Threats Tagged 't1136.001'

For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 5th October, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin. TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES Arizona’s state court system has suffered a phishing-led cyberattack after an employee clicked a malicious link. Attackers copied backup files containing protective-order records and more than 150,000 Foster Care Review Board reports dating back to 2010, exposing personal and case-related information belonging to current and former participants. Japanese car-sharing service Times Car has disclosed a data breach affecting approximately 6.6 million current and former accounts. Exposed information includes personal data, while identity-verification documents, including driver’s-license images, were exposed for about 1.6 million accounts. Payment card information was not affected. South Africa’s air navigation provider has suffered a ransomware attack affecting operational technology supporting aviation weather services. Preliminary findings identified suspicious activity in weather-related environments, while separate reporting cited possible data theft. The provider has sought independent digital forensics to determine the scope of the incident. Fakturownia, a Polish online invoicing platform used by more than 600,000 businesses, has disclosed a data breach after an attacker exploited a system vulnerability. Copied information included account and company data, password hashes, bank account details, authentication tokens, contractor information, and portions of invoices stored on the platform. AI THREATS Researchers observed autonomous AI agents attempting rudimentary hacking techniques while gathering public information from US and Canadian government websites. Activity included failed SQL injection attempts against the US Department of Education and Library and Archives Canada. Officials reported no compromise, while the origin of the agents remains unconfirmed. Researchers demonstrated that malicious Custom GPTs hosted on ChatGPT were used in a ClickFix campaign to deliver remote access malware. Victims were redirected to a Google Sites page and tricked into running commands. Huntress investigated at least 40 related incidents, including two confirmed infections that began through Custom GPTs. Researchers outlined how JadePuffer, an AI-enabled threat actor tracked as Storm-3168, used compromised Azure service principals to automate cloud reconnaissance and destructive actions. The activity included deleting storage and application resources, targeting backup-related assets, and attempting to retrieve access keys, reflecting agent-driven post-compromise operations in cloud environments. VULNERABILITIES AND PATCHES Citrix has issued fixes for critical NetScaler vulnerabilities CVE-2026-88771-2, affecting NetScaler ADC and Gateway. Attackers have exploited the flaws to gain remote access, deploy web shells and tunneling malware, steal credentials, and move from exposed appliances into internal networks. Check Point IPS provides protection against these threats (Citrix NetScaler Multiple Products Buffer Overflow (CVE-2026-88772), Citrix NetScaler Multiple Products Command Injection (CVE-2026-88771)) Cisco has alerted about CVE-2026-76504, a critical (CVSS 9.8) vulnerability in Catalyst SD-WAN Manager. The flaw allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to send crafted requests and gain administrator access. Cisco reported active exploitation and stated that no fixes are available. Check Point IPS provides protection against this threat (Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-76504)) Apple has patched CVE-2026-86950, a CoreGraphics memory corruption vulnerability affecting iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Processing a malicious image or PDF can allow arbitrary code execution. Apple reported exploitation in highly targeted attacks and addressed the flaw through improved bounds checking across affected iOS, iPadOS, and macOS releases. GitLab has released patches for CVE-2…

FortiBleed is an ongoing global campaign targeting internet-facing Fortinet FortiGate firewalls and SSL VPN gateways. It exploits reused or leaked credentials and legacy SHA-256 password storage to harvest and crack authentication data at scale. Attackers gain access by scanning for exposed SSL VPN portals, performing credential stuffing and password spraying, and cracking stolen password hashes offline. Once inside, they create new administrative accounts for persistence and conduct Active Directory enumeration to expand access. Organizations may experience account lockouts due to attacker actions. The campaign acts as an initial-access broker with links to ransomware affiliates INC/Lynx and Payload, representing a significant medium-severity threat requiring immediate defensive measures.

