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Check Point Research said in a report published today that a single instruction planted in a ChatGPT conversation could cause ChatGPT to quietly work for an attacker while answering the user's question as usual. In the company's proof of concept, that hidden work read data from the user's connected Gmail account and passed it to a second ChatGPT account through a hidden channel between the two. The reply the user saw said nothing about it. Check Point said the same channel could also copy out the chat history and the files in that conversation. How much an attacker could take depended on what the session could already access, including its data, tools, other connected apps, and permissions. The instruction had to be in the conversation before any of this worked. Check Point named three ways to get it there: a prompt the user pastes in, a shared ChatGPT conversation the user opens, or a custom GPT that holds it in its builder instructions, which are not shown to th...

Researchers at the security firm Calif have built a worm that takes over a WeChat account via an incoming call and  demonstrated it spreading  among three test phones. The person being called does not have to answer or touch their phone for it to work, but the caller must already be one of their WeChat contacts. Calif reported the flaw to Tencent in July and says the company has since blocked the exploit for all users. No attacks using the flaw have been reported, and Calif does not say there were any. Attacks that require no action from the target, known as zero-click attacks, are not new. Last year, WhatsApp  patched a flaw  it said may have been used in targeted attacks. Answering the call does not stop the attack. Calif said a person who picks up hears nothing and the exploit still works. Declining the call ends that attempt, but the attacker can call again later, for example while the target is asleep. The caller has to be on the target's WeChat contac...

A flaw in FreeIPA lets a client that has never logged in create a Kerberos identity of its own choosing in the directory and end up in the administrators group, Red Hat says. FreeIPA is the system that determines who may log in across a Linux domain and maintains all identities in a 389 Directory Server database accessed via LDAP. The attack needs a second flaw in that database software. The FreeIPA project has already fixed its side in  version 4.13.4 . Red Hat says it reproduced the chain twice on a default installation, most recently on a machine with no access at all. Red Hat tracks the FreeIPA flaw as  CVE-2026-76578  and rates it critical, with a CVSS score of 9.8. The same page says that score is preliminary and subject to review. Red Hat ships FreeIPA as its Identity Management product , where the package is called  ipa . FreeIPA ships an access control rule, called an ACI, that lets a user manage their own one-time-password token. The rule does no...

Adobe on Monday released security patches to address a maximum-severity flaw impacting Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, now tracked as CVE-2026-75650 (CVSS score: 10.0), has been codenamed StyleSmuggler by Sansec, which discovered zero-day exploitation starting September 4, 2026. "This update resolves a critical vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution," Adobe said , adding it's "aware that CVE-2026-75650 has been exploited in the wild targeting Adobe Commerce merchants." At its core, the flaw abuses Magento's template system through PHP code injection to generate a "Payment Transaction Failed Reminder" email, triggering code execution in the process.

Turning off email images should at least stop the pictures. This week, attackers had a workaround: a scannable QR code built out of text. It still appears, even with images blocked. A small detail, but an annoying one if that was a precaution you were counting on. Elsewhere, a trusted software source delivered code that stole credentials, and a protocol designed for secure network management gave outsiders useful clues before login. Add active attacks on browsers, routers, and online stores, and there’s plenty to check—even for teams that have kept up with the patches. Read the full recap for the week’s major developments, plus more research, attacks, and security news beyond what we covered last week. ⚡ Threat of the Week N-able Patches Critical N-central Flaws — N-able has released hotfixes to address two severe N-central flaws (CVE-2026-86206 and CVE-2026-86207) that could allow an unauthorized party to bypass authentication controls and gain full access to the platform. ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of worm-like activity that abuses ConnectWise ScreenConnect to distribute a malicious Visual Basic Script (VBScript) payload to newly connected systems. According to Huntress , three unrelated incidents have been found to use diverse initial access methods, namely a Quick Assist tech-support scam, a phishing-delivered MSI installer, and a fake Geek Squad refund form lure, to activate a four-stage VBScript chain that leads to rogue ScreenConnect installations. However, once the ScreenConnect instances were installed, the cybersecurity company said it observed the clients repeatedly spawning "wscript.exe" to execute VBScripts named 1.vbs, 2.vbs, 3.vbs, and 4.vbs. The incidents were observed in August 2026. The details of the three attacks are below - A social engineering attack that persuaded a user into executing Quick Assist as part of a tech support scam, after which a rogue ScreenConnect remote access client was d...

A TantoSec proof-of-concept turns an AES-CBC "padding oracle" in Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX into unauthenticated remote code execution — but only against applications in a specific non-default configuration, and Progress patched the chain in July. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation in the wild. Security firm TantoSec has published a working exploit chain targeting vulnerabilities in Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX that can allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute remote code on the server hosting a vulnerable application. Progress Software patched the flaws in July, and exploitation requires a non-default configuration — but the release pairs a detailed write-up with a ready-to-run tool and two payloads, putting a complete attack path in public hands for the first time. The underlying flaws are not new. Progress shipped the fix in version 2026.2.708 (2026 Q2 SP1) on July 8 and published the CVEs and advisory on July 22. What changed on September 7 is t...

