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SpyCloud 2026 Identity Threat Report Finds Non-Human Identities Are Now the Leading Path into the Enterprise

SpyCloud survey of 750 security leaders finds compromised non-human identities are the top enterprise entry point, yet only 36% monitor them.

The 2026 Identity Threat Report surveyed 750 cybersecurity leaders at organizations with 500+ employees across North America and Europe. Compromised non-human identities (31%) were the most cited primary attacker entry point, nearly double phishing (17%), while only 36% of organizations monitor AI agents, service accounts and API keys. 68% of respondents reported identity-based events, averaging eight each, and 91% use AI tools but only 56% have formal governance over their privileges.

GBHackers · 7d agoResearch 2 sources

Mustang Panda Upgrades CoolClient With a Kernel Rootkit

Mustang Panda's updated CoolClient backdoor deploys a signed kernel driver to hide processes, files and network activity in Asian intrusions.

Kaspersky analysis shows Mustang Panda (HoneyMyte) upgraded its CoolClient espionage backdoor with a signed kernel-mode driver installed as a Windows service, communicating via IOCTL requests to hide processes, files and registry entries. In a Myanmar campaign the actor deployed PlugX first, then CoolClient via a fake Windows Defender directory and Sangfor defender.exe DLL sideloading, with scheduled task and AutoRun persistence and UAC bypass. The updated variant was observed in intrusions across Pakistan, Mongolia and Myanmar, with victims also in Russia including confirmed government entities.

Security Affairs · Aug 16, 2026Threat actor in the wild1

BigBear phishing crew nets thousands of Microsoft 365 credentials

CloudSEC accessed the BigBear 2.0 phishing panel, finding 5,137 stolen Microsoft 365 records across 461 organizations, including 474 MFA-bypassed sessions.

CloudSEC researchers got inside the admin panel of BigBear 2.0, an Evilginx2-based phishing-as-a-service operation run by someone known as 'General Boss'. The panel contained 5,137 records tied to 461 organizations: 1,032 plaintext passwords and 4,148 session cookies, with 474 complete MFA-bypassed authentications. The adversary-in-the-middle proxy captures Microsoft 365 session cookies that can be replayed to access email, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, potentially pivoting into Entra ID and federated SaaS. The operation was still active, used custom JavaScript to disable FIDO2/WebAuthn on phishing pages, and routed logins through a residential proxy pool spanning 69 countries.

The Register · Security · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

How hackers used Claude for missiles, drone swarms, and surveillance, while Chinese labs mined it for training data

Anthropic's threat report details eight months of Claude misuse: AI-assisted espionage against 20+ organizations, self-rewriting malware, and Chinese labs distilling Claude via fraudulent accounts.

Anthropic's threat intelligence report covering December 2025 through August 2026 documents Claude misuse across seven categories including cyber operations, surveillance, fraud, and unauthorized model distillation. A Russian-speaking espionage actor tracked as GTG-20006 used AI agents to rewrite and recompile malware evading antivirus detection, targeting more than 20 organizations in Ukraine and Europe and stealing a drone vision system SDK. Alibaba's Qwen lab ran the largest distillation campaign, with over 151 million exchanges between May and July 2026 peaking near 3 million per day to train Qwen 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7. DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Xiaomi, and Zhipu also relayed customer or replayed traffic to Claude, including PLA-linked users analyzing CCTV footage and users with credentials tied to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The Decoderupdated · 4d agofirst · 5d agoAI safety & security in the wild 13 sources2

Your Cloud Security Checklist Doesn't Work the Way You Think It Does

Intruder's 2026 Cloud Security Index found misconfiguration risk profiles differ sharply across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud across 3,000 organizations.

Intruder analyzed misconfiguration data from 3,000 organizations across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud for its 2026 Cloud Security Index. Weak IAM controls and missing logging affected 80-98% of accounts regardless of provider, while exposed services ranged from 76% on AWS to just 8% on Google Cloud. Top issues included S3 buckets without HTTPS enforcement (87% of AWS accounts), Entra ID users without MFA (55% of Azure accounts), and missing OS Login MFA (77% of Google Cloud accounts). Weak IAM prevalence rose with organization size, from 87% at SMEs to 98% at large enterprises, and midmarket organizations took the longest to remediate at 35 days on average.

