Hackers exploit Sangoma Switchvox flaw to deploy reverse shells

At least four espionage groups, most with suspected links to China, are using a new exploit kit that chains two Chromium-based browser flaws and one Microsoft Windows bug to break into organizations' networks in the US and Southeast Asia. Mark Kelly, a threat researcher at email security shop Proofpoint, told The Register that the researchers don't know exactly who was targeted, nor how, and so far the damage appears limited. “In terms of organizations targeted, we saw fewer than 20 organizations globally targeted across the activity highlighted," he said. "However, the true number is almost certainly higher than this.” Proofpoint’s threat hunters spotted the new kit, which they named BlueMoon, and said its first observed use started on August 28. This is when a Beijing-backed crew they track as TA412, also known as Violet Typhoon and APT31, used BlueMoon to “repeatedly” target non-governmental organizations (NGOs), mining companies, and physical commodity trading firms in the US. TA412 is a cyberespionage group linked by US authorities to China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), and American prosecutors previously charged seven alleged members with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud, alleging they broke into computer networks, email accounts, and cloud storage belonging to numerous critical infrastructure organizations, companies, and individuals. Just days after Proofpoint documented the late-August activity, “several other espionage-motivated clusters began using BlueMoon, the majority of which have a suspected China nexus,” Kelly and fellow researchers Greg Lesnewich, Konstantin Klinger, Saher Naumaan, Julia Paluch, David Galazin, and Stuart Del Caliz said on Wednesday, noting that there may be other, non-China-nexus attackers using the exploit kit as well. “BlueMoon was developed and deployed rapidly, and shared across multiple threat actors within days,” Kelly told The Register. “This may reflect a reduced cost and barrier to entry for this class of capability, which has historically been rare and high value, as AI agents increasingly enable threat actor exploit development. That is particularly true for open-source codebases such as Chromium, where publicly accessible upstream patches create a ‘patch-gap’ window for rapid reverse engineering and exploit development ahead of downstream stable releases.” A Google spokesperson declined to comment beyond what Proofpoint wrote. Microsoft patched the Windows bug (CVE-2026-85880) on Tuesday, and a spokesperson reiterated that customers who applied that patch are protected. BlueMoon attack chain The kit chains together three vulnerabilities. The first is a V8 type confusion (CVE-2026-85046) flaw that allows remote code execution and affects all Chromium-based browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Google patched this bug in Chrome on September 3, and at the time warned that it “is aware that an exploit for CVE-2026-85046 exists in the wild.” Microsoft published a security advisory saying it fixed the flaw in Edge Stable version 152.0.4191.62 on September 2. The second is a Chrome V8 sandbox escape. This one also affected all Chromium-based browsers. It does not have a CVE because Google doesn’t issue them for sandbox escapes. Finally, the third bug is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call (CVE-2026-85880) that Microsoft patched on Tuesday, as noted above. Redmond also warned that this flaw had been exploited as a zero-day prior to the security update. The Proofpoint researchers also note that both V8 vulnerabilities are what’s called "patch-gap" zero-days at the time of the observed activity. This means they were known and fixed in upstream Chromium source code – a change containing the fix for CVE-2026-85046 was committed on August 7. But they remained unpatched in the latest stable releases of Chrome and Chromium-based browsers available to the public for weeks. “It is likely that the exploit kit developer used these publicly available Chromium patches to weaponize the browser exploit chain,” the researchers note. From phishing to browser surveillance The attacks start with a phishing email that tricks victims into clicking on an actor-controlled URL. This triggers the two V8 bugs to allow remote code execution and escape the browser sandbox. The attack chain then exploits the Windows bug to download multiple payloads including browser-surveillance malware, credential-stealing backdoors, and others, depending on the group using the exploit kit. TA412’s first campaign, which began on August 28, used a range of lures. Some of the emails purported to come from university students interested in internships at the targeted organizations, and some were more target-specific exchanges, intended to build trust with the individual before ultimately sending a malicious link via email. In these instances, the exploit chain “ultimately downloaded and ran a loader executable on the infected host, which then installed a malicious browser extension disguised as Google Gemini on the victim's Chromium-based browser,” the team wrote. This browser extension, which Proofpoint tracks as GemStone, allowed the Beijing spies to issue commands through a command-and-control (C&C) channel, steal cookies and other sensitive data, take screenshots, and inject a keylogger into a browser tab. The malware also contains a keyword monitor, which injects an attacker-specified keyword list into the top frame of each page, scans the HTML body for these keywords, and triggers a screenshot if it finds any. A few days later, beginning on September 2, a second China-aligned spy crew that Proofpoint tracks under the temporary group designator UNK_LateNight used BlueMoon to target multiple US aerospace companies. The phishing emails used request-for-quotation lures specific to defense industry organizations, and included links to attacker-controlled domains spoofing a variety of US aerospace companies. These websites also served the BlueMoon exploit kit and ultimately loaded a backdoor called ShadowPad, which has been shared among multiple China-aligned groups since 2019. Around this same time, on September 2, another suspected espionage group that Proofpoint tracks as UNK_DoubleCheck targeted a Vietnamese manufacturing firm with messages sent from a compromised Southeast Asian government email address. The fourth campaign began a day later, and involved suspected China-linked spy crew UNK_QuietRacket using BlueMoon to target government, consulting, and financial-sector organizations in Indonesia and Singapore. These phishing emails used lures related to Indonesian conferences, such as the Indo Startup Expo and Forum 2026 and the World Conference on Creative Economy (WCCE 2026). Proofpoint warns that BlueMoon will likely be used by both cyberspies and financially motivated attackers. “The broader dynamic revealed by this activity - rapid exploit development that leverages the open source patch-gap – is likely to recur beyond BlueMoon as this development model becomes accessible,” the team wrote. ®

