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A critical security flaw in the Sneeit Framework plugin for WordPress is being actively exploited in the wild, per data from Wordfence. The remote code execution vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-6389 (CVSS score: 9.8), which affects all versions of the plugin prior to and including 8.3. It has been patched in version 8.4, released on August 5, 2025. The plugin has more than 1,700 active installations. "This is due to the [sneeit_articles_pagination_callback()] function accepting user input and then passing that through call_user_func()," Wordfence said . "This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute code on the server, which can be leveraged to inject backdoors or, for example, create new administrative user accounts." In other words, the vulnerability can be leveraged to call an arbitrary PHP function, such as wp_insert_user(), to insert a malicious administrator user, which an attacker can then weaponize to seize control of the site an...

The Iranian hacking group known as MuddyWater has been observed leveraging a new backdoor dubbed UDPGangster that uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for command-and-control (C2) purposes. The cyber espionage activity targeted users in Turkey, Israel, and Azerbaijan, according to a report from Fortinet FortiGuard Labs. "This malware enables remote control of compromised systems by allowing attackers to execute commands, exfiltrate files, and deploy additional payloads – all communicated through UDP channels designed to evade traditional network defenses," security researcher Cara Lin said . The attack chain involves using spear-phishing tactics to distribute booby-trapped Microsoft Word documents that trigger the execution of a malicious payload once macros are enabled. Some of the phishing messages impersonate the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Ministry of Foreign Affairs and purport to invite recipients to an online seminar titled "Presidential Elections a...

Over 30 security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in various artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) that combine prompt injection primitives with legitimate features to achieve data exfiltration and remote code execution. The security shortcomings have been collectively named IDEsaster by security researcher Ari Marzouk (MaccariTA). They affect popular IDEs and extensions such as Cursor, Windsurf, Kiro.dev, GitHub Copilot, Zed.dev, Roo Code, Junie, and Cline, among others. Of these, 24 have been assigned CVE identifiers. "I think the fact that multiple universal attack chains affected each and every AI IDE tested is the most surprising finding of this research," Marzouk told The Hacker News. "All AI IDEs (and coding assistants that integrate with them) effectively ignore the base software (IDE) in their threat model. They treat their features as inherently safe because they've been there for years. However, once you add A...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday formally added a critical security flaw impacting React Server Components (RSC) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog following reports of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-55182 (CVSS score: 10.0), relates to a case of remote code execution that could be triggered by an unauthenticated attacker without requiring any special setup. It's also tracked as React2Shell. "Meta React Server Components contains a remote code execution vulnerability that could allow unauthenticated remote code execution by exploiting a flaw in how React decodes payloads sent to React Server Function endpoints," CISA said in an advisory. The problem stems from insecure deserialization in the library's Flight protocol, which React uses to communicate between a server and client. As a result, it leads to a scenario where an unauthenticated, remote attacker can execute arbi...

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in Apache Tika that could result in an XML external entity ( XXE ) injection attack. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-66516 , is rated 10.0 on the CVSS scoring scale, indicating maximum severity. "Critical XXE in Apache Tika tika-core (1.13-3.2.1), tika-pdf-module (2.0.0-3.2.1) and tika-parsers (1.13-1.28.5) modules on all platforms allows an attacker to carry out XML External Entity injection via a crafted XFA file inside of a PDF," according to an advisory for the vulnerability. It affects the following Maven packages - org.apache.tika:tika-core >= 1.13, <= 3.2.1 (Patched in version 3.2.2) org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module >= 2.0.0, <= 3.2.1 (Patched in version 3.2.2) org.apache.tika:tika-parsers >= 1.13, < 2.0.0 (Patched in version 2.0.0) XXE injection refers to a web security vulnerability that allows an attacker to interfere with an application's processing of XML data. This, in tur...

Two hacking groups with ties to China have been observed weaponizing the newly disclosed security flaw in React Server Components (RSC) within hours of it becoming public knowledge. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-55182 (CVSS score: 10.0), aka React2Shell , which allows unauthenticated remote code execution . It has been addressed in React versions 19.0.1, 19.1.2, and 19.2.1. According to a new report shared by Amazon Web Services (AWS), two China-linked threat actors known as Earth Lamia and Jackpot Panda have been observed attempting to exploit the maximum-severity security flaw. "Our analysis of exploitation attempts in AWS MadPot honeypot infrastructure has identified exploitation activity from IP addresses and infrastructure historically linked to known China state-nexus threat actors," CJ Moses, CISO of Amazon Integrated Security, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Specifically, the tech giant said it identified infrastructure associated wit...

A command injection vulnerability in Array Networks AG Series secure access gateways has been exploited in the wild since August 2025, according to an alert issued by JPCERT/CC this week. The vulnerability, which does not have a CVE identifier, was addressed by the company on May 11, 2025. It's rooted in Array's DesktopDirect, a remote desktop access solution that allows users to securely access their work computers from any location. "Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands," JPCERT/CC said . "This vulnerability affects systems where the 'DesktopDirect' feature, which provides remote desktop access, is enabled." The agency said it has confirmed incidents in Japan that have exploited the shortcoming after August 2025 to drop web shells on susceptible devices. The attacks have originated from the IP address " 194.233.100[.]138 ." There are currently no details available on the scale of the...

