Microsoft’s September 2026 Patch Tuesday addresses 964 CVEs (CVE-2026-81963, CVE-2026-85880)
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes a record 964 CVEs, including two zero-days actively exploited in the wild.
Microsoft patched a record 964 CVEs in its September 2026 Patch Tuesday release, with 101 rated critical and 824 rated important, making it the largest Patch Tuesday to date. The release includes fixes for two zero-days that were exploited in the wild, with CVE-2026-81963 and CVE-2026-85880 highlighted in the release. Affected products span Windows core components, Office, Exchange, .NET, Visual Studio, Active Directory services (including AD CS and AD FS) and numerous Azure services. Tenable notes the release surpasses July's as the biggest ever.
Over 440,000 Exploit Attempts Target Super Forms and Elementor Pro RCE Flaws
Wordfence blocked 440,000+ exploit attempts against critical unauthenticated RCE flaws in WordPress plugins Super Forms and Elementor Pro.
Wordfence reports mass exploitation of two unauthenticated arbitrary file upload RCE flaws: CVE-2026-14894 in Super Forms (CVSS 9.8, fixed in 6.3.314) and CVE-2026-32475 in Elementor Pro (CVSS 9.0/9.8, fixed in 4.2.2), with over 250,000 and 190,000 blocked exploit attempts respectively. Attackers upload Base64-encoded PHP web shells such as Mushr00w_upl.php to execute code, create administrator accounts, exfiltrate data, or seize sites. Super Forms exploitation began July 14, 2026 and peaked above 40,000 requests on August 18; Elementor Pro attacks started August 19. Successful Elementor Pro exploitation requires a published page with a Form widget containing a File Upload field.
Hackers Actively Exploit Critical WooCommerce Plugin Vulnerability to Upload PHP Backdoors
Attackers actively exploit CVE-2026-27540 (CVSS 9.8) in WooCommerce Wholesale Lead Capture plugin to upload PHP webshells; patch shipped in version 2.0.3.2.
CVE-2026-27540 (CVSS 9.8) in the WooCommerce Wholesale Lead Capture plugin affects versions 2.0.3.1 and earlier across roughly 6,000 active installations. The unauthenticated AJAX handler wwlc_file_upload_handler trusts a client-supplied file_settings allowlist, letting attackers upload shell.php for remote code execution. Wordfence has blocked more than 100,000 exploit attempts since disclosure, with spikes in June, July, and August 2026. The vendor fixed the flaw in version 2.0.3.2.
Attackers Target miniOrange SAML Flaws That Can Grant WordPress Admin Access
Attackers are exploiting two unauthenticated WordPress auth bypasses (CVE-2026-61979, CVE-2026-15981, max CVSS 9.8) in miniOrange SAML SSO to gain admin sessions.
Patchstack disclosed two flaws in the Xecurify miniOrange SAML 2.0 Single Sign On WordPress plugin: CVE-2026-15981 (CVSS 9.8) accepts malformed signatures because mo_saml_validate_signature() loosely checks the tri-state result of openssl_verify(), and CVE-2026-61979 (CVSS 8.1) enables privilege escalation via signature algorithm confusion. Both let unauthenticated attackers sign in as any WordPress user, including administrators; fixes shipped in Standard edition versions 17.0.6 and 17.0.5. DigitalOcean observed an attacker using the bypass to obtain an admin session cookie, opportunistic scanning is underway from six IP addresses, and PoC chaining code is public.
StopAndProtect Uses Nearly 2,000 Hacked WordPress Sites to Spread Malware and Steal Data
Check Point details StopAndProtect: ~2,000 compromised WordPress sites deliver ClickFix fake-CAPTCHA malware toolkit combining ransomware, credential theft, screenshots, and WhatsApp surveillance.
Check Point researcher Jaromír Hořejší reports the campaign begins with ClickFix fake-CAPTCHA prompts that trigger a PowerShell command, then two .NET downloader stages that launch six components: SilentEncryptor, NetworkShareScanner, a VBS spreader, LockScreen, SimpleChatProxy, and SilentDataCollector. Hacked WordPress sites host malware stages, serve C2 commands, and receive exfiltrated logs; the actors installed a self-deleting WordPress plugin enabling arbitrary PHP upload anywhere under the WordPress root. From mid-May to late July 2026 the operators exfiltrated more than 700 archives including screenshots every 30 seconds, keylogger output, and WhatsApp contact data, and opsec failures exposed their Visual Basic automation tooling and lists of nearly 2,000 compromised domains.
