credentials. The guidance recommends treating domain controllers, CAs, AD FS servers, and Entra Connect systems as Tier 0 assets with phishing-resistant MFA, Kerberos pre-authentication enforcement, and disabling NTLM/SMBv1.

Cyber Security NewsSep 15, 16:05 UTC · 1d agoAdvisory

AD Rights Management Service (Part 1): Architecture, Deprecation, and Reconnaissance

Huntress maps AD RMS architecture and recon paths, setting up an offline key-extraction attack against its unrotatable 255-year root key.

Huntress's multi-part research examines Active Directory Rights Management Services, Microsoft's enterprise DRM role that still ships in Windows Server 2025 despite migration guidance favoring Azure Information Protection. Part 1 covers the trust model and how an ordinary domain account can locate RMS clusters and read rights-policy templates. Part 2 will detail four independent paths for extracting the Server Licensor Certificate (SLC) private key via service-group membership and the configuration database, enabling fully offline decryption of protected documents. The SLC certificate is valid from 2002 to 2258 and has no key-rotation mechanism, so a stolen key decrypts protected content indefinitely.

HuntressSep 8, 04:00 UTC · 8d agoResearch1

Attackers Expose Ongoing AI Tool Use Targeting Organizations in Latin America

Unit 42 documents two AI-assisted intrusion campaigns against Latin American government, utility, and financial organizations using LLM-orchestrated tooling.

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 tracks two ongoing intrusion clusters, CL-CRI-1131 (Mexican transportation, federal ministries, municipal water utilities) and CL-CRI-1163 (Brazilian financial sector), both using living-off-the-land techniques, SOCKS5 relays, and custom RATs. The attackers appear to orchestrate operations via commercial LLMs like Claude and GPT-4.1, evidenced by iterative batch scripts and AI-generated tunneling tool naming. The Mexican campaign (also reported as Operation Escaneo by CloudSEK) exfiltrated sensitive data via dynamic-DNS infrastructure with rotated multi-SAN TLS certificates between February and June 2026. This signals broader adoption of AI-enhanced operations by diverse threat groups in the region.

Palo Alto Unit 42Sep 3, 10:00 UTC · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild1

Accountability in Certificate Transparency and Variants

Formal Dolev-Yao analysis shows plain Certificate Transparency requires an honest log, SCT Auditing removes that assumption, and Gossiping does not.

The paper analyzes accountability in Certificate Transparency and its SCT Auditing and Gossiping extensions in the Dolev-Yao model, starting from a vanilla PKI. It finds plain CT provides accountability only under the assumption of an honest log. The SCT Auditing extension can eliminate that assumption, while the Gossiping extension cannot. CT is supported by all major browsers and obliges Certificate Authorities to record issued certificates in public, monitored logs.

arXiv cs.CRSep 10, 13:45 UTC · 6d agoResearch

Security Incident – BGP Hijacking

Attackers BGP-hijacked Softaculous' Hetzner IP block for 33 hours, obtained valid TLS certificates, and delivered a malicious Virtualizor update to some servers.

Between August 28 and 30, 2026, AS62390 (NexonHost) announced 162.55.80.0/24 via transit AS6204 (Zet.net) without authorization, diverting traffic while retaining Hetzner's AS24940 on the AS path. The attacker obtained valid Let's Encrypt certificates for virtualizor.com domains because the CA's domain validation was also routed through the hijack, so affected connections showed no TLS warnings. A malicious Virtualizor update package reached a handful of installations; routing was fully restored, and reconstruction from RIPE RIS data showed all 368 collector peers carried the hijacked route at some point with roughly 28% time-weighted diversion.

Lobsters · securitySep 3, 02:07 UTC · 13d agoData breach

Hackers Use Claude and GPT-Powered Tools to Help Breach Government and Financial Networks

Unit 42 links two Latin America campaigns where operators used Claude and GPT-4.1 during intrusions against government and financial targets.

