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Cisco has released updates to address a critical security flaw in the Integrated Management Controller (IMC) that, if successfully exploited, could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and gain access to the system with elevated privileges. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-20093, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. "This vulnerability is due to incorrect handling of password change requests," Cisco said in an advisory released Wednesday. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to an affected device." "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass authentication, alter the passwords of any user on the system, including an Admin user, and gain access to the system as that user." Security researcher "jyh" has been credited with discovering and reporting the vulnerability. The shortcoming affects the following products regardless of the dev...

Some weeks are loud. This one was quieter but not in a good way. Long-running operations are finally hitting courtrooms, old attack methods are showing up in new places, and research that stopped being theoretical right around the time defenders stopped paying attention. There's a bit of everything this week. Persistence plays, legal wins, influence ops, and at least one thing that looks boring until you see what it connects to. All of it below. Let's go. ⚡ Threat of the Week Citrix Flaw Comes Under Active Exploitation — A critical security flaw in Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway (CVE-2026-3055, CVSS score: 9.3) has come under active exploitation as of March 27, 2026. The vulnerability refers to a case of insufficient input validation leading to memory overread, which an attacker could exploit to leak potentially sensitive information. Per Citrix, successful exploitation of the flaw hinges on the appliance being configured as a SAML Identity Provider (SAML IDP)...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a remote access toolkit of Russian-origin that's distributed via malicious Windows shortcut (LNK) files that are disguised as private key folders. The CTRL toolkit, according to Censys, is custom-built using .NET and includes various executables" to facilitate credential phishing, keylogging, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) hijacking, and reverse tunneling via Fast Reverse Proxy (FRP). "The executables provide encrypted payload loading, credential harvesting via a polished Windows Hello phishing UI, keylogging, RDP session hijacking, and reverse proxy tunneling through FRP," Censys security researcher Andrew Northern said . The attack surface management platform said it recovered CTRL from an open directory at 146.19.213[.]155 in February 2026. Attack chains distributing the toolkit rely on a weaponized LNK file ("Private Key #kfxm7p9q_yek.lnk") with a folder icon to trick users into double-clicking it. This tri...

A recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway is witnessing active reconnaissance activity, according to Defused Cyber and watchTowr . The vulnerability, CVE-2026-3055 (CVSS score: 9.3), refers to a case of insufficient input validation leading to memory overread, which an attacker could exploit to leak potentially sensitive information. Per Citrix, successful exploitation of the flaw hinges on the appliance being configured as a SAML Identity Provider (SAML IDP). "We are now observing auth method fingerprinting activity against NetScaler ADC/Gateway in the wild," Defused Cyber said in a post on X. "Attackers are probing /cgi/GetAuthMethods to enumerate enabled authentication flows in our Citrix honeypots." This is likely an attempt on the part of threat actors to determine if NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway are indeed configured as a SAML IDP. In a similar warning, watchTowr said it has detected active...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added a critical security flaw impacting F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-53521 (CVSS v4 score: 9.3), which could allow a threat actor to achieve remote code execution. "When a BIG-IP APM access policy is configured on a virtual server, specific malicious traffic can lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE)," according to a description of the flaw in CVE.org. While the shortcoming was initially categorized and remediated as a denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability with a CVSS v4 score of 8.7, F5 said it has been reclassified as a case of RCE in light of "new information obtained in March 2026." The company has since updated its advisory to confirm that the vulnerability "has been exploited in the vulnerable BIG-IP versions." It did not shar...

A long-term and ongoing campaign attributed to a China-nexus threat actor has embedded itself in telecom networks to conduct espionage against government networks. The strategic positioning activity, which involves implanting and maintaining stealthy access mechanisms within critical environments, has been attributed to Red Menshen , a threat cluster that's also tracked as Earth Bluecrow, DecisiveArchitect, and Red Dev 18. The group has a track record of striking telecom providers across the Middle East and Asia since at least 2021. Rapid7 described the covert access mechanisms as "some of the stealthiest digital sleeper cells" ever encountered in telecommunications networks. The campaign is characterized by the use of kernel-level implants, passive backdoors, credential-harvesting utilities, and cross-platform command frameworks, giving the threat actor the ability to persistently inhabit networks of interest. One of the most recognized tools in its malware arsenal i...

Most teams have security tools in place. Alerts are firing, dashboards look clean, threat intel is flowing in. On the surface, everything feels under control. But one question usually stays unanswered: Would your defenses actually stop a real attack? That’s where things get shaky. A control exists, so it’s assumed to work. A detection rule is active, so it’s expected to catch something. But very few teams are consistently testing how all of this holds up when someone is actively trying to break through, step by step. This is exactly the gap this webinar focuses on. Exposure-Driven Resilience: Automate Testing to Validate & Improve Your Security Posture is a practical session built around one idea: stop guessing, start proving. Instead of relying on occasional testing or assumptions, it shows how to validate your security posture continuously using real attacker behavior. The session walks through how to pressure-test both your controls and your processes, how to use threa...