Every on-premises N-central build below 2026.3.1.14 — including servers updated to Hotfix 3 a day earlier — needs Hotfix 4. N-able's incident notice says the flaw has been exploited in the wild; its release notes say that is unconfirmed. N-able has released its  fourth hotfix  in five weeks for the N-central remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform, this time for a maximum-severity vulnerability that could allow remote code execution on the N-central server without authentication. The company's own communications disagree on whether the flaw has already been exploited. The vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2026-86218 , carries a CVSS 4.0 score of 10.0, assigned by N-able as the CVE Numbering Authority, and is classed as a static code injection weakness (CWE-96). It affects every N-central build before 2026.3.1.14, the build shipped as 2026.3 Hotfix 4 in the early hours of September 6 (UTC). That includes servers already updated to  Hotfix 3  (2026.3...

Attackers are exploiting MikroTik routers with their Secure Shell (SSH) remote-access service, which is reachable from the internet, to gain full administrative control without authentication, according to  CERT Polska's attack warning , published on September 5. Successful attacks date to at least September 2. The Hacker News’s September 6 review of the warning found no victim count or attacker identity. MikroTik's security update  lists fixed RouterOS releases. CERT says the fixes prevent the observed attacks and recommends immediate installation, followed by a check for unauthorized configuration changes. According to the  vendor's default firewall explanation , home MikroTik devices block public access to management ports while their default firewall rules remain intact. The Hacker News checked CERT's  affected RouterOS versions  against MikroTik's listed fixes on September 6. Use the  official RouterOS downloads  for your update. ...

Attackers are exploiting a new unpatched vulnerability in Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce that lets them run malicious code on an online store's server without logging in, Dutch e-commerce security company Sansec said in an  advisory published on September 5 . Sansec, which discovered the flaw and named it StyleSmuggler , said attacks started on September 4. "Sansec is publishing early because stores are being compromised right now," the company said. As of September 6, Adobe has not published an advisory, a CVE identifier, a patch, or a workaround, and its  Adobe Commerce security bulletin index  lists nothing after the August 11 update. A successful attack gives the attacker code execution on the store's server and installs a persistent backdoor. Sansec said all current versions are affected, including 2.4.9, and that it reproduced the full unauthenticated chain on clean Magento Open Source installations of 2.4.7, 2.4.8, and 2.4.9. Its ...

JetBrains is urging Cadence users to revoke and rotate all credentials following a security incident last month in which unidentified threat actors exploited a recently disclosed critical vulnerability in TeamCity to breach its own environment. "Cadence users should immediately revoke or rotate all credentials and secrets that may have been used to run their Cadence executions," JetBrains said . "They should also treat all executions, including their inputs and outputs in your Cadence project, as potentially untrusted." "As the threat actors gained access to the Cadence server, any credentials or secrets stored in Cadence, contained in the compromised backup, or made available to executions on the affected server should be considered compromised and must be revoked or rotated." Cadence is a JetBrains-hosted cloud computing service that integrates with PyCharm via an optional plugin to let developers run machine learning and heavy workloads on cloud...

Broadcom has released security updates for two security flaws impacting VMware Workstation and Fusion, including one critical bug that could result in arbitrary code execution under certain conditions. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-59346 (CVSS score: 9.3), is an integer-overflow vulnerability that a local attacker with elevated privileges can exploit to run arbitrary code. "A malicious actor with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine with VMXNET3 virtual network adapter may exploit this issue to execute code on the host," Broadcom said in an alert. The tech giant credited @h4urek, @cameudis, and Stan S for discovering the issue. Also patched by Broadcom is a stack-based buffer-overflow vulnerability in HGFS ( CVE-2026-59347 , CVSS score: 8.1), which can be exploited by a bad actor with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine to execute code as the virtual machine's VMX process running on the host. Yeonghyeon Choi and Tianc...

Hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor on Friday disclosed that another 67,000 customers from the U.S. have been impacted in a breach at its shipping provider ShipMonk. The exposed information includes customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and order numbers between November 2019 and August 2021. The breach does not affect the security of the company's hardware wallets. "Throughout our entire relationship with ShipMonk, we repeatedly requested and received written assurance confirming the deletion of the data, in line with our contract, data policy, and past communications," Trezor said . "We are very disappointed that, despite receiving this confirmation, the data was not deleted in their systems." The exposure is in addition to 13,689 customers the company disclosed last month as having had their data either fully or partially exposed. The breach, it noted at the time, was limited during its 90-day data storage policy. Trezo...