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 identified two activity clusters, CL-CRI-1131 and CL-CRI-1163, tied by shared SOCKS5 relay infrastructure and use of large language models during operations. The Mexican cluster targeted a transportation organization, federal ministries and water utilities in Mexico and Ecuador, while the Brazilian cluster used resume-themed phishing, custom remote-access Trojans and SockTz SOCKS5 tunneling against financial organizations. An exposed self-hosted NextChat interface on attacker infrastructure led researchers to assess operators used Claude and GPT-4.1 to generate workaround scripts and troubleshoot execution failures. Unit 42 noted AI reduced time needed to troubleshoot intrusions after initial access, rather than replacing the attacker.

Cyber Security NewsSep 10, 08:06 UTC · 6d agoThreat actor in the wild 2 sources1

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.

BleepingComputerSep 8, 18:18 UTC · 8d agoAdvisory in the wildCVE-2026-69805 CVE-2026-58649 CVE-2026-69806+27 CVEs1

ZTNA Portal Improper Certificate Validation

Fortinet fixed an improper certificate validation flaw (CVSS 7.3) in FortiOS and FortiProxy Agentless ZTNA portal enabling unauthenticated man-in-the-middle attacks on backend traffic.

Fortinet advisory FG-IR-26-174 discloses an improper certificate validation vulnerability (CWE-295) in the FortiOS and FortiProxy Agentless ZTNA portal, rated CVSSv3 7.3. A remote and unauthenticated attacker can perform a man-in-the-middle attack on the communication channel between the ZTNA portal and the backend destination website. The advisory was revised on 2026-09-08.

Fortinet PSIRTSep 8, 07:00 UTC · 8d agoAdvisory

Scores Alone Do Not Prove Discovery: The Discovery Certification Protocol for Auditing AI Research Agents

Researchers introduce the Discovery Certification Protocol, an auditable test framework that verifies whether AI research agents' claimed discoveries are genuine.

The Discovery Certification Protocol (DCP) converts AI research agents' discovery claims into executable recovery and feedback tests organized as gated audits. Controlled audits in SQLite optimization and virtual catalyst control produced zero recoveries in 96 episodes, with an upper bound of 0.0468. A deterministic, LLM-free verifier reproduces audit decisions from frozen evidence, giving AI research a common evidence language for outcomes, alternative routes, and feedback effects.

Hugging Face daily papersSep 6, 20:00 UTC · 10d agoAI research

Iranian banks' SSL certificates are being revoked due to OFAC sanctions

OFAC sanctions are reportedly causing Iranian banks' SSL certificates to be revoked, threatening secure HTTPS access to their services.

A Hacker News discussion highlights a report that Iranian banks' SSL/TLS certificates are being revoked as a consequence of OFAC sanctions. Certificate revocation would degrade or break trusted HTTPS connections to affected banking domains for users in Iran. The item is a headline-only discussion post with limited detail on which certificate authorities or banks are affected.

Hacker News · securitySep 14, 17:58 UTC · 2d agoPolicy & legal HN 23↑ · 6 comments

Entrust turns cryptographic inventory data into security action

Entrust adds CBOM import/export, Ansible automation, and post-quantum readiness features to its Cryptographic Security Platform.

Entrust announced new capabilities for its Cryptographic Security Platform, including CBOM import/export to build cryptographic inventories, correlate assets and dependencies, and prioritize remediation of noncompliant or vulnerable crypto. New Ansible-based automation extends certificate lifecycle management across public and private PKI, while composite algorithm and SPIRE-based capabilities support phased post-quantum migration and trusted identities for AI agents. The platform is now deployable as-a-service or on-premises, aligning with DORA, NIS2, and recent U.S. post-quantum requirements.

Help Net SecuritySep 14, 13:54 UTC · 2d agoTools

FortiOS and FortiProxy ZTNA Validation Vulnerability Allows Attacker to Perform a Man-in-the-Middle Attack

Fortinet discloses high-severity certificate validation flaw CVE-2026-84393 in FortiOS and FortiProxy Agentless ZTNA portals enabling unauthenticated man-in-the-middle attacks.

Fortinet disclosed CVE-2026-84393 (CVSSv3 7.3, CWE-295) on September 8, 2026 under advisory FG-IR-26-174: improper certificate validation in the Agentless ZTNA portal of FortiOS and FortiProxy. An unauthenticated attacker on the network path could present a forged or mismatched certificate and intercept or tamper with traffic between the portal and backend destinations, with impact classified as information disclosure. Affected versions are FortiOS 7.6.1 through 7.6.6 and FortiProxy 7.6.2 through 7.6.6; the 8.0, 7.4 and 7.2 branches of both products are unaffected. Fortinet urges upgrading to 7.6.7 or later and reports no evidence of exploitation in the wild.