Unmasking impostors is something the art world has faced for decades, and there are valuable lessons from the works of Elmyr de Hory that can apply to the world of defensive cybersecurity. During the 1960s, de Hory gained infamy as a premier forger, passing off counterfeit masterworks of Picasso, Matisse, and Renoir to unsuspecting collectors and renowned museums. Over the next several decades, more than a thousand of his works slipped past experts who relied on trusted signatures, familiar patterns, and reputable provenance. It’s not unlike the challenges SOCs are facing now. We’re firmly in the Age of Imitation. Cyberattackers, equipped with AI, are mastering the art of imitating the familiar, posing as trusted users and masking their activity within legitimate processes and ordinary network traffic. As history shows, it’s often easier to identify impostors when you know what to look for. Key takeaways for defenders: Mimicry is the new normal: 81% of attacks are malware-free Ag...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Monday that it was banning the import of new, foreign-made consumer routers, citing "unacceptable" risks to cyber and national security. The action was designed to safeguard Americans and the underlying communications networks the country relies on, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a post on X. The development means that new models of foreign-produced routers will no longer be eligible for marketing or sale in the U.S. The move comes in the wake of a national security determination provided by Executive Branch Agencies, Carr added. To that end, all consumer-grade routers manufactured in foreign countries have been added to the Covered List , unless they have been granted a Conditional Approval by the Department of War (DoW) or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after determining that they do not pose any risks. As of writing, the approved list only includes drone systems and software-defined radios (SDRs) ...

A large-scale malvertising campaign active since January 2026 has been observed targeting U.S.-based individuals searching for tax-related documents to serve rogue installers for ConnectWise ScreenConnect that drop a tool named HwAudKiller to blind security programs using the bring your own vulnerable driver ( BYOVD ) technique. "The campaign abuses Google Ads to serve rogue ScreenConnect (ConnectWise Control) installers, ultimately delivering a BYOVD EDR killer that drops a kernel driver to blind security tools before further compromise," Huntress researcher Anna Pham said in a report published last week. The cybersecurity vendor said it identified over 60 instances of malicious ScreenConnect sessions tied to the campaign. The attack chain stands out for a couple of reasons. Unlike recent campaigns highlighted by Microsoft that leverage tax-themed lures, the newly flagged activity employs commercial cloaking services to avoid detection by security scanners and abuses a ...

Cybersecurity has changed fast. Roles are more specialized, and tooling is more advanced. On paper, this should make organizations more secure. But in practice, many teams struggle with the same basic problems they faced years ago: unclear risk priorities, misaligned tooling decisions, and difficulty explaining security issues in terms the business understands. These challenges do not usually come from a lack of effort. They emerge from something more subtle, a gradual loss of foundational understanding as specialization accelerates. Specialization itself is not the problem. A lack of context is. When security teams do not have a shared understanding of how the business, systems, and risks fit together, even strong technical execution starts to break down. Over time, that gap shows up in the way programs are designed, tools are chosen, and incidents are handled. Unfortunately, I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly when assisting with ...

A 26-year-old Russian citizen has been sentenced in the U.S. to 6.75 years (81 months) in prison for his role in assisting major cybercrime groups, including the Yanluowang ransomware crew, in conducting numerous attacks against U.S. companies and other organizations. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Aleksei Olegovich Volkov facilitated dozens of ransomware attacks across the U.S., causing more than $9 million in actual losses and over $24 million in intended losses. Volkov was arrested on January 18, 2024, in Italy and extradited to the U.S. to face charges. He pleaded guilty to the crimes in November 2025. Volkov is said to have served as an initial access broker responsible for obtaining unauthorized access to computer networks and systems belonging to various organizations and selling that access to other criminal groups, including ransomware actors. This was accomplished by exploiting vulnerabilities or finding ways to access the networks without authorizati...

Citrix has released security updates to address two vulnerabilities in NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway, including a critical flaw that could be exploited to leak sensitive data from the application. The vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2026-3055 (CVSS score: 9.3) - Insufficient input validation leading to memory overread CVE-2026-4368 (CVSS score: 7.7) - Race condition leading to user session mixup Cybersecurity company Rapid7 said that CVE-2026-3055 refers to an out-of-bounds read that could be exploited by unauthenticated remote attackers to leak potentially sensitive information from the appliance's memory. However, for exploitation to be successful, the Citrix ADC or Citrix Gateway appliance must be configured as a SAML Identity Provider (SAML IDP), which means default configurations are unaffected. To determine if the device has been configured as a SAML IDP Profile, Citrix is urging customers to inspect their NetScaler Configuration for the specified st...

