Supply Chain Security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Last week's cyber news in 2025 was not about one big incident. It was about many small cracks opening at the same time. Tools people trust every day behave in unexpected ways. Old flaws resurfaced. New ones were used almost immediately. A common theme ran through it all in 2025. Attackers moved faster than fixes. Access meant for work, updates, or support kept getting abused. And damage did not stop when an incident was "over" — it continued to surface months or even years later. This weekly recap brings those stories together in one place. No overload, no noise. Read on to see what shaped the threat landscape in the final stretch of 2025 and what deserves your attention now. ⚡ Threat of the Week MongoDB Vulnerability Comes Under Attack — A newly disclosed security vulnerability in MongoDB has come under active exploitation in the wild, with over 87,000 potentially susceptible instances identified across the world. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-14847 (CVSS score: 8.7)...

In December 2024, the popular Ultralytics AI library was compromised, installing malicious code that hijacked system resources for cryptocurrency mining. In August 2025 , malicious Nx packages leaked 2,349 GitHub, cloud, and AI credentials. Throughout 2024, ChatGPT vulnerabilities allowed unauthorized extraction of user data from AI memory. The result: 23.77 million secrets were leaked through AI systems in 2024 alone, a 25% increase from the previous year. Here's what these incidents have in common: The compromised organizations had comprehensive security programs. They passed audits. They met compliance requirements. Their security frameworks simply weren't built for AI threats. Traditional security frameworks have served organizations well for decades. But AI systems operate fundamentally differently from the applications these frameworks were designed to protect. And the attacks against them don't fit into existing control categories. Security teams followed the f...

Trust Wallet is urging users to update its Google Chrome extension to the latest version following what it described as a "security incident" that led to the loss of approximately $7 million. The issue, the multi‑chain, non‑custodial cryptocurrency wallet service said, impacts version 2.68. The extension has about one million users, according to the Chrome Web Store listing. Users are advised to update to version 2.69 as soon as possible. "We've confirmed that approximately $7 million has been impacted and we will ensure all affected users are refunded," Trust Wallet said in a post on X. "Supporting affected users is our top priority, and we are actively finalizing the process to refund the impacted users." Trust Wallet is also urging users to refrain from interacting with any messages that do not come from its official channels. Mobile-only users and all other browser extension versions are not affected. According to details shared by SlowMist...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered two malicious Google Chrome extensions with the same name and published by the same developer that come with capabilities to intercept traffic and capture user credentials. The extensions are advertised as a "multi-location network speed test plug-in" for developers and foreign trade personnel. Both the browser add-ons are available for download as of writing. The details of the extensions are as follows - Phantom Shuttle (ID: fbfldogmkadejddihifklefknmikncaj) - 2,000 users (Published on November 26, 2017) Phantom Shuttle (ID: ocpcmfmiidofonkbodpdhgddhlcmcofd) - 180 users (Published on April 27, 2023) "Users pay subscriptions ranging from ¥9.9 to ¥95.9 CNY ($1.40 to $13.50 USD), believing they're purchasing a legitimate VPN service, but both variants perform identical malicious operations," Socket security researcher Kush Pandya said. "Behind the subscription facade, the extensions execute complete traffic ...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday announced a ban on all drones and critical components made in a foreign country, citing national security concerns. To that end, the agency has added to its Covered List Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and UAS critical components produced in a foreign country, and all communications and video surveillance equipment and services pursuant to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA ). This move will keep China-made drones such as those from DJI and Autel Robotics out of the U.S. market. The FCC said that while drones offer the potential to enhance public safety and innovation, criminals, hostile foreign actors, and terrorists can weaponize them to present serious threats to the U.S. It also noted that a further review by an Executive Branch interagency body with appropriate national security expertise that was convened by the White House led to a "specific determination" that UAS and UAS critical compon...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has urged federal agencies to patch the recent React2Shell vulnerability by December 12, 2025, amid reports of widespread exploitation. The critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-55182 (CVSS score: 10.0), affects the React Server Components (RSC) Flight protocol. The underlying cause of the issue is an unsafe deserialization that allows an attacker to inject malicious logic that the server executes in a privileged context. It also affects other frameworks, including Next.js, Waku, Vite, React Router, and RedwoodSDK. "A single, specially crafted HTTP request is sufficient; there is no authentication requirement, user interaction, or elevated permissions involved," Cloudforce One, Cloudflare's threat intelligence team, said . "Once successful, the attacker can execute arbitrary, privileged JavaScript on the affected server." Since its public disclosure on December 3, 2025, the shortcoming...

