H1 2026 Malware Vulnerability Trends
Recorded Future's H1 2026 report finds 215 actively exploited CVEs, RAT dominance, NFC payment fraud, and AI-augmented but not autonomous tradecraft.
Recorded Future's Insikt Group identified 215 actively exploited CVEs in H1 2026, up 34% from 161 in H1 2025, with the most impactful flaws combining network reachability, no authentication, and code execution. AsyncRAT was the top malware family, with AsyncRAT, Cobalt Strike, XWorm, Stealc, and REMCOS remaining top-ten staples; Android NFC malware like NFCShare and NGate enabled payment card theft and ATM cash-outs. AI-enabled attacks remained additive to established tradecraft, concentrated in Levels 1-3 of Recorded Future's AIM3 maturity model, with AI-assisted vulnerability research (e.g., Claude Mythos fixing 271 Firefox bugs in Firefox 150) inflating NVD disclosure volumes 43% above the prior six-month average. The report urges defenders to prioritize remotely exploitable RCE flaws, behavioral detection, developer credential security, and third-party oversight.
Critical HPE Vulnerabilities Allow Remote Attackers to Achieve Complete System Compromise
HPE patched critical EdgeConnect SD-WAN flaws, including CVSS 9.8 unauthenticated API bypass and gateway RCE, enabling full system compromise.
HPE Security Bulletin HPESBNW05135 covers critical flaws in EdgeConnect SD-WAN Orchestrator and Gateways: CVE-2026-76669 and CVE-2026-76670 (CVSS 9.9 authorization bypass/privilege escalation), CVE-2026-76672 (CVSS 9.9, leaks third-party API tokens and credentials), CVE-2026-76673 (CVSS 9.8, unauthenticated Orchestrator API authentication bypass granting administrative privileges), and CVE-2026-76674 (CVSS 9.8, unauthenticated buffer overflow enabling arbitrary code execution on gateways). Fixes are available in ECOS 9.7.1.0/9.6.4.0/9.5.9.0/9.4.9.0 and Orchestrator 9.7.1/9.6.4/9.5.9/9.4.11 or later. HPE reported no public exploit code or active exploitation at publication and recommends isolating management interfaces on a dedicated VLAN.
Microsoft September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 966 flaws, 2 zero-days
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes a record 966 flaws, including two Windows zero-days actively exploited to gain SYSTEM privileges.
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday addresses a record 966 vulnerabilities, including 105 rated Critical, 81 of them remote code execution bugs. Two zero-days were actively exploited: a Windows Update Stack link-following flaw and a Windows ALPC heap-based buffer overflow, both allowing local elevation to SYSTEM privileges. The ALPC flaw was reported by Volexity and Proofpoint researchers, while the Update Stack flaw was credited to Romain Deperne and the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Centre. Microsoft shared no details on how the flaws were exploited in attacks.
Attackers Exploit Zimbra SNMP Flaw for Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution
CERT Polska and CISA report active exploitation of Zimbra RCE CVE-2026-73570, with 267 instances compromised per Shadowserver.
CVE-2026-73570 (CVSS 8.9) enables unauthenticated command injection and remote code execution in Zimbra Collaboration before 10.1.20 when the optional zimbra-snmp package is installed and SNMP notifications are enabled, via crafted SMTP requests. CISA added the flaw to its KEV catalog on August 21, 2026, with a federal patch deadline of August 24. The Shadowserver Foundation counted 267 compromised instances as of August 24, 2026, led by the US (46), Sweden (21), France (20) and Germany (17). Separately, Russia-linked Laundry Bear has weaponized Zimbra stored XSS CVE-2025-66376 against Western government and commercial mail servers since at least July 2025, delivering the ZimReaper payload.