An unauthenticated attacker can chain two WordPress Core vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-63030 and CVE-2026-60137, to achieve remote code execution against affected WordPress installations. Multiple security firms have confirmed active in-the-wild exploitation within days of public disclosure, and public proof-of-concept exploits are circulating. Key takeaways: Two WordPress Core vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-63030 and CVE-2026-60137, can be chained together to achieve pre-authentication remote code execution against WordPress 6.9.x and 7.0.x installations. Multiple security firms have confirmed in-the-wild exploitation, with public proof-of-concept exploits appearing within hours of the July 17, 2026 disclosure. Patches are available in WordPress 7.0.2 and 6.9.5; WordPress.org has enabled forced automatic updates across affected supported installations. Background Tenable's Research Special Operations (RSO) team has compiled this blog to answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding wp2shell, two vulnerabilities in WordPress Core that can be chained together to achieve pre-authentication remote code execution. FAQ What is wp2shell? wp2shell is the name given to two vulnerabilities in WordPress Core. When was wp2shell first disclosed? On July 17, 2026, WordPress released security updates addressing the wp2shell vulnerabilities alongside two GitHub Security Advisories. Adam Kues of Searchlight Cyber, who discovered and disclosed CVE-2026-63030, published research on the same day and chose to hold back the technical specifics given the severity of the finding. Searchlight Cyber also launched wp2shell.com , a testing tool that allows administrators to check whether their WordPress installation is vulnerable. On July 20, Searchlight Cyber published a full technical breakdown of the attack chain. What are the vulnerabilities associated with wp2shell? wp2shell is a two-vulnerability exploit chain affecting WordPress Core. CVE Description CVSSv3 CVE-2026-63030 WordPress Core REST API Batch-Route Confusion Remote Code Execution Vulnerability 9.8 CVE-2026-60137 WordPress Core WP_Query author__not_in SQL Injection Vulnerability 5.9 CVE-2026-63030 is a REST API batch-route confusion weakness introduced in WordPress 6.9. CVE-2026-60137 is a SQL injection flaw in the author__not_in parameter of WP_Query , present in WordPress 6.8 and later. When chained on WordPress 6.9.0 through 7.0.1, the two flaws allow an unauthenticated attacker to reach the REST API batch endpoint at /wp-json/batch/v1 and achieve remote code execution. CVE-2026-60137 was discovered and disclosed by security researchers TF1T, dtro, and haongo. CVE-2026-60137 also affects WordPress 6.8.0 through 6.8.5 as a standalone SQL injection issue. Because CVE-2026-63030 was introduced in WordPress 6.9, the full RCE chain is only achievable on 6.9.x and 7.0.x installations. How severe is the wp2shell vulnerability chain? An anonymous, unauthenticated user can execute the chain against a default WordPress installation with no plugins required. No preconditions exist beyond the default WordPress configuration. Cloudflare notes that the vulnerable code path is reached when “a persistent object cache is not in use.” Note: wp2shell targets WordPress Core itself rather than a plugin or theme. All four prior WordPress-related entries in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog involve plugins, not core. Pre-authentication remote code execution in WordPress Core is uncommon. CVE Product Added to KEV Ransomware CVE-2026-41940 WebPros cPanel & WHM and WP2 (WordPress Squared) April 30, 2026 Known CVE-2020-25213 WordPress File Manager Plugin November 3, 2021 Unknown CVE-2020-11738 WordPress Snap Creek Duplicator Plugin November 3, 2021 Unknown CVE-2019-9978 WordPress Social Warfare Plugin November 3, 2021 Unknown How widespread are the attacks exploiting wp2shell? WordPress is the most widely deployed content management system in the world. Some hosted installations will receive patc…

On August 31, 2026, threat actors exploited two zero-day vulnerabilities in PaperCut MF affecting a customer in the Education sector. The attackers targeted an internet-facing print server running vulnerable PaperCut MF version 24.0.2, deploying an in-memory Java loader that established a web shell. Through this web shell, they delivered a trojanized Microsoft Copilot binary containing an AdaptixC2 implant. The implant connected to command-and-control infrastructure hosted on Alibaba servers. After remaining dormant for approximately one day, attackers returned to perform reconnaissance and Active Directory enumeration. They then stole a token from a domain-privileged service account and moved laterally to a domain controller. On the compromised domain controller, they dumped credentials from memory and registry, enabled Windows Restricted Admin mode for pass-the-hash attacks, and extracted the NTDS.dit database containing password hashes for all domain accounts, achieving complete domain compromise.

Mirage Kitten, an APT group historically focused on the Middle East and Africa, has deployed two previously undocumented cross-platform remote access trojans: NodeRabbit (Node.js-based) and PollCat (JavaScript-based). Both malware families mark the group's first departure from native malware toward scripting languages compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS. Operators deliver these tools through sophisticated social engineering campaigns involving fake recruiters on LinkedIn who distribute trojanized coding challenges via Amazon S3 buckets. The malicious projects contain backdoored npm packages that silently install persistent implants. NodeRabbit implements comprehensive command-and-control capabilities including file operations, process management, and proxy-aware C2 communications through Azure and Cloudflare infrastructure. PollCat provides similar RAT functionality with specialized developer persistence mechanisms targeting VS Code extensions and Git hooks. Targeted sectors include aviation, aerospa...