Threat actors with ties to North Korea have likely become the latest to exploit the recently disclosed critical React2Shell security flaw in React Server Components (RSC) to deliver a previously undocumented remote access trojan dubbed EtherRAT . "EtherRAT leverages Ethereum smart contracts for command-and-control (C2) resolution, deploys five independent Linux persistence mechanisms, and downloads its own Node.js runtime from nodejs.org," Sysdig said in a report published Monday. The cloud security firm said the activity exhibits significant overlap with a long-running campaign codenamed Contagious Interview , which has been observed leveraging the EtherHiding technique to distribute malware since February 2025. Contagious Interview is the name given to a series of attacks in which blockchain and Web3 developers, among others, are targeted through fake job interviews, coding assignments, and video assessments, leading to the deployment of malware. These efforts typi...

Canadian organizations have emerged as the focus of a targeted cyber campaign orchestrated by a threat activity cluster known as STAC6565 . Cybersecurity company Sophos said it investigated almost 40 intrusions linked to the threat actor between February 2024 and August 2025. The campaign is assessed with high confidence to share overlaps with a hacking group known as Gold Blade , which is also tracked under the names Earth Kapre, RedCurl, and Red Wolf. The financially motivated threat actor is believed to be active since late 2018 , initially targeting entities in Russia, before expanding its focus to entities in Canada, Germany, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, the U.K., and the U.S. The group has a history of using phishing emails to conduct commercial espionage. However, recent attack waves have found RedCurl to have engaged in ransomware attacks using a bespoke malware strain dubbed QWCrypt . One of the notable tools in the threat actor's arsenal is RedLoader, which s...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered vulnerable code in legacy Python packages that could potentially pave the way for a supply chain compromise on the Python Package Index (PyPI) via a domain takeover attack. Software supply chain security company ReversingLabs said it found the "vulnerability" in bootstrap files provided by a build and deployment automation tool named "zc.buildout." "The scripts automate the process of downloading, building, and installing the required libraries and tools," security researcher Vladimir Pezo said . "Specifically, when the bootstrap script is executed, it fetches and executes an installation script for the package Distribute from python-distribute[.]org – a legacy domain that is now available for sale in the premium price range while being managed to drive ad revenue." The PyPI packages that include a bootstrap script that accesses the domain in question include tornado, pypiserver, slapos.core, roman, x...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has abandoned its lawsuit against SolarWinds and its chief information security officer, alleging that the company had misled investors about the security practices that led to the 2020 supply chain attack. In a joint motion filed November 20, 2025, the SEC, along with SolarWinds and its CISO Timothy G. Brown, asked the court to voluntarily dismiss the case. The SEC said its decision to seek dismissal "does not necessarily reflect the Commission's position on any other case." SolarWinds and Brown were accused by the SEC in October 2023 of "fraud and internal control failures" and that the company defrauded investors by overstating its cybersecurity practices and understating or failing to disclose known risks. The agency also said both SolarWinds and Brown ignored "repeated red flags" and failed to adequately protect its assets, ultimately leading to the supply chain compromise that came to li...

Threat actors are leveraging bogus installers masquerading as popular software to trick users into installing malware as part of a global malvertising campaign dubbed TamperedChef . The end goal of the attacks is to establish persistence and deliver JavaScript malware that facilitates remote access and control, per a new report from Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU). The campaign , per the Singapore-headquartered company, is still ongoing, with new artifacts being detected and associated infrastructure remaining active. "The operator(s) rely on social engineering by using everyday application names, malvertising, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and abused digital certificates that aim to increase user trust and evade security detection," researchers Darrel Virtusio and Jozsef Gegeny said. TamperedChef is the name assigned to a long-running campaign that has leveraged seemingly legitimate installers for various utilities to distribute an information stealer malware of...