The Hacker News · 9d agoResearch

The Gopher in the Room: Analysis of GoLang Malware in the Wild

Unit 42 analysis of 10,700 Go-compiled malware samples shows steady growth in the wild, with 92% targeting Windows and top families including Veil, GoBot2, and HERCULES.

Unit 42 collected roughly 10,700 unique Go-compiled malware samples and found that Go usage by malware developers has steadily risen in recent months. About 92% of samples targeted Windows and 75% were attributed to known families, led by Veil, GoBot2, and HERCULES. The most prevalent groupings were penetration testing tools, remote access Trojans, and backdoors. Statically linked Go binaries average 4.65MB, which can complicate phishing delivery but sometimes causes antivirus products to skip or fail scanning.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Research1

BigBear Microsoft 365 phishing service bypassed MFA at 258 organizations

The BigBear 2.0 phishing-as-a-service framework bypassed MFA to steal 5,000+ Microsoft 365 credentials across 258 organizations, CloudSEK researchers found.

CloudSEK researchers gained administrator access to the BigBear 2.0 control panel, finding the phishing-as-a-service operation ran 42 VPS nodes all configured to target Microsoft 365. The framework has been used to bypass multi-factor authentication at 258 organizations and harvest more than 5,000 credentials, indicating an active credential-theft campaign against enterprise tenants.

DataBreaches.net · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

⚡ Weekly Recap: AI-Powered PLC Attacks, GitLab Attacks, Stripe Key Leaks and More

US agencies warn of AI-assisted attacks on exposed Siemens PLCs; the week also saw GitLab CVE-2026-19478 exploited and trojanized npm packages found.

The weekly recap leads with a US government warning that threat actors use AI-generated scripts and Censys/ZoomEye scanning to attack internet-exposed Siemens S7 PLCs in water, energy and manufacturing, calling it an active threat. Other stories include active exploitation of GitLab CVE-2026-19478 (CVSS 9.4, unauthenticated project rewriting), 14 trojanized npm packages delivering the RedC2 4.0 Linux backdoor, and the Zombie Card attack that revives expired Visa cards for contactless payment fraud. It also covers suspected Russian clusters UNC6293, UNC7005 and UNC5976 phishing campaigns, a faster Cloudflare Workers Spectre JWT leak, and a bespoke Cl0p JSP web shell deployed after exploiting PTC Windchill flaws.

The Hacker News · 19d agoThreat actor in the wildCVE-2026-194781

CVE-2022-22965: Spring Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Exploited In the Wild (SpringShell) (Updated)

Attackers actively exploit Spring Framework RCE CVE-2022-22965 (SpringShell, CVSS 9.8) to deploy webshells; patches 5.3.18/5.2.20 shipped March 31, 2022.

CVE-2022-22965 enables unauthenticated remote code execution in the widely used Spring Framework (CVSS 9.8), which Unit 42 has observed being exploited in the wild. The flaw stems from getCachedIntrospectionResults exposing the class object during parameter binding, letting attackers manipulate the class loader to modify Tomcat logging and upload a JSP webshell. Public PoCs require JDK 9+, Tomcat, WAR packaging, and spring-webmvc or spring-webflux dependencies on Spring 5.3.0-5.3.17, 5.2.0-5.2.19, or older. Fixes shipped in Spring Framework 5.3.18 and 5.2.20; the related Spring Cloud Function flaw CVE-2022-22963 was patched March 29, 2022.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Exploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2022-22965CVE-2022-22963CVE-2010-16221

Digital Watchdog VMAX DVR and NVR Product Lineups

CISA advisory details six flaws, aggregate CVSS 9.6, giving attackers full control of Digital Watchdog VMAX DVR/NVR surveillance devices.