Philippine Nuclear and Naval Targets Hit by Suspected Chinese Operator
Suspected Chinese-speaking operator breached Philippine nuclear research and naval supplier systems via ownCloud CVE-2023-49103 and WordPress CVE-2024-28000.
Hunt.io found an exposed staging server containing custom Python scripts, logs, and stolen data documenting intrusions against a Philippine nuclear research body and a marine engineering company serving the Philippine Navy. The actor exploited an ownCloud authentication bypass (CVE-2023-49103) using empty-secret pre-signed WebDAV URLs and a LiteSpeed Cache plugin flaw (CVE-2024-28000) to gain WordPress admin access, also guessing passwords against XML-RPC with rockyou.txt. Roughly 9 GB was referenced as stolen from the nuclear agency, including reactor databases, radiation-safety records, and staff passport data; Simplified Chinese labels suggest a Chinese-speaking operator.
OpenAI Agent Swarm Linked to 3,022 Malicious RubyGems Packages in GemStuffer Campaign
JFrog and RubyHack tie 3,022 malicious RubyGems packages to an alleged OpenAI agent swarm abusing documentation workers for execution, data theft, and credential harvesting.
RubyHack and JFrog expanded the GemStuffer campaign inventory to 3,022 malicious RubyGems packages covering 3,315 distinct name-and-version pairs, with 2,359 packages and 2,476 releases uploaded on May 12 alone; RubyGems temporarily froze new-account registrations from May 12-16. The gems abused RubyDoc.info documentation builds via package-controlled .yardopts directives that loaded attacker-supplied Ruby files, executed in documentation workers, scraped meeting calendars and documents from UK local-government sites (Lambeth, Wandsworth, Southwark), and exfiltrated data through republished gems or encoded webhook URLs. One payload, slnleaker5, probed the legacy /api/v1/api_key endpoint to steal an API key and upload a new gem, aligning with a RubyGems CDN caching flaw disclosed in July (CVSS 4.0 score 7.2, High) that affected gem signin clients older than RubyGems 3.2.0; RubyGems found no evidence of malicious use but revoked all legacy API keys as a precaution. A July phase added XSS and server-side template injection payloads in package metadata, and researchers attribute the May-June activity to OpenAI agents based on artifact correlations that remain unconfirmed.
Malcious Admin Menu Editor Pro plugin backdoors 1,500 WordPress sites
Compromised Admin Menu Editor Pro update server distributed backdoored plugin versions installing web shells and hidden admin accounts on roughly 1,500 WordPress sites.
A threat actor with root-level access to adminmenueditor.com pushed trojanized Admin Menu Editor Pro versions 2.35 and 2.36 containing includes/wp-user-consent.php, which installed a web shell and created a hidden wp_-prefixed user account. At least 230 customers and roughly 1,500 sites installed the malicious update, with several hundred more downloads possibly affected. Developer Janis Elsts took the site offline after the attacker recompromised the clean 2.36 release; version 2.34 and the free plugin are believed unaffected.
SilkParasite Espionage Campaign Targets Central Asian Governments with Five New RATs
Bitdefender reports SilkParasite, a China-nexus espionage cluster targeting Central Asian governments with seven RATs, five newly documented, delivered via spearphished RAR archives.
Bitdefender Labs assesses with medium confidence that SilkParasite, first discovered in late 2025, is a China-nexus cluster targeting government bodies in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia. Attacks use password-protected RAR archives with malicious Office documents, macro-triggered DLL sideloading, and checks for running Kaspersky AV before execution. The arsenal spans seven RAT families in .NET, C++, Go, and JavaScript with plugin architectures and diverse C2 channels including Google Drive and HTTP cookie/ETag headers; roughly 65 DriveSilkRAT infections were observed, mostly in Asia. Ties to China include BLOODALCHEMY (a Deed RAT/ShadowPad descendant) and an improved SpiceRAT used by SneakyChef, with traces of AI-assisted development in the tooling and lures.
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.
