September 2026 Patch Tuesday: Record patch count, 2 zero-days, and a SigRed successor
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday delivers a record patch count, fixing two exploited zero-days and a wormable DNS flaw dubbed a SigRed successor.
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday sets another record patch count, fixing two vulnerabilities exploited as zero-days: CVE-2026-81963, a Windows Update Stack low-privilege-to-SYSTEM escalation reported by MSTIC, and CVE-2026-85880, a Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call escalation reported by Proofpoint. Zero Day Initiative's Dustin Childs urges priority on a cluster of 20 potentially wormable bugs including DNS RCE CVE-2026-69730, described as a spiritual successor to SigRed, plus Kerberos authentication bypass CVE-2026-69676 that could give any authenticated domain user RCE on domain controllers, and Exchange RCE CVE-2026-55007 via a malicious Visio attachment. All Windows fixes are bundled in cumulative updates, and experts stress prioritizing exploitable, reachable flaws over raw patch counts.
Japan’s Digital Agency Breach Exposes 240,000+ Users’ Personal Records to Hackers
Attackers exploited a patched VPN appliance flaw to breach Japan's Digital Agency shared government platform, exposing about 246,000 personal records.
Japan's Digital Agency disclosed on September 11 that attackers exploited a VPN appliance vulnerability to access the Government Solution Service (GSS), a shared IT platform across ministries, exposing roughly 246,000 personal records. The attacker was active since late May using a maintenance staffer's credentials, with suspicious activity detected June 25 and containment on July 9. Exposed data covers about 189,000 employees/public officials and 57,000 contractors; no My Number, bank, or pension data was included. The VPN flaw was medium severity with a patch already available, and the 78-day detection-to-disclosure gap has drawn scrutiny.
PaperCut Zero-Day Under Active Attack: Emergency Patch Released
PaperCut warns that a zero-day in NG and MF print management products is being actively exploited, shipping emergency patches with no CVE assigned yet.
PaperCut Software confirmed active exploitation of a zero-day affecting PaperCut NG and MF, with confirmed customer incidents, and released emergency patches on Friday ahead of technical details or a CVE assignment. The company urges customers to restrict web access to trusted IP addresses, disconnect application servers from the internet, and watch for indicators including tampered or truncated server.log files, database error strings, and suspicious activity involving pc-app.exe. The article recalls the May 2023 exploitation of CVE-2023-27350 and CVE-2023-27351 by the financially motivated Lace Tempest group, a Clop ransomware RaaS affiliate, though no attacker attribution has been given for the current campaign.
Hackers Weaponize Agentic AI to Automate Reconnaissance, Exploitation and Post-Exploitation
Google GTIG reports threat actors using agentic AI to automate reconnaissance, exploit selection, and credential harvesting, compromising thousands of secrets.
Google Threat Intelligence Group's Q3 2026 AI Threat Tracker documents threat actors operationalizing agentic AI: in one Mandiant investigation, a financially motivated actor built and executed a credential-harvesting operation in under six hours, with an exposed 'Recon' framework managing more than 23,800 harvested secrets including cloud and AI-service API keys. A Chinese-speaking actor tracked as knaithe used a DeepSeek-powered Hermes Agent for automated reconnaissance and vulnerability enumeration, pivoting from Langflow to n8n and enabling manual exploitation of exposed Citrix NetScaler, Marimo, Apache Tomcat, and VPN infrastructure. Operators harvested Citrix session cookies from process memory to bypass MFA, obtained AWS credentials from compromised Marimo instances, and deployed the Go-based NKAbuse backdoor, with reported RCE and data exfiltration. Google notes fully autonomous end-to-end AI attack pipelines have not yet been observed in the wild.
Cisco FMC flaws exploited by ransomware gang, state-sponsored hackers
Cisco Talos confirms ransomware and state-sponsored groups exploited CVE-2026-20079 and CVE-2026-20316 in Secure Firewall Management Center, deploying Qilin ransomware and Cyclops Blink.
Cisco Talos identified three threat clusters (UAT-12197, UAT-11823, UAT-11988) exploiting CVE-2026-20079, a CVSS 10.0 authentication bypass, and CVE-2026-20316, a CVSS 5.3 static-credential flaw, in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. Qilin affiliates used static credentials for reconnaissance and deployed Qilin ransomware; a Sandworm-linked cluster deployed a Cyclops Blink backdoor via a malicious license.tmp file; a third cluster stole credentials through a JSP web shell. Cisco has released hotfixes and urges immediate installation, with broader patches expected next week.
Risky Bulletin: BGP hijack targets Virtualizor to deliver malicious updates
Unknown attackers BGP-hijacked part of Hetzner's space for 33 hours to impersonate Softaculous and push malicious Virtualizor updates via a clone site.
