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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. ...

If managing security across multiple cloud providers wasn't hard enough, each one fails in a different way. For the 2026 Cloud Security Index , Intruder analyzed misconfiguration data from 3,000 organizations across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud and found that risk profiles across providers have almost nothing in common. Here’s what the data looks like. How risk differs across cloud providers Intruder grouped every misconfiguration into one of six categories: weak identity and access management (IAM), missing logging, misconfigured services, permissive firewalls, exposed services, and weak encryption. For each category, they compared how many accounts had at least one issue in it across the three providers. Weak IAM controls and missing logging are near-universal, affecting between 80% and 98% of accounts regardless of provider. The other four categories are where things diverge: Exposed services: AWS (76%) , Azure (64%) , Google Cloud (8%) Permissive firewalls: AWS...

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. ...

A previously undocumented Linux toolkit has been found compiled directly into the trojanized HAProxy load balancers of two South Korean organizations, where it intercepted web traffic and served altered pages to selected visitors. The attackers named the implant ted in debug strings left in the binary. It is not a HAProxy vulnerability, and installing it requires code execution on the host and the ability to replace the running binary. Rapid7 Labs attributed the toolkit with medium confidence to North Korean state-sponsored actors and put the two victims in South Korea's automotive and media sectors. Command-and-control (C2) requests never reach a backend server and are erased from HAProxy's own connection counters, so neither the backend logs nor the load balancer's statistics record them. "Further evidence is necessary to make a more definitive assessment," Rapid7 said. A request for one specific image path puts the filter into C2 mode, Rapid7 said i...

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...

Cisco has released patches to address a critical security flaw affecting 10 Silicon One-based Nexus 9000 switches that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute code as root, alongside an IOS XR hardening release bundling 7 umbrella CVEs, 2 of which are rated 9.8, with no workaround for any IOS XR version. The Nexus vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-20212 (CVSS score: 9.8), is a case of binding to an unrestricted IP address that leaves TCP ports 43210 and 43211 reachable in the default Layer 3 virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance. An attacker who can reach a switch's address on either port can connect directly to the service. Crafted input sent to that service is then executed as code with root privileges. An exploitation attempt can also crash the S1HAL process and reload the device. Cisco said it's not aware of any malicious use of the flaw as of its September 2 disclosure. It has published no fixed-release table and directs customers to its...

Virtualizor said hackers used a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijack to divert Softaculous traffic. The hackers then used the diverted update traffic to deliver a malicious Virtualizor package to some installations. A hosting-provider account separately said 5 of its 34 checked Virtualizor hypervisors sustained root-level compromise. The incident window ran from approximately August 28 at 20:57 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to August 30 at 06:10 UTC. Virtualizor said every operator should check its servers because the company has no affected-version range or definitive list of installations that received the package. Virtualizor released Patch 9 with a Security Analyzer on September 1, but the vendor said cryptographic package signing remained future work. Operators should run the official scanner, rotate and restrict application programming interface (API) credentials, and audit each server for persistence and unauthorized access. "This affected a handful of servers rat...

SonicWall has released security updates to address two security flaws impacting its Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 series VPN appliances that have been exploited in zero-day attacks. The vulnerabilities , discovered internally by SonicWall's William Perry and Adam Babis, are listed below - CVE-2026-83548 (CVSS score: 10.0) -  A pre-authentication SSRF vulnerability in the Appliance Work Place interface that could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to gain unauthorized access to sensitive functionality and perform unauthorized operations. CVE-2026-83549 (CVSS score: 7.8) - A post-authentication operating system command injection vulnerability in the Appliance Management Console (AMC) that could allow a remote authenticated attacker as administrator to execute arbitrary commands under specific conditions, leading to remote code execution. SonicWall said it has "investigated a case indicating the active exploitation of the vulnerabilities," suggesting th...

Threat actors are exploiting a severe security vulnerability in Sangoma Switchvox, an enterprise VoIP platform, that could allow unauthenticated remote code execution. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-9586 (CVSS score: 9.3), a critical unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability in Sangoma Switchvox SMB Edition 8.3 (104997) that can allow attackers to remotely execute arbitrary code as the PostgreSQL superuser without credentials. Sangoma released patches for the flaw in Switchvox 8.4.0.2 on July 14, 2026. "An unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability exists in Sangoma Switchvox SMB Edition 8.3 (104997). The /pa endpoint processes XML content beginning with <PolycomIPPhone> and directly concatenates the user-controlled PhoneIP value into PostgreSQL queries without sanitization or parameterization," according to a description of the flaw on CVE.org. "An unauthenticated remote attacker can execute arbitrary SQL statements against the backend Postg...

The boring parts caused most of the trouble. A router shipped ready to listen. A fake check turned the user into the installer. Trusted systems collected traffic and passwords, then cleaned the logs. Old bugs formed new attack chains. Even an AI agent decided its assigned task was optional. Elsewhere, fake apps, helpful support calls, cheap banking kits, exposed systems, and weak defaults kept things moving. Different attacks, same useful mistake: something familiar was trusted without a second look. Here is the week... ⚡ Threat of the Week U.S. Disrupts Chinese Proxy Network Enabling Cyber Espionage — The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) disrupted infrastructure associated with a technical quartermaster who sold reconnaissance, proxy management, and operational routing capabilities for Chinese cyber espionage activities. The QTYF group is said to have created and operated the QScan and QTRouter frameworks, which have been used to target U.S. critical infrastructu...

A China-nexus cyber espionage actor tracked as Fire Ant has expanded a long-running campaign beyond VMware hypervisors to compromise Cisco IOS XR routers, Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System (TACACS) servers, and Linux management hosts used to route, authenticate, and manage high-value networks. Sygnia, the incident response firm that investigated the intrusion, said the actor turned the compromised routers into collection platforms, capturing network traffic, harvesting credentials, and suppressing the logging and telemetry that defenders rely on to reconstruct an attack. The firm assessed that the hacker group used its foothold to explore paths to connected high