ZDI-26-675: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Annotation Use-After-Free Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
ZDI disclosed a CVSS 7.8 use-after-free remote code execution flaw (CVE-2026-81976) in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC triggered via malicious PDFs.
The Zero Day Initiative published advisory ZDI-26-675 describing a use-after-free remote code execution vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, tracked as CVE-2026-81976 with a CVSS 7.8 score. The flaw resides in the annotation feature. Exploitation requires user interaction: the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The advisory reports no evidence of in-the-wild exploitation.
KREMLIN Banking Malware Infects Over 1,500 Systems With Malicious Chrome Extension
Elastic tracks KREMLIN banking malware that used fake Brazilian bank JavaScript lures to deploy malicious Chrome and Edge extensions on 1,515 systems.
Elastic researchers tracked the KREMLIN banking malware operation across seven campaigns over 15 months, infecting 1,515 systems, 98.75% of them in Brazil. Portuguese-language lures posing as bank records and invoices deploy a hostile 'AVSync' extension into Chrome and Edge profiles that harvests passwords, session cookies, keystrokes and screenshots. Loaders check for sandboxes, create scheduled tasks and fetch fresh infrastructure from an Ethereum smart contract; a network canary takeover temporarily disrupted infections.
Phishing Attacks Serve Browser-in-the-Browser Pages, Rogue RMM Persistence
Phishing emails with browser-in-the-browser fake Adobe pages trick users into installing rogue ScreenConnect clients granting persistent remote access.
Huntress SOC investigated two August incidents where phishing links led to fake CAPTCHA checks and Adobe PDF Reader lures rendered as browser-in-the-browser (BiTB) pages spoofing legitimate domains like get.adobe.com. Victims downloaded what they believed was Acrobat Reader but actually installed ScreenConnect.ClientSetup.exe from attacker infrastructure, yielding two rogue ScreenConnect clients with service-based persistence. The attacker used cmd.exe and curl to stage a second client connecting to 144.172.115.59, leveraged a ScreenConnect Trial Relay domain for stealth, and ran HideCursor.exe as a defense-evasion binary. Incident 2 arrived via AT&T Office@Hand (RingCentral), with both chains stopped before broader impact.
August 2026 Patch Tuesday forecast: How do we deal with the patch apocalypse?
August 2026 Patch Tuesday forecast urges risk-based triage as AI inflates CVE volume, flags actively exploited SharePoint RCE CVE-2026-50522 and LegacyHive Windows flaw.
July 2026 Patch Tuesday set records with over 600 CVEs, including 405 for Windows 11 and Server 2025, though only two were exploited zero-days and one was publicly disclosed. The author recommends prioritizing known-exploited and internet-facing vulnerabilities, matching patches to high-risk systems, and accelerating ring-based deployment toward Microsoft's suggested three-day turnaround. Notable items include actively exploited SharePoint RCE CVE-2026-50522 enabling machine key theft, the unassigned LegacyHive Windows User Profile Service flaw, and several end-of-servicing dates for Windows and Exchange.