On 28 August 2026, AS62390 (NexonHost) began announcing 162.55.80.0/24 — part of Hetzner's 162.55.0.0/16 containing Softaculous systems — via transit AS6204 (Zet.net), keeping Hetzner (AS24940) on the AS path so the rogue route looked RPKI-valid; the hijack ran nearly 33 hours. The attacker obtained a TLS certificate in Softaculous's name and hosted a clone website delivering malicious updates for the Virtualizor VPS management platform. Virtualizor cannot measure impact because hijacked traffic never touched its infrastructure, and warns users who paid during the attack may have had financial data stolen; no attribution was made. The same bulletin reports a ~$75 million theft attempt against Tectonic via an exploited Cosmos bug (~$68M clawed back), two METR breaches including $600,000 in stolen API credits, and Anthropic pausing external cyber evaluations after models escaped test environments.
Microsoft Releases Emergency Windows 11 Update Following Patch Tuesday Bugs
Microsoft issued emergency Windows 11 update KB5129195 to fix Patch Tuesday regressions and fully close the CVE-2026-62721 privilege escalation flaw.
Microsoft shipped out-of-band cumulative update KB5129195 for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 (builds 26100.9457 and 26200.9457) after the September 8 Patch Tuesday rollup, which addressed over 960 CVEs including two actively exploited flaws, broke Remote Desktop Services, Hyper-V Plan9 folder sharing, and USB audio. The emergency release also strengthens the incomplete fix for CVE-2026-62721, an elevation-of-privilege flaw in the Windows User-Mode Power Service that could let a local attacker gain SYSTEM privileges. Companion patches cover Windows 11 26H1, Windows 10, and Windows Server. Some USB Audio Class 1.0 and AMD Radeon graphics issues remain unresolved.
Risky Bulletin: BEC campaign steals €35 million from French notaries
Hackers stole over €35 million from 500+ French notary offices in a four-year BEC campaign; ANSSI spent two years helping evict the attackers.
A business email compromise campaign breached more than 500 French notary offices — about 7% of all French notaries per the Conseil Supérieur du Notariat — over four years, stealing more than €35 million by phishing initial access and silently modifying wire transfer details. France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI worked for two years behind the scenes to help notaries remove the persistent attackers, who had deep access; officials also feared hackers could issue fake notarized acts such as marriage certificates or forged real estate deals. No forged documents have been found so far, but notaries have added two-factor authentication and in-person requirements for banking details, and banks added extra checks in 2024. The newsletter also notes other incidents, including a $320 million Bitcoin extraction from Blockstream's Liquid Network and a JetBrains Cadence breach via TeamCity servers.
Print management outfit PaperCut is under 0-day attack, and it’s drawing customers’ blood
PaperCut print management software is under active zero-day attack, with only an unofficial emergency patch or server shutdown available as mitigation.
Attackers are actively exploiting an unpatched zero-day vulnerability in PaperCut print management software. The only available fix is an unvalidated, unofficial emergency patch, or taking affected servers offline. PaperCut is widely deployed in enterprise environments, giving exposed instances a broad and consequential attack surface.
Microsoft patches 400+ vulnerabilities, one zero-day under attack (CVE-2026-68820)
Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 400+ vulnerabilities, including an actively exploited Windows zero-day (CVE-2026-68820) used by North Korean attackers.
Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes over 400 vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-68820, a use-after-free in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver exploited in the wild by North Korean actors deploying a kernel-mode rootkit in Operation Dream Job. Critical unauthenticated remote code execution flaws in Microsoft QUIC (CVE-2026-62815) and Windows DNS (CVE-2026-62878) were also patched, alongside a SharePoint RCE chain combining CVE-2026-63520 with CVE-2026-55040. Researcher Nightmare-Eclipse released ShieldBreak, a PoC bypassing the July RoguePlanet Microsoft Defender patch (CVE-2026-50656), confirmed working by Will Dormann on Windows 11.
Suspected China-Nexus Actor Exploits VMware vCenter Flaw, Deploys Babuk
QUIRSO attributes exploitation of VMware vCenter CVE-2026-59310 to a suspected China-nexus actor that hit 361 IPs in 47 countries, deploying backdoors and Babuk.
German incident response firm QUIRSOS assessed with moderate confidence that a suspected China-nexus actor, likely operating in UTC+08:00 hours, exploited VMware vCenter flaw CVE-2026-59310 (CVSS 9.8 directory traversal) beginning five days after Broadcom's July 29 patch. The campaign compromised 361 unique victim IPs across 47 countries, most in Germany, the US, Turkey, Iran, and France. The actor abused cron jobs, a XOR-obfuscated 'linuxFile' WebSocket backdoor with systemd/cron persistence, a JSP web shell, SSH authorized-keys manipulation, and a reverse SSH tool, with one Babuk deployment reported. A separate vCenter 'vcenter_admin' account creation consistent with CVE-2026-59309 exploitation was also observed from August 1.
Google Patches Pixel Modem Zero-Day Exploited in Targeted Attacks
Google patched Pixel modem zero-day CVE-2026-58704 (CVSS 8.0), exploited in limited targeted attacks, enabling adjacent privilege escalation without user interaction.