A suspected Chinese-speaking threat actor conducted targeted intrusions against Philippine nuclear research and defense organizations. On August 13, 2026, an open directory on a VPS exposed custom Python scripts exploiting CVE-2023-49105 in ownCloud and CVE-2024-28000 in WordPress LiteSpeed Cache. The operator exfiltrated approximately 9 GB from a nuclear agency, including reactor core databases, radiation safety documentation, employee PII, BitLocker keys, and strategic planning materials. A second victim, a marine engineering firm serving the Philippine Navy, had its complete WordPress installation compromised. Simplified Chinese language usage throughout scripts, logs, and folder structures indicates operator origin. The methodical targeting of nuclear and naval defense sectors aligns with South China Sea tensions and broader Chinese espionage activities against Philippine government infrastructure.

CriticalVulnerabilityPhilippines#cve#cve-2024-28000#philippines

On August 4, 2026, ChainDrop, a self-propagating worm variant of Mini Shai-Hulud linked to TeamPCP, infiltrated the npm ecosystem through a compromised maintainer account of the keyv ecosystem. The attacker injected malicious code into GitHub repositories, weaponizing legitimate CI/CD pipelines to publish poisoned packages with valid SLSA Build Level 3 provenance attestations, making them indistinguishable from clean releases. ChainDrop spread to over 400 packages within four hours by stealing npm tokens and republishing infected versions. The worm employs Ethereum smart contracts for C2 infrastructure, enabling domain rotation without modifying deployed malware. It features destructive capabilities, wiping victim home directories upon token revocation, and achieves persistence through IDE and AI-agent configuration files. The payload harvests credentials from npm, GitHub, AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, HashiCorp Vault, and other services, exfiltrating data via GitHub repositories and EtherHiding techniques.

An investigation uncovered a sophisticated infection chain beginning with a ClickFix lure and utilizing a legitimately signed IBM SPSS IDE alongside four decoy DLLs and a date-formatting API as a trampoline. This chain deploys BabaDeda loader stage that ultimately delivers CNCMachineRMS, a 1.14 MB x64 remote administration implant with no imports and runtime-built strings. The implant provides operators with comprehensive remote access capabilities including an interactive shell, file manager, screen capture, local account backdoor, and seven persistence mechanisms. It employs a custom scripting language and uses the same binary container format for configuration and C2 traffic. The implant beacons every 600 seconds, creates privileged local accounts, and supports twenty typed commands for downloading and executing additional payloads, indicating hands-on-keyboard access with follow-on stages determining actual damage.

A self-propagating npm worm dubbed ChainDrop infected over 400 packages downloaded hundreds of millions of times weekly, including popular packages like keyv and cacheable-request. The worm steals cloud credentials, npm and GitHub tokens, SSH keys, and sensitive developer data while extracting temporary credentials from GitHub Actions runner memory. It uses stolen npm publishing tokens to infect additional packages while maintaining their legitimate functionality. The attackers established persistence through VS Code and Claude Code configurations, employed blockchain-based command-and-control resolution via Ethereum smart contracts, and can execute attacker-supplied code. The operator demonstrated ability to silently reconfigure C2 infrastructure through Ethereum transactions without updating deployed instances. ChainDrop employs three layers of obfuscation and encryption, exfiltrates data through encrypted channels, and publishes stolen tokens in public commit messages.

An exposed open directory at a staging server revealed an active intrusion by operators linked to The Gentlemen ransomware group. The operation involved establishing persistent access through privileged account creation, credential theft via LSASS dumping, and lateral movement across a Windows domain. Attackers deployed multiple implants including EtherRAT, which retrieves command-and-control domains from an Ethereum smart contract, alongside Sliver and custom Go reverse shells. Lateral movement was achieved through remote scheduled tasks distributing MSI payloads, while security products were disabled and reverse tunnels established for persistent access. The infrastructure and tactics align with previously documented The Gentlemen campaigns, including a ClickFix operation deploying EtherRAT.