Hackers deploy Linux rootkit on F5 BIG-IP APM devices, hiding web shell in memory A rootkit found on hacked F5 BIG-IP APM devices skips the usual step of writing a web shell to disk, hiding it in memory instead, according to Sophos. F5 BIG-IP APM provides access policy enforcement to secure access to apps, APIs, and data. It’s primarily used by enterprises, financial institutions, government agencies, and public sector organizations. “The implant delivers a familiar outcome – on-demand server-side code execution commonly associated with web shells – but implements it using deeper Linux- and Apache-specific tradecraft,” Sophos said. “The malware targets deployments featuring Apache, libphp, APR module loading, BIG-IP APM webtop components, and BIG-IP upgrade workflows, suggesting it was developed for specific environments,” they added. F5 has linked related activity to CVE-2025-53521, an unauthenticated remote code execution flaw in BIG-IP APM that has already been exploited in the wild. While digging through the sample, the Sophos team learned that ESET had already looked at the same malware and given it a name, PoisonedRefresh. Web shell lives in memory The malware analyzed is a second-stage payload, according to Sophos. During a parallel analysis of a related sample called “umount,” researchers identified a separate installer component responsible for infecting the Apache binary at /usr/sbin/httpd, persisting across BIG-IP upgrade images, modifying SELinux configurations, and deploying the second-stage payload. “The second-stage sample hides key operational strings with RC4, gains execution before the host application main() function is invoked by intercepting __libc_start_main, targets Apache’s PHP module by hooking the Apache Portable Runtime (APR) module loader (apr_dso_load), and injects a PHP web shell into memory.” Once Apache loads PHP, the second-stage implant intercepts PHP file operations and rewrites them in memory to hide a web shell inside legitimate scripts, including apm_css.php3, full_wt.php3, and webtop_popup_css.php3. Sophos says these files were likely chosen because they’re common in BIG-IP APM webtop environments and unlikely to draw attention. The files on disk stay unchanged, cutting down what file-based scanning can detect. “When PHP opens one of these files, the implant records the file descriptor. When that file is subsequently memory mapped, the implant creates a modified in-memory view containing both the embedded web shell and the original script content. The on-disk file does not need to contain the final web shell content at all; execution follows from the modified in-memory representation created by the implant at runtime,” researchers explained. A second route to a shell Alongside the web shell, the malware sets up a Unix domain socket at /run/bigtlog.pipe. After a short token check, a connection to that socket gets handed straight to /bin/bash, giving an attacker an interactive shell. Because it’s a local socket rather than a network listener, it won’t show up as a listening TCP port or in network monitoring that only looks for open TCP ports. Researchers found no code inside the sample that would let an attacker reach that socket from outside the server, so it’s not clear how the two access methods are meant to work together, or whether the web shell is used to reach the socket indirectly. What defenders can look for Sophos lists a handful of signals worth checking for on Apache servers, including requests to the three .php3 files named above, PHP endpoints that return an HTTP 201 status while claiming to serve CSS content, and Apache worker processes that read /proc/self/maps and then change memory permissions shortly after. It also suggests blocking .php3 execution where it isn’t needed, though administrators of BIG-IP APM systems should follow F5’s guidance before making such changes. Sophos also recommends restricting ptrace access to reduce other ways processes can be inspected or manipulated, while noting that this would not necessarily stop the implant’s in-process behavior. “Based on our analysis of the related umount and infected httpd samples, we assess that this campaign involves a staged architecture.” “Perhaps the most significant finding is that the web shell does not need to exist in its final form on disk. Instead, the implant alters how targeted PHP files are presented to the running process, meaning the content observed by Apache and PHP can differ from the content visible to traditional file-based inspection. As a result, responders who focus exclusively on the filesystem may overlook critical evidence,” Sophos concluded.

Microsoft’s September 2026 Patch Tuesday addresses 964 CVEs, including 104 rated Critical and 860 rated Important, making it the company’s largest Patch Tuesday release on record. Microsoft lists 974 CVEs in its full September security release. However, 10 of those affect cloud services or involve fixes that Microsoft applies itself, leaving 964 vulnerabilities that customers need to patch. The release includes fixes for two actively exploited Windows zero-days. Both are local elevation-of-privilege vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker who already has access to a device to gain SYSTEM privileges. Neither provides remote access by itself, but SYSTEM-level access is valuable to malware operators after they gain an initial foothold through phishing, stolen credentials, or another method. How to apply patches and check if you’re protected These updates fix security problems and help keep your Windows PC protected. Here’s how to make sure you’re up to date: Click the  Start  button, then open  Settings . Select  Windows Update  (usually at the bottom of the menu on the left). Click  Check for updates . Windows will search for the latest security updates. If you’ve enabled  Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available  under  More options , you may be prompted to restart immediately to complete the update. Otherwise, continue to the next step. Windows 11 up to date If updates are available, they’ll start downloading automatically. When they’re ready, click  Install  or  Restart now  if prompted. Your computer may need a restart to finish the update. After restarting, go back to  Windows Update  and check again. If it says  You’re up to date , you’re all set. Technical details The unusually large batch also includes high-severity remote-code-execution vulnerabilities in Windows DNS Server and Remote Desktop Services, as well as fixes affecting Exchange Server, SharePoint, SQL Server, Office, and core Windows components. Let’s take a closer look at the two zero-day vulnerabilities. Microsoft classifies a vulnerability as a zero-day if it was publicly disclosed or actively exploited before an official fix became available. The first is a Windows Update Stack elevation-of-privilege (EoP) vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10, tracked as CVE-2026-81963 . The description says: “Improper link resolution before file access (‘link following’) in Windows Update Stack allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.” This means Windows can be persuaded to open or modify the wrong file because it follows a shortcut-like pointer without properly checking where that pointer leads. Microsoft says attackers exploited the bug before a patch was available. The second zero-day, tracked as CVE-2026-85880 , also has a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10. Microsoft describes it as: “heap-based buffer overflow in Windows ALPC allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.” Microsoft says an attacker who can execute code in a low-privilege AppContainer could exploit the vulnerability locally to escape the sandbox and elevate their privileges on the affected system. No additional user interaction is required. Windows ALPC is an internal messaging system in the Windows operating system that allows different programs on the same computer to communicate with each other quickly. A buffer overflow occurs when an area of memory within a software application reaches its boundary and data spills into an adjacent memory region. The heap is a region of memory used for dynamic memory allocation. These are not the kinds of bugs a typical victim triggers merely by opening a malicious document or visiting a website. But local privilege escalation is a critical part of many attack chains: After malware runs with limited rights, a SYSTEM-level exploit can help an intruder disable defenses, access protected data, establish persistence, or move through a network. From reporting threats to removing them. Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by  downloading Malwarebytes today .

