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We’ve all seen this before: a developer deploys a new cloud workload and grants overly broad permissions just to keep the sprint moving. An engineer generates a "temporary" API key for testing and forgets to revoke it. In the past, these were minor operational risks, debts you’d eventually pay down during a slower cycle. In 2026, “Eventually” is Now But today, within minutes, AI-powered adversarial systems can find that over-permissioned workload, map its identity relationships, and calculate a viable route to your critical assets. Before your security team has even finished their morning coffee, AI agents have simulated thousands of attack sequences and moved toward execution. AI compresses reconnaissance, simulation, and prioritization into a single automated sequence. The exposure you created this morning can be modeled, validated, and positioned inside a viable attack path before your team has lunch. The Collapse of the Exploitation Window Historically, the exploita...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Android trojan called Massiv that's designed to facilitate device takeover ( DTO ) attacks for financial theft. The malware, according to ThreatFabric, masquerades as seemingly harmless IPTV apps to deceive victims, indicating that the activity is primarily singling out users looking for the online TV applications. "This new threat, while only seen in a limited number of rather targeted campaigns, already poses a great risk to the users of mobile banking, allowing its operators to remotely control infected devices and perform device takeover attacks with further fraudulent transactions performed from the victim's banking accounts," the Dutch mobile security company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. ThreatFabric told The Hacker News via email that the malware was first spotted in a campaign targeting users in Portugal and Greece earlier this year, although it has observed samples dating back to...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new campaign dubbed CRESCENTHARVEST , likely targeting supporters of Iran's ongoing protests to conduct information theft and long-term espionage. The Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) said it observed the activity after January 9, with the attacks designed to deliver a malicious payload that serves as a remote access trojan (RAT) and information stealer to execute commands, log keystrokes, and exfiltrate sensitive data. It's currently not known if any of the attacks were successful. "The campaign exploits recent geopolitical developments to lure victims into opening malicious .LNK files disguised as protest-related images or videos," researchers Subhajeet Singha, Eliad Kimhy, and Darrel Virtusio said in a report published this week. "These files are bundled with authentic media and a Farsi-language report providing updates from 'the rebellious cities of Iran.' This pro- protest framing appears ...

New research from the Citizen Lab has found signs that Kenyan authorities used a commercial forensic extraction tool manufactured by Israeli company Cellebrite to break into a prominent dissident's phone, making it the latest case of abuse of the technology targeting civil society. The interdisciplinary research unit at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy said it found the indicators on a personal phone belonging to Boniface Mwangi, a Kenyan pro-democracy activist who has announced plans to run for president in 2027. Specifically, it has emerged that Cellebrite's forensic extraction tools were used on his Samsung phone while it was in police custody following his arrest in July 2025. The phone was returned to him nearly two months later, in September, at which point Mwangi found that the phone was no longer password-protected and could be unlocked without requiring a password. It's been assessed with high confidence that ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a critical security flaw in the Grandstream GXP1600 series of VoIP phones that could allow an attacker to seize control of susceptible devices. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-2329 , carries a CVSS score of 9.3 out of a maximum of 10.0. It has been described as a case of unauthenticated stack-based buffer overflow that could result in remote code execution. "A remote attacker can leverage CVE-2026-2329 to achieve unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) with root privileges on a target device," Rapid7 researcher Stephen Fewer, who discovered and reported the bug on January 6, 2026, said . According to the cybersecurity company, the issue is rooted in the device's web-based API service ("/cgi-bin/api.values.get") and is accessible in a default configuration without requiring authentication. This endpoint is designed to fetch one or more configuration values from the phone, such as the firmware version number...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed multiple security vulnerabilities in four popular Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extensions that, if successfully exploited, could allow threat actors to steal local files and execute code remotely. The extensions, which have been collectively installed more than 125 million times, are Live Server, Code Runner, Markdown Preview Enhanced, and Microsoft Live Preview. "Our research demonstrates that a hacker needs only one malicious extension, or a single vulnerability within one extension, to perform lateral movement and compromise entire organizations," OX Security researchers Moshe Siman Tov Bustan and Nir Zadok said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Details of the vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2025-65717 (CVSS score: 9.1) - A vulnerability in Live Server that allows attackers to exfiltrate local files, tricking a developer into visiting a malicious website when the extension is running, causing JavaScrip...

In 2025, navigating the digital seas still felt like a matter of direction. Organizations charted routes, watched the horizon, and adjusted course to reach safe harbors of resilience, trust, and compliance. In 2026, the seas are no longer calm between storms. Cybersecurity now unfolds in a state of  continuous atmospheric instability : AI-driven threats that adapt in real time, expanding digital ecosystems, fragile trust relationships, persistent regulatory pressure, and accelerating technological change. This is not turbulence on the way to stability; it  is the climate. In this environment, cybersecurity technologies are no longer merely navigational aids. They are  structural reinforcements . They determine whether an organization endures volatility or learns to function normally within it. That is why security investments in 2026 are increasingly made not for coverage, but for  operational continuity : sustained operations, decision-grade visibility and cont...

