Threats tagged 'patch-tuesday'

Dropped on Patch Tuesday, the exploit allows any user to spawn a shell with System privileges. The post Nightmare Eclipse Drops Windows Zero-Day Exploit ‘ShieldBreak’ appeared first on SecurityWeek .

Intel has informed customers about several high-severity vulnerabilities that can lead to privilege escalation and even code execution. The post Chipmaker Patch Tuesday: Intel, AMD Fix Over 80 Vulnerabilities Combined appeared first on SecurityWeek .

A new zero-day exploit named 'ShieldBreak' targets Microsoft Defender, enabling privilege escalation to SYSTEM level on fully patched Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server systems. The exploit bypasses the patch for a previous vulnerability called RoguePlanet (CVE-2026-50656). It requires Microsoft Defender to be enabled to succeed. The exploit was released by a security researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse, who has disclosed multiple zero-days affecting Microsoft products in 2026. Microsoft has patched RoguePlanet but has not yet addressed ShieldBreak. The exploit has been confirmed to work by an independent vulnerability analyst. There is no indication of active exploitation in the wild or an official patch for ShieldBreak at this time.

Microsoft has released its monthly security update for August 2026, which includes 421 vulnerabilities affecting a range of products, including 62 that Microsoft marked as "critical." Microsoft notes that 1 of the vulnerabilities disclosed this month have been exploited in the wild CVE-2026-68820 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability affecting Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock. A Use After Free vulnerability could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 7.0. Out of 62 "critical" vulnerabilities, 40 are remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities. Microsoft considers exploitation of the following vulnerabilities more likely. CVE-2026-62893 is a remote code execution vulnerability affecting Windows Deployment Services TFTP Server. A Use After Free could allow an unauthorized attacker to execute code over a network. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 9.8. CVE-2026-65665 is a remote code execution vulnerability affecting Microsoft SharePoint Server. Deserialization of Untrusted Data could allow an authorized attacker to execute code over a network. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 8.8. CVE-2026-62823 is a remote code execution vulnerability affecting Windows DHCP Server. A Heap-based Buffer Overflow could allow an unauthorized attacker to execute code over an adjacent network. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 8.8. Microsoft considers exploitation of the following vulnerabilities less likely. CVE-2026-62830 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability affecting Azure SRE Agent. Missing Authorization could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 9.9. CVE-2026-50516 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability affecting Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service. Missing Authentication for Critical Function could allow an unauthorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 9.4. Three remote code execution vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-68794 , CVE-2026-68816 and CVE-2026-68804 , affect Microsoft Excel and have a CVSS base score of 7.8. An unauthorized attacker could execute code locally. CVE-2026-68794 is a Heap-based Buffer Overflow. CVE-2026-68816 is a Stack-based Buffer Overflow. CVE-2026-68804 involves a Numeric Truncation Error and a Heap-based Buffer Overflow. CVE-2026-62911 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability affecting Microsoft Exchange Server. Authentication Bypass by Capture-replay could allow an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network. This vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 8.0. Nine remote code execution vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-63515 , CVE-2026-65657 , CVE-2026-63532 , CVE-2026-64898 , CVE-2026-64903 , CVE-2026-64909 , CVE-2026-64910 , CVE-2026-64911 and CVE-2026-70130 , affect Microsoft Office and could allow an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally. CVE-2026-63515 involves an Out-of-bounds Read and an Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound) and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-65657 is a Use After Free and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-63532 involves an Integer Overflow or Wraparound and a Heap-based Buffer Overflow and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-64898 involves a Heap-based Buffer Overflow and an Integer Overflow or Wraparound and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-64903 involves an Integer Overflow or Wraparound and a Heap-based Buffer Overflow and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-64909 involves an Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound), an Out-of-bounds Read and a Heap-based Buffer Overflow and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-64910 is an Untrusted Pointer Dereference and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-64911 involves an Integer Overflow or Wraparound and a Heap-based Buffer Overflow and has a CVSS base score of 7.8. CVE-2026-70130 is a Heap-based Buffer Overflow and has a CVSS base score of 8.4. Five remote code exec…

A use-after-free in the afd.sys Windows kernel-mode driver has been exploited to gain SYSTEM privileges. The post August 2026 Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Fixes 421 CVEs, One Exploited Zero-Day appeared first on SecurityWeek .

Microsoft's August 2026 Patch Tuesday includes security updates addressing 400 vulnerabilities, among which are three zero-day flaws—one actively exploited and two publicly disclosed. These patches cover a broad range of Microsoft products and aim to mitigate critical security risks. No specific affected versions or detailed vulnerability descriptions are provided in this summary.