Malware linked to break-ins at F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager appliances hides a PHP web shell in memory instead of in a file on disk, Sophos said in an analysis published on September 7. When Apache loads any of the three appliances' own PHP scripts, the malware adds the web shell to the copy held in memory, so a check of the file on disk can come back clean. Those three scripts are the same ones F5 pointed customers to in March, when it said changes to them alone do not show a break-in. A web shell is usually a small script an attacker drops into a web server's folders to run commands through ordinary web requests. Because it sits on disk, defenders look for it by scanning files and comparing them against known-good copies. That approach does not work here. As the researchers put it, the web shell "does not need to exist in its final form on disk." The three scripts are apm_css.php3, full_wt.php3 and webtop_popup_css.php3, part of the BIG-IP APM webtop. F5 named all three in March in a published list of indicators of compromise for the malware it tracks as c05d5254, and said at the time that their presence alone does not point to a security problem. F5 also said it had seen cases where a web shell was written to disk, but that the web shells "have been observed to work in memory only," which means the files it listed might not be modified. The Sophos analysis explains how both statements can be true at once. Sophos examined a single sample. Its analysis names no victim and does not say how the sample was obtained. F5 has linked the c05d5254 activity to appliances affected by CVE-2025-53521, Sophos said. F5 first published that flaw on October 15, 2025, as a denial-of-service problem. On March 27, 2026, F5 said new information had led it to reclassify the flaw as remote code execution, and that it had been exploited. An attacker needs no login to use it, and F5 rates it 9.8 on CVSS 3.1 and 9.3 on CVSS 4.0. CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog the same day, giving U.S. federal civilian agencies until March 30 to act. The flaw applies where a BIG-IP APM access policy is set on a virtual server. The UK's National Cyber Security Center calls BIG-IP APM a common component, especially in large organizations. F5's advisory lists the affected and fixed releases. The patch that fixes this is nearly a year old. Ireland's National Cyber Security Center said in a March 31 advisory that the patch released in October is still valid and will protect against exploitation. The web shell is the last step in a longer chain, and the earlier steps do touch the disk. Sophos said a separate installer, found in a sample named umount, infects the Apache web server program at /usr/sbin/httpd by adding malicious code to the front of the real file. The size of that added code matches the payload carried inside the installer, which Sophos said strongly suggests the installer puts it there. ESET, which analyzed related samples in April and named the malware PoisonedRefresh, said the installer is meant to be run as root and turns off SELinux. It also infects umount, httpd and rc.local inside BIG-IP install images, which ESET said was presumably done to spread the malware to other systems through the installation media. Because the malware sits inside the Apache program, it runs before Apache's own code starts. Sophos said it hooks an Apache Portable Runtime function, apr_dso_load, and does nothing until Apache loads the PHP module, libphp. Once PHP is loaded, the malware reads /proc/self/maps to find the module in memory, briefly makes those memory pages writable, rewrites the calls the module uses to open, size, and map files, then puts the original permissions back. From that point, it controls what PHP sees when it opens one of the three scripts. When the file is mapped into memory, the malware places the web shell in front of the original content. The web shell reads the raw body of a request, checks it for a short marker, decrypts the rest, and runs it. It replies with HTTP status 201 and a CSS content type, so the exchange looks like a request for a stylesheet. The malware also opens a local socket at /run/bigtlog.pipe. After checking for a fixed token, it connects that socket to /bin/bash, giving an interactive shell without opening a network port. Sophos said it could not find any code in the sample for connecting to that socket, and no other use of the token, so the two ways in look like separate features. It has no evidence either way on whether the attacker reaches the socket through the web shell. What Defenders Can Check Sophos said its behavioral signals are leads to investigate, not proof on their own, and should be read alongside file, process, and memory evidence. The list below combines them with the indicators F5 published in March. File: /run/bigtlog.pipe or /run/bigstart.ltm present Binary: hash, size or timestamp mismatch on /usr/bin/umount or /usr/sbin/httpd against a known good copy. F5 notes that sizes and timestamps differ between releases and engineering hotfixes Tool: sys-eicheck failing because one of those two files has changed Log: an entry in /var/log/restjavad-audit showing a local user reaching the iControl REST API from localhost Log: an entry in /var/log/auditd showing SELinux being switched off by the same route Log: an entry in /var/log/audit showing a bash command run through iControl REST. F5 says these lines show base64 data written into a file and /run/bigstart.ltm being run Traffic: HTTP 201 responses carrying a CSS content type from the appliance Host behavior: an Apache worker reading /proc/self/maps, changing memory permissions around libphp, binding a socket under /run, or starting /bin/bash SHA-256: 26bd5b0722d1dbab5db749a063c49bc8638653ac2addfead7a9cb3d6d57bccc9 File, weak on its own: changes to the three .php3 scripts. F5 says their presence alone does not show a problem, and the Sophos analysis explains why: the file does not have to change at all F5's list also includes items the Sophos analysis does not cover, among them /run/bigstart.ltm and the changes affecting sys-eicheck. Neither account describes the whole intrusion. If You Have Already Patched Patching does not settle whether an appliance was compromised before the patch went on. Ireland's NCSC said no timeline for exploitation is available, and that it expects some exploitation was or could have been happening before the flaw and its fix were first published in October 2025. The UK's NCSC advises investigating for compromise "regardless of when the system was updated." Run F5's built-in sys-eicheck integrity check. F5's own indicators say the changes to /usr/bin/umount and /usr/sbin/httpd make this tool fail, so a failure is itself the signal. Collect a qkview report, send it to F5 and raise a case. Ireland's NCSC said F5 can check that report for signs of compromise, and that raising an associated case brings a quicker and fuller response. Compare the contents of modules in memory against the copies on disk, which Sophos recommends adding to incident response playbooks for critical web servers. Where a full investigation is not possible, the UK NCSC advises isolating the appliance and rebuilding it as new, and says this may cause an outage. Three things are still unknown. F5 has not said when exploitation began. None of the published advisories or analyses say whether upgrading an appliance to a fixed release removes malware already installed on it, and both Sophos and ESET describe a component designed to survive upgrade images. And no one has named an attacker: Sophos said it does not have enough evidence to name a group, and ESET said in April that it had not settled the question either.