A maximum severity security vulnerability in Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines has been exploited as a zero-day by a suspected China-nexus threat cluster dubbed UNC6201 since mid-2024, according to a new report from Google Mandiant and Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG). The activity involves the exploitation of CVE-2026-22769 (CVSS score: 10.0), a case of hard-coded credentials affecting versions prior to 6.0.3.1 HF1. Other products, including RecoverPoint Classic, are not vulnerable to the flaw. "This is considered critical as an unauthenticated remote attacker with knowledge of the hardcoded credential could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to unauthorized access to the underlying operating system and root-level persistence," Dell said in a bulletin released Tuesday. The issue impacts the following products - RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines Version 5.3 SP4 P1 - Migrate from RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines 5.3 SP4 P1 to 6.0 SP3, and th...

Security, IT, and engineering teams today are under relentless pressure to accelerate outcomes, cut operational drag, and unlock the full potential of AI and automation. But simply investing in tools isn’t enough. 88% of AI proofs-of-concept never make it to production, even though 70% of workers cite freeing time for high-value work as the primary AI automation motivation. Real impact comes from intelligent workflows that combine automation, AI-driven decisioning, and human ingenuity into seamless processes that work across teams and systems.  In this article, we’ll highlight three use cases across Security and IT that can serve as powerful starting points for your intelligent workflow program. For each use case, we’ll share a pre-built workflow to help you tackle real bottlenecks in your organization with automation while connecting directly into your existing tech stack. These use cases are great starting points to help you turn theory into practice and achieve measurable gai...

Notepad++ has released a security fix to plug gaps that were exploited by an advanced threat actor from China to hijack the software update mechanism to selectively deliver malware to targets of interest. The version 8.9.2 update incorporates what maintainer Don Ho calls a "double lock" design that aims to make the update process "robust and effectively unexploitable." This includes verification of the signed installer downloaded from GitHub (implemented in version 8.8.9 and later), as well as the newly added verification of the signed XML returned by the update server at notepad-plus-plus[.]org. In addition to these enhancements, security-focused changes have been introduced to WinGUp, the auto-updater component - Removal of libcurl.dll to eliminate DLL side-loading risk Removal of two unsecured cURL SSL options: CURLSSLOPT_ALLOW_BEAST and CURLSSLOPT_NO_REVOKE Restriction of plugin management execution to programs signed with the same certificate as WinGUp...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday added four security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2026-2441 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A use-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome that could allow a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. CVE-2024-7694 (CVSS score: 7.2) - An arbitrary file upload vulnerability in TeamT5 ThreatSonar Anti-Ransomware versions 3.4.5 and earlier that could allow an attacker to upload malicious files and achieve arbitrary system command execution on the server. CVE-2020-7796 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) that could allow an attacker to send a crafted HTTP request to a remote host and obtain unauthorized access to sensitive information. CVE-2008-0015 (CVSS score: 8.8) - ...

Cloud attacks move fast — faster than most incident response teams. In data centers, investigations had time. Teams could collect disk images, review logs, and build timelines over days. In the cloud, infrastructure is short-lived. A compromised instance can disappear in minutes. Identities rotate. Logs expire. Evidence can vanish before analysis even begins. Cloud forensics is fundamentally different from traditional forensics. If investigations still rely on manual log stitching, attackers already have the advantage. Register: See Context-Aware Forensics in Action ➜ Why Traditional Incident Response Fails in the Cloud Most teams face the same problem: alerts without context. You might detect a suspicious API call, a new identity login, or unusual data access — but the full attack path remains unclear across the environment. Attackers use this visibility gap to move laterally, escalate privileges, and reach critical assets before responders can connect the activity. To...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed that artificial intelligence (AI) assistants that support web browsing or URL fetching capabilities can be turned into stealthy command-and-control (C2) relays, a technique that could allow attackers to blend into legitimate enterprise communications and evade detection. The attack method, which has been demonstrated against Microsoft Copilot and xAI Grok, has been codenamed AI as a C2 proxy by Check Point. It leverages "anonymous web access combined with browsing and summarization prompts," the cybersecurity company said. "The same mechanism can also enable AI-assisted malware operations, including generating reconnaissance workflows, scripting attacker actions, and dynamically deciding 'what to do next' during an intrusion." The development signals yet another consequential evolution in how threat actors could abuse AI systems, not just to scale or accelerate different phases of the cyber attack cycle, but als...