CISA advisory ICSA-26-258-01 discloses six vulnerabilities affecting all versions of Digital Watchdog VMAX A1 G4 DVRs, VMAX IP G4 NVRs, VMAX A1 PLUS, VA1G4, and VG4 recorders, with aggregate CVSS v3 of 9.6. Flaws include an authentication bypass leaking plaintext admin credentials (CVE-2026-68953), hard-coded credentials enabling root FTP access (CVE-2026-66890, CVE-2026-68950), root command execution (CVE-2026-68070), missing authorization on state-changing CGIs (CVE-2026-66887), and predictable session tokens (CVE-2026-66372). Successful exploitation grants full administrative control, live and recorded surveillance access, and a network pivot point. Products are deployed worldwide across commercial facilities, government, healthcare, and transportation sectors.

Protecting organizations from AI-assisted executive impersonation and invoice fraud

Microsoft tracked a campaign of over one million AI-crafted CEO-impersonation emails seeking ~$50,000 ACH payments with fabricated ServiceNow invoices.

Between August 3 and 5, Microsoft detected a campaign of more than one million fraud emails, 87.7% of them targeting US enterprise users, sent through multiple third-party email delivery service accounts. The actor impersonated CEOs, CFOs, and presidents of targeted companies, urging accounts payable staff to process an ACH payment of nearly $50,000. Lures layered executive impersonation, lookalike domains, a fabricated ServiceNow 'Annual Subscription' invoice personalized to the recipient, and forged forwarded email threads; Microsoft found no evidence ServiceNow or the referenced executives were compromised. Microsoft observed indicators consistent with generative AI-assisted template creation, while leftover inconsistencies such as missing forwarding headers and mismatched display names gave defenders detection cues.

Microsoft Security Blog · 5d agoPhishing & fraud1

CISA Adds Four Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

CISA added four actively exploited vulnerabilities—Fortinet buffer overflow, Citrix NetScaler and Cisco auth bypasses, and a Chromium V8 write—to the KEV Catalog.

CISA added CVE-2025-25249 (Fortinet heap-based buffer overflow), CVE-2026-19490 (Citrix NetScaler authentication bypass), CVE-2026-87491 (Google Chromium V8 out-of-bounds write), and CVE-2026-20079 (Cisco Firewall Management Center authentication bypass) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog based on evidence of active exploitation. Under Binding Operational Directive 26-04, Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies must prioritize rapid remediation of these high-risk vulnerabilities on exposed assets and verify whether systems were compromised before patching. CISA encourages all organizations to adopt risk-based vulnerability management and prioritize KEV Catalog remediation.

CISA Advisories · 7d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2025-25249CVE-2026-19490CVE-2026-87491+1 CVEs

BigBear Microsoft 365 phishing service bypassed MFA at 258 organizations

CloudSEK found the BigBear 2.0 phishing-as-a-service platform bypassed MFA at 258 organizations and captured over 5,000 Microsoft 365 credentials.

CloudSEK researchers gained administrator access to the BigBear 2.0 phishing-as-a-service control panel and found it had exfiltrated 5,137 credential records, including 474 completed MFA-bypassed authentications, 1,032 plaintext passwords, and 4,148 session cookies across 3,331 victim IPs in 40+ countries. The Evilginx2-based AitM proxy intercepts credentials and authenticated session cookies, and custom JavaScript interferes with FIDO2/WebAuthn to force weaker authentication. The panel is leased to at least five affiliate operators via Telegram exfiltration bots, and geo-matched residential proxies cover 69 countries to evade detection.

BleepingComputer · 9d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Weekly Cybersecurity Newsletter – Top 50 Biggest Cybersecurity Stories of the Week

GBHackers weekly digest rounds up 50 stories including Microsoft's 973-CVE patch drop, exploited Cisco FMC flaws, and Claude agent attacks.

GBHackers' September 7-12, 2026 newsletter summarizes the 50 biggest cybersecurity stories of the week. Highlights include Microsoft patching a record 973 CVEs with two exploited zero-days, active exploitation of Cisco FMC, Check Point VPN and Ivanti flaws, China-linked crews chaining Chrome and Windows zero-days, AI agents mass-exploiting PaperCut to compromise 440 servers, and the emergence of Panzer cross-platform ransomware. It also covers Anthropic and OpenAI agentic AI incidents and CrowdStrike's SafeMind launch.