Detect and disrupt AI-themed attacks with Microsoft Defender
Microsoft Threat Intelligence reports criminal campaigns impersonating ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and DeepSeek in phishing, AiTM, and malvertising attacks reaching 100,000 emails daily.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed a growing set of campaigns that abuse trust in popular AI brands: a ChatGPT-themed phishing campaign sent up to 100,000 emails in one day to steal payment card data, and a Claude-themed campaign used adversary-in-the-middle techniques to harvest credentials and access tokens. Other campaigns included malvertising for a fake AI Windows plugin delivering the Vidar stealer and fraudulent DeepSeek installers distributed via GitHub. Initial access broker Storm-3075 used AI-themed malvertising to distribute payloads for multiple downstream actors, and Microsoft notes the AI services themselves were not compromised. Microsoft also details Defender protections such as Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and attack disruption against these multi-stage lures.
Update Chrome now to protect against an actively exploited vulnerability
Google shipped Chrome 153.0.8010.36/.37 fixing 230 flaws including actively exploited V8 out-of-bounds write CVE-2026-87491 enabling sandboxed code execution.
Chrome stable channel updated to 153.0.8010.36/.37 for Windows and Mac and 153.0.8010.36 for Linux, including 230 security fixes. CVE-2026-87491 is an out-of-bounds write in Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine that a crafted HTML page can exploit to execute arbitrary code inside the browser sandbox; Google rates it medium severity, but it is confirmed as actively exploited. The update also fixes five Critical vulnerabilities, four of which were found in WebGL. Users should update via Settings > About Chrome and restart the browser.
ClickFix attacks infecting PCs and Macs are going viral
ClickFix social engineering attacks are spreading widely, delivering malware to Windows and macOS users by tricking them into running malicious terminal commands that bypass Gatekeeper.
BlueVoyant reports the Lorem Ipsum malware operation pivoted to ClickFix in late May 2026, dropping code-signing infrastructure and broadening its victim pool from Microsoft Teams searchers to anyone browsing a compromised website. Jamf and independent researchers documented macOS ClickFix variants that bypass Gatekeeper protections. Cisco Talos observed attackers abusing published Google Sheets for control traffic, while Netskope counted 5,400 sites beaconing to one campaign; Sandworm has separately hosted control infrastructure in blockchain smart contracts.
Artifactory flaws chained in attacks deploying backdoor malware
Attackers chain JFrog Artifactory flaws CVE-2026-42018 and CVE-2026-42016 to gain admin tokens and deploy a Rust backdoor on self-hosted servers.
Wiz observed multiple threat actors chaining CVE-2026-42018 and CVE-2026-42016 against self-hosted JFrog Artifactory instances between August 15 and September 8, 2026, in some cases obtaining admin access in under five minutes. The critical authentication bypass CVE-2026-82329 was also exploited this month to mint administrator tokens. Attackers installed malicious Groovy plugins, dropped a Rust backdoor with C2 capabilities, uploaded webshells, stole configuration data and cluster join keys, and added SSH keys to new accounts. Wiz estimates 49-62% of internet-reachable Artifactory instances are vulnerable to at least one of the three flaws, and patched releases from 7.111.21 through 7.161.20 are available.
Attackers Breached JetBrains Cadence via Unpatched TeamCity, Extracting AWS Credentials
Unknown attackers exploited critical TeamCity flaw CVE-2026-63077 to breach JetBrains Cadence, stealing a 2024 backup, user data, and AWS credentials; rotation urged.
JetBrains disclosed that threat actors exploited CVE-2026-63077 (CVSS 9.8), a TeamCity deserialization vulnerability added to CISA's KEV catalog on August 5, 2026, to breach its Cadence cloud computing service, with the intrusion running August 8-24, 2026. Confirmed access includes personal data (usernames, names, emails, login timestamps, IPs), a full 2024 Cadence server backup containing credentials and configuration, multiple AWS IAM users and secrets, files in JetBrains S3 buckets, and possibly PyCharm-synchronized source code. The compromised api.cadence.jetbrains.com server has been taken offline and all Cadence plugin access tokens invalidated. JetBrains urges users to immediately revoke or rotate all credentials used with Cadence and treat all executions, inputs, and outputs as potentially untrusted.
Acronis Patches Exploited Vulnerability in cPanel Backup Plugin
Acronis urgently patched CVE-2026-87886 (CVSS 7.8), insecure file permissions enabling privilege escalation, exploited in targeted attacks on cPanel & WHM backups.
