Application Security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Picture this: Your team rolls out some new code, thinking everything's fine. But hidden in there is a tiny flaw that explodes into a huge problem once it hits the cloud. Next thing you know, hackers are in, and your company is dealing with a mess that costs millions. Scary, right? In 2025, the average data breach hits businesses with a whopping $4.44 million bill globally. And guess what? A big chunk of these headaches comes from app security slip-ups, like web attacks that snag credentials and wreak havoc. If you're in dev, ops, or security, you've probably felt that stress—endless alerts, teams arguing over who's to blame, and fixes that take forever. But hey, it doesn't have to be this way. What if you could spot those risks early, from the moment code is written all the way to when it's running in the cloud? That's the magic of code-to-cloud visibility, and it's changing how smart teams handle app security. Our upcoming webinar, "Code-to-Clou...

Story teaser text: Cybersecurity leaders face mounting pressure to stop attacks before they start, and the best defense may come down to the settings you choose on day one. In this piece, Yuriy Tsibere explores how default policies like deny-by-default, MFA enforcement, and application Ringfencing ™ can eliminate entire categories of risk. From disabling Office macros to blocking outbound server traffic, these simple but strategic moves create a hardened environment that attackers can't easily penetrate. Whether you're securing endpoints or overseeing policy rollouts, adopting a security-by-default mindset can reduce complexity, shrink your attack surface, and help you stay ahead of evolving threats. Cybersecurity has changed dramatically since the days of the "Love Bug" virus in 2001. What was once an annoyance is now a profit-driven criminal enterprise worth billions. This shift demands proactive defense strategies that don't just respond to threats—they prevent t...

Some of the most devastating cyberattacks don't rely on brute force, but instead succeed through stealth. These quiet intrusions often go unnoticed until long after the attacker has disappeared. Among the most insidious are man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, where criminals exploit weaknesses in communication protocols to silently position themselves between two unsuspecting parties Fortunately, protecting your communications from MITM attacks doesn't require complex measures. By taking a few simple steps, your security team can go a long way in securing users' data and keeping silent attackers at bay. Know your enemy In a MITM attack , a malicious actor intercepts communications between two parties (such as a user and a web app) to steal sensitive information. By secretly positioning themselves between the two ends of the conversation, MITM attackers can capture data like credit card numbers,  login credentials , and account details. This stolen information o...

Everyone's an IT decision-maker now. The employees in your organization can install a plugin with just one click, and they don't need to clear it with your team first. It's great for productivity, but it's a serious problem for your security posture. When the floodgates of SaaS and AI opened, IT didn't just get democratized, its security got outpaced. Employees are onboarding apps faster than security teams can say, "We need to check this out first." The result is a sprawling mess of shadow IT, embedded AI, and OAuth permissions that would make any CISO break into a cold sweat. Here are five ways IT democratization can undermine your organization's security posture and how to prevent it from doing so. 1. You can't secure what you can't see Remember when IT security used to control what was allowed to pass the firewall? Good times. Today, anyone can find an app to do the heavy lifting for them. They won't notice or care when the app requires access to your company's Google Drive or...

