Attackers Exploit VMware vCenter Vulnerability to Gain Persistent Remote Access
Attackers actively exploit critical VMware vCenter flaw CVE-2026-59310, installing reverse_ssh backdoors on 361 hosts across 47 countries.
QUIRSO observed active exploitation of CVE-2026-59310 (CVSS 9.8), a directory-traversal flaw in VMware vCenter allowing arbitrary code execution, patched by Broadcom in late July. Attack chains deploy a malicious cron job running the open-source reverse_ssh tool for persistence, with compromised systems phoning home starting August 3, five days after disclosure. Forensics show 361 unique victim IPs in 47 countries, mostly Germany, the U.S., Turkey, Iran, and France, with the actor suspected to be an APT. Separately, Defused Cyber reports rising scanning indicative of exploitation of related CVE-2026-59309, an unauthenticated auth bypass in vmdir.
Panzer Ransomware Targets Italian Manufacturers and Telecom Firms With ESXi-Ready RaaS
New Panzer ransomware-as-a-service operation lists Italian firms Doimo Cucine and NTE Italia as victims, offering encryptors for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and ESXi.
Panzer, a ransomware-as-a-service operation that surfaced August 5, listed a kitchen manufacturer in Treviso (Doimo Cucine) and a telecommunications engineering firm in Catanzaro (NTE Italia) among alleged victims, claiming 30 GB and 16 GB of stolen data respectively. The group advertises encryptors for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and VMware ESXi, a Tox-based affiliate recruitment process with screening, an affiliate dashboard, and an 80/20 revenue split. Neither victim had publicly confirmed the incidents when researcher Andrea Fortuna's report was published, and the group's first access method and payload have not been independently analyzed. Panzer posted victims across 11 countries as claimed Italian ransomware incidents reached 212 by September 6, already above 2025's full-year total of 169.
Aurora Ransomware Operators Use Cursor AI in Attacks Against 10 Targets
Aurora ransomware operators used Cursor AI running Claude Sonnet to plan and execute intrusions against dozens of organizations in nine countries.
CloudSEK and Gambit Security analyzed exposed infrastructure tied to the Russian-speaking Aurora (Aur0ra) group, revealing months of activity against more than 20 organizations across nine countries between April and July 2026, with 33 victims listed by Ransomware.Live. The operator used the Cursor agentic coding assistant to plan attacks in Russian, including an AD CS exploitation plan, and Gambit observed Cursor Agent (running Anthropic's Claude Sonnet) performing hands-on exploitation tasks such as Nmap scanning, NetExec enumeration, NTLM relay, and certificate attacks against 10 targets. Attacks begin with email bombing plus IT help desk vishing via Xray-core, followed by SMB/LDAP/WinRM/RDP lateral movement, log clearing, Defender disabling, and exfiltration; the Windows and Linux/ESXi encryptors are built from a single Zig codebase, with shadow copy deletion and VM-killing before encryption.