Threat actors are exploiting the newly disclosed PaperCut flaws to facilitate credential theft in attacks targeting the education sector in the U.S. and Europe. The Arctic Wolf Adversary Research Team said it observed attackers exploiting CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078 – an authentication bypass and remote code execution chain – to conduct command execution and reconnaissance, as well as create privileged accounts. "Observed post-exploitation activity included delivery of Windows registry hive collection tools, Metasploit/Meterpreter-related Java payloads, and commands used to identify hosts, users, processes, and sensitive configuration data," Arctic Wolf said. The cybersecurity company told The Hacker News that the activity has targeted vulnerable PaperCut servers across the education sector, impacting organizations ranging from K-12 schools to major universities in the U.S. and Europe. Some of the identified malicious activity includes - Running discover...

PostgreSQL has released updates to address a security flaw that allows an account with the REPLICATION attribute to run arbitrary code as the operating-system user running the database server. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-6471 (CVSS score: 7.2), has been present since logical decoding was introduced in PostgreSQL 9.4 in 2014. Versions before PostgreSQL 18.6, 17.11, 16.15, 15.19, and 14.24 are affected. Exploitation requires an account carrying the REPLICATION attribute and a server running with wal_level = logical. Backup tools, standby servers, change data capture (CDC) pipelines, and monitoring systems routinely hold that attribute. The fix, shipped on August 13, adds a server parameter called output_plugin_libraries that lists which libraries may be loaded as logical decoding output plugins, defaulting to 'pgoutput, test_decoding'. Installations using any other output plugin, wal2json, and decoderbufs among them, will have logical decoding refused aft...

Threat actors are exploiting two critical security flaws in WordPress plugins Super Forms and Elementor Pro, according to findings from Wordfence. The vulnerabilities in question are - CVE-2026-14894 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A missing file type validation vulnerability in Super Forms – Drag & Drop Form Builder that allows unauthenticated attackers to upload files of any type, including executable PHP files, leading to remote code execution. (Fixed in version 6.3.314) CVE-2026-32475 (CVSS score: 9.0/9.8) - A vulnerability in Elementor Pro that allows unauthenticated attackers to upload files of any type, including executable PHP files, leading to remote code execution. (Fixed in version 4.2.2) As with arbitrary file upload vulnerabilities of this kind, an attacker can leverage them to write a PHP web shell to the site and execute arbitrary code, which can then be abused to create administrator accounts, exfiltrate data, or seize control of the entire WordPress site. It...

Plex is urging users to update their instances to the latest version following the release of an update that patches multiple security flaws. The fixes are available in Plex Media Server 1.43.3 and Plex Desktop 1.115.0. The streaming media service did not elaborate on what those issues are, but said CVE identifiers have been requested for them. "We recommend all server owners and Desktop users update to the latest version as soon as possible," Plex said in an announcement this week. "If you're running Plex Media Server on a NAS device, the updated version may not be available in their package manager yet, but you can install the package manually." In August 2025, Plex addressed a high-severity security flaw ( CVE-2025-34158 , CVSS score: 8.5), an authentication bug that stemmed from the "/myplex/account" endpoint incorrectly exposing the server owner's account details, including their administrative access token, even when accessed by any...

Google on Thursday released security updates to patch 12 vulnerabilities, including one that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS score: 8.8), has been described as a type confusion bug in V8, Chrome's JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. "Type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 152.0.7977.82 allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page," reads a description of the flaw in CVE.org. Security researcher Salvatore Gulizia (aka Serotav) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on August 4, 2026. The researcher has been awarded a bug bounty of $1,000 for responsible disclosure. In a separate blog post detailing the issue, Gulizia  described it as a "V8 bug in the compilers that leads to an array containing PACKED_ELEMENTS to receive the map PACKED_SMI_ELEMENTS, this can be turned into arbitrary read/write on the J...

OpenAI on Thursday officially unveiled GPT‑6 Astra , which it described as the "world's most intelligent and aligned model." The development comes days after the artificial intelligence (AI) company said the model had reached the "Critical" cybersecurity capability threshold under its Preparedness Framework. "Astra is state-of-the-art on computer use, browsing, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work. Astra saturates FrontierMath Tier 4 with a 98% score," OpenAI said. "Astra also saturates ARC-AGI-3 with a 99.9% score and ExploitBench with a 100% score. It also sets a new frontier on computer and browser use, handling the most demanding professional work with unmatched speed, accuracy, and judgment." The model is currently rolling out to a small set of organizations and is expected to be available to all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users, as well as through the OpenAI API, Microsoft Azure,...

The worst part is how normal these attacks look. A call from IT. A shared file. A trusted app. A simple request to click “Allow.” Why break in when someone might open the door? That idea runs through this edition. Attackers use real tools, fake login pages, old account links, and software guides that point to unsafe downloads. One wrong letter in a web address can be enough. There is also ransomware, stolen ID data, hidden attack servers, and weak settings that should have been fixed long ago. Here’s the full list. The threats change every week. Subscribe, and we’ll alert you when each new ThreatsDay Bulletin is out.