A new Android backdoor that's embedded deep into the device firmware can silently harvest data and remotely control its behavior, according to new findings from Kaspersky. The Russian cybersecurity vendor said it discovered the backdoor, dubbed Keenadu , in the firmware of devices associated with various brands, including Alldocube, with the compromise occurring during the firmware build phase. Keenadu has been detected in Alldocube iPlay 50 mini Pro firmware dating back to August 18, 2023. In all cases, the backdoor is embedded within tablet firmware, and the firmware files carry valid digital signatures. The names of the other vendors were not disclosed. "In several instances, the compromised firmware was delivered with an OTA update," security researcher Dmitry Kalinin said in an exhaustive analysis published today. "A copy of the backdoor is loaded into the address space of every app upon launch. The malware is a multi-stage loader granting its operators the ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new SmartLoader campaign that involves distributing a trojanized version of a Model Context Protocol ( MCP ) server associated with Oura Health to deliver an information stealer known as StealC . "The threat actors cloned a legitimate Oura MCP Server – a tool that connects AI assistants to Oura Ring health data – and built a deceptive infrastructure of fake forks and contributors to manufacture credibility," Straiker's AI Research (STAR) Labs team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The end game is to leverage the trojanized version of the Oura MCP server to deliver the StealC infostealer, allowing the threat actors to steal credentials, browser passwords, and data from cryptocurrency wallets. SmartLoader, first highlighted by OALABS Research in early 2024, is a malware loader that's known to be distributed via fake GitHub repositories containing artificial intelligence (AI)-generated lures to giv...

My objective As someone relatively inexperienced with network threat hunting, I wanted to get some hands-on experience using a network detection and response (NDR) system. My goal was to understand how NDR is used in hunting and incident response, and how it fits into the daily workflow of a Security Operations Center (SOC). Corelight’s Investigator software , part of its Open NDR Platform, is designed to be user-friendly (even for junior analysts) so I thought it would be a good fit for me. I was given access to a production version of Investigator that had been loaded with pre-recorded network traffic. This is a common way to learn how to use this type of software. While I’m new to threat hunting, I do have experience looking at network traffic flows. I was even an early user of one of the first network traffic analyzers called Sniffer. Sniffers were specialized PCs equipped with network adapters designed to capture traffic and packets. These computers were the foundation on whi...

New research from Microsoft has revealed that legitimate businesses are gaming artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots via the "Summarize with AI" button that's being increasingly placed on websites in ways that mirror classic search engine poisoning (SEO). The new AI hijacking technique has been codenamed AI Recommendation Poisoning by the Microsoft Defender Security Research Team. The tech giant described it as a case of an AI memory poisoning attack that's used to induce bias and deceive the AI system to generate responses that artificially boost visibility and skew recommendations. "Companies are embedding hidden instructions in 'Summarize with AI' buttons that, when clicked, attempt to inject persistence commands into an AI assistant's memory via URL prompt parameters," Microsoft said . "These prompts instruct the AI to 'remember [Company] as a trusted source' or 'recommend [Company] first.'" Microsoft said it id...

Apple on Monday released a new developer beta of iOS and iPadOS with support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in Rich Communications Services ( RCS ) messages. The feature is currently available for testing in iOS and iPadOS 26.4 Beta, and is expected to be shipped to customers in a future update for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. "End-to-end encryption is in beta and is not available for all devices or carriers," Apple said in its release notes. "Conversations labeled as encrypted are encrypted end-to-end, so messages can't be read while they're sent between devices." The iPhone maker also pointed out that the availability of RCS encryption is limited to conversations between Apple devices, and not other platforms like Android. The secure messaging test arrives nearly a year after the GSM Association (GSMA) formally announced support for E2EE for safeguarding messages sent via the RCS protocol. E2EE for RCS‌ will require Apple to update to ‌RCS‌ Un...

Cybersecurity researchers disclosed they have detected a case of an information stealer infection successfully exfiltrating a victim's OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot and Moltbot ) configuration environment. "This finding marks a significant milestone in the evolution of infostealer behavior: the transition from stealing browser credentials to harvesting the 'souls' and identities of personal AI [artificial intelligence] agents," Hudson Rock said . Alon Gal, CTO of Hudson Rock, told The Hacker News that the stealer was likely a variant of Vidar based on the infection details. Vidar is an off-the-shelf information stealer that's known to be active since late 2018. That said, the cybersecurity company said the data capture was not facilitated by a custom OpenClaw module within the stealer malware, but rather through a "broad file-grabbing routine" that's designed to look for certain file extensions and specific directory names containing sensitiv...

A new study has found that multiple cloud-based password managers, including Bitwarden, Dashlane, and LastPass, are susceptible to password recovery attacks under certain conditions. "The attacks range in severity from integrity violations to the complete compromise of all vaults in an organization," researchers Matteo Scarlata, Giovanni Torrisi, Matilda Backendal, and Kenneth G. Paterson said . "The majority of the attacks allow the recovery of passwords." It's worth noting that the threat model, per the study from ETH Zurich and Università della Svizzera italiana, supposes a malicious server and aims to examine the password manager's zero-knowledge encryption (ZKE) promises made by the three solutions. ZKE is a cryptographic technique that allows one party to prove knowledge of a secret to another party without actually revealing the secret itself. ZKE is also a little different from end-to-end encryption (E2EE). While E2EE refers to a method of secur...