GBHackers · 1d agoIndustry in the wild

Quantifying IIoT Sensor Node Criticality by Fusing its Data Criticality and Security Vulnerability

Researchers propose a Dempster–Shafer framework fusing IIoT sensor data criticality with CVSS 4.0/3.1 vulnerability scores to rank node criticality.

The paper introduces a framework that evaluates Industrial IoT sensor node criticality by fusing data criticality and cybersecurity vulnerability scores using Dempster–Shafer (D-S) theory. It was validated on a dataset from red wine production and is claimed to generalize to other industrial settings with minimal modification. Results show criticality rankings derived from CVSS 4.0 scores differ significantly from those derived from CVSS 3.1, underscoring how vulnerability scoring methodology affects security prioritization.

arXiv cs.CR · 7d agoResearch

8,539 Reasons To Rethink How Vulnerabilities Get Patched

Rapid7 counted 8,539 high and critical CVEs in Q2 2026, double last year, with PoC availability up 76%.

Rapid7's Q2 2026 Threat Landscape Report tallied 8,539 high- and critical-severity vulnerability disclosures, twice the number recorded in Q2 2025, with newly disclosed flaws having public proof-of-concept code up 76% year over year. Of newly exploited vulnerabilities, 62% were network-exploitable and required neither authentication nor user interaction. Fake CAPTCHA and ClickFix social engineering accounted for 31.8% of incident response cases, the United States recorded 881 listed ransomware victims, and APT28 exploited SOHO routers for DNS hijacking while Iranian groups targeted US industrial control and OT systems.

Help Net Security · 27d agoResearch

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.

Wiz Blog · 7d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-59822CVE-2026-598211

Top 10 Best AWS Security Tools in 2026

Editorial roundup ranking the ten best AWS security tools of 2026, from native GuardDuty and Security Hub to CNAPPs like Wiz and Prisma Cloud.

The article recommends enabling AWS-native services first: GuardDuty for threat detection, Security Hub for posture aggregation, the free IAM Access Analyzer, plus CloudTrail logging and Config rules. It then reviews third-party platforms including Wiz, Palo Alto Prisma Cloud, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Trend Micro Cloud One, and Orca Security. It is an editorial vendor assessment with pricing described by model only, highlighting cross-account correlation and attack-path prioritization as third-party differentiators.

Cyber Security News · 7h agoTools

CVE-2026-16232: Checkpoint Quantum Security Management auth bypass ...

Attackers exploit Check Point SmartConsole authentication bypass CVE-2026-16232 to take over Quantum Security Management firewall servers; CISA added it to KEV.

CVE-2026-16232 is an authentication bypass (CWE-287) in the SmartConsole login process of Check Point Quantum Security Management, exploitable via an application token. Disclosed July 22, 2026, it was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog the same day with remediation due July 25. Rapid7, Check Point Research and other vendors confirmed exploitation in the wild, and a public PoC was released. A workaround is available, and federal agencies must comply with BOD 26-04 patching guidance.

CISA Adds Seven Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

CISA added seven actively exploited vulnerabilities to its KEV catalog, including SonicWall SMA1000 SSRF and command injection flaws.

CISA added seven vulnerabilities with evidence of active exploitation to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on September 2, 2026. The additions cover Sangoma Switchvox SQL injection (CVE-2026-9586), Kludex Starlette request smuggling (CVE-2026-48710), Kestra OS command injection (CVE-2026-49869), BerriAI LiteLLM (CVE-2026-59822) and JFrog Artifactory (CVE-2026-82329) authentication flaws, and SonicWall SMA1000 SSRF (CVE-2026-83548) and command injection (CVE-2026-83549) vulnerabilities. Under BOD 26-04, federal civilian agencies must prioritize rapid remediation of KEV-listed vulnerabilities on publicly exposed assets.

