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AI AppSec tools agree on just 5% of security findings

Contrast Security report finds 42 confirmed exploit attempts per application monthly and three AI scanners agreeing on only 5% of findings.

Contrast Security's AppSec Overflow 2026 report, drawing on telemetry from hundreds of thousands of production applications and APIs, found adversaries touch the average application every four minutes with 42 confirmed viable exploit attempts per application monthly, led by untrusted deserialization, path traversal, and method tampering. Legacy flaws Log4Shell and Spring4Shell remain widespread, mean time to exploit fell from over two years in 2018 to under three weeks for most 2025 exploited vulnerabilities, and average critical fix time is 92 days. Three AI scanners set on the same codebase agreed on only 5% of findings, and triaging a 2-million-line codebase scan cost roughly $128,000 versus $315 in API charges. Among exploited CVEs in the dataset, 82% of KEV-listed entries carried EPSS scores of 90% or higher, while CVE-2006-1547 and CVE-2023-38180 were confirmed exploited despite EPSS scores under 25%.

Help Net Security · 16d agoResearch in the wildCVE-2006-1547CVE-2023-381801

Week in review: Salesforce and ServiceNow portals exposed for 17 months, exploited Metabase 0-day

Weekly digest: exploited Metabase zero-day breached Framework; Salesforce/ServiceNow portals read for 17 months; Microsoft patched 400+ flaws.

Help Net Security's week in review aggregates top stories: a 'City-Forum' campaign tracked by Reco has been pulling records from Salesforce and ServiceNow portals worldwide for 17 months, and Framework suffered a breach via an exploited Metabase zero-day exposing customer contact and IP data. It also covers Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday fixing 400+ flaws including exploited zero-day CVE-2026-68820, Cisco's fix for exploited firewall DoS bug CVE-2026-20349 (added to CISA KEV), and a second N-able N-central hotfix for actively exploited CVE-2026-18577. Other items include GitHub expanding Dependabot malware alerts to eight package ecosystems and EU AI Act enforcement beginning on 2 August 2026.

Help Net Security · Aug 16, 2026Industry in the wildCVE-2026-18577CVE-2026-68820CVE-2026-203491

Metasploit Wrap Up: This One Goes to Sixteen!

Metasploit adds 16 modules including 10 exploits, five covering CISA KEV vulnerabilities in Cisco, SonicWall, PaperCut, JetBrains and Langflow.

Rapid7's weekly Metasploit update ships 16 new modules, 10 of them exploit modules, with five targeting CISA KEV entries. New exploits cover Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center auth bypass (CVE-2026-20079), a SonicWall SMA1000 SSRF-to-root RCE chain (CVE-2026-83548/CVE-2026-83549), JetBrains TeamCity deserialization RCE (CVE-2026-63077), PaperCut NG/MF chain (CVE-2026-81578/CVE-2026-82078), and Langflow authenticated RCE (CVE-2026-19295). The SonicWall and PaperCut chains were reported as actively exploited zero-days, and a new ESC8 relay module exploits CVE-2026-20929 against AD CS Web Enrollment.

Rapid7 Blog · 5d agoTools in the wildCVE-2025-66516CVE-2025-54988CVE-2026-20929+8 CVEs1

Lawmakers call on Treasury to sanction hackers-for-hire

Bipartisan US lawmakers asked Treasury to sanction three India-based hack-for-hire firms accused of long-running espionage against Americans.

Sens. Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Pat Harrigan urged Treasury to add Sunkissed Organic Farms (formerly Appin), BellTroX, and CyberRoot to the Entity List. The letter says the mercenary groups conducted targeted espionage against US citizens, businesses, and lawyers for over fifteen years, allegedly including work for Qatar's government such as targeting opponents of Qatar's World Cup bid and Kristi Rogers, wife of Senate candidate Mike Rogers. Adding the firms to the Entity List would restrict their access to American software, cybersecurity tools, and cloud infrastructure. The lawmakers also accuse the groups of lawfare campaigns to censor investigative reporting on their hacking activities.

CyberScoop · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild

In most cities, nobody owns the whole network

Former Waco CIO argues cellular-connected water controllers sit outside scanned networks, and accountability plus operating-budget funding—not technology—block segmentation.

Writing as Waco, Texas's former CIO, the author describes July water-sector intrusions that CISA linked to over 100 compromised systems, typically controllers on public cellular links absent from asset lists. The FBI and EPA reported incidents at utilities in at least seven states since July 27, and a Clayton County, Georgia pump station failure triggered a boil-water advisory. He argues accountability and funding—using mechanisms like the Texas Water Development Board's new cybersecurity scoring criteria—are the binding constraints, citing Waco's 43-day segmentation of five treatment plants with operating funds.

CyberScoop · 8d agoIndustry in the wild

European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

29 MEPs urge delaying Serbia's EU accession after researchers found Pegasus and NoviSpy spyware on student activists' phones.

Twenty-nine Members of the European Parliament sent a letter Friday demanding Serbia's EU accession be slowed until an investigation into its spyware use is completed. The letter follows a SHARE Foundation report, with Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab, documenting Pegasus and NoviSpy infections on Serbian student activists' phones; NoviSpy evidence pointed to Serbian government authorities, though Pegasus attribution was not assigned. The MEPs also urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to cancel a planned visit to Serbia and called the surveillance 'a direct state attack on democracy' ahead of upcoming elections. The Serbian government did not respond to requests for comment.

CyberScoop · 11d agoPolicy & legal in the wild

U.S. Sanctions Iran-Linked Hackers Behind Critical Infrastructure Breaches

U.S. Treasury sanctioned nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, including MOIS-affiliated Mabna Institute hackers behind breaches of U.S. critical infrastructure and millions in crypto theft.

The U.S. Treasury launched Operation Economic Outcast, designating nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, individuals, and vessels across nuclear, missile, oil, cyber, and digital asset networks. Five sanctioned individuals are members of the Tehran-based Mabna Institute indicted last week; three allegedly breached and exfiltrated data from U.S. energy, defense, healthcare, IT, and financial organizations since late 2023. TRM Labs traced roughly $16.8 million across 30 wallets tied to the members, and the State Department announced a reward of up to $10 million. The action follows Iranian hacking of FBI Director Kash Patel's email and attacks on over 30 U.S. water and wastewater utilities.

The Hacker News · 21d agoPolicy & legal in the wild