The vulnpocalypse is upon us, dear reader. Microsoft delivered a record number of patches to address 974 CVEs in its own products this month, including two bugs that Redmond says are already under exploitation. September's record-breaking collection of security updates come after Microsoft served up 421 fixes in August, and 622 in July. We've seen the new normal and we are not impressed. Thanks, but no thanks, AI. In addition to Microsoft’s massive patch drop, Adobe on Tuesday issued 10 bulletins addressing 172 CVEs, including a max-severity vulnerability exploited as a zero day in Magento and its successor product Adobe Commerce. Adobe on Monday shipped a hotfix for this one, tracked as CVE-2026-75650 and named StyleSmuggler, that gives unauthenticated attackers remote code execution. StyleSmuggler If your organization has any type of online shop, prioritize this one first as it’s already being abused to compromise stores, according to e-commerce security shop Sansec. Sansec discovered StyleSmuggler, and reports that attacks started on September 4. Every version of Magento and Adobe Commerce, from 2.4.4 up to and including 2.4.9, has the flaw. The bug allows attackers to inject malicious PHP code inside Magento templates using the “styles” properties to evade safety detections. In confirmed attacks, the payload then installs a backdoor that connects to a command-and-control server and waits for instructions. “So far, we have no indication that the backdoor has been weaponized,” the Sansec Forensics Team wrote. Don’t wait to find out on this one. Put it at the top of your mitigation list. Microsoft's 974 CVEs On to Microsoft’s record-breaking 974 CVEs, which according to Tenable is not many fewer than the 1,130 CVEs Redmond issued in 2025. Two are already being exploited as zero-days. First up: CVE-2026-85880, a privilege escalation bug in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call (ALPC). Successful exploitation can result in the attacker gaining SYSTEM privileges. “An attacker who can execute code in a low-privilege AppContainer could exploit this vulnerability locally to escape the sandbox and elevate privileges on the affected system,” Redmond warned. “No additional user interaction is required.” No word yet on who is exploiting this bug, and to what end. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday added CVE-2026-85880 plus a second Microsoft security hole (and the Adobe Commerce and Magento zero-day) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, and set a September 22 deadline for federal agencies to fix both new Microsoft bugs and a September 11 deadline to patch the Adobe flaw. The second Microsoft bug found and exploited as a zero-day is CVE-2026-81963, another privilege escalation vulnerability. This one affects the Windows Update Stack. We also have very little detail about this flaw, other than it also allows attackers to gain SYSTEM-level access. “More likely is that this bug is being combined with a code execution bug to spread malware or ransomware,” opined Zero Day Initiative’s Dustin Childs, who advised users to “Patch this one quickly.” While those are the only two (so far) under active exploitation, Childs rated CVE-2026-55007, one of nine Exchange Server flaws disclosed this month, as “the most important” patch for the messaging server. It allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute code on a vulnerable Exchange server by sending an email with a malicious Visio attachment. No user interaction is required, and the code executes when the server processes the attachment during content indexing. Redmond says it’s “difficult to reliably trigger,” but as Childs points out: “The attacker only needs to get it right once. Schedule your downtime and update your Exchange servers with haste.” Childs also said he counts 20 patches for wormable bugs, so be sure to read his full Patch Tuesday review for those. “While some might be more exploitable than others, having 20 of them in a single release is something else.” The missing CVE While Redmond addressed nearly 1,000 security holes this month alone, it’s also worth pointing out one that isn’t this month’s Patch Tuesday roundup: CVE-2026-85046. Google patched this bug in Chrome on September 3, and at the time warned that it “is aware that an exploit for CVE-2026-85046 exists in the wild.” The high-severity, type confusion flaw exists in the V8 JavaScript engine used in both Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge browsers. And yet Microsoft still hasn’t published a security advisory for CVE-2026-85046. “If you’re patched, you are protected, but if you rely on advisories to know which vulns exist, you could miss this zero-day vulnerability altogether,” Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7, told The Register. “A patch without an advisory is perhaps marginally better than an advisory without a patch, but keeping track of exposures without reliable advisory materials is not straightforward,” Barnett said. “Chrome patched 11 other vulnerabilities at the same time as CVE-2026-85046, but it’s not yet clear if those are patched in Edge. Until Microsoft sets the record straight, the only safe assumption is that these vulnerabilities (e.g. CVE-2026-85045) remain unpatched in Edge.” ®

Microsoft Corp. today issued updates to plug at least 974 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, by far its biggest single patch batch ever. Microsoft says artificial intelligence is helping to speed the discovery of vulnerabilities, but security experts warn that many organizations already are struggling to prioritize the more human-intensive endeavor of testing and deploying so many fixes each month. Image: Shutterstock.com, Kirill Makarov. This month’s patch bundle obliterates the software giant’s previous record set in July , when it released updates for at least 570 security vulnerabilities. September’s Patch Tuesday brings this year’s total to more than 2,600, more than twice Microsoft’s previous record-setting patch year in 2020 (1,245) and with three more months to go. There are two “zero-day” flaws fixed this month that are being actively exploited: both CVE-2026-81963 and CVE-2026-85880 allow an attacker to elevate their privileges on Windows system. Fully 113 of the bugs addressed today earned Microsoft’s “critical” rating, meaning they could be abused by malware or miscreants to seize control over a vulnerable Windows machine with little or no help from the user. Among the more serious critical flaws this month is CVE-2026-69730 , a DNS weakness present in Windows Server 2012 onward and on Windows 10. Microsoft warns that an unauthenticated attacker could leverage this weakness simply by sending a specially crafted packet to an affected system, and that it is likely to be exploited. Also scary is CVE-2026-69829 , a critical, remote code execution flaw in the Windows Shell. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 9.8 (10 is the most severe), and can be exploited with low attack complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction. Microsoft’s summary of the security updates released today. Image: msrc.microsoft.com. Microsoft is hardly alone in shipping monster patch bundles lately. Many other large software companies, including Adobe, Cisco, Google, Mozilla and Oracle, all have recently credited AI-assisted research with increasing their patch cadence and volume (Google said today it is now going to ship security updates every two weeks). Tyler Reguly , associate director of security research and development at Fortra , said one core challenge with deploying Windows updates is that they need to be tested before being installed across an organization because not all third-party software works seamlessly in the face of changes to the underlying operating system. “It’s time to put our CISOs and CSOs on notice,” Reguly said. “How are you helping your teams through these difficult times? Do you have your teams deploy after hours and on weekends to avoid disruption to the business environment? Do you reward them for that effort? Time to dig into your budget and buy dinner for your teams that are working on Saturday to get patches rolled out before users return to work on Monday.” Satnam Narang is senior staff research engineer at Tenable . Narang said it’s important to recognize that while the number of vulnerabilities being patched by Microsoft is rising, the number of flaws that can and will affect most organizations remains quite low. “AI-assisted vulnerability discovery in 2026 is creating larger haystacks, but it isn’t finding more needles,” he said. “It’s critical that organizations understand which vulnerabilities actually apply to them, whether they pose a threat by being reachable and exploitable, and prioritize remediation based on this risk context.” Of course, regular Windows users don’t need to test patches before deploying them, but they still need to open Windows Update periodically or else assent to the program’s nag notices about pending updates. And at the rate these Windows patch releases are ballooning in size, it’s probably best not to let them pile up month after month. Enterprise Windows admins will want to keep an eye on askwoody.com for news of any updates that appear to be causing problems. As always, the SANS Internet Storm Center has a per-patch breakdown ordered by severity and urgency.