CISA Advisories · 14d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-9586CVE-2026-48710CVE-2026-49869+4 CVEs

Microsoft security advisory – August 2026 monthly rollup (AV26-804) – Update 2

Canada's Cyber Centre updated advisory AV26-804 relaying Microsoft's August 2026 monthly rollup of vulnerabilities across .NET and Azure products.

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security advisory AV26-804, updated August 27, 2026, relays Microsoft's August 2026 monthly security rollup originally issued August 11. Affected products include .NET 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0 on Linux, macOS, and Windows, plus many Azure services. Listed Azure components include Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure SQL Database, Azure Service Bus, Azure Active Directory, Azure Logic Apps, and Azure Monitor Agent.

Canadian Centre for Cyber Security · 19d agoAdvisory1

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Archives

Palo Alto Unit 42 archive page describing Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), a cloud architecture unifying SD-WAN with SWG, CASB, FWaaS and ZTNA services.

Category archive page defining SASE as a cloud-native architecture that converges SD-WAN with security functions such as SWG, CASB, FWaaS and ZTNA into one cloud service. It frames SASE as a shift from separate networking and security disciplines to unified, cloud-delivered security and connectivity. The page contains no news, incident, vulnerability or research findings.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Industry

Edge infrastructure under siege: what two independent datasets reveal about who's exploiting your perimeter

Joint Tenable-SentinelOne analysis of 93 CVE-actor attribution pairs shows nation-state and criminal groups independently converge on the same edge infrastructure.

Tenable and SentinelOne jointly analyzed 93 CVE-actor attribution pairs covering exploitation of perimeter devices. The data shows state-sponsored and financially motivated actors independently target the same edge products from Ivanti, Fortinet, and Palo Alto Networks. The findings challenge the narrative that edge exploitation is exclusively a China-nexus nation-state problem, showing a broader shared attack surface.

Tenable Blog · 21d agoThreat actor in the wild

UK government seeks powers to secretly block risky tech suppliers

UK amendments to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill would let ministers secretly ban risky tech suppliers across critical sectors.

The UK government published amendments to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill creating 'vendor-related directions' that allow ministers to order companies in critical sectors to stop buying from a supplier, restrict its products, or remove installed equipment on national security grounds. The powers extend beyond telecoms to managed service providers, data centers, digital infrastructure and the energy, water, transport and health sectors, adapting the mechanism used to restrict Huawei in UK 5G while removing some transparency safeguards. Ministers would not have to publicly name the vendor, could withhold details on national security or commercial grounds, and could bar recipients and consultees from discussing the orders, though the government would report annually to Parliament on directions issued. The amendments will be considered at committee stage in the House of Lords in September.

The Record · 21d agoPolicy & legal

14th September – Threat Intelligence Report

Check Point weekly digest: Microsoft's record 974-vuln Patch Tuesday ships two actively exploited Windows zero-days; IDScan.net, Mathspace, Revolut suffer breaches.

Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday addressed a record 974 vulnerabilities, including two actively exploited privilege-escalation zero-days, CVE-2026-85880 and CVE-2026-81963, plus 20 flaws allowing unauthenticated remote code execution. Disclosed breaches include IDScan.net (identity documents), Mathspace (over 1 million people via Metabase CVE-2026-72898), Revolut, and Florida DMV (ShinyHunters). GitLab fixed critical CVSS 10.0 path traversal CVE-2026-85706, and MikroTik fixed chainable RouterOS flaws CVE-2026-67276 and CVE-2026-86060. The report also covers the PuzzleMask LLM jailbreak technique, GoldFactory's Gigabud Android fraud, and the BlueMoon Chromium exploit chain (CVE-2026-85046).

Check Point Research · 2d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-72898CVE-2026-85880CVE-2026-81963+4 CVEs2· 1 read

CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

CISA added two actively exploited MikroTik RouterOS vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-67277 and CVE-2026-86060, to its KEV catalog, mandating federal remediation.