Cyber Security NewsSep 8, 17:15 UTC · 8d agoVulnerability CVE-2026-84393

BGP hijack infecting networks caused by a comedy of errors that’s not funny at all

Attackers BGP-hijacked Softaculous IP space via Hetzner routing lapses to push malicious Virtualizor updates to hosting servers.

Unknown attackers hijacked the 162.55.80.0/24 prefix used by Softaculous' Virtualizor update service by abusing lax routing security at hosting provider Hetzner Online, announcing the range through AS6204, AS62390, and AS24940 with a forged but RPKI-valid origin. The hijack pulsed intermittently over roughly 33 hours, delivering modified update packages to Virtualizor servers, which lacked cryptographic code signing for updates. Softaculous says only a small number of servers were likely affected but cannot produce a definitive list, urging administrators to treat every Virtualizor server as in scope for checks.

Ars Technica · SecuritySep 2, 11:00 UTC · 14d agoExploit / PoC in the wild1

Windows 11 Security Update KB5124008 Breaks Always-On VPN Connections

Microsoft's September 2026 Windows 11 update KB5124008 breaks certificate-based Always On VPN on some enterprise clients, forcing admins to pause rollout.

Microsoft's September 8, 2026 cumulative update KB5124008 for Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100.9445) and 25H2 (build 26200.9445) breaks certificate-based Always On VPN tunnels on some enterprise clients, with connectivity restored after uninstalling the update and rebooting. The issue was first detailed on Microsoft Q&A on September 9 by an administrator using Intune-deployed VPN profiles with RRAS and NPS on Windows Server 2019. The same mandatory Patch Tuesday package fixes two actively exploited zero-days, CVE-2026-81963 in the Windows Update Stack and CVE-2026-85880 in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call, so many teams are pausing only VPN cohorts rather than blocking the full rollout.

Cyber Security Newsupdated 16:06 UTC · 5h agofirst Sep 11, 13:11 UTC · 5d agoVulnerability in the wild 16 sources CVE-2026-81963 CVE-2026-858801

IAM Compliance Requirements and Best Practices

A guide maps IAM compliance requirements across SOX, PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001 and NIST 800-53, urging verified enforcement over documented policies.

The guide argues IAM compliance requires demonstrating that access controls are enforced at runtime, not merely documented, highlighting gaps between policy intent and application-layer execution. It maps recurring requirements across SOX ITGCs, PCI DSS v4.0, HIPAA, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, NIST SP 800-53 and GDPR, covering least privilege, separation of duties, access certification and audit trails. It recommends continuous, evidence-backed verification and application-layer telemetry instead of relying on identity provider logs or quarterly access reviews.

The Hacker NewsAug 28, 09:06 UTC · 19d agoIndustry

CVE-2026-59969: Apache ZooKeeper: Improper validation of certificate with host mismatch in FIPS mode

CVE-2026-59969: Apache ZooKeeper quorum TLS skips peer hostname verification in FIPS-mode deployments, enabling potential server-to-server impersonation.

Apache ZooKeeper versions 3.8.0-3.8.6 and 3.9.0-3.9.5 fail to enforce peer hostname verification for quorum TLS when FIPS mode is enabled with sslQuorum, zookeeper.fips-mode, and hostname verification settings turned on. The flaw is rated important and could allow an attacker to impersonate a quorum peer via certificate host mismatch. Users should upgrade to fixed versions.

oss-securitySep 15, 18:23 UTC · 1d agoVulnerability CVE-2026-59969

The Machine With Many Faces: Post-Exploitation Identity Misuse in SPIFFE/SPIRE

Unit 42 demonstrates that root access on a Kubernetes node lets attackers spoof SPIFFE/SPIRE attestation and harvest co-located workloads' SVIDs.