Microsoft heeft 9 kwetsbaarheden verholpen in Exchange Server. Een kwaadwillende kan de kwetsbaarheden misbruiken om een Denial-of-Service uit te voeren, zich voor te doen als andere gebruiker, zich verhoogde rechten toe te kennen, willekeurige code uit te voeren en/of toegang te krijgen tot gevoelige gegevens. De ernstigste kwetsbaarheid met kenmerk CVE-2026-69380 heeft een CVSS-score van 9,9 en betreft een autorisatiekwetsbaarheid. Een geauthenticeerde kwaadwillende met beperkte rechten en een toegewezen mailbox kan via het netwerk zijn rechten verhogen en zich voordoen als andere gebruikers. Hierdoor kan de kwaadwillende mailboxen van Exchange-gebruikers overnemen, e-mails lezen en verzenden en bijlagen downloaden. De kwetsbaarheid met kenmerk CVE-2026-69356 heeft een CVSS-score van 9,3 en betreft een XSS-kwetsbaarheid. Een ongeauthenticeerde kwaadwillende kan een speciaal geprepareerde agenda-uitnodiging versturen. Als een gebruiker de vergaderlink opent, kan de kwaadwillende scripts uitvoeren binnen de Outlook on the Web-sessie en mailboxgegevens inzien of wijzigen. De kwetsbaarheid met kenmerk CVE-2026-69641 heeft een CVSS-score van 9,1 en betreft een autorisatiekwetsbaarheid. Een geauthenticeerde kwaadwillende met zeer hoge rechten kan via een speciaal geprepareerd verzoek mailboxautorisatiecontroles omzeilen en toegang krijgen tot de mailbox van andere gebruikers. Hierdoor kan de kwaadwillende mailboxen overnemen, e-mails lezen en verzenden en bijlagen downloaden. `` Microsoft Exchange Server: |----------------|------|-------------------------------------| | CVE-ID | CVSS | Impact | |----------------|------|-------------------------------------| | CVE-2026-55007 | 8,10 | Uitvoeren van willekeurige code | | CVE-2026-69355 | 8,80 | Uitvoeren van willekeurige code | | CVE-2026-69356 | 9,30 | Voordoen als andere gebruiker | | CVE-2026-69361 | 6,50 | Voordoen als andere gebruiker | | CVE-2026-69375 | 6,50 | Tampering | | CVE-2026-69378 | 7,50 | Denial-of-Service | | CVE-2026-69380 | 9,90 | Verkrijgen van verhoogde rechten | | CVE-2026-69382 | 5,90 | Toegang tot gevoelige gegevens | | CVE-2026-69641 | 9,10 | Verkrijgen van verhoogde rechten | |----------------|------|-------------------------------------| ``

Adobe has released patches for more than 170 vulnerabilities across its products, including urgent hotfixes for a critical-severity flaw in Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source that has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day. Tracked as CVE-2026-75650 (CVSS score of 10/10), the flaw is a code injection issue that can be exploited without authentication for remote code execution (RCE). “Adobe is aware of CVE-2026-75650 being exploited in the wild,” the company notes in its advisory. Adobe also published a KB article with details on the update. The security defect was patched on Monday, after cybersecurity firm Sansec warned over the weekend that hackers have been exploiting a zero-day flaw in Commerce/Magento to hack online stores. Attackers started exploiting the issue, dubbed StyleSmuggler, on September 4, injecting code that would be executed by triggering Magento’s standard ‘Payment Transaction Failed Reminder’, without user interaction. According to Sansec’s updated report, several threat actors have been targeting the vulnerability to deploy backdoors and web shells. Commerce/Magento should apply Adobe’s fixes as soon as possible and rotate their encryption keys and all credentials protected with those keys, including administrative passwords, database credentials, integration tokens, OAuth secrets, SSH and deploy keys, and API keys. “Rotate those at the source, not only inside Magento. Rotating the encryption key on its own does not invalidate anything an attacker already read,” Sansec notes. On Tuesday, Adobe released patches for eight additional Commerce vulnerabilities, including two critical-severity privilege escalation flaws and six high-severity security bypass and privilege escalation bugs. The company also released urgent patches for CVE-2026-82004 (CVSS score of 10/10), an OS command injection defect in Campaign Classic leading to arbitrary code execution. Fresh ColdFusion security updates were also assigned a priority 1 rating, as they address two critical-severity code execution security weaknesses: CVE-2026-48273 (CVSS score of 9.9/10) and CVE-2026-75746 (CVSS score of 9.1/10), and seven high- and medium-severity issues. Adobe recommends that all priority 1 updates be applied within three days after they were released. On Tuesday, Adobe also rolled out fixes for 107 vulnerabilities in Experience Manager, 32 flaws in Acrobat Reader, 8 in Photoshop, 3 in Illustrator, and 1 in Animate. Fixes were also rolled out for Photoshop Mobile. Adobe says it is not aware of any of the newly resolved vulnerabilities being exploited in attacks, aside from the Commerce/Magento zero-day. Additional information can be found on Adobe’s security advisories page. Related: SAP Patches Critical Extended Passport Processing Vulnerability Related: MikroTik Patches Critical Flaws Chained to Hack Routers Related: N-able Patches Critical Zero-Day in N-central Related: Nightmare Eclipse Drops CrowdStrike, Nvidia, Avast Zero-Day Exploits

Adobe has released an emergency fix for CVE-2026-75650, an actively exploited max-severity zero-day vulnerability dubbed StyleSmuggler, that impacts multiple versions of Magento and Adobe Commerce. [...]

