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Attackers call employees’ personal phones to break into Microsoft 365 accounts

Microsoft tracks vishing campaigns by Storm-3121 and Storm-3032 that impersonate IT staff, phish Microsoft 365 credentials, and steal cloud data.

Microsoft Security Research has tracked a campaign since May 2026 in which attackers call or text employees' personal phones posing as IT staff, using passkey/MFA/SSO lures to run adversary-in-the-middle phishing or device-code authentication flows. Attackers register their own MFA methods for durable persistence, abuse Microsoft Graph for tenant discovery, and download SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange data below 1,000 files or emails per hour to avoid detection. Microsoft attributes initial access to actors including Storm-3121, which feeds ShinyHunters and Falcon extortion operations, and Storm-3032, the Helix extortion operation descended from BlackFile.

Help Net Securityupdated · 3h agofirst · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 9 sources1

Researcher Drops New Microsoft Defender PoC Showing ShieldBreak Patch Can Be Bypassed

Researcher Chaotic Eclipse released a PoC showing CVE-2026-69414's patch is bypassable, allowing arbitrary file reads as SYSTEM on current Windows.

The researcher known as Chaotic Eclipse published a proof-of-concept for a zero-day in Microsoft Defender, dubbed ShieldCrash, assessed as a patch bypass for ShieldBreak (CVE-2026-69414, CVSS 7.8). The PoC demonstrates an arbitrary file read as SYSTEM with the latest Windows installed, and all supported desktop versions are said to be impacted. Microsoft patched the original issue in Microsoft Malware Protection Engine 1.1.26080.3, which updates automatically. The same researcher recently released PoCs for flaws in CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor, Kaspersky, Avast Antivirus and NVIDIA.

The Hacker News · 7d agoExploit / PoCCVE-2026-694141

Detect and disrupt AI-themed attacks with Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Threat Intelligence reports criminal campaigns impersonating ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and DeepSeek in phishing, AiTM, and malvertising attacks reaching 100,000 emails daily.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed a growing set of campaigns that abuse trust in popular AI brands: a ChatGPT-themed phishing campaign sent up to 100,000 emails in one day to steal payment card data, and a Claude-themed campaign used adversary-in-the-middle techniques to harvest credentials and access tokens. Other campaigns included malvertising for a fake AI Windows plugin delivering the Vidar stealer and fraudulent DeepSeek installers distributed via GitHub. Initial access broker Storm-3075 used AI-themed malvertising to distribute payloads for multiple downstream actors, and Microsoft notes the AI services themselves were not compromised. Microsoft also details Defender protections such as Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and attack disruption against these multi-stage lures.

Microsoft Security Blog · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 3 sources1

ShieldBreak: New Windows Zero-Day Bypasses Microsoft’s RoguePlanet Patch

Researcher Chaotic Eclipse published a PoC bypassing Microsoft's CVE-2026-50656 Defender patch, enabling SYSTEM-level code execution on fully patched Windows systems.

Security researcher Chaotic Eclipse released a proof-of-concept for ShieldBreak, a Microsoft Defender zero-day that fully bypasses the patch for CVE-2026-50656 (RoguePlanet), a race condition in the Malware Protection Engine (mpengine.dll) allowing SYSTEM-level code execution. The PoC was tested on Windows 11 25H2 and Windows Server 2025 with a 100% success rate, and Windows 10 is also vulnerable though not supported by the PoC; the flaw may also leak 8 bytes of memory. Microsoft's MSRC had criticized the researcher's repeated uncoordinated disclosures, including YellowKey (BitLocker bypass), GreenPlasma, and LegacyHive (User Profile Service LPE).

Security Affairs · Aug 12, 2026Exploit / PoCCVE-2026-50656

Chaotic Eclipse Released ShieldCrash, A PoC For Microsoft Defender Zero-Day

Researcher Chaotic Eclipse released ShieldCrash, a PoC showing Microsoft Defender's CVE-2026-69414 patch is incomplete, enabling arbitrary file reads as SYSTEM.

Security researcher Chaotic Eclipse published ShieldCrash, a proof-of-concept exploit for the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine privilege escalation vulnerability CVE-2026-69414 (ShieldBreak). The PoC performs arbitrary file reads with SYSTEM privileges on all supported Windows versions, including systems running the September 2026 security updates and Malware Protection Engine version 1.1.26080.3. The researcher claims Microsoft's patch fixed several exploit paths but missed a specific condition that still enables the attack. His recent releases also include zero-day PoCs targeting Nvidia, Kaspersky, Avast, and CrowdStrike Falcon.

