Actor Exploits Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities, Cortex XDR Blocks Harvesting of Credentials
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Agents Gone Wild: An AI-Orchestrated Global Campaign Against PaperCut NG/MF
AI-orchestrated campaign exploited PaperCut NG/MF RCE (CVE-2026-81578/82078), compromising 440+ instances at 395 organizations in 48 countries.
GreyNoise tracked a likely Russian-speaking actor using AI (OpenAI Codex harness plus a DeepSeek model) to develop, test, and deploy exploits for PaperCut NG/MF (CVE-2026-81578, CVE-2026-82078) starting 31 August 2026. The actor compromised at least 440 PaperCut instances across 395 organizations in 48 countries, achieving domain admin at 12 victims — fastest time to domain admin was five minutes and a US high school was fully compromised in seven minutes. Attack paths involved LSASS memory and registry secret harvesting, pass-the-hash to domain controllers, noPac attacks, account additions to Domain Admins, and DCSync to exfiltrate full NTDS.DIT credential dumps. Impact scope suggests access development potentially for handoff, with prior PaperCut intrusions historically leading to extortion.
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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.
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Persistent Attempts at Cyberespionage Against Southeast Asian Government Target Have Links to Alloy Taurus
Alloy Taurus (GALLIUM) compromised Southeast Asian government networks from 2022 to 2023 using Exchange web shells and undocumented .NET backdoors Reshell and Zapoa.
Unit 42 tracked persistent multiwave intrusions at a Southeast Asian government starting in early 2022 and continuing through 2023, attributing the activity with moderate confidence to Alloy Taurus (aka GALLIUM), a Chinese state-aligned espionage group. Attackers exploited Exchange Server vulnerabilities to deploy web shells including China Chopper, then ran reconnaissance with Fscan and WebScan, created administrative accounts, and installed undocumented .NET backdoors named Reshell and Zapoa. They established resilience by installing SoftEther VPN, brute-forced Active Directory credentials with Kerbrute, and dumped credential stores with GoDumpLsass and LsassUnhooker. The campaign reflects long-term espionage tradecraft to maintain a foothold.
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AI-powered attack exploited PaperCut flaws to hack 395 organizations
AI-driven campaign exploited PaperCut flaws CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078, compromising 440 servers at 395 organizations in 48 countries.
GreyNoise reports a likely Russian-speaking threat actor used hundreds of AI agents combining OpenAI Codex and DeepSeek models to build, test, and refine exploits for CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078 in PaperCut NG/MF, launching the campaign on August 31. At least 440 PaperCut instances at 395 organizations across 48 countries were compromised, with the education sector accounting for roughly half of victims and the US most targeted. Attackers harvested credentials from 280 victims, obtained OS or domain secrets from 147, and gained admin privileges at 12 organizations, using LSASS dumping, pass-the-hash, noPac, and DCSync to dump NTDS.DIT. The adversary went from empty workspace to first RCE in under four hours, and compromised at least 11 organizations within 26 seconds once the campaign launched.
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Hackers Steal Active Directory Password Hashes Without Attacking Domain Controllers Directly
Attackers use the DCSync technique to impersonate domain controllers and harvest AD password hashes and Kerberos keys without directly compromising domain controllers, Trellix warns.
Per Trellix, threat actors increasingly abuse Active Directory replication via DCSync, using privileged credentials to invoke DRSGetNCChanges and retrieve NTLM password hashes and Kerberos key material without running code on domain controllers. Capturing the krbtgt account hash enables forging Golden Tickets for persistent, highly privileged domain access. Because malicious replication traffic mimics legitimate DRS/RPC activity, defenders should monitor Windows Security Event ID 4662, restrict replication permissions, and investigate replication requests from non-domain-controller systems.
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Hackers Use Hundreds of AI Agents to Exploit PaperCut Flaws and Compromise 440 Servers Worldwide
A Russian-speaking actor used hundreds of AI agents to exploit PaperCut flaws, compromising 440 servers across 395 organizations in 48 countries.
GreyNoise's Global Observation Grid observed a Russian-speaking threat actor operating from IP 45.142.193.132 deploy hundreds of autonomous AI agents, built on OpenAI's Codex harness with a DeepSeek model, to exploit PaperCut NG/MF flaws CVE-2026-81578 (authentication bypass) and CVE-2026-82078 (unsafe reflection RCE). At least 440 servers across 395 organizations in 48 countries were compromised; the US had 98 victims and educational institutions accounted for 204. The agents paired with Mimikatz, Certipy, Rubeus, and Impacket, escalated to domain admin in 12 of 440 cases, and executed DCSync to exfiltrate the full NTDS.DIT credential database.
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Hackers Disable Endpoint Protection and Deploy Sliver Across Compromised Windows Domain
The Hunter's Ledger tracked campaign UTA-2026-024 using Sliver C2, Domain Admin account creation, and Ethereum-based C2 rotation to compromise a US organization's Windows domain.