Adobe on Monday released security patches to address a maximum-severity flaw impacting Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, now tracked as CVE-2026-75650 (CVSS score: 10.0), has been codenamed StyleSmuggler by Sansec, which discovered zero-day exploitation starting September 4, 2026. "This update resolves a critical vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution," Adobe said, adding it's "aware that CVE-2026-75650 has been exploited in the wild targeting Adobe Commerce merchants." At its core, the flaw abuses Magento's template system through PHP code injection to generate a "Payment Transaction Failed Reminder" email, triggering code execution in the process. The shortcoming affects the following versions - Adobe Commerce - 2.4.9-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.8-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.7-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.6-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.5-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.4-2026-aug and earlier Adobe Commerce B2B - 1.5.3-2026-aug and earlier - 1.5.2-2026-aug and earlier - 1.4.2-2026-aug and earlier - 1.3.4-2026-aug and earlier - 1.3.3-2026-aug and earlier Magento Open Source - 2.4.9-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.8-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.7-2026-aug and earlier - 2.4.6-2026-aug and earlier Patches have been released as part of a hotfix's available for download from the following link: repo.magento[.]com/patch/VULN-39341-composer-patches.zip "To help resolve the vulnerability for the affected products and versions, you must apply the VULN-39341 patch (depending on your version) and rotate your encryption keys," Adobe said. The development comes days after the Dutch e-commerce security company revealed that threat actors are exploiting CVE-2026-75650 to deploy a Rust-based Linux backdoor that connects to an external server and awaits further instructions. Separately, the issue has been abused to deliver a PHP dropper on susceptible sites that writes a web shell capable of executing arbitrary PHP code. According to Netherlands-based Disrex, a Magento server managed by the e-commerce development platform is said to have been compromised 50 minutes after the first confirmed StyleSmuggler exploitation was reported on September 4, 2026, at 10:20 p.m. UTC. "StyleSmuggler turns Magento's own template-processing and dependency-injection code into an unauthenticated remote-code-execution chain," Disrex said. Telemetry data from Previdian shows that 12 exploitation attempts have been recorded against its honeypots since September 7, 2026, from two unique IP addresses from China and Romania. That said, the efforts have been unsuccessful, Founder and CEO Ryan Dewhurst said. Update The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), on September 8, 2026, added CVE-2026-75650 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, requiring Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to apply the fixes by September 11, 2026. In tandem, Adobe has also released patches for more than 170 vulnerabilities across its products, including CVE-2026-82004 (CVSS score: 10.0), an operating system command injection flaw in Campaign Classic leading to arbitrary code execution. Also patched by Adobe are two critical vulnerabilities in ColdFusion CVE-2026-48273, CVSS score: 9.9, and CVE-2026-75746, CVSS score: 9.1) that could result in arbitrary code execution. The web design software maker said it's not aware of any exploits in the wild for any of these issues.

Adobe: rilevato sfruttamento in rete della CVE-2026-75650 Alert AL01/260908/CSIRT-ITA Sintesi Aggiornamenti di sicurezza Adobe sanano una vulnerabilità con gravità “critica” in Adobe Commerce, Adobe Commerce B2B e Magento Open Source, piattaforme per il commercio elettronico utilizzate per la realizzazione e la gestione di siti e servizi di vendita online. Tale vulnerabilità, della quale si evidenzia lo sfruttamento attivo in rete, potrebbe consentire a un attaccante non autenticato di eseguire codice arbitrario sui sistemi interessati. Tipologia Arbitrary Code Execution Descrizione e potenziali impatti In dettaglio, la vulnerabilità - identificata tramite la CVE-2026-75650, di tipo "Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Template Engine" e con score CVSS v3.1 pari a 10.0 - interessa la gestione della validazione degli elementi speciali utilizzati dal template engine. Un attore malevolo, attraverso input applicativi opportunamente predisposti, può indurre il sistema a interpretare e valutare codice arbitrario all'interno del contesto di rendering dei template. Il contenuto iniettato viene successivamente elaborato dal runtime applicativo, consentendo l'esecuzione di istruzioni arbitrarie con i privilegi del processo web o dell'utente applicativo corrente. Prodotti e/o versioni affette Adobe Commerce 2.4.9-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.8-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.7-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.6-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.5-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.4-2026-aug e precedenti Adobe Commerce B2B 1.5.3-2026-aug e precedenti 1.5.2-2026-aug e precedenti 1.4.2-2026-aug e precedenti 1.3.4-2026-aug e precedenti 1.3.3-2026-aug e precedenti Magento Open Source 2.4.9-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.8-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.7-2026-aug e precedenti 2.4.6-2026-aug e precedenti Azioni di mitigazione In linea con le dichiarazioni del vendor, si raccomanda di aggiornare i prodotti vulnerabili seguendo le indicazioni dei relativi bollettini di sicurezza riportati nella sezione Riferimenti.

Threat actors have been exploiting a critical-severity vulnerability in the enterprise VoIP telephony management solution Sangoma Switchvox, Horizon3 and CISA warn. Tracked as CVE-2026-9586 (CVSS score of 9.3) and described as an unauthenticated SQL injection issue, the security defect can be exploited remotely for arbitrary code execution. It resides in an endpoint that processes XML content, which did not perform sanitization or parameterization when concatenating the user-controlled PhoneIP value into PostgreSQL queries. “An unauthenticated remote attacker can execute arbitrary SQL statements against the backend PostgreSQL database using a single crafted request, including database operations and remote code execution,” a NIST advisory reads. On Tuesday, cybersecurity firm Horizon3 warned that threat actors had started exploiting CVE-2026-9586 in the wild and shared indicators of compromise (IoCs) to help organizations identify potential intrusions. On Wednesday, the US cybersecurity agency CISA added the security flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog along with six other issues, including the JFrog Artifactory bug and two SonicWall SMA1000 zero-days recently flagged as exploited. The fifth vulnerability added to CISA KEV is CVE-2026-48710, an HTTP request/response smuggling flaw in the lightweight ASGI framework Starlette that was publicly disclosed in May. Hackers have been exploiting it since May, Horizon3 said in early June. Next in line is CVE-2026-49869, a critical-severity command injection defect in the open source orchestration platform Kestra that was disclosed in June and flagged as exploited by Microsoft last week. The last vulnerability added to CISA’s KEV list on Wednesday is CVE-2026-59822, a high-severity authentication bypass in LiteLLM. Last week, Wiz said its honeypots caught exploit attempts targeting this bug. CISA is urging federal agencies to patch these vulnerabilities within three days, except for the Kestra and Starlette flaws, which should be patched within two weeks, in line with BOD 26-04’s recommendations. Related: Over 3 Million WordPress Sites Affected by Migration Plugin Vulnerability Related: Exploit Published for Fresh Cleo Harmony Vulnerability Related: Hackers Start Exploiting Critical Langflow Vulnerability