In this article, we will provide a brief overview of Pillar Security's platform to better understand how they are tackling AI security challenges. Pillar Security is building a platform to cover the entire software development and deployment lifecycle with the goal of providing trust in AI systems. Using its holistic approach, the platform introduces new ways of detecting AI threats, beginning at pre-planning stages and going all the way through runtime. Along the way, users gain visibility into the security posture of their applications while enabling safe AI execution. Pillar is uniquely suited to the challenges inherent in AI security. Co-founder and CEO Dor Sarig comes from a cyber-offensive background, having spent a decade leading security operations for governmental and enterprise organizations. In contrast, co-founder and CTO Ziv Karlinger spent over ten years developing defensive techniques, securing against financial cybercrime and securing supply chains. Together, th...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a serious security issue that allows leaked Laravel APP_KEYs to be weaponized to gain remote code execution capabilities on hundreds of applications. "Laravel's APP_KEY, essential for encrypting sensitive data, is often leaked publicly (e.g., on GitHub)," GitGuardian said . "If attackers get access to this key, they can exploit a deserialization flaw to execute arbitrary code on the server – putting data and infrastructure at risk." The company, in collaboration with Synacktiv, said it was able to extract more than 260,000 APP_KEYs from GitHub from 2018 to May 30, 2025, identifying over 600 vulnerable Laravel applications in the process. GitGuardian said it observed over 10,000 unique APP_KEYs across GitHub, of which 400 APP_KEYs were validated as functional. APP_KEY is a random 32-byte encryption key that's generated during the installation of Laravel. Stored in the .env file of the application, it's used ...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a new campaign dubbed OneClik that leverages Microsoft's ClickOnce software deployment technology and bespoke Golang backdoors to compromise organizations within the energy, oil, and gas sectors. "The campaign exhibits characteristics aligned with Chinese-affiliated threat actors, though attribution remains cautious," Trellix researchers Nico Paulo Yturriaga and Pham Duy Phuc said in a technical write-up. "Its methods reflect a broader shift toward 'living-off-the-land' tactics, blending malicious operations within cloud and enterprise tooling to evade traditional detection mechanisms." The phishing attacks, in a nutshell, make use of a .NET-based loader called OneClikNet to deploy a sophisticated Go-based backdoor codenamed RunnerBeacon that's designed to communicate with attacker-controlled infrastructure that's obscured using Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services. ClickOnce is offered by Micro...

DALL-E for coders? That's the promise behind vibe coding, a term describing the use of natural language to create software. While this ushers in a new era of AI-generated code, it introduces "silent killer" vulnerabilities: exploitable flaws that evade traditional security tools despite perfect test performance. A detailed analysis of secure vibe coding practices is available here . TL;DR: Secure Vibe Coding Vibe coding, using natural language to generate software with AI, is revolutionizing development in 2025. But while it accelerates prototyping and democratizes coding, it also introduces "silent killer" vulnerabilities: exploitable flaws that pass tests but evade traditional security tools. This article explores: Real-world examples of AI-generated code in production Shocking stats: 40% higher secret exposure in AI-assisted repos Why LLMs omit security unless explicitly prompted Secure prompting techniques and tool comparisons (GPT-4, Claude, Cursor, etc.) Reg...

For organizations eyeing the federal market, FedRAMP can feel like a gated fortress. With strict compliance requirements and a notoriously long runway, many companies assume the path to authorization is reserved for the well-resourced enterprise. But that's changing. In this post, we break down how fast-moving startups can realistically achieve FedRAMP Moderate authorization without derailing product velocity, drawing from real-world lessons, technical insights, and the bruises earned along the way from a cybersecurity startup that just went through the process. Why It Matters Winning in the federal space starts with trust—and that trust begins with FedRAMP. But pursuing authorization is not a simple compliance checkbox. It's a company-wide shift that requires intentional strategy, deep security investment, and a willingness to move differently than most startups. Let's get into what that actually looks like. Keys to a Successful FedRAMP Authorization 1. Align to NIST 800-53 fro...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed three security flaws in the popular Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) that could be chained to achieve pre-authenticated remote code execution. Sitecore Experience Platform is an enterprise-oriented software that provides users with tools for content management, digital marketing, and analytics and reports. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2025-34509 (CVSS score: 8.2) - Use of hard-coded credentials CVE-2025-34510 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Post-authenticated remote code execution via path traversal CVE-2025-34511 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Post-authenticated remote code execution via Sitecore PowerShell Extension watchTowr Labs researcher Piotr Bazydlo said the default user account "sitecore\ServicesAPI" has a single-character password that's hard-coded to " b ." In its documentation, Sitecore advises customers against changing default user account credentials. While the user has no roles and permission...