The Hunter's Ledger tracked an intrusion at one unnamed US organization as UTA-2026-024, staged from exposed server 193.233.202.17 with a Sliver beacon. Operators created a non-expiring Domain Admin account, enabled RDP with NLA disabled, dumped SAM, SYSTEM and SECURITY hives plus LSASS memory, and disabled eight endpoint protection services. A Node.js implant resolved its C2 server from an Ethereum smart contract that rotated domains five times in five months, while SYSTEM scheduled tasks with backdated dates and DNS allowlist manipulation provided persistence. The infrastructure ties to a confirmed ransomware incident, but no encryptor deployment was proven in this intrusion.
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Medusa ransomware gang has hit over 500 organizations, CISA warns
FBI, CISA, and HHS warn Medusa ransomware has hit over 500 organizations across critical infrastructure since June 2021, using phishing and unpatched flaws.
An updated joint advisory from CISA, FBI, and HHS states Medusa ransomware has affected more than 500 organizations, spanning healthcare, defense, manufacturing, government, IT, financial services, education, insurance, and legal sectors. Since early 2023 Medusa has operated a ransomware-as-a-service affiliate model and buys access from initial access brokers for $100 to $1 million. Affiliates gain entry via phishing and unpatched internet-facing software, exploiting newly disclosed flaws in ScreenConnect, Fortinet EMS, Fortra GoAnywhere, and BeyondTrust within 24 hours. The group runs double extortion, giving victims 48 hours before leak-site publication, with $10,000 in cryptocurrency buying a one-day delay.
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Storm-1175 Replaces Medusa With New StormEncryptor Ransomware
Microsoft reports China-linked ransomware group Storm-1175 switched from Medusa to a new C++ strain, StormEncryptor, likely exploiting N-able flaw CVE-2026-18577.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence reports that the financially motivated, China-linked group Storm-1175 began deploying a new ransomware strain called StormEncryptor on August 2, 2026, replacing its previous Medusa ransomware. StormEncryptor is written in C++, appends the .encrypted extension to files, and drops a !!!README_FIRST!!!.txt ransom note in each scanned directory. Microsoft assesses the group is likely exploiting CVE-2026-18577, an authentication bypass in N-able disclosed on August 2, 2026 and added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog the next day. Since 2023, Storm-1175 has exploited more than 16 vulnerabilities in products including Microsoft Exchange, Ivanti, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, JetBrains TeamCity, SimpleHelp, CrushFTP, and GoAnywhere MFT, often moving from initial access to data theft and ransomware deployment within days.
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Three intrusions at UK criminal records office went undetected for two years
UK ICO reprimands ACRO criminal records office after three undetected intrusions over two years exposed thousands of records, including domestic violence victims.
The UK Information Commissioner's Office reprimanded ACRO Criminal Records Office after three intrusions between July 2021 and June 2023 exploited a Kentico customer portal unpatched since September 2019 and ignored Trend Micro antivirus alerts, including four quarantined Mimikatz detections. An attacker maintained persistent access for roughly seven months and staged data of nearly 11,000 people for exfiltration, though ACRO could not confirm exfiltration due to insufficient logging. ACRO notified more than 84,000 people on a precautionary basis; the Medusa ransomware group claimed the incident, and network segmentation kept attackers out of the Police National Computer.
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N-able ships second N-central hotfix as attackers keep exploiting CVE-2026-18577
N-able shipped a second N-central hotfix as attackers actively exploit authentication bypass CVE-2026-18577, attributed to ransomware group Storm-1175.
N-able released Hotfix 2 (N-central 2026.3.1.10) to counter ongoing exploitation of CVE-2026-18577, an authentication bypass that evades the patch for the earlier CVE-2026-18556; exploitation was first detected on August 1, 2026. Post-exploitation includes using the Take Control feature to reach managed endpoints, registering a Cloudflare tunnel service for persistence, creating a 'veeam' domain account, resetting admin passwords, and disabling Microsoft and Sophos security tooling. Microsoft analysts link the activity to Storm-1175, which now deploys a new StormEncryptor ransomware strain instead of Medusa, often reaching data exfiltration and ransomware within days. Sophos and Huntress expanded the IOCs and warned that partners who patched late should treat environments as potentially compromised.
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China-Linked Hackers Deploy New StormEncryptor Ransomware, Likely via N
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Fast-moving Storm-1175 uses new exploits to breach networks and drop Medusa
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Russian Cyber Threat Actor Uses GenAI to Compromise Fortinet Firewalls
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Storm-2603 spotted deploying ransomware on exploited SharePoint servers
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Microsoft Patches Eight Zero
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New malicious web shell from the Tropic Trooper group is found in the Middle East
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