China-Linked Hackers Exploit Chrome-Windows Zero-Day Chain to Deploy GRIMWEDGE
Volexity attributes spear-phishing campaign exploiting Chrome-Windows zero-day chain to Chinese actors UTA0560 and APT31 deploying GRIMWEDGE and LONGTALE.
Volexity attributes a September 1, 2026 spear-phishing campaign targeting NGOs to China-linked UTA0560, which abused a reflected XSS flaw on a US university website to trigger a three-part exploit chain (CVE-2026-85046, CVE-2026-87491, CVE-2026-85880) escaping the Chrome V8 and browser sandboxes to deploy the GRIMWEDGE JavaScript backdoor with reconnaissance, file management, and command execution capabilities. The same chain was used near-simultaneously by JungleBamboo (APT31) to deploy SUPERSTOMP, installing the LONGTALE/GemStone credential-stealing Chrome extension masquerading as Google Gemini. The Chrome flaws were patched in Chromium but not yet in stable Chrome, creating an unusual patch-gap zero-day window attackers raced to exploit.
VU#859658: Skullcandy Dime 3 wireless earbuds contain an unauthenticated Bluetooth pairing vulnerability
Skullcandy Dime 3 earbuds (CVE-2025-20701) accept Bluetooth pairings without owner consent, letting in-range attackers hijack audio or capture microphone; no firmware update path exists.
CERT/CC's VU#859658 describes CVE-2025-20701 in the Airoha Bluetooth audio SDK, present in Skullcandy Dime 3 (Model S2DCW) firmware 1.0.0.28. A direct Bluetooth Classic pairing request with no PIN or physical confirmation completes via NoInputNoOutput, adding the attacker's device as trusted. Attackers in radio range can hijack the A2DP audio session, access the Hands-Free/Headset profile, and capture live microphone audio. Firmware 1.0.0.30 contains the effective patch, but Skullcandy says the Dime 3 does not support app-based firmware updates, leaving existing units unpatchable.
Microsoft Copilot Personal Flaws Could Let One Click Exfiltrate Data From Connected Apps
Varonis discloses CoSnitch (CVE-2026-24301), three Microsoft Copilot Personal flaws enabling one-click exfiltration of connected-app data; patched August 18, 2026.
Varonis Threat Labs found that an undocumented autorun=1 parameter, paired with the q parameter, lets an attacker-supplied prompt run automatically on page load in a victim's authenticated Copilot session, then exfiltrate data from connected services such as mail, calendar, Google Drive, chat history and the memory store via Copilot's built-in URL fetch to an attacker webhook. A separate memory-poisoning path through web summarization lets a crafted page persist attacker instructions in the user's memory, surviving password changes, session revocation and device re-enrollment. Microsoft shipped patches on August 18, 2026, tracked as CVE-2026-24301, and Varonis found no evidence of in-the-wild exploitation. The flaws were found via 'meta-hacking', asking Copilot itself to reveal the autorun parameter and its protections.
ASCII smuggling crosses over from AI prompt injection to phishing evasion
Microsoft details high-volume phishing campaign using ASCII smuggling (Unicode tag chars) for filter evasion, peaking at 2.3M messages.
Microsoft researchers observed a high-volume finance-themed phishing campaign using invisible Unicode tag characters (U+E0000–U+E007F), a technique known from AI prompt injection research as ASCII smuggling, to split lure words like 'funding' and evade email filters. Telemetry from Microsoft Defender for Office 365 showed signature hits jump from roughly 21,000 messages on February 8, 2026 to more than 1.3 million on February 9, peaking above 2.3 million on February 11, with elevated weekday activity lasting approximately three months. The discovery emerged from prompt injection protection research, showing AI-era evasion techniques crossing into traditional phishing. Most messages were flagged by layered Defender protections rather than a single Unicode-specific signal.