Another week, another reminder that the internet is still a mess. Systems people thought were secure are being broken in simple ways, showing many still ignore basic advisories. This edition covers a mix of issues: supply chain attacks hitting CI/CD setups, long-abused IoT devices being shut down, and exploits moving quickly from disclosure to real attacks. There are also new malware tricks showing attackers are becoming more patient and creative. It’s a mix of old problems that never go away and new methods that are harder to detect. There are quiet state-backed activities, exposed data from open directories, growing mobile threats, and a steady stream of zero-days and rushed patches. Grab a coffee, and at least skim the CVE list. Some of these are the kind you don’t want to discover after the damage is done. ⚡ Threat of the Week Trivy Vulnerability Scanner Breached in for Supply Chain Attack — Attackers have backdoored the widely used open-source Trivy vulnerability scanner, ...

Threat actors are suspected to be exploiting a maximum-severity security flaw impacting Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA), according to Arctic Wolf. The cybersecurity company said it observed malicious activity starting the week of March 9, 2026, in customer environments that's consistent with the exploitation of CVE-2025-32975 on unpatched SMA systems exposed to the internet. It's currently not known what the end goals of the attack are. CVE-2025-32975 (CVSS score: 10.0) refers to an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows attackers to impersonate legitimate users without valid credentials. Successful exploitation of the flaw could facilitate the complete takeover of administrative accounts. The issue was patched by Quest in May 2025. In the malicious activity detected by Arctic Wolf, threat actors are believed to have weaponized the vulnerability to seize control of administrative accounts and execute remote commands to drop Base64-encoded payloads ...

Oracle has released security updates to address a critical security flaw impacting Identity Manager and Web Services Manager that could be exploited to achieve remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-21992 , carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. "This vulnerability is remotely exploitable without authentication," Oracle said in an advisory. "If successfully exploited, this vulnerability may result in remote code execution." CVE-2026-21992 affects the following versions - Oracle Identity Manager versions 12.2.1.4.0 and 14.1.2.1.0 Oracle Web Services Manager versions 12.2.1.4.0 and 14.1.2.1.0 According to a description of the flaw in the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD), it's "easily exploitable" and could allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise Oracle Identity Manager and Oracle Web Services Manager. This, in turn, can result in the successful takeover of s...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday announced the disruption of command-and-control (C2) infrastructure used by several Internet of Things (IoT) botnets like AISURU, Kimwolf , JackSkid , and Mossad as part of a court-authorized law enforcement operation. The effort also saw authorities from Canada and Germany targeting the operators behind these botnets, with a number of private sector firms, including Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, Google, Lumen, Nokia, Okta, Oracle, PayPal, SpyCloud, Synthient, Team Cymru, Unit 221B, and QiAnXin XLab assisting in the investigation efforts. "The four botnets launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting victims around the world," the DoJ said . "Some of these attacks measured approximately 30 Terabits per second, which were record-breaking attacks." In a report last month, Cloudflare attributed AISURU/Kimwolf to a massive 31.4 Tbps DDoS attack that occurred in November 202...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has urged government agencies to apply patches for two security flaws impacting Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint , stating they have been actively exploited in the wild. The vulnerabilities in question are as follows - CVE-2025-66376 (CVSS score: 7.2) - A stored cross-site scripting vulnerability in the Classic UI of ZCS, where attackers could abuse Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) @import directives in an HTML e-mail message. (Fixed in versions 10.0.18 and 10.1.13 in November 2025 ) CVE-2026-20963 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability in Microsoft Office SharePoint that allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code over a network. (Fixed in January 2026 ) The addition of CVE-2025-66376 to the KEV catalog follows a report from Seqrite Labs, which detailed a campaign orchestrated by a suspected Russian state-sponsored intrusion set targeting t...

Amazon Threat Intelligence is warning of an active Interlock ransomware campaign that's exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-20131 (CVSS score: 10.0), a case of insecure deserialization of user-supplied Java byte stream, which could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary Java code as root on an affected device. According to data gleaned from the tech giant's MadPot global sensor network , the security flaw is said to have been exploited as a zero-day since January 26, 2026, more than a month before it was publicly disclosed by Cisco. "This wasn't just another vulnerability exploit; Interlock had a zero-day in their hands, giving them a week's head start to compromise organizations before defenders even knew to look. Upon making this discovery, we shared our findings with Cisco to help support...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a critical security flaw impacting the GNU InetUtils telnet daemon (telnetd) that could be exploited by an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-32746 , carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10.0. It has been described as a case of out-of-bounds write in the LINEMODE Set Local Characters (SLC) suboption handler that results in a buffer overflow, ultimately paving the way for code execution. Israeli cybersecurity company Dream, which discovered and reported the flaw on March 11, 2026, said it affects all versions of the Telnet service implementation through 2.7. A fix for the vulnerability is expected to be available no later than April 1, 2026. "An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending a specially crafted message during the initial connection handshake — before any login prompt appears," Dream said in an alert. "Successful...