Acronis released urgent patches for CVE-2026-87886 (CVSS 7.8), insecure file permissions in the Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM and the Backup extension for Plesk that allow attackers to gain elevated privileges. Exploitation has been detected in the wild in limited, targeted attacks against the cPanel & WHM plugin, but not against the Plesk extension. All Linux versions of the plugin before build 1.9.3.1021 and the Plesk extension before build 1.8.11.638 are affected; Acronis urges immediate updates and has not shared technical details.
Brevo supply chain attack hits 100k+ sites with Wordpress backdoors and Clickfix malwarenew
Attackers with Brevo DNS access injected malicious scripts serving ClickFix malware and WordPress backdoors to over 100,000 customer sites on 14 September 2026.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), an email marketing platform whose clients include eBay, Louis Vuitton, Michelin and Amnesty International, served injected JavaScript from sendibt1.com domains between 16:05 and 20:12 UTC on 14 September 2026, reaching over 100,000 customer sites and mailing lists. The f.js malware secretly installed a WordPress backdoor plugin from cdn10.sendibt1.com/p/wm.zip using logged-in admins' sessions and showed ClickFix overlays urging visitors to copy-paste and run commands. An SSL certificate for cdn.sendibt1.com created August 25 and attacker-created cdn* DNS records indicate write access to Brevo's Cloudflare DNS, likely via a single Cloudflare account compromise. Sansec recorded 2,549 CSP violation reports across 12 monitored sites; all malicious hosts stopped resolving on 15 September and Brevo's status page lists no incident.
StopAndProtect Turns 2,000 Hacked WordPress Sites Into a Criminal Network
Check Point uncovered StopAndProtect, a cybercrime operation using ~2,000 hacked WordPress sites for ClickFix-driven malware delivery, data theft, surveillance, and ransomware.
Check Point Research identified the StopAndProtect operation in May 2026; it abuses close to 2,000 compromised WordPress sites, many running outdated software, to host malware stages, act as C2, and store stolen data. Infection starts with fake CAPTCHA ClickFix prompts that trick visitors into running a PowerShell command, followed by .NET downloaders deploying ransomware, SMB/USB worm, lockscreen, chat, and credential-stealing components. Rather than always encrypting, operators selectively exfiltrate file lists and specific files; researchers found 700+ stolen-data archives, roughly 31,000 screenshots, and 6,000+ unique victim IP addresses, including WhatsApp activity monitoring.
China-Linked Hackers Exploit Sogou One-Click RCE to Deploy GRAYRABBIT Backdoor
China-linked UNC3569 exploited CVE-2026-51990 in Sogou Input Method to deploy the GRAYRABBIT backdoor in active espionage intrusions.
Gen Threat Labs discovered UNC3569 exploiting CVE-2026-51990, a one-click RCE in Tencent's Sogou Input Method for Windows that chains an insecure sgbiz: protocol handler with an unsandboxed Chromium 80 CEF webview. The chain weaponizes CVE-2021-38003 (V8 type confusion) to run shellcode that DLL-sideloads via 7z.exe/7z.dll and deploys the GRAYRABBIT backdoor, which beacons over RC4-encrypted raw TCP 443 to mail.uaiubifas[.]top. Tencent patched the issue in version 16.3.0.3498, released via automatic updates on April 21, 2026. UNC3569 is a PRC-nexus espionage actor targeting government, education, technology, and financial sectors across East and Southeast Asia.
Fake Conferences, OAuth and WhatsApp: Inside Russia’s New Espionage Tactics
Google tracks three Russia-linked espionage clusters abusing OAuth, app passwords, and device code phishing against Western researchers and diplomats.
Google's Threat Intelligence Group documented three suspected Russia-linked clusters, UNC6293, UNC7005, and UNC5976, abusing legitimate authentication flows. UNC6293, a likely APT29/ICE RELIC sub-cluster, impersonates US State Department officials in app password and OAuth phishing targeting fewer than five victims at a time. UNC7005, tracked by Microsoft as STORM-2945, spoofs the GLOBSEC conference, runs device code phishing against Microsoft and WhatsApp accounts, and deploys VIDAR and AtomicStealer infostealers. Targets include researchers, academics, diplomats, think-tank analysts, and defense personnel in Europe and the United States.