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15 stories in the last 30d

US Customs supervisor busted for stealing hardware from Homeland Security PCs

FBI arrested CBP supervisor Terry Liu for swapping CPUs, RAM and drives in 46 DHS computers and trading stolen parts via Newegg.

The FBI arrested and charged CBP supervisor Terry "Jiajia" Liu of Calais, Maine, with theft of government property after hidden cameras captured hardware swaps on midnight shifts. Investigators found 39 processors replaced, six memory modules swapped, and eight hard drives changed across 46 DHS computers at three Maine border facilities, with original Intel 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh chips downgraded to older, sometimes Pentium-class parts. Liu traded in the stolen Core i7 chips 16 times via Newegg's trade-in program over 14 months for roughly $200-210 each. Restoring the stolen hardware is estimated at $20,460, with full replacement around $105,800.

ZDI-26-627: Backblaze Personal Computer Backup bztransmit Link Following Denial-of-Service Vulnerability

ZDI published ZDI-26-627 for a local denial-of-service flaw (CVE-2026-19820, CVSS 6.1) in Backblaze Personal Computer Backup's bztransmit component.

The Zero Day Initiative published advisory ZDI-26-627 describing a link-following denial-of-service vulnerability in the bztransmit component of Backblaze Personal Computer Backup. Local attackers must first execute low-privileged code on the target system to trigger the condition. The issue carries a CVSS score of 6.1 and is tracked as CVE-2026-19820.

Tech support scams look different now. Here’s what to watch for

Malwarebytes warns tech support scammers now abuse sponsored search results, fake listings, calendar invites, and Apple Pay notifications, and shares red flags for impersonation scams.

Malwarebytes describes how tech support scams have expanded beyond browser locks and fake virus warnings to sponsored search results, hijacked on-site searches, fake platform listings, renewal scams, fake calendar invites, and Apple Pay notifications. Scammers impersonate trusted security companies including Malwarebytes, seeking payment, personal information, or remote access to victims' computers. Malwarebytes notes it does not outsource support, never makes unsolicited calls, and works with the FTC and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance to combat these scams.

Malwarebytes Labs · 14d agoPhishing & fraud1

New hardware device can RAM into encrypted memory, expose your data

Researchers built a $200 DDR5 interposer that silently drops memory writes to break TDX, SGX, and SEV-SNP confidential VM integrity, requiring physical access.

Researchers from KU Leuven, ETH Zurich, Durham University, and Google demonstrated DDRop, a hardware interposer costing under $200 that corrupts DDR5 bus commands to silently drop writes to encrypted memory, enabling replay attacks on confidential VMs. Because scalable memory encryption lacks freshness checks, protected VMs keep computing on stale attacker-selected data; on an Intel TDX server the attack forces debug mode for plaintext memory reads or forges attestation reports, succeeding in under two minutes without crashing. Intel and AMD both called the attack out of scope for their cloud threat models, with no mitigation planned, and proposed cache line versioning appears still vulnerable. The full interposer design is being released as open-source hardware.

The Register · Security · 2d agoResearch

TX: Two Lamesa ISD employees arrested over security breach

Two Lamesa ISD employees in Texas were arrested over an alleged computer security breach investigated with the Texas Rangers.

Lamesa Independent School District announced that two employees were arrested in connection with a law enforcement investigation involving allegations of a breach of computer security. The Lamesa Police Department said the arrests were carried out alongside the Texas Rangers. The district has not disclosed the nature, scope, or impact of the alleged breach.

DataBreaches.net · 5d agoPolicy & legal1

Rockwell Automation OTTO Fleet Manager

CISA warns Rockwell Automation OTTO Fleet Manager (CVE-2026-75112, CVSS 6.8) uses insufficiently costly password hashing, easing offline brute-force attacks.

CISA published ICS advisory ICSA-26-239-03 for Rockwell Automation OTTO Fleet Manager versions 2.36.2 and earlier (CVE-2026-75112, CVSS v3 6.8). The flaw involves use of a password hash with insufficient computational effort, reducing the cost for an attacker to perform offline brute-force attacks against stored password hashes. Deployments span critical manufacturing and transportation systems sectors worldwide, with company headquarters in the United States.

CISA Advisories · 20d agoAdvisoryCVE-2026-75112

Hackers Stole Flock’s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People

Hackers who removed a Flock Safety license plate camera dumped its data, revealing person-detection capabilities and an encryption key stored unencrypted on the device.

A hacker collective calling itself stegan0gram physically removed a Flock Safety automatic license plate reader camera from a roadway, copied its storage, and shared the files with 404 Media, WIRED, and Distributed Denial of Secrets. Analysis found an encryption key in an unencrypted 'media' partition that unlocked videos of thousands of vehicle detections, with logs showing more than a million images generated in weeks. The software explicitly detects people, bicycles, and even bumper stickers, and records from one Georgia city were searchable by more than 2,000 agencies nationwide. The findings follow 2025 research by Jon Gaines documenting flaws enabling root-level access to Flock cameras.

404 Media · 8h agoResearch in the wild 2 sources

USN-8761-1: Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities

Ubuntu patches multiple Linux kernel (Azure) flaws across ARM64, Bluetooth, Netfilter, NTFS3, SMB and other subsystems.

Ubuntu security notice USN-8761-1 corrects several security issues in the Linux kernel for Azure, spanning ARM32, ARM64, and PowerPC architectures plus subsystems including Bluetooth, Netfilter, EFI core, GPU drivers, InfiniBand, SCSI, NTFS3, and SMB. An attacker could possibly use these flaws to compromise the system.