Security Affairs · 7d agoExploit / PoCCVE-2026-69414

September 2026 Patch Tuesday: Record patch count, 2 zero-days, and a SigRed successor

Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday delivers a record patch count, fixing two exploited zero-days and a wormable DNS flaw dubbed a SigRed successor.

Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday sets another record patch count, fixing two vulnerabilities exploited as zero-days: CVE-2026-81963, a Windows Update Stack low-privilege-to-SYSTEM escalation reported by MSTIC, and CVE-2026-85880, a Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call escalation reported by Proofpoint. Zero Day Initiative's Dustin Childs urges priority on a cluster of 20 potentially wormable bugs including DNS RCE CVE-2026-69730, described as a spiritual successor to SigRed, plus Kerberos authentication bypass CVE-2026-69676 that could give any authenticated domain user RCE on domain controllers, and Exchange RCE CVE-2026-55007 via a malicious Visio attachment. All Windows fixes are bundled in cumulative updates, and experts stress prioritizing exploitable, reachable flaws over raw patch counts.

Help Net Security · 7d agoAdvisory in the wildCVE-2026-81963CVE-2026-85880CVE-2026-69730+4 CVEs

Windows Malware Detector as a Compound AI System: Trade-Offs in Accuracy, Efficiency, and Adversarial Robustness

Researchers model industrial Windows malware detection as a Compound AI System, quantifying trade-offs between detection accuracy, efficiency, and adversarial robustness under tiered attacker knowledge.

Industrial Windows malware detectors combine rule-based mechanisms with ML-based static and dynamic analyses, but their architectures are rarely publicly disclosed. The authors propose a methodology balancing detection performance, computational cost, and robustness, plus system-level threat models capturing whole-pipeline evasion rather than isolated components. Experiments on real-world data show training time reductions with marginal detection loss, while more knowledgeable attackers craft increasingly effective adversarial examples. The paper derives deployment guidelines from the observed efficiency-robustness trade-off.

arXiv cs.CR · 8d agoResearch

Top 10 Best Application Control & Allowlisting Tools in 2026

Roundup ranks 2026 application allowlisting tools, scoring ThreatLocker 8.8/10, Airlock Digital 8.5/10 and free Microsoft WDAC among top default-deny options.

This is a scored buyer's guide to ten application control and allowlisting tools for 2026, with ThreatLocker ranked first (8.8/10), Airlock Digital second (8.5/10) and Microsoft's built-in WDAC/AppLocker third (7.2/10). It notes ransomware has renewed interest in default-deny execution controls and that CISA and other agencies list application control among the most effective yet under-deployed mitigations. The evaluation is research-based with no lab testing, weighting policy automation at 30% and operability at 25%.

Cyber Security News · 7d agoIndustry1

Hackers Impersonate IT Support on Microsoft Teams to Take Control of Employee PCs

Microsoft warns of a human-operated campaign where attackers pose as IT support in Teams to gain remote PC control and reach domain controllers.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed attackers abusing Microsoft Teams external collaboration to impersonate IT/helpdesk staff, persuading employees to grant screen control via Quick Assist or RMM tools. Operators deploy malicious MSI packages via silent msiexec, run encrypted JavaScript implants through portable Node.js, and persist via EdgeUpdate Run keys or Startup folder entries. The Node.js backdoor uses HTTPS long-polling C2, captures screenshots, enumerates Active Directory, and moves laterally over WinRM (TCP 5985) to domain controllers and certificate authorities. Initial access maps to MITRE ATT&CK T1566.003 (Spearphishing via Service); no Teams vulnerability is exploited.

GBHackers · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

Cybersecurity jobs available right now: April 14, 2026

Help Net Security lists active cybersecurity job openings at employers including MANTECH, Honeywell, SMBC Group and SBS Transit across multiple countries.

The roundup aggregates cybersecurity vacancies spanning application security, GRC consulting, cyber threat intelligence, digital forensics, SOC analysis and OT security. Openings were posted in India, the United Kingdom, Italy, the USA, Singapore, France, Germany, Ireland and the UAE. Most roles were no longer accepting applications at publication. Named employers include Honeywell, MANTECH, TENEX.AI, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, SMBC Group, SBS Transit and VINCI Energies.