Suspected espionage-driven threat actors from Iran have been observed deploying backdoors like TWOSTROKE and DEEPROOT as part of continued attacks aimed at aerospace, aviation, and defense industries in the Middle East. The activity has been attributed by Google-owned Mandiant to a threat cluster tracked as UNC1549 (aka GalaxyGato, Nimbus Manticore, or Subtle Snail), which was first documented by the threat intelligence firm early last year. "Operating in late 2023 through 2025, UNC1549 employed sophisticated initial access vectors, including abuse of third-party relationships to gain entry (pivoting from service providers to their customers), VDI breakouts from third-parties, and highly targeted, role-relevant phishing," researchers Mohamed El-Banna, Daniel Lee, Mike Stokkel, and Josh Goddard said. The disclosure comes about two months after Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT tied the hacking group to a campaign targeting European telecommunications companies, succes...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a set of seven npm packages published by a single threat actor that leverages a cloaking service called Adspect to differentiate between real victims and security researchers to ultimately redirect them to sketchy crypto-themed sites. The malicious npm packages, published by a threat actor named " dino_reborn " between September and November 2025, are listed below. The npm account no longer exists on npm as of writing. signals-embed (342 downloads) dsidospsodlks (184 downloads) applicationooks21 (340 downloads) application-phskck (199 downloads) integrator-filescrypt2025 (199 downloads) integrator-2829 (276 downloads) integrator-2830 (290 downloads) "Upon visiting a fake website constructed by one of the packages, the threat actor determines if the visitor is a victim or a security researcher," Socket security researcher Olivia Brown said. "If the visitor is a victim, they see a fake CAPTCHA, eventually b...

Details have emerged about a now-patched critical security flaw in the popular " @react-native-community/cli " npm package that could be potentially exploited to run malicious operating system (OS) commands under certain conditions. "The vulnerability allows remote unauthenticated attackers to easily trigger arbitrary OS command execution on the machine running react-native-community/cli's development server, posing a significant risk to developers," JFrog Senior Security Researcher Or Peles said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-11953, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0, indicating critical severity. It also affects the "@react-native-community/cli-server-api" package versions 4.8.0 through 20.0.0-alpha.2, and has been patched in version 20.0.0 released early last month. The command-line tools package , which is maintained by Meta, enables developers to build React Native mobile ...

Eclipse Foundation, which maintains the open-source Open VSX project, said it has taken steps to revoke a small number of tokens that were leaked within Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extensions published in the marketplace. The action comes following a report from cloud security company Wiz earlier this month, which found several extensions from both Microsoft's VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX to have inadvertently exposed their access tokens within public repositories, potentially allowing bad actors to seize control and distribute malware, effectively poisoning the extension supply chain. "Upon investigation, we confirmed that a small number of tokens had been leaked and could potentially be abused to publish or modify extensions," Mikaël Barbero, head of security at the Eclipse Foundation, said in a statement. "These exposures were caused by developer mistakes, not a compromise of the Open VSX infrastructure." Open VSX said it has also introduced a toke...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a coordinated campaign that leveraged 131 rebranded clones of a WhatsApp Web automation extension for Google Chrome to spam Brazilian users at scale. The 131 spamware extensions share the same codebase, design patterns, and infrastructure, according to supply chain security company Socket. The browser add-ons collectively have about 20,905 active users. "They are not classic malware, but they function as high-risk spam automation that abuses platform rules," security researcher Kirill Boychenko said. "The code injects directly into the WhatsApp Web page, running alongside WhatsApp's own scripts, automates bulk outreach and scheduling in ways that aim to bypass WhatsApp's anti-spam enforcement." The end goal of the campaign is to blast outbound messaging via WhatsApp in a manner that bypasses the messaging platform's rate limits and anti-spam controls. The activity is assessed to have been ongoing for at lea...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a malicious package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that claims to offer the ability to create a SOCKS5 proxy service, while also providing a stealthy backdoor-like functionality to drop additional payloads on Windows systems. The deceptive package, named soopsocks, attracted a total of 2,653 downloads before it was taken down. It was first uploaded by a user named " soodalpie " on September 26, 2025, the same date the account was created. "While providing this capability, it exhibits behavior as a backdoor proxy server targeting Windows platforms, using automated installation processes via VBScript or an executable version," JFrog said in an analysis. The executable ("_AUTORUN.EXE") is a compiled Go file that, besides including a SOCKS5 implementation as advertised, is also designed to run PowerShell scripts, set firewall rules, and relaunch itself with elevated permissions. It also carries out ...

The world of enterprise technology is undergoing a dramatic shift. Gen-AI adoption is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, and SaaS vendors are embedding powerful LLMs directly into their platforms. Organizations are embracing AI-powered applications across every function, from marketing and development to finance and HR. This transformation unlocks innovation and efficiency, but it also introduces new risks. Enterprises must balance the promise of AI with the responsibility to protect their data, maintain compliance, and secure their expanding application supply chain. The New Risk Landscape With AI adoption comes a new set of challenges: AI Sprawl : Employees adopt AI tools independently, often without security oversight, creating blind spots and unmanaged risks. Supply Chain Vulnerabilities : interapplication integrations between AI tools and enterprise resources expand the attack surface and introduce dependencies and access paths enterprises can't easily control. Data Exp...