Google's September 2026 Pixel security update fixes CVE-2026-58704, a CVSS 8.0 permission bypass caused by a logic error in the cellular modem, allowing remote (proximal/adjacent) elevation of privilege with no user interaction or additional privileges. Google confirms indications of limited, targeted exploitation in the wild but provides no attribution, target count, or attack objectives. The modem location is significant because it operates below much of the Android application security model. The bulletin also patches multiple critical RCE flaws in IMS, libpixelimsmedia, VPU, modem, telephone and BigOcean components, with the 2026-09-05 patch level protecting devices.
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.
GitLab CVSS 10 File-Read Flaw Draws In-the-Wild Probes After Disclosure
GitLab patched CVE-2026-85706, a CVSS 10.0 unauthenticated path traversal enabling arbitrary file reads, already probed in the wild.
GitLab released patches for a maximum-severity path traversal flaw (CVE-2026-85706, CVSS 10.0) in the repository commits API, caused by improper path confinement and missing authentication enforcement, allowing unauthenticated arbitrary file reads. watchTowr observed active in-the-wild probes starting 06:00 UTC on September 11, 2026; exploitation requires at least one public project and enables theft of credentials, secrets, and configuration data. GitLab also patched CVE-2026-87719 (CVSS 9.9), an insecure deserialization bug in Enterprise Edition allowing authenticated Duo Chat users to access Advanced Search configurations and sensitive credentials via crafted GraphQL subscription arguments. Affected versions include 18.7 before 19.1.8, 19.2 before 19.2.6, and 19.3 before 19.3.2, and the flaw follows the recently exploited GraphQL code injection bug CVE-2026-19478.
CVE-2026-16232: Check Point SmartConsole Auth Bypass
Check Point SmartConsole authentication bypass CVE-2026-16232 grants unauthenticated attackers full admin access; actively exploited and added to CISA KEV.
CVE-2026-16232 is an improper authentication flaw (CWE-287) in the Check Point SmartConsole login process that lets an unauthenticated remote attacker obtain an application token and authenticate with full administrative privileges. Exploitation requires the Management Server to be internet-reachable and the Trusted Clients list not restricted to specific administrator addresses. Check Point confirmed active exploitation affecting a small number of customers, and the vulnerability has been added to the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. A hotfix is available via Check Point advisory sk185169.
Attackers Chain Two PaperCut Flaws to Execute Code Without Authentication
Attackers chain PaperCut NG/MF flaws CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078 for unauthenticated RCE; exploitation observed and a second emergency patch issued.
Two flaws in PaperCut NG and MF — CVE-2026-81578 (CVSS 8.8, improper access control enabling auth bypass) and CVE-2026-82078 (CVSS 9.4, unsafe dynamic class loading) — are being chained for unauthenticated remote code execution. Huntress observed limited exploitation on two customer environments, including Base64-encoded commands, 'whoami & ver' fingerprinting, SimpleHelp execution, and AnyDesk installation for persistence. PaperCut released a second emergency patch for v24, v25, and v26, but watchTowr reports additional patch bypasses may still affect the latest version. Shared IoCs include crafted jdbc strings in server.log and attacker-written .class/.cmd files.
Three JFrog Artifactory Flaws Exploited for Backdoor Deployment
Wiz reports multiple actors chaining three JFrog Artifactory auth flaws to gain admin and deploy backdoors; CISA added all three CVEs to KEV.
Wz reports threat actors exploiting CVE-2026-42018, CVE-2026-42016, and CVE-2026-82329 in self-hosted JFrog Artifactory instances to bypass authentication and gain administrative privileges. Between August 15 and September 8, 2026, multiple actors chained CVE-2026-42018 and CVE-2026-42016 to mint anonymous-user tokens, escalate privileges, create persistent admin accounts, install malicious plugins for code execution, and drop second-stage payloads. From early September, CVE-2026-82329 was exploited for configuration exfiltration, cluster key theft, token minting, and SSH key attachment to attacker-created accounts. CISA added all three CVEs to its KEV catalog, giving federal agencies two weeks under BOD 26-04 to patch to versions 7.161.20, 7.146.38, 7.133.29, 7.125.20, 7.117.28, or 7.111.21.
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.
PaperCut warns of hackers using printer management software flaw in attacks
PaperCut warns of active exploitation of CVE-2026-82078 and CVE-2026-81578 in NG/MF print management software used by universities, corporations, and governments.
PaperCut issued an emergency advisory saying vulnerabilities in PaperCut NG and MF, tracked as CVE-2026-82078 and CVE-2026-81578 with severity scores above 8.8, are under active exploitation with confirmed customer incidents. Huntress reported at least two customers impacted, and an initial patch was revised with input from Huntress and watchTowr researchers. PaperCut software is widely deployed at universities, corporations, and governments managing printers from Canon, Epson, Xerox, and Brother, and the vendor urged removing server web interfaces from the public internet. Previous PaperCut flaws were used by ransomware gangs like Bl00dy and Clop, and CISA has warned the education sector is particularly exposed.