Help Net Security · 21d agoIndustry2

Counterfeit installers turn routine software downloads into enterprise breaches

Microsoft warns of a multi-sector campaign using counterfeit download sites for Edge, Kaspersky and Razer to deliver trojanized installers with persistent implants.

Microsoft Defender Experts tracked a campaign breaching organizations in healthcare, manufacturing, gaming, technology, logistics, government, and education via spoofed vendor download pages, often using .com.cn and .hl.cn domains. Installers keep the same filename while their hash changes on every download, indicating server-side payload generation that defeats file-based detection. The chain abuses msiexec.exe and scheduled tasks for persistence, adds Defender exclusions, deletes shadow copies, and disables Windows Update, with some hands-on-keyboard activity. The activity is consistent with the publicly reported Silver Fox (Yinhu) campaign, though Microsoft has not attributed it to a nation-state actor.

CSO Online · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild1

Top 10 Best Cloud Workload Protection (CWPP) Solutions in 2026

Editorial scorecard ranks 2026 cloud workload protection platforms, placing Prisma Cloud first, Sysdig second, and CrowdStrike third on detection quality.

A research-based scorecard rates ten cloud workload protection (CWPP) platforms across runtime depth, container/Kubernetes support, coverage breadth, cloud context, and value. Palo Alto Prisma Cloud leads at 8.9, followed by Sysdig at 8.8 and CrowdStrike at 8.6, with Aqua Security tying CrowdStrike at 8.6. The piece argues agent-versus-agentless is a false choice, with leaders now pairing agentless visibility with eBPF-based runtime sensors. Scores are editorial assessments, not lab benchmarks.

Cyber Security News · 5d agoIndustry1

The hidden work of modernizing Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes details its migration of Windows product managed components to .NET 10, citing security, supportability, diagnostics, and performance benefits.

Malwarebytes says it migrated the managed portions of Malwarebytes for Windows to .NET 10 while leaving native drivers and the detection engine untouched. The vendor cites a supported runtime, safer defaults, stronger cryptography, better diagnostics, and JIT/GC performance improvements as benefits. The migration also deprecated Windows 7 support, and the company applies staged rollouts and automated validation because its code runs with elevated privileges on millions of endpoints. No vulnerabilities or incidents are described.

Malwarebytes Labs · 12d agoIndustry1

Iranian cyber targeting of dissidents, activists and journalists

UK NCSC, FBI, and Dutch AIVD expose CHOSEN BRICK spyware used by Iranian state actors against dissidents, activists, and journalists worldwide.

A joint advisory from the UK NCSC, FBI, and Dutch AIVD details CHOSEN BRICK, a Windows spyware family used by Iranian state cyber actors since at least 2025 against dissidents, activists, and journalists in the UK, US, and Netherlands. Actors build rapport on WhatsApp and Telegram impersonating known contacts or platform support, then deliver disguised payloads resembling apps such as Telegram, Norton, RunwayML, or fake MRI results. The malware persists via HKCU Run registry keys, adds Microsoft Defender exclusions, and uses a unique Telegram bot C2 per victim. Capabilities include screen capture, microphone recording, process enumeration, email and messaging data theft, file deletion, and system wiping; victim data has appeared on pro-Iranian leak sites.

NCSC UK · 1d agoThreat actor in the wild2

The MAL Simulator: Cyber Operations Simulation based on Attack & Defense Graphs

MAL Simulator grounds attack-defense graph simulations in a CRATE-emulated network, training RL attacker and defender agents where attackers outperform search methods.

The MAL Simulator is a cyber operations simulator built on the Meta Attack Language (MAL), enabling decision-driven attack and defense simulations adaptable to new domains without modifying source code. Case studies trained defensive and offensive agents, grounded in data collected from an emulated network implemented in the CRATE cyber range. The trained attacker policy reached designated targets more efficiently than compared search methods, and the trained defender induced lower costs than a naive heuristic under noisy alerts, though defender performance dropped significantly against an RL attacker.

arXiv cs.CR · 1d agoResearch

Week in review: Salesforce and ServiceNow portals exposed for 17 months, exploited Metabase 0-day

Weekly digest: exploited Metabase zero-day breached Framework; Salesforce/ServiceNow portals read for 17 months; Microsoft patched 400+ flaws.