Modern enterprise networks are highly complex environments that rely on hundreds of apps and infrastructure services. These systems need to interact securely and efficiently without constant human oversight, which is where non-human identities (NHIs) come in. NHIs — including application secrets, API keys, service accounts, and OAuth tokens — have exploded in recent years, thanks to an ever-expanding array of apps and services that must work together and identify one another on the fly. In some enterprises, NHIs now outnumber human identities by as much as 50-to-1 .  However, NHIs introduce unique risks and management challenges that have security leaders on high alert. Forty-six percent of organizations have experienced compromises of NHI accounts or credentials over the past year, and another 26% suspect they have, according to a recent report from Enterprise Strategy Group .  It's no wonder NHIs — and the difficulties they present with oversight, risk reduction, and gove...

Three security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in preloaded Android applications on smartphones from Ulefone and Krüger&Matz that could enable any app installed on the device to perform a factory reset and encrypt an application. A brief description of the three flaws is as follows - CVE-2024-13915 (CVSS score: 6.9) - A pre-installed "com.pri.factorytest" application on Ulefone and Krüger&Matz smartphones exposes a "com.pri.factorytest.emmc.FactoryResetService" service that allows any installed application to perform a factory reset of the device. CVE-2024-13916 (CVSS score: 6.9) - A pre-installed "com.pri.applock" application on Kruger&Matz smartphones allows a user to encrypt any application using user-provided PIN code or by using biometric data. The app also exposes a "com.android.providers.settings.fingerprint.PriFpShareProvider" content provider's "query()" method that permits any malicious app already ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a security flaw in Microsoft's OneDrive File Picker that, if successfully exploited, could allow websites to access a user's entire cloud storage content, as opposed to just the files selected for upload via the tool. "This stems from overly broad OAuth scopes and misleading consent screens that fail to clearly explain the extent of access being granted," the Oasis Research Team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This flaw could have severe consequences, including customer data leakage and violation of compliance regulations." It's assessed that several apps are affected, such as ChatGPT, Slack, Trello, and ClickUp, given their integration with Microsoft's cloud service. The problem, Oasis said, is the result of excessive permissions requested by the OneDrive File Picker, which seeks read access to the entire drive, even in cases only a single file is uploaded due to the absence of fine-grai...

Modern apps move fast—faster than most security teams can keep up. As businesses rush to build in the cloud, security often lags behind. Teams scan code in isolation, react late to cloud threats, and monitor SOC alerts only after damage is done. Attackers don't wait. They exploit vulnerabilities within hours. Yet most organizations take days to respond to critical cloud alerts. That delay isn't just risky—it's an open door. The problem? Security is split across silos. DevSecOps, CloudSec, and SOC teams all work separately. Their tools don't talk. Their data doesn't sync. And in those gaps, 80% of cloud exposures slip through—exploitable, avoidable, and often invisible until it's too late. This free webinar ," Breaking Down Security Silos: Why Application Security Must Span from Code to Cloud to SOC ," shows you how to fix that. Join Ory Segal, Technical Evangelist at Cortex Cloud (Palo Alto Networks), and discover a practical approach to securing your apps from code to cl...

Imagine this: Your organization completed its annual penetration test in January, earning high marks for security compliance. In February, your development team deployed a routine software update. By April, attackers had already exploited a vulnerability introduced in that February update, gaining access to customer data weeks before being finally detected. This situation isn't theoretical: it plays out repeatedly as organizations realize that point-in-time compliance testing can't protect against vulnerabilities introduced after the assessment. According to Verizons 2025 Data Breach Investigation Report , the exploitation of vulnerabilities rose 34% year-over-year. While compliance frameworks provide important security guidelines, companies need continuous security validation to identify and remediate new vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. Here's what you need to know about pen testing to meet compliance standards — and why you should adopt continuous penetratio...