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 describes post-exploitation techniques in which an attacker with root on a compromised Kubernetes node spoofs Linux cgroup metadata used by the SPIRE agent during workload attestation, tricking it into issuing a co-located workload's SPIFFE Verifiable Identity Document to an attacker-controlled process. The research shows the core trust assumption of machine-identity systems—that the node is trusted—collapses once root is obtained, exposing all cryptographic identities scoped to that node. Unit 42 released an open-source tool, Spooffe, for defenders to test identity exposure, and notes the technique has not been observed exploited in the wild.

Palo Alto Unit 42Sep 10, 10:00 UTC · 6d agoResearch1

Has anybody seen my keys? A key-hierarchy strategy for rack-level security

Oxide's RFD 0301 proposes a rack-level key hierarchy using Shamir secret sharing and a trust quorum to protect data-at-rest keys.

Oxide's request for discussion (RFD 0301) lays out a key-hierarchy strategy for rack-level security, deriving keys from a rack secret protected by Shamir secret sharing across a trust quorum of sleds, with keys exchanged over authenticated sprockets sessions. The document maps which keys protect control-plane data, metrics, Crucible extents, and authentication tokens, and defines open questions on key lifecycle, locality, and compromise handling. Future work includes sealing shares with the root of trust so an attacker would need to steal K whole sleds to reconstruct the rack secret.

Hacker News · securitySep 7, 02:14 UTC · 9d agoResearch HN 52↑ · 3 comments

Android 17 adds new protections against sneaky Wi-Fi tracking and web snooping

Android 17 adds Encrypted Client Hello, Local Network Protection, default Certificate Transparency and operator-controlled 2G disabling to counter Wi-Fi tracking and snooping.

Google announced network security changes in Android 17, led by broad support for Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), which encrypts domain names visible to network operators and eavesdroppers, paired with GREASE decoys where server support is uneven. Jigsaw testing across the top 10,000 domains and 740 ISPs in 202 countries found connection success and interference levels comparable to ordinary TLS. Android 17 also adds Local Network Protection requiring app permission to scan local devices, Certificate Transparency on by default to catch forged certificates, and operator-side 2G disabling to cut exposure to SMS blaster fake base stations. Apps targeting Android 17 get ECH by default via networking libraries such as OkHttp, WebView and HttpEngine.

Help Net SecurityAug 28, 00:00 UTC · 19d agoTools

Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Software Snort 2 SSL/TLS Denial of Service Vulnerability

Cisco fixed an SSL certificate parsing flaw in FTD's Snort 2 engine letting unauthenticated remote attackers force detection engine restarts.

Incomplete validation of SSL certificates in the Snort 2 Detection Engine of Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense software allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to send a crafted SSL connection setup request for parsing. A successful exploit restarts the Snort 2 Detection Engine unexpectedly, causing a denial of service. Cisco has released software updates, and no workarounds address the vulnerability.

Cisco Security Advisories16:00 UTC · 6h agoAdvisory 9 sources

ImpossibleRubrics: Stress-Testing Generated Rubrics as Reward Signals

ImpossibleRubrics benchmark shows LLM-generated rubric reward signals are exploited 8-26% of the time by adversarial answers on impossible tasks.

ImpossibleRubrics is a benchmark of 169 impossible tasks across six impossibility categories, each paired with a verifiable oracle certificate, plus 48 answerable controls, for stress-testing LLM-generated rubrics used as reward signals. Eleven rubric generators were exploited 8-26% of the time on an unbiased 150-task cut and up to 36% on a stress cut, while a certificate-faithful rubric scored 0%. A single generic 'be decisive, penalize hedging' rubric was exploited 64% of the time, suggesting tailored criteria can reveal which claims attackers should fabricate.

Hugging Face daily papersSep 14, 20:00 UTC · 2d agoAI research

Weekly Cybersecurity Newsletter Bulletin – Microsoft 0-day, FortiOS, PAN-OS Flaw, Revolut Data Breach, and 20+ Stories

Weekly roundup: Microsoft patches 973 flaws including two actively exploited zero-days; FortiOS CAPWAP flaw deploys PivotC2 RAT; PAN-OS root RCE disclosed.

Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixed 973 vulnerabilities, including two zero-days under active exploitation: CVE-2026-85880 (Windows ALPC) and CVE-2026-81963 (Windows Update Stack), both elevation-of-privilege bugs. SOCRadar reported active exploitation of CVE-2025-25249 (CVSS 9.8) in FortiOS CAPWAP, deploying a Node.js RAT called PivotC2 that exfiltrates Exchange mailboxes to Wasabi cloud storage; 178 devices were compromised out of 30,000 scanned IPs, attributed to a Russian-speaking financially motivated group. Palo Alto disclosed CVE-2026-0310, a 9.2-rated buffer overflow enabling root code execution on PA-Series firewalls, and Fortinet disclosed CVE-2026-84393, a ZTNA certificate validation MITM flaw. Cyera also revealed CVE-2026-6471 ('PostGREShell'), a 12-year-old PostgreSQL logical-decoding flaw allowing code execution via REPLICATION-privileged accounts.

Cyber Security NewsSep 14, 03:10 UTC · 2d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-85880 CVE-2026-81963 CVE-2025-25249+3 CVEs3

The September 2026 Security Update Review

ZDI's September 2026 Microsoft update review lists two already-exploited Windows EoP zero-days and dozens of critical RCEs across Office, SQL Server, and Windows services.

The review catalogs Microsoft's September 2026 fixes, marking CVE-2026-85880 (Windows ALPC) and CVE-2026-81963 (Windows Update Stack) as already exploited elevation-of-privilege issues. It also lists critical RCE flaws in Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SQL Server, Windows DNS, DHCP and Failover Cluster, plus graphics component RCEs. Azure-side fixes include Entra ID, Copilot Studio, Azure AI Language and Azure AD B2C elevation-of-privilege flaws.

Zero Day Initiative BlogSep 8, 18:32 UTC · 8d agoAdvisory in the wildCVE-2026-85880 CVE-2026-81963 CVE-2026-70352+27 CVEs1

USN-8670-3: curl vulnerability

Ubuntu issued USN-8670-3 updating curl for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS to fix a flaw where wrong client certificates could be used on reused connections.

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-8670-3 extends the curl fix from USN-8670-1 to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. The flaw, discovered by Joshua Rogers, involves incorrect handling of connection reuse when client certificate settings change, potentially causing the wrong client certificate to be presented. The issue can lead to authentication mix-ups rather than remote code execution.

Ubuntu Security NoticesSep 8, 17:20 UTC · 8d agoAdvisory

Gaming the system: how a Chinese-speaking actor turned Brazilian government sites into an SEO weapon

Check Point identifies Chinese-speaking group Gambling Goblin hijacking Brazilian government domains via malicious Apache modules for SEO-manipulated gambling phishing.

Check Point Research tracks a sustained campaign since mid-2025 against Brazilian government and educational organizations by Gambling Goblin, a Chinese-speaking cybercrime cluster linked to Earth Berberoka. Attackers compile and install malicious Apache modules that silently reverse-proxy visitors to phishing pages impersonating Google Play, Microsoft Store, and Amazon, chaining compromised high-reputation domains to inflate search rankings. The group deploys a heavily obfuscated Linux toolkit including DownPro, AlphaAgent, oRAT, a 3snake-based credential stealer, and SSH brute-forcers, with parallel phishing networks localized for Vietnamese, Spanish, and English victims.

Check Point ResearchSep 2, 10:16 UTC · 14d agoThreat actor

NIS2 compliance: Fixing IAM and access control before the 2026 audit

EU NIS2 enforcement deadlines approach; organizations are urged to prioritize service account inventory, lifecycle offboarding, and phishing-resistant MFA before audits.

EU member states are moving from NIS2 transposition into enforcement, with fines up to 10 million euros or 2% of global turnover for essential entities and personal liability for management bodies. The article argues access management is the fastest high-ROI starting point, estimating 2-4 weeks to enforce fine-grained password policy, vault shared credentials, and deploy phishing-resistant MFA versus 6-12 months for supply chain risk management. It flags three common pre-audit failures: unmanaged service accounts and API keys, dormant accounts from broken offboarding, and SMS OTP instead of phishing-resistant MFA under NIST SP 800-63B. The piece promotes Passwork as a single control plane for credential storage, RBAC, and WebAuthn.