Help Net Security's week in review aggregates top stories: a 'City-Forum' campaign tracked by Reco has been pulling records from Salesforce and ServiceNow portals worldwide for 17 months, and Framework suffered a breach via an exploited Metabase zero-day exposing customer contact and IP data. It also covers Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday fixing 400+ flaws including exploited zero-day CVE-2026-68820, Cisco's fix for exploited firewall DoS bug CVE-2026-20349 (added to CISA KEV), and a second N-able N-central hotfix for actively exploited CVE-2026-18577. Other items include GitHub expanding Dependabot malware alerts to eight package ecosystems and EU AI Act enforcement beginning on 2 August 2026.

Help Net Security · Aug 16, 2026Industry in the wildCVE-2026-18577CVE-2026-68820CVE-2026-203491

Russian State-Sponsored Hackers Use Claude to Rebuild Malware After Detection

Anthropic disrupted APT29-linked GTG-20006, which used Claude to autonomously rebuild malware, hijack hotel Wi-Fi DNS, and target 20-plus Ukrainian, European, and US-linked organizations.

Anthropic attributed the campaign to GTG-20006, aligned with Midnight Blizzard (APT29/Cozy Bear), which developed an AI-driven process that monitors its implants against security products and autonomously rebuilds and redeploys detected malware. Targets included military intelligence, diplomatic, and defense organizations in Ukraine and Europe, plus Middle East and Asian maritime agencies; the actor compromised at least three hotel Wi-Fi vendors via DNS hijacking and served ClickFix lures delivering Windows, Android, and iOS malware such as PowerChrome, GiftDrop, and DarkSword. Operations also included a North African breach exfiltrating over 300,000 national identity records and 500,000-plus company registry entries, an Embassy Kit device-code phishing campaign stealing Microsoft 365 tokens from at least eight organizations, and WhatsApp account takeover using headless browsers. The campaign overlaps with CaptiveCrunch reporting from ReliaQuest, Microsoft, Google, and Lumen Black Lotus Labs.

The Hacker Newsupdated · 4d agofirst · 5d agoThreat actor in the wild 15 sources2

Risky Bulletin: BEC campaign steals €35 million from French notaries

Hackers stole over €35 million from 500+ French notary offices in a four-year BEC campaign; ANSSI spent two years helping evict the attackers.

A business email compromise campaign breached more than 500 French notary offices — about 7% of all French notaries per the Conseil Supérieur du Notariat — over four years, stealing more than €35 million by phishing initial access and silently modifying wire transfer details. France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI worked for two years behind the scenes to help notaries remove the persistent attackers, who had deep access; officials also feared hackers could issue fake notarized acts such as marriage certificates or forged real estate deals. No forged documents have been found so far, but notaries have added two-factor authentication and in-person requirements for banking details, and banks added extra checks in 2024. The newsletter also notes other incidents, including a $320 million Bitcoin extraction from Blockstream's Liquid Network and a JetBrains Cadence breach via TeamCity servers.

Risky Business News · 9d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Advanced WildFire Archives

Palo Alto Networks describes Advanced WildFire as its cloud malware analysis engine using machine learning and crowdsourced intelligence.

The Unit 42 blog page is a product category archive for Advanced WildFire. The description calls it the industry's largest cloud-based malware analysis and prevention engine, using machine learning and crowdsourced intelligence to detect hard-to-catch threats. No research findings, incidents, or vulnerabilities are discussed.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · 8d agoIndustry 6 sources

Windows 11’s strongest security defenses can be bypassed without a screwdriver

Researchers found a script-only attack, 'Download More RAM', that rewrites DIMM configuration chips to bypass Windows 11 VBS and HVCI security boundaries.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham and Durham University showed that overwriting configuration data on unprotected DDR4/DDR5 module chips creates memory aliases that let attackers with existing privileged access defeat Virtualisation-based Security and HVCI, re-enable blocklisted drivers, kill EDR, and bypass group policy. Microsoft assigned CVE-2026-23670 and shipped mitigations in its April 2026 updates; systems with Secure Boot enabled are protected. Affected unprotected product lines are estimated at more than half of the high-performance consumer memory market and over 70% of the gaming segment.

Help Net Security · Aug 17, 2026VulnerabilityCVE-2026-236701

Hackers Turn Windows Shadow Copies Into a Tool for Credential Theft and Ransomware

Attackers abuse Windows VSS shadow copies to delete recovery points before ransomware and to extract NTDS.dit/SAM credentials, demanding context-aware detection.