CISA added CVE-2026-67277 (missing authentication for a critical function) and CVE-2026-86060 (improper neutralization of argument delimiters in a command), both in MikroTik RouterOS, to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog based on evidence of active exploitation. Under BOD 26-04, Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies must prioritize rapid remediation of these flaws on publicly exposed assets that grant total control post-exploitation. Agencies are also required to check whether systems were compromised before patches were applied.

CISA Advisories · 6d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-67277CVE-2026-86060

Mars Security Debuts Automated Threat Engine Processing Live Cyber Intelligence Into Validated Rules Within Minutes

Mars Security launches Real-Time Intel-Based Detection, converting threat intelligence advisories into validated, ATT&CK-mapped detection rules within minutes for SOCs.

Mars Security, an autonomous threat hunting and detection engineering platform founded by former offensive security operators, announced Real-Time Intel-Based Detection. The capability ingests advisories from sources like CISA, Mandiant, Unit 42, and Microsoft Threat Intelligence, maps indicators to MITRE ATT&CK, and authors native query logic across connected infrastructure including CrowdStrike Falcon, Wiz, Splunk, Sysmon, identity providers, Snowflake, and Databricks. Every rule is backtested against 30 days of historical telemetry to quantify false positives before analyst approval and one-click deployment. The feature is free for existing customers and available via AWS Marketplace.

CSO Online · 8d agoTools2

Security Data Isn’t the Problem. Security Context Is.

Horizon3 blog argues security context, not data volume, is the SOC bottleneck, promoting its NodeZero integration with CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM.

Horizon3.ai published a vendor blog explaining how its NodeZero Proactive Security Platform integration with CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM brings validated exposure findings into existing security operations workflows. The post argues SOCs are now limited by confidence rather than visibility, needing context to decide which issues matter. It cites a global chemical manufacturer that validated exploitable exposures with NodeZero before completing a $2 billion merger.

Horizon3.ai · 1d agoTools

Hackers Can Turn Vulnerable LiteLLM AI Gateways Into Root Access and Cloud Credential Theft

Wiz found multiple LiteLLM AI gateway flaws, including a CVE-2026-59822 MCP auth bypass added to CISA KEV, enabling root code execution and cloud credential theft.

An internet scan of 3,074 exposed LiteLLM instances found 294 (9.6%) accepting the default sk-1234 master key and 191 (6.2%) requiring no authentication. CVE-2026-59822 lets a single-character Bearer token establish a valid MCP session via an OAuth2 fallback in versions before 1.84.0; the flaw is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CVE-2026-59821 allows Python code execution as root in the gateway container via unsanitized Custom Code Guardrails registration before 1.82.0-stable, and CVE-2026-35029 permits config changes leading to RCE and admin takeover. Admin access plus pass-through endpoints can reach cloud metadata services to steal IAM credentials.

Attack Paths Into VMs in the Cloud

Unit 42 maps attack paths into AWS, Azure, and GCP VMs through intended features like startup scripts and SSH key pushes.

Palo Alto Unit 42 reviewed attack vectors against virtual machine services on AWS, Azure, and GCP, finding that 11% of internet-exposed cloud hosts carry Critical or High severity vulnerabilities. The attack paths rely on legitimate features such as EC2 User Data, VM custom data, EC2 Instance Connect, SSM Run Command, and serial consoles rather than vulnerabilities, and exploiting them requires attackers to first obtain control plane permissions. A compromised VM exposes not only its data but the workload identity and cloud permissions assigned to it, making identity compromise potentially more damaging than data theft. The firm places mitigation responsibility on cloud users and administrators.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Research1

NIST Warns of Unique Security Risks in Multi-Cloud Environments

NIST catalogued 23 novel security challenges unique to multi-cloud environments and urged the community to develop solutions.

NIST published an analysis identifying 23 distinct security challenges that arise specifically in multi-cloud environments. The agency explicitly encouraged the cybersecurity community to work on solutions for these gaps. The publication reflects growing official concern that spanning multiple cloud providers creates risk patterns not covered by single-cloud security models.

Infosecurity Magazine · 23d agoAdvisory