Ubuntu Security Notices · 1d agoAdvisory 2 sources

USN-8760-1: Linux kernel (NVIDIA) vulnerabilities

Canonical issues USN-8760-1 patching multiple Linux kernel (NVIDIA) vulnerabilities across numerous subsystems and CPU architectures.

Canonical published USN-8760-1 to correct several Linux kernel (NVIDIA) vulnerabilities that an attacker could possibly use to compromise the system. The update fixes flaws spanning UAPI, the kernel build system, ARM32, ARM64, RISC-V, S390, and x86 architectures. Patched subsystems also include the block layer, cryptographic API, Compute Acceleration Framework, Intel NPU driver, ACPI and Bluetooth drivers, and the hardware random number generator core.

Ubuntu Security Notices · 1d agoAdvisory

Possible cyber incident disrupts Monroe schools in Wisconsin

Possible cyber incident forced the School District of Monroe in Wisconsin to cut internet access, knocking out phones and canceling an ACT testing session.

The School District of Monroe in Wisconsin disconnected its network after a possible network security issue. Students powered down computers, school phone service failed, and a scheduled ACT testing session was canceled. Classes continued while the district investigates the incident. No data theft or attacker claims have been confirmed so far.

DataBreaches.net · 2d agoData breach

VU#369611: ExLlamaV3 contains Denial of Service vulnerability via insufficient bounds checking on kernel dispatch index

CERT/CC details CVE-2026-84286, an out-of-bounds memory access in ExLlamaV3's CUDA extension causing denial-of-service crashes; fixed via merged pull request.

CERT/CC published VU#369611 for CVE-2026-84286, an out-of-bounds memory access in the exllamav3_ext CUDA extension of the ExLlamaV3 LLM inference library. A crafted input with kernel parameter K set to 0 produces a negative index into a fixed 24-entry kernel dispatch array, causing a CUDA illegal memory access and denial-of-service crashes. The vendor fixed the issue in the main repository via pull request #310, and maintainers of 49 downstream projects, including ezexl3 and MawDiscord, are advised to rebuild against the patched version. The issue was reported by Nathan Keys and impact is limited to crashes and instability, not code execution.

Redtail Payload Analysis [Guest Diary], (Wed, Sep 9th)

SANS guest analyst detonated a RedTail Linux sample from a DShield honeypot, finding process masquerading as php-fpm, monitoring-kill behavior, and a TCP listener.

A DShield honeypot captured multi-architecture RedTail Linux executables (ARM, ARM64, i686, RISC-V, x86-64) deployed via shell scripts. Dynamic analysis of the UPX-packed, statically linked x86-64 sample (SHA-256 63be5f38...d35e) in an isolated Ubuntu 24.04 VM on Proxmox showed it renamed its process via prctl(PR_SET_NAME), killed a filesystem-monitoring process, and opened a TCP listening socket while surviving processes posed as php-fpm or PostgreSQL-like workers. Differential memory images pre- and post-execution were captured from the hypervisor for forensics.

SANS Internet Storm Center · 6d agoMalware in the wild1

Skullcandy Dime 3 Bluetooth Flaw Lets Nearby Attackers Hijack Audio and Microphone

CERT/CC disclosed VU#859658: Skullcandy Dime 3 earbuds on firmware 1.0.0.28 accept unauthenticated Bluetooth pairing, letting nearby attackers hijack audio and microphone.

Skullcandy Dime 3 wireless earbuds (model S2DCW, firmware 1.0.0.28) accept Bluetooth Classic BR/EDR pairing requests from unknown devices without the owner activating pairing mode, a flaw linked to CVE-2025-20701 in Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK implementations and tracked as VU#859658 by CERT/CC. Attackers within Bluetooth range who know the device address can bond via the NoInputNoOutput configuration, establish A2DP or HFP/HSP connections, disrupt the owner's active audio session, and potentially capture live microphone audio. Firmware 1.0.0.30 addresses the issue, but Dime 3 earbuds do not support firmware updates through the Skullcandy mobile app, leaving affected users without a known upgrade path.

GBHackersupdated · 5d agofirst · 6d agoVulnerability 3 sourcesCVE-2025-207011

Once popular for attacking AI, ASCII smuggling is embraced by spammers

Spammers adopt ASCII smuggling—invisible Unicode tag characters—to evade email filters, with Microsoft Defender detections spiking to 2.5 million per day.

ASCII smuggling hides text in Unicode tag characters (e.g., U+E0041 for "A") that are invisible to humans but readable by LLMs and text processors. The technique gained attention as a stealthy prompt-injection vector and is now used by spammers to obfuscate keywords from email detectors. Microsoft reported Defender for Office smuggling detections jumped from roughly 21,000 per day to over 1.3 million in early February, reaching 2.5 million within four days, before falling sharply in mid-May.

Ars Technica · Security · 12d agoPhishing & fraud

Eleethub: A Cryptocurrency Mining Botnet with Rootkit for Self

Unit 42 uncovered Eleethub, a Perl-based Bitcoin mining botnet using a crafted rootkit and libprocesshider to evade detection, still under development with few infections.

Unit 42 discovered an under-development Perl Shellbot campaign that mines Bitcoin using xmrig and emech while evading detection via a rootkit that replaces the ps tool and the LD_PRELOAD-based libprocesshider.so library. Infected devices download a malicious shell script, connect to IRC-based C2 at eleethub.com and the UnderNet network, and can receive commands for UDP/TCP floods, port scans, and HTTP attacks. The botnet can affect Unix systems and Windows 10 hosts running a Linux subsystem, and its operators use the 'Los Zetas' branding, though they are unlikely to be the Mexican drug cartel. Researchers found only a few compromised 'zombies' before the campaign expanded.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · 28d agoMalware in the wild