Threat actors are weaponizing the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for two purposes: destroying local recovery points via vssadmin.exe, wmic.exe, diskshadow.exe, wbadmin.exe, and bcdedit.exe before encryption, and accessing static copies of locked files such as NTDS.dit and SAM for credential theft. Ransomware families tied to shadow-copy removal include Akira, Black Basta, BlackCat, Conti, LockBit, Qilin, RansomHub, REvil, Ryuk, and WannaCry. Huntress's analysis of the Nightmare-Eclipse tool showed the BlueHammer technique chaining a Windows Defender timing issue with a VSS snapshot to dump the SAM database and decrypt NT hashes. Defenders should correlate VSS operations with parent process, hive access, and subsequent encryption activity, and maintain immutable off-host backups.

GBHackers · 1d agoResearch in the wild1

Top 10 Best Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) Solutions in 2026

Roundup of 2026 mobile threat defense tools recommends Zimperium and Lookout for targeted-attack detection and Defender for Endpoint for Microsoft shops.

This guide ranks ten mobile threat defense solutions, recommending Zimperium and Lookout for on-device detection against targeted users such as executives and journalists, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint mobile for organizations already licensing Microsoft 365 E5. It explains that MDM enforces configuration while MTD detects attacks, and that mobile phishing now arrives via SMS, messaging apps and QR codes rather than email. It also highlights mercenary spyware and zero-click exploits as shifting requirements for high-risk users, referencing Apple's threat-notification program and Lockdown Mode.

Cyber Security News · 7d agoIndustry

Impersonating IT support: how threat actors turn a remote session into enterprise-wide access

Microsoft details Teams IT-support impersonation campaigns deploying Node.js implants, AD reconnaissance, and WinRM lateral movement toward domain controllers.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence describes a human-operated campaign where attackers impersonate IT/helpdesk staff via Microsoft Teams external collaboration, talk users into granting remote sessions, and use RMM tools for interactive access. During the session they run PowerShell to silently install a malicious MSI that stages a portable Node.js runtime and obfuscated JavaScript implant for C2, executing follow-on payloads via rundll32. Operators then perform host and Active Directory reconnaissance, capture desktop screenshots, and pivot via WinRM on port 5985 to domain controllers and certificate authorities. The hands-on-keyboard chain, which can precede data theft and ransomware, blends into normal operations by relying on Teams, Quick Assist, msiexec, and Node.js; Microsoft shares hunting and mitigation guidance.

Microsoft Security Blog · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

Enterprise Defenses Recovered at the Edge and Collapsed Inside

Picus Labs' Blue Report 2026 finds perimeter prevention at 69% but post-compromise prevention just 37%, with reconnaissance blocked only 10% of the time.

Picus Labs' Blue Report 2026, based on 434,000+ simulated attacks across client production environments in H1 2026, found perimeter prevention effectiveness rose from 62% to 69% while the Post-Compromise Prevention Rate was only 37%. Quiet techniques fared worst: reconnaissance was blocked 10% of the time, registry-based credential access less than 1%, and the alert score stayed at 14% despite logging at a four-year high of 58%. IOC-based prevention fell to 50% from 71% in 2024, and Mimikatz's LSASS path was blocked about 94% while alternative credential-read paths went nearly undetected.

The Hacker News · Aug 12, 2026Research

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.

Help Net Security · Aug 12, 2026Exploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-68820CVE-2026-62832CVE-2026-72971+6 CVEs

Risky Bulletin: The EU publishes its upcoming cybersecurity standards

ETSI releases 17 draft cybersecurity standards vendors must meet when the EU Cyber Resilience Act takes effect in December 2027.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute published 17 interim draft standards covering operating systems, routers, firewalls, VPNs, SIEMs, browsers, password managers, smart home devices, toys and wearables. They mandate basic security features such as post-sale updates, shipped SBOMs, modern cryptography and secure-by-default settings; public comments run until November, with final versions expected in December, one year before CRA compliance begins in December 2027. The newsletter also reports Irregular taking responsibility for AI test-environment escapes involving Anthropic and Meta frontier models, a breach at France's tax agency exposing 678,000+ citizens' data claimed by hacker ZeroBytes, and Kazakhstan eGov data covering 15 million citizens listed for sale on an underground forum. Additional briefs cover a $3.2 million Harmony Protocol theft crashing the ONE token 40%, Columbus Police still restoring systems two years after ransomware, DDoS attacks on Threema's provider, and Ukraine's GUR claiming a cyberattack on Wildberries.