This month we got patches for 418 vulnerabilities. Of these, 62 are critical, 1 is being exploited in the wild, and 2 were publicly disclosed as zero-days. Notable fixes include Windows privilege escalation, container tampering, and critical QUIC and DNS Server remote code execution bugs.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Lately I've found myself thinking a lot about the Australian TV series Mr. Inbetween (IMDb 8.7/10) — not because I'm a hitman for hire, but because I literally feel in-between. Specifically, in-between what I'd call the "pre-Mythos" and “post-Mythos” eras. We've crossed a capability threshold, and it's not just one model family driving that — Codex 5.3 and GPT-5.5 deliver comparable or better performance , and Tulongfeng or GLM-5.2 (an incredibly powerful open-weight model, MIT-licensed) show the frontier isn't limited to closed models anymore. On the other side of that line, real-world impact hasn't caught up yet and we're living in an artificial buffer zone. For me, defining the “pre-” and “post-” status comes down to the gap between "vulnerability discovery" and "vulnerability publication." Last week’s Patch Tuesday gave a signal of change, as Joe pointed out , so maybe the buffer zone has come to an end. Let's dive into the 2026 Q2 stats. As in past years, we're seeing a steeper curve than the year before — a solid 49% YoY growth, though still not the hockey-stick moment I keep waiting for. By the end of June we were tracking close to 200 CVEs per day. Using the keyword methodology described here , I found 452 AI-related CVEs this calendar year. If "openclaw" is added to the keyword list, that number jumps by another 536 — a reminder that these counts are sensitive to keyword drift. Given how much the keyword list keeps changing, I'm reconsidering whether to keep publishing this particular metric going forward. KEVs, by contrast, "only" grew 13% — a small April spike aside, it's fairly flat relative to total CVE growth. Networking-gear-related CVEs continued their climb, now accounting for 24% of KEV-related vulnerabilities (up from 20% in Q1) — consistent with the trend I flagged last quarters. As in previous quarters, CVEs from 2024 or earlier still make up about 24% of everything we're tracking. More strikingly, even though the standard enterprise patch cycle is described to run 30–90 days, 181 days into 2026, 46% of today's actively-exploited (KEV) CVEs still trace back to 2025 or earlier. Old vulnerabilities don't retire, new ones keep arriving, and machine-speed vulnerability discovery is going to keep outpacing human-speed patching. Which brings me back — once again — to EPSS as a tool for prioritizing patching against this dataset. If you patched purely by CVSS 9+, you'd be urgently chasing ~3,700 CVEs — but 95% of those sit below 5% EPSS, meaning the real-world odds of exploitation are tiny. Of the 32 CVSS 9+ CVEs with EPSS ≥ 50%, 25 are already on CISA's KEV list. The remaining seven outliers are still high-probability by EPSS but haven't made KEV yet — worth watching. Ray Shoesmith (Mr. Inbetween) once told his therapist, "You know, if I hit somebody, I generally got a pretty good reason." Same principle applies to patching. Don't swing at everything — swing at what you have good reason to believe is coming for you. The one big thing Cisco Talos has discovered "msaRAT," a new Rust-based remote access trojan (RAT) deployed by the Chaos ransomware group. Built on the Tokio asynchronous runtime, it establishes a covert command-and-control (C2) channel by hijacking Chrome or Edge browsers via the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). The infection starts with a deceptive MSI file masquerading as a Windows update that loads the payload directly into memory, paving the way for ransomware deployment. Why do I care? This RAT is a master of evasion, living off the browser to build its C2 infrastructure without ever directly touching the network. By routing traffic through legitimate browser processes and trusted services, msaRAT easily bypasses traditional network-based detections. Additionally, its use of the Tokio runtime enables highly efficient, parallel execution of malicious tasks, accelerating the attacker's ability to establish persistence and deploy doubl…

For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 20th July, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin. TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES Ernst & Young, a global accounting and professional services company, has disclosed a data breach involving a compromised third-party IT support platform. The exposed support tickets may have contained client documents, tax information, employee details, and other sensitive information submitted while requesting technical assistance. Jscrambler, a JavaScript code-protection package with more than 15,000 weekly downloads, has experienced a supply chain compromise after stolen npm publishing credentials distributed malicious releases. The packages deployed malware targeting developers’, cloud, browser, cryptocurrency, and messaging credentials. Jscrambler removed the affected versions. Coca-Cola’s US dairy subsidiary Fairlife has confirmed a ransomware attack that temporarily halted production across the United States. Attackers accessed systems supporting manufacturing operations, prompting the company to activate incident response and business continuity procedures. Coca-Cola has not confirmed whether data was exfiltrated in the attack. Nihon Kotsu, Japan’s largest taxi operator, has suffered a malware attack following unauthorized access to its internal network. The company shut down affected systems, disrupting taxi dispatches, telephone services, bookings, reservations, and car rentals from July 11. No theft of customer or corporate information has been confirmed. AI THREATS Researchers identified a China-linked campaign that used Claude Code and DeepSeek to automate attacks against government and financial organizations. The tools generated scripts, adapted failed exploits, created credential-harvesting pages, and executed commands. Confirmed compromises affected government systems in Thailand and Afghanistan and organizations in Taiwan. Researchers found that xAI’s Grok Build coding assistant could upload entire Git repositories while processing debugging requests. Transferred information included unopened files and complete commit histories, potentially exposing API keys, credentials, and proprietary source code. Initial privacy controls did not prevent uploads until a server-side restriction was introduced. Researchers verified a weakness in Anthropic’s Claude for Chrome extension that allowed malicious browser extensions to impersonate Claude and act through authenticated user sessions. Successful exploitation could expose Gmail, Google Drive, or GitHub information through Claude’s permissions. Anthropic released fixes, although researchers reported that a bypass remained possible. VULNERABILITIES AND PATCHES Microsoft released patches for 622 vulnerabilities in July’s Patch Tuesday, the largest monthly release recorded by the company. Two vulnerabilities were under active exploitation, including CVE-2026-56164 in SharePoint Server and CVE-2026-56155 in Active Directory Federation Services. Both vulnerabilities could allow attackers to elevate privileges. Check Point IPS provides protection against these threats (Microsoft SharePoint Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-56164)) WordPress has issued emergency updates for CVE-2026-63030 and CVE-2026-60137, collectively called wp2shell. The critical WordPress Core vulnerabilities allow unauthenticated remote code execution and website takeover. Affected releases include versions 6.9.0 through 6.9.4 and 7.0.0 through 7.0.1. Fixed versions include 6.9.5 and 7.0.2. Check Point IPS provides protection against these threats (WordPress Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-63030)), WordPress SQL Injection (CVE-2026-60137)) SonicWall has released a hotfix for CVE-2026-15409 and CVE-2026-15410, two critical vulnerabilities affecting SMA 1000 Series gateways. The flaws allow unauthenticated attackers to execute system commands on vulnerable appliances. Active exploitation has been associated with Inc ransomware. Check Point IPS provides protection…