Google heeft meerdere kwetsbaarheden verholpen in Google Chrome, specifiek in versies voor 152.0.7977.82. De kwetsbaarheden bevinden zich in verschillende componenten van Google Chrome, waaronder DevTools, Network, V8 JavaScript engine en Transactions Platform op iOS. Aanvallers kunnen deze kwetsbaarheden misbruiken door speciaal vervaardigde HTML-pagina's aan te bieden, wat kan leiden tot het uitvoeren van willekeurige code buiten de sandboxomgeving, het omzeilen van toegangsbeperkingen, het lezen van geheugen buiten de sandbox, en het compromitteren van de isolatie van webcontent. De kwetsbaarheden zijn specifiek van toepassing op Google Chrome en zijn verschillende componenten, inclusief versies op Android en iOS. Google geeft aan dat voor CVE-2026-85046 publieke PoC beschikbaar is.

Google patches actively exploited Chrome zero-day (CVE-2026-85046) Google has patched 12 vulnerabilities affecting its popular Chrome browser, among them CVE-2026-85046, which has been exploited in the wild. “Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2026-85046 exists in the wild,” the company said in a Thursday security advisory. The fix has been shipped in Chrome 152.0.7977.82/.83 for Windows and macOS and Chrome 152.0.7977.82 for Linux, with the update rolling out to users over the coming days and weeks. About CVE-2026-85046 CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS score: 8.8) is a type confusion bug in V8, Chrome’s JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, which allows a remote attacker “to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page.” The vulnerability was reported by researcher Salvatore Gulizia (aka Serotav) on August 4, 2026, who earned a $1,000 bug bounty for the disclosure. In his own write-up, Gulizia described the root cause as “a V8 bug in the compilers that leads to an array containing PACKED_ELEMENTS to receive the map PACKED_SMI_ELEMENTS, this can be turned into arbitrary read/write on the JavaScript heap.” As per usual, Google did not share more details about the fixed zero-day, nor details about its possible in-the-wild exploitation. CVE-2026-85046 is the sixth Chrome zero-day vulnerability Google has fixed in 2026. Previously patched flaws include CVE-2026-2441, CVE-2026-3909, CVE-2026-3910, CVE-2026-5281, and CVE-2026-11645.

Google: rilevato sfruttamento di vulnerabilità zero-day in Chrome Alert AL04/260904/CSIRT-ITA Sintesi Google ha rilasciato un aggiornamento per il browser Chrome al fine di correggere 12 nuove vulnerabilità di sicurezza, di cui 2 con gravità “critica” e 7 con gravità “alta”. Tra queste, si evidenzia lo sfruttamento attivo in rete della vulnerabilità zero-day CVE-2026-85046, che potrebbe consentire l’esecuzione di codice arbitrario sui dispositivi interessati. Tipologia Arbitrary Code Execution Information Disclosure Security Restrictions Bypass Descrizione e potenziali impatti È stato recentemente rilevato lo sfruttamento attivo in rete della zero-day identificata come CVE-2026-85046, di tipo "Type Confusion" e con score CVSS 3.1 pari a 8.8, presente in Google Chrome. Tale vulnerabilità è dovuta a una gestione non adeguata dei tipi di oggetti in memoria durante l'esecuzione di codice JavaScript. Un utente malintenzionato, mediante la predisposizione di una pagina HTML opportunamente predisposta e inducendo la vittima a visitarla, potrebbe ottenere l'esecuzione di codice arbitrario all'interno della sandbox del browser e, in determinate circostanze, utilizzare la vulnerabilità come elemento iniziale di una catena di attacco più complessa, fino alla potenziale compromissione del sistema interessato. Prodotti e/o versioni affette Google Chrome versioni precedenti alla 152.0.7977.82/.83 per Windows/Mac versioni precedenti alla 152.0.7977.82 per Linux Azioni di mitigazione Ove non già provveduto, si raccomanda di aggiornare il prodotto per Windows, Mac e Linux all’ultima versione disponibile. Di seguito sono riportate le sole CVE relative alle vulnerabilità con gravità “critica” e “alta”:

Google on Thursday released security updates to patch 12 vulnerabilities, including one that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS score: 8.8), has been described as a type confusion bug in V8, Chrome's JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. "Type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 152.0.7977.82 allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page," reads a description of the flaw in CVE.org. Security researcher Salvatore Gulizia (aka Serotav) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on August 4, 2026. The researcher has been awarded a bug bounty of $1,000 for responsible disclosure. In a separate blog post detailing the issue, Gulizia described it as a "V8 bug in the compilers that leads to an array containing PACKED_ELEMENTS to receive the map PACKED_SMI_ELEMENTS, this can be turned into arbitrary read/write on the JavaScript heap." As is usual in these cases, Google acknowledged that an "exploit for CVE-2026-85046 exists in the wild," but did not reveal any details about the nature of the attacks, or who is behind them. This is done to ensure that a majority of the users are updated with a fix and to prevent other threat actors from exploiting it. With the latest development, Google has addressed a total of six actively exploited Chrome zero-days since the start of the year. This includes CVE-2026-2441, CVE-2026-3909, CVE-2026-3910, CVE-2026-5281, and CVE-2026-11645. For optimal protection, users are advised to update their Chrome browser to versions 152.0.7977.82/.83 for Windows and Apple macOS, and 152.0.7977.82 for Linux. To make sure the latest updates are installed, users can navigate to More > Help > About Google Chrome and select Relaunch. Users of other Chromium-based browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi, are also advised to apply the fixes as and when they become available.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added seven security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog after they landed in attackers' crosshairs. The vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2026-83548 (CVSS score: 10.0) - A server-side request forgery vulnerability in SonicWall SMA 1000 Appliances that could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to gain unauthorized access to sensitive functionality and perform unauthorized operations. CVE-2026-83549 (CVSS score: 7.8) - A post-authentication operating system command injection vulnerability in SonicWall SMA 1000 Appliances that could enable a remote authenticated attacker as administrator to execute arbitrary OS commands, resulting in remote code execution. CVE-2026-9586 (CVSS score: 9.3) - An SQL injection vulnerability in Sangoma Switchvox that could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary SQL statements against the backend PostgreSQL database using a single crafted request, including database operations and remote code execution. CVE-2026-82329 (CVSS score: 9.8) - An improper authentication vulnerability in JFrog Artifactory that under default configuration could allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access to obtain administrative privileges. CVE-2026-48710 (CVSS score: 6.5) - An HTTP request/response smuggling vulnerability in Kludex Starlette that could allow attackers to inject paths into the host part, prepending the actual path, leading to issues such as authentication bypass when the authentication depends on the reconstructed URL's path. CVE-2026-49869 (CVSS score: 10.0) - An operating system command injection vulnerability in Kestra OSS that could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to create and execute arbitrary workflows without credentials. CVE-2026-59822 (CVSS score: 8.8) - An improper authentication vulnerability in Berri LiteLLM's Model Context Protocol (MCP) Streamable HTTP endpoint that could allow an unauthenticated attacker to establish an authenticated MCP session using an arbitrary Bearer token. The development comes after SonicWall disclosed that it "investigated a case indicating the active exploitation" of CVE-2026-83548 and CVE-2026-83549. According to reports from Horizon3.ai and watchTowr, unknown threat actors have been observed weaponizing CVE-2026-9586 and CVE-2026-82329 to deploy reverse shells and and minted admin tokens for follow-on enumeration of users, groups, credential sets, and federated access topologies. As for CVE-2026-48710, a report from Horizon3.ai in June 2026 revealed that the vulnerability could be chained alongside another Berri LiteLLM flaw (CVE-2026-42271, CVSS score: 8.7) to bypass authentication and achieve remote code execution against vulnerable LiteLLM deployments. It's worth noting that CVE-2026-42271 was added to CISA's KEV catalog around the same time. Per Google-owned Wiz, threat actors associated with the Qilin (aka Agenda) ransomware have been linked to active exploitation of this chain. The cloud security platform said it has also observed exploitation efforts involving CVE-2026-59822 against its honeypots to probe model enumeration endpoints. The addition of CVE-2026-49869 to the KEV catalog is driven by a Microsoft report last week in which the vulnerability was likely exploited by a threat actor in late June 2026 to establish a reverse shell, conduct Docker container environment discovery, perform defense evasion, deploy a cryptocurrency miner, and facilitate data harvesting. "The Kestra compromise exposed four impact paths: shell execution through the workflow engine, container-environment exposure through Docker socket access, host resource hijacking through miner deployment, and follow-on collection through workflow task execution," Microsoft said. "The later curl-pipe-shell event encoded collected output and stored it through Kestra's own key-value interface, reducing reliance on standalone file artifacts." Separately, the Windows maker also revealed that malicious actors are breaking into LiteLLM gateways using CVE-2026-42271 and CVE-2026-48710 to deliver an XMRig miner via an ELF binary, but not before fingerprinting the host and terminating competing mining processes. The attackers have also been found to abuse previously collected database information to access the LiteLLM-backed PostgreSQL data tier and target LiteLLM tables, including LiteLLM_ProxyModelTable and LiteLLM_VerificationToken, to harvest records related to model configuration, upstream provider key material, provider endpoints, and proxy-issued virtual keys. Furthermore, the attack chain is characterized by the addition of persistence using "~/.ssh/authorized_keys" modification, command-and-control (C2), and defense-evasion mechanisms. The attacks, Microsoft and Wiz said, indicate artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, such as LiteLLM, Flowise, LangChain, Langflow, ChromaDB, Ollama, Marimo, and MCP servers, has become a lucrative target to steal API keys, gain access to backend systems, maintain persistence, engage in blind prompt injections and AI-native post-exploitation, and monetize infected hosts through illicit cryptocurrency mining. In another campaign documented by Redmond, it's suspected that adversaries are exploiting exposed RAGFlow instances using flaws like CVE-2026-45312, CVE-2026-28797, CVE-2026-24770, CVE-2025-68700, and CVE-2025-69286 to establish persistence and steal large language model (LLM) provider keys and related metadata. "The observed objectives were consistent. Across the cases, telemetry showed credential collection, durable access mechanisms, and resource monetization, even though the execution path differed by product," Microsoft said. "Defenders should monitor AI workloads according to their control-plane role, not only as isolated applications." Pursuant to "Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04: Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk," Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies are recommended to apply patches for all the vulnerabilities, barring CVE-2026-48710 and CVE-2026-59822, by September 5, 2026. Agencies have time until September 16, 2026, to address the Starlette and LiteLLM flaws.

Attackers are actively exploiting CVE-2026-9586, an unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability in the Sangoma Switchvox VoIP platform that can lead to remote code execution. According to security researchers at Horizon3, most of the internet-exposed Switchvox systems have either already been targeted or will be soon. Switchvox is an enterprise VoIP management platform used to configure and monitor business phone systems. CVE-2026-9586 is the most serious of 12 flaws Horizon3 discovered and reported to Sangoma on April 10. The vendor fixed them in Switchvox version 8.4.0.2, released on July 14. The vulnerability is an unauthenticated SQL injection problem in Sangoma Switchvox’s /pa HTTP endpoint. The researchers explain that the endpoint is exposed and parses an XML message containing specific key-value pairs. When /pa receives a request to notify another phone system, such as for an incoming or outgoing call event, it extracts the PhoneIP field from the XML message and directly concatenates its value into an unparameterized SQL query. The researchers demonstrated that this SQL injection can be exploited remotely to execute operating-system commands through a crafted XML request sent using the curl command. On August 30, Horizon3’s honeypots observed active exploitation on multiple systems in rapid succession from a single source IP address (176.65.148.184), with the attacker attempting to establish a reverse shell. In these attempts, the attacker executed an initial payload and then collected information about the top processes running on the Swithvox system. The data was then transmitted to a remote server in base64-encoded form. “Given the quick succession of exploit attempts across multiple honeypots from the same source IP, we believe that it is likely that most internet-exposed Switchvox instances will be or have already been targeted,” Horizon3 warns. “Currently Shodan shows that there are approximately 4,000 devices on the internet, with most located within the United States.” Horizon3 says it has not seen active exploitation of the remaining 11 flaws it discovered earlier. With CVE-2026-9586 being actively exploited, system administrators are recommended to upgrade to Switchvox version 8.4.0.2 or later as soon as possible, and check for signs of having been targeted in the meantime. Signs of compromise include suspicious statements in /var/log/switchvox/db-quirks.log and network connections to the observed attacker IP, particularly on port 39323. Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply. The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments. Get the report