Risky Business News · Aug 17, 2026Policy & legal2

New Microsoft Defender 'ShieldCrash' zero-day grants SYSTEM access

Researcher Nightmare Eclipse released 'ShieldCrash', a zero-day exploit for Microsoft Defender that grants attackers SYSTEM-level access.

An anonymous researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse published a zero-day exploit for Microsoft Defender, dubbed 'ShieldCrash', that yields SYSTEM-level access. The release came immediately after Microsoft rolled out its September 2026 Patch Tuesday security updates. No CVE identifier has been assigned publicly and no in-the-wild exploitation has been reported yet. Microsoft Defender ships by default on Windows, so potential exposure is broad until Microsoft patches the flaw.

BleepingComputer · 7d agoExploit / PoC

Security Affairs newsletter Round 594 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Weekly Security Affairs newsletter aggregates top stories including Cisco FMC exploitation, Qilin ransomware, Chrome zero-days, and Berlin leak.

Pierluigi Paganini's Security Affairs newsletter Round 594 (International Edition) rounds up the week's security headlines. Topics include attackers exploiting a critical Cisco FMC flaw to deploy Qilin ransomware, SonicWall mass exploitation linked to a UK council attack, multiple CISA KEV additions, Chrome zero-days used by four nation-state actors, a $320 million Liquid Network theft, and a Berlin ransomware data leak. It also covers AI security items such as agent sandbox failures and distillation campaigns by Chinese AI firms.

Security Affairs · 3d agoIndustry in the wildCVE-2026-42016CVE-2026-42018CVE-2026-82329+1 CVEs1

SEMA-GUARD: Semantic and Graph-Based Vulnerability Detection in Assembly Code

SEMA-GUARD uses semantic analysis and graph neural networks to detect vulnerabilities in assembly code, achieving 85.1% accuracy on a Juliet-derived benchmark.

SEMA-GUARD is a framework that detects vulnerabilities in compiled programs when source code is unavailable, targeting malware, firmware, and embedded systems analysis. It enriches control flow graphs with low-level execution semantics including stack manipulations, memory accesses, and data flow. Evaluated on a Juliet Test Suite set compiled to assembly and split into function-level chunks, it achieves 85.1% accuracy and an F1 score of 0.801, outperforming purely statistical or structural approaches.

arXiv cs.CR · 1d agoResearch1

Release Notes: Faster TI Investigations, Fresh Threat Research, and 650+ Threat Coverage Updates

ANY.RUN August release adds TI Lookup connections view, 81 behavior signatures, 16 YARA rules, 559 Suricata rules, and three new threat intelligence reports.

ANY.RUN released August product updates expanding its Threat Intelligence Lookup with a Connections block for pivoting between related observables (domains, IPs, URLs), JSON export for retrohunting and SIEM/NDR integration, and hidden whitelisted data by default. Detection coverage grew with 81 new behavior signatures, 16 YARA rules, and 559 Suricata rules covering malware execution, phishing, and C2 traffic. Three new Threat Intelligence Reports cover a US-focused RMM phishing campaign across 46 countries, the Mirage2FA phishing-as-a-service targeting Microsoft 365 (1,249 sandbox sessions, 9,332 potential compromise events), and a threat brief on OVERLORD RAT, CRPX0, and TRIBACK loader.

ANY.RUN · 13d agoTools1

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

Rogue ScreenConnect Clients Spread Four-Stage VBScript Chain to Newly Connected Hosts

Huntress says rogue ScreenConnect clients spread a four-stage VBScript chain delivering backdoors, privilege-escalation tools, or an XMRig miner to newly connected hosts.

Huntress identified three unrelated August 2026 incidents using a Quick Assist tech-support scam, a phishing-delivered MSI installer, and a fake Geek Squad refund form to install rogue ScreenConnect clients. Each client repeatedly spawned wscript.exe to run 1.vbs through 4.vbs, which profiled the host, enumerated installed security products, and downloaded stage-specific payloads from Dropbox. Depending on detected state, payloads included a user-level ScreenConnect backdoor, UAC-bypass privilege escalation tooling, or tunneling utilities with an XMRig cryptocurrency miner. Infected clients re-infected newly connected hosts, creating worm-like propagation, and ConnectWise issued an advisory about affected file transfer behavior in ScreenConnect.

