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Acronis Patches Exploited Vulnerability in cPanel Backup Plugin
Acronis urgently patched CVE-2026-87886 (CVSS 7.8), insecure file permissions enabling privilege escalation, exploited in targeted attacks on cPanel & WHM backups.
Acronis released urgent patches for CVE-2026-87886 (CVSS 7.8), insecure file permissions in the Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM and the Backup extension for Plesk that allow attackers to gain elevated privileges. Exploitation has been detected in the wild in limited, targeted attacks against the cPanel & WHM plugin, but not against the Plesk extension. All Linux versions of the plugin before build 1.9.3.1021 and the Plesk extension before build 1.8.11.638 are affected; Acronis urges immediate updates and has not shared technical details.
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APT36 Suspected in PATCHCORD Espionage Campaign Using Google Sheets C2
Acronis links the PATCHCORD espionage campaign targeting Afghan telecom and South Asian critical infrastructure to APT36 with moderate confidence.
Acronis Threat Research Unit documented PATCHCORD, a previously undocumented C/C++ backdoor delivered via fake VPN installers impersonating Afghan Telecom (AFTEL), which hijacks Edge, Chrome and Firefox shortcuts for persistence and executes in-memory shellcode. A related Go implant, SHEETCORD, abuses the Google Sheets API for per-victim C2 and was distributed via a domain impersonating India's National Informatics Centre, while a third tool, HACKERAI C2 Agent, uses GitHub Gists and shows signs of LLM-assisted coding. An exposed staging server revealed SuperShell, RAT frameworks, credential-harvesting tools and OpenSSH exploit code, and the researchers attribute the activity to APT36/Transparent Tribe at moderate confidence.
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Top 10 Best Ransomware Protection Solutions in 2026
A 2026 buyer's guide ranks ten ransomware protection tools by kill-chain role as extortion shifts from encryption to data theft.
The roundup organizes defenses across the ransomware kill chain: prevention-grade EPP/EDR platforms, containment layers, rollback specialists, and immutable recovery. Recommended products include CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender, Sophos, SentinelOne, Bitdefender, Trend Micro, Halcyon, Huntress, and Malwarebytes. It stresses that many crews now extort on stolen data without encrypting, making exfiltration detection and response speed as important as rollback.
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Spark RAT Targets Cambodia, Abuses Vulnerable OPSWAT Driver to Disable Security Tools
Acronis details a Spark RAT campaign against Cambodia abusing the vulnerable OPSWAT ardrv.sys driver (CVE-2026-36425) to disable Microsoft Defender and other security tools.
Acronis TRU analyzed a multi-stage Spark RAT campaign targeting Cambodian individuals and organizations with lures spanning government notices, public health materials, and real estate documents. Attack chains use phishing emails with Inno Setup archives, DLL side-loading via a signed Tencent executable, and BYOVD abuse of the vulnerable OPSWAT ardrv.sys driver (CVE-2026-36425) to terminate security software. Shellcode hidden in PNG files patches AMSI and ETW, establishes scheduled task and service persistence, and injects into vssvc.exe and ctfmon.exe to run the open-source Go-based Spark RAT. Tactics resemble the Silver Fox actor, but Acronis tracks the cluster as unattributed with low confidence.
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New PATCHCORD Backdoor Targets Afghan Telecom and Indian Critical Infrastructure
Acronis links APT36 (Transparent Tribe) to new backdoors PATCHCORD and SHEETCORD targeting Afghan Telecom and Indian government, defense, and energy networks.
Acronis TRU described an ongoing Pakistan-aligned campaign attributed with moderate confidence to APT36, delivering a previously undocumented C/C++ backdoor named PATCHCORD via fake VPN installers impersonating Afghan Telecom (AFTEL) and telecom management tools. PATCHCORD persists by hijacking browser shortcuts for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, registers with a single C2 server, and executes shellcode and arbitrary cmd.exe commands. Infrastructure analysis revealed SHEETCORD, a Go backdoor combining SHEETCREEP and PATCHCORD features that uses Google Sheets for C2 and a PowerShell-based remote execution, delivered via a fake site mimicking India's National Informatics Center. APT36 has used PATCHCORD since at least March 2026, including a variant with anti-analysis features used against India's energy sector, and the toolkit includes antnium, GateSentinel, SuperShell, and exploits for CVE-2024-6387.
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Red Heron Hackers Exploit Critical Gitea RCE to Steal Source Code and Deploy Linux Rootkit
PRC-linked Red Heron exploits critical Gitea RCE CVE-2026-60004 to steal source code and deploy JITTERLY implant with SIXZUT LD_PRELOAD rootkit; victims span five countries.
Acronis Threat Research Unit attributes a campaign to Chinese-speaking threat actor Red Heron, which weaponized CVE-2026-60004, a CVSS 9.8 RCE in Gitea versions 1.17 through 1.27.0, patched in 1.27.1 on July 27, 2026. The actor built an automated exploitation framework after a public PoC appeared, scanned 1,386 internet-exposed Gitea instances across seven countries, and separately listed 477 Taiwan-based systems across defense, energy, elections, and AI sectors. Confirmed victims include organizations in Canada, Argentina, Taiwan, the US, and Sri Lanka, with a Canadian renewable-energy firm hit in 22 sessions and a Taiwanese industrial automation firm losing hundreds of repositories including SCADA/HMI tools. Red Heron deploys the JITTERLY Linux implant (30+ commands, AES-128-GCM, Adaptix-like protocol) and the SIXZUT LD_PRELOAD rootkit disguised as libglthread.so.2, and moved laterally into a Synology/Proxmox environment to steal VM backups.
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CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog
CISA added actively exploited CVE-2026-76460 (Cisco Identity Services Engine) and CVE-2026-87886 (Acronis Backup) to its KEV catalog.
CISA added two vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog based on evidence of active exploitation: CVE-2026-76460, an incorrect use of privileged APIs flaw in Cisco Identity Services Engine, and CVE-2026-87886, an incorrect default permissions flaw in Acronis Backup. Under Binding Operational Directive 26-04, Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies must prioritize rapid remediation of KEV vulnerabilities on publicly exposed assets that grant total control post-exploitation, and check whether systems were compromised before patching.
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