As 2025 draws to a close, security professionals face a sobering realization: the traditional playbook for web security has become dangerously obsolete. AI-powered attacks, evolving injection techniques, and supply chain compromises affecting hundreds of thousands of websites forced a fundamental rethink of defensive strategies. Here are the five threats that reshaped web security this year, and why the lessons learned will define digital protection for years to come. 1. Vibe Coding Natural language coding, " vibe coding " , transformed from novelty to production reality in 2025, with nearly 25% of Y Combinator startups using AI to build core codebases. One developer launched a multiplayer flight simulator in under three hours, eventually scaling it to 89,000 players and generating thousands in monthly revenue. The Result Code that functions perfectly yet contains exploitable flaws, bypassing traditional security tools. AI generates what you ask for, not what you forget...

A maximum-severity security flaw has been disclosed in React Server Components (RSC) that, if successfully exploited, could result in remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-55182, carries a CVSS score of 10.0. The vulnerability has been codenamed React2shell . It allows "unauthenticated remote code execution by exploiting a flaw in how React decodes payloads sent to React Server Function endpoints," the React Team said in an alert issued today. "Even if your app does not implement any React Server Function endpoints, it may still be vulnerable if your app supports React Server Components." According to cloud security firm Wiz , the issue is a case of logical deserialization that stems from processing RSC payloads in an unsafe manner. As a result, an unauthenticated attacker could craft a malicious HTTP request to any Server Function endpoint that, when deserialized by React, achieves execution of arbitrary JavaScript code on the server. ...

Microsoft has silently plugged a security flaw that has been exploited by several threat actors since 2017 as part of the company's November 2025 Patch Tuesday updates , according to ACROS Security's 0patch . The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-9491 (CVSS score: 7.8/7.0), which has been described as a Windows Shortcut (LNK) file UI misinterpretation vulnerability that could lead to remote code execution. "The specific flaw exists within the handling of .LNK files," according to a description in the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD). "Crafted data in an .LNK file can cause hazardous content in the file to be invisible to a user who inspects the file via the Windows-provided user interface. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current user." In other words, these shortcut files are crafted such that viewing their properties in Windows conceals the malicious commands executed by them out of the u...

A critical security flaw impacting a WordPress plugin known as King Addons for Elementor has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-8489 (CVSS score: 9.8), is a case of privilege escalation that allows unauthenticated attackers to grant themselves administrative privileges by simply specifying the administrator user role during registration. It affects versions from 24.12.92 through 51.1.14. It was patched by the maintainers in version 51.1.35 released on September 25, 2025. Security researcher Peter Thaleikis has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw. The plugin has over 10,000 active installs. "This is due to the plugin not properly restricting the roles that users can register with," Wordfence said in an alert. "This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register with administrator-level user accounts." Specifically, the issue is rooted in the "handle_register_ajax()" function that...

Three critical security flaws have been disclosed in an open-source utility called Picklescan that could allow malicious actors to execute arbitrary code by loading untrusted PyTorch models, effectively bypassing the tool's protections. Picklescan , developed and maintained by Matthieu Maitre (@mmaitre314), is a security scanner that's designed to parse Python pickle files and detect suspicious imports or function calls, before they are executed. Pickle is a widely used serialization format in machine learning, including PyTorch , which uses the format to save and load models. But pickle files can also be a huge security risk , as they can be used to automatically trigger the execution of arbitrary Python code when they are loaded. This necessitates that users and organizations load trusted models, or load model weights from TensorFlow and Flax. The issues discovered by JFrog essentially make it possible to bypass the scanner, present the scanned model files as safe, and e...

Google on Monday released monthly security updates for the Android operating system, including two vulnerabilities that it said have been exploited in the wild. The patch addresses a total of 107 security flaws spanning different components, including Framework, System, Kernel, as well as those from Arm, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Unison. The two high-severity shortcomings that have been exploited are listed below - CVE-2025-48633 - An information disclosure vulnerability in Framework CVE-2025-48572 - An elevation of privilege vulnerability in Framework As is customary, Google has not released any additional details about the nature of the attacks exploiting them, if they have been chained together or used separately, and the scale of such efforts. It's not known who is behind the attacks. However, the tech giant acknowledged in its advisory that there are indications they "may be under limited, targeted exploitation." Also fixed by Go...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has updated its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog to include a security flaw impacting OpenPLC ScadaBR, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2021-26829 (CVSS score: 5.4), a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw that affects Windows and Linux versions of the software via system_settings.shtm. It impacts the following versions - OpenPLC ScadaBR through 1.12.4 on Windows OpenPLC ScadaBR through 0.9.1 on Linux The addition of the security defect to the KEV catalog comes a little over a month after Forescout said it caught a pro-Russian hacktivist group known as TwoNet targeting its honeypot in September 2025, mistaking it for a water treatment facility.  In the compromise aimed at the decoy plant, the threat actor is said to have moved from initial access to disruptive action in about 26 hours, using default credentials to obtain a foothold, followed by carrying...

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. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned that cybercriminals are impersonating financial institutions with an aim to steal money or sensitive information to facilitate account takeover (ATO) fraud schemes. The activity targets individuals, businesses, and organizations of varied sizes and across sectors, the agency said, adding the fraudulent schemes have led to more than $262 million in losses since the start of the year. The FBI said it has received over 5,100 complaints. ATO fraud typically refers to attacks that enable threat actors to obtain unauthorized access to an online financial institution, payroll system, or health savings account to siphon data and funds for personal gain. The access is often obtained by approaching targets through social engineering techniques, such as texts, calls, and emails that prey on users' fears, or via bogus websites. These methods make it possible for attackers to deceive users into providing their login credentials on a...