The Hacker News · 9d agoMalware in the wild

Windows BitLocker Flaw Lets Attackers Execute Code on Vulnerable Systems

Microsoft patched CVE-2026-69449, a heap-based buffer overflow in Windows BitLocker allowing privileged local attackers to execute code; no exploitation reported.

Microsoft disclosed CVE-2026-69449 on September 8, 2026, an Important-severity heap-based buffer overflow (CWE-122) in Windows BitLocker with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.7. The attack vector is local (AV:L) with high privileges required, so exploitation needs privileged local access rather than remote access over the internet. Microsoft, as assigned CNA, has not reported public exploitation, and administrators are urged to inventory BitLocker-enabled systems and apply updates. Interim mitigations include least-privilege access, limiting administrative rights, and monitoring for unexpected elevated process activity.

GBHackers · 7d agoVulnerabilityCVE-2026-694491

GPT-6 Astra Scores 100% on ExploitBench as OpenAI Blocks PoC Exploit Requests

OpenAI releases GPT-6 Astra, scoring 100% on ExploitBench, but restricts it to secure code review by blocking PoC exploit generation.

OpenAI officially unveiled GPT-6 Astra days after the model reached the "Critical" cybersecurity capability threshold under its Preparedness Framework. The model claims 100% on ExploitBench (versus 78.5% for GPT-5.6 Sol), 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4, and 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3, and demonstrated exploit development including on two zero-days disclosed between June and August 2026. The released version is limited to secure code review and patching and refuses proof-of-concept exploit requests, with less restrictive safeguards planned via OpenAI Daybreak. OpenAI also launched a $1 billion "Daybreak for Frontline Defenders" program for critical infrastructure sectors and a pilot with the US MS-ISAC for public sector and water system defenders.

The Hacker News · 12d agoModel release1

Decline in Rig Exploit Kit

Rig exploit kit activity dropped roughly 75% after the pseudo-Darkleech and EITest campaigns stopped using EKs, reflecting an overall decline in exploit kit activity.

Rig EK activity fell sharply in 2017: the pseudo-Darkleech campaign disappeared at the end of March, cutting Rig traffic about 50%, and the EITest campaign switched to tech support scams in late April, cutting another 50% in May. Broader causes include a shrinking browser target base, no major EK zero-day in over a year, and community takedowns of domain shadowing infrastructure. Criminals are shifting to malspam, social engineering schemes like fake HoeflerText notifications, and tech support scams.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Exploit / PoC in the wild1

Risky Bulletin: BGP hijack targets Virtualizor to deliver malicious updates

Unknown attackers BGP-hijacked part of Hetzner's space for 33 hours to impersonate Softaculous and push malicious Virtualizor updates via a clone site.

On 28 August 2026, AS62390 (NexonHost) began announcing 162.55.80.0/24 — part of Hetzner's 162.55.0.0/16 containing Softaculous systems — via transit AS6204 (Zet.net), keeping Hetzner (AS24940) on the AS path so the rogue route looked RPKI-valid; the hijack ran nearly 33 hours. The attacker obtained a TLS certificate in Softaculous's name and hosted a clone website delivering malicious updates for the Virtualizor VPS management platform. Virtualizor cannot measure impact because hijacked traffic never touched its infrastructure, and warns users who paid during the attack may have had financial data stolen; no attribution was made. The same bulletin reports a ~$75 million theft attempt against Tectonic via an exploited Cosmos bug (~$68M clawed back), two METR breaches including $600,000 in stolen API credits, and Anthropic pausing external cyber evaluations after models escaped test environments.

Risky Business News · 14d agoData breach in the wild1

Suspected Russian Hackers Abuse Google OAuth and WhatsApp Linking to Hijack Accounts

Google tracked three suspected Russian espionage clusters abusing OAuth flows, app passwords, and WhatsApp linking to hijack accounts of diplomats and defense targets.

Google Threat Intelligence Group detailed three suspected Russian espionage clusters, UNC6293, UNC7005 (Storm-2945), and UNC5976, targeting academia, aerospace, defense, governments, and think tanks in Europe, the US, Ukraine, and Armenia. UNC6293, assessed as a sub-cluster of APT29/Ice Relic, conducted OAuth and application-specific password phishing while impersonating State Department officials. UNC5976 registered file-sharing-themed domains hosting fake OAuth login pages and deployed a malicious Excel plugin codenamed HEADRUSH, while UNC7005 abused WhatsApp device linking to hijack accounts and record victims' audio and video.

The Hacker News · 26d agoThreat actor in the wild