Help Net SecuritySep 1, 00:00 UTC · 15d agoIndustry

Key Reasons Why Identity Fabric Matters in 2026

Identity sprawl and unowned machine identities leave enterprise access unobserved at runtime; identity fabrics aim to close the gap between policy intent and execution.

This sponsored explainer describes identity fabric as an architectural approach connecting identity providers, governance systems, applications, and infrastructure into one observable layer that compares designed access intent with runtime execution. It argues identity sprawl across SaaS, APIs, and cloud workloads, plus unmanaged non-human identities (service accounts, bots, workloads, API keys), leaves overprivileged, dormant, and unowned machine identities unmonitored. IdP-only monitoring misses application-layer attacks, and the piece advocates behavioral visibility and lifecycle governance for secrets and machine identities.

The Hacker NewsAug 28, 11:30 UTC · 19d agoIndustry

CISA Red Team Compromised Two Critical Infrastructure Orgs, One Detected Nothing

CISA red teams fully compromised two critical infrastructure orgs with similar tradecraft; one detected nothing, the other contained phishing within minutes.

CISA advisory AA26-237A, 'A Tale of Two SOCs,' describes two simultaneous red team assessments of a Government Services organization and a Water and Wastewater Systems organization, both compromised to the domain level. Organization A never detected the intrusion, enabled by default credentials, a misconfigured AD CS template (ESC1), cleartext credentials, non-expiring static AWS keys, and over-permissioned Entra ID applications. Organization B detected and isolated phishing within 2-20 minutes, though the red team still reached krbtgt via DCSync from cleartext SCCM credentials. CISA attributes the outcome gap to people and processes rather than the security tools themselves.

The Hacker NewsAug 26, 13:13 UTC · 21d agoAdvisory

Cisco Identity Services Engine Authentication Bypass Vulnerabilities

Cisco fixed multiple authentication bypass flaws in Identity Services Engine and ISE-PIC enabling remote data access, manipulation, and certificate material disruption.

Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and the ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) could allow a remote attacker to access or manipulate data, obtain sensitive information, or cause a reload of certificate and key material on affected devices. Cisco has released software updates, and no workarounds are available. The advisory is part of Cisco's September 2026 publication batch.

Cisco Security Advisories16:00 UTC · 6h agoAdvisory 15 sources

PAPERMILL Hackers Abuse Signed Notepad++ to Deploy VenomRAT in Tax Audit Attacks

PAPERMILL phishing campaign abuses a signed Notepad++ copy and tax-audit lures to deploy VenomRAT against targets in India.

JUMPSEC tracks PAPERMILL as an emerging cluster whose emails pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and deliver tax-audit themed disk images. The mounted image pairs a legitimately signed, renamed executable with a rogue libcurl.dll for DLL sideloading, then uses a Donut shellcode loader to run VenomRAT 6.0.3 in memory with hidden VNC, data-stealing, and file-grabbing capabilities. The loader includes anti-analysis checks and RunOnce persistence, and lures plus China-connected infrastructure overlap with the Silver Fox ecosystem, though attribution remains unconfirmed.

Cyber Security News12:23 UTC · 9h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

12 Best CIEM Tools Compared (2026): Features & Pricing

Buyer's guide compares twelve CIEM tools; Microsoft discontinued Entra Permissions Management, while Tenable (Ermetic), CyberArk, and Wiz lead the 2026 scorecard.

The scorecard evaluates twelve cloud infrastructure entitlement management vendors on permission analytics depth, JIT enforcement, non-human identity coverage, pricing predictability, and bundle leverage. Tenable (Ermetic) leads at 4.70, followed by CyberArk and Wiz, while Microsoft's retirement of Entra Permissions Management (CloudKnox) forces existing customers into migration cycles. Pricing structures span per-identity, per-resource, per-workload, credit-based, and quote-based models.

GBHackersupdated 09:52 UTC · 12h agofirst 07:37 UTC · 14h agoIndustry 14 sources

Apple Reference Image: A New Approach for Verified Photography

Apple introduces Reference Image, hardware-backed verifiable photography on iPhone 18 Pro using sensor signing and Private Cloud Compute to counter AI-generated fakes.