Microsoft Corp. today released software updates to plug at least 570 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, almost triple the number of vulnerabilities the software giant fixed in its record-smashing Patch Tuesday release last month. Microsoft attributed the burgeoning patch counts to vulnerability discoveries aided by artificial intelligence. Nearly 60 of the bugs quashed in July’s Patch Tuesday earned a “critical” severity rating, meaning miscreants or malware could use them to seize remote control over a Windows device with little or no help from the user. Microsoft also addressed three zero-day flaws, including two that are already being exploited in the wild. Two of the zero-day weaknesses allow an attacker to elevate their user rights on a Windows system, as do approximately 250 other elevation of privilege flaws fixed this month; they include CVE-2026-56155 — an Active Directory Federation Services bug — and CVE-2026-56164 , a Microsoft Sharepoint vulnerability. CVE-2026-50661 is a security feature bypass in Windows BitLocker that could allow attackers to gain access to encrypted data if they have physical access to the device. Microsoft said this bug has been detailed publicly, but that it is not aware of any active exploitation. In a blog post on July 9, Microsoft Executive Vice President Pavan Davuluri wrote that Windows users will notice “a higher volume of security updates included in each security release” as a result of AI aiding in the discovery of vulnerabilities. “The pace of vulnerability discovery is changing with advances in AI making it possible to find more issues, faster, across more code, with new mechanisms that can accelerate both discovery and analysis,” Davuluri wrote . Jack Bicer , director of vulnerability research at Action1 , called attention to CVE-2026-48561 , a remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Copilot (with a 9.6 CVSS threat score) that allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code over the network. Microsoft says an attacker could exploit this bug by hosting a malicious website that causes Microsoft Edge for Android to automatically send crafted prompts to Copilot when a user visits the site. As AI advances the state of vulnerability discovery and remediation, it is also making it easier for attackers to quickly devise working exploits for known software flaws. Microsoft has long labeled security bugs using its “exploitability index,” which is Redmond’s best guess as to how likely it is that attackers will be able to figure out a reliable way to exploit a given vulnerability. But Satnam Narang , senior staff research engineer at Tenable , argues that Microsoft’s exploitability index needs to do a better job of shifting with the machine speed of discovery. For example, Microsoft originally gave this month’s SharePoint zero-day an exploitability rating of “less likely,” although the flaw was added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list on July 1. “Anthropic’s Red Team’s own findings for known vulnerabilities (n-days) revealed how fragile this system has become, with its Mythos Preview model being able to produce proof-of-concept exploits for 13 of 14 vulnerabilities that were rated ‘Exploitation Less Likely’ or ‘Exploitation Unlikely,'” Narang said. “What this means is that our way of looking at Patch Tuesday has changed, because the exploitability index is centered around humans, not AI tools, and as these tools continue to improve, defense needs to improve alongside it.” Chris Goettl at Ivanti observed that the record patch numbers from Microsoft come as a number of other major software makers are increasing their patch cadence, including Adobe which announced today it is moving to twice-monthly security bulletins published on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month (Adobe also cited AI for accelerating their patch cycles). Cisco , Mozilla and Oracle also are shipping updates more frequently, while Google’s patch batches in June 2026 totaled more t…

Multiple industrial cybersecurity advisories were published by Siemens, Schneider Electric, Aveva, and Phoenix Contact addressing critical and high-severity vulnerabilities in their ICS/OT products. These vulnerabilities include authorization bypass, privilege escalation, command injection, remote code execution, and sensitive data exposure affecting various industrial devices and software. Exploitation scenarios vary, with some requiring elevated privileges or user interaction. Vendor advisories provide fixes for these security flaws.