Apple announced Reference Image, an opt-in camera mode debuting on the main sensor of iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max that produces securely timestamped, verifiable photographs. The design splits into two phases: a secure digital negative created by cryptographically signing pixel data at the sensor immediately after capture (preventing injection or tampering), then developing that negative into a reference image. Private Cloud Compute handles processing without exposing image contents to anyone, including Apple, and fraudulent reference images can be revoked without revealing the photographer's identity. Apple positions the system as stronger than C2PA-based approaches, which sign metadata after capture, are vulnerable to editing-chain compromise, and can tie images to a device or individual.

Hacker News · security02:07 UTC · 19h agoResearch HN 25↑ · 18 comments

Top 10 Best Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) Tools in 2026

2026 CIEM guide ranks Wiz, Prisma Cloud, Okta, Entra Permissions Management and specialists Sonrai, Britive, Tenable/Ermetic for cloud entitlement right-sizing.

Buyer's guide covers ten CIEM products across three market routes: CNAPP-bundled (Wiz, Prisma Cloud), identity-suite (Okta, CyberArk, SailPoint, Saviynt) and specialists (Sonrai, Britive, Tenable/Ermetic). It cites machine identities outnumbering humans 10:1 plus effective-permissions sprawl as core drivers, with JIT elevation as the fix. Notable consolidation includes Tenable acquiring Ermetic and Zscaler acquiring Canonic.

Cyber Security NewsSep 15, 06:30 UTC · 1d agoTools

Hackers Exploit FortiGate SSL-VPN Vulnerability to Attack Broadband Provider

Exposed attacker staging server reveals intrusion of Thai broadband provider 3BB via actively exploited FortiGate SSL-VPN flaw CVE-2024-21762.

Hunt.io found an open directory on server 92.63.180[.]133 holding 298 files detailing an intrusion into Triple T Broadband's 3BB brand, starting from a FortiGate 60F SSL-VPN at mail.3bb.co[.]th:10443. The actor weaponized CVE-2024-21762 (CVSS 9.8, KEV-listed since February 2024) using heap spraying and a ROP chain to gain a reverse shell. Post-exploitation included MeshCentral root-level persistence via www.ayuthayatech[.]com, Dirty COW/PwnKit privilege escalation, credential harvesting, SSH spraying against 55+ internal addresses, and log-deleting cleanup scripts; a stolen OpenVPN certificate and key from Triple T's PKI may still be valid.

Cyber Security Newsupdated Sep 15, 05:20 UTC · 1d agofirst Sep 14, 17:08 UTC · 2d agoExploit / PoC in the wild 3 sources CVE-2024-217622

Certifying Adversarial Robustness of Quantum Classifiers under Known-Readout Query Access

Framework certifies adversarial robustness of quantum classifiers using only measurement statistics and finite-shot outcomes, demonstrated on IBM Quantum hardware.

The paper introduces a measurement-only certification framework for adversarial robustness of quantum classifiers under known-readout query access, requiring no tomography, parameters, or gradients. It returns a lower bound ruling out untargeted errors within a radius and an attack-independent upper bound witnessing an adversarial state, both estimable with finite-sample guarantees. Evaluations show the lower bound tracks exact optima on tractable instances while the upper bound stays informative when standard attacks fail. The method was validated on IBM Quantum hardware using 40 executions of two 8-qubit quantum neural networks.

arXiv cs.CRSep 10, 14:45 UTC · 6d agoResearch

Scytale expands vendor risk management with AI-powered TPRM tools

Scytale launched AI-powered third-party risk management in its Vendors module, automating vendor discovery, risk scoring, and continuous vendor posture monitoring.

Scytale added AI-driven TPRM capabilities to its Vendors module, combining automatic vendor discovery from SSO providers and integrations with AI enrichment and dynamic risk scoring. The platform now continuously monitors vendors for breaches, data exposures, and vulnerabilities via third-party intelligence APIs, with proactive email notifications and auto-generated audit-ready security reports. It integrates with cross-framework control mapping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX ITGC. Scytale cites Verizon's 2026 DBIR, which found 48% of breaches involved a third party, up 60% year over year.

Help Net SecuritySep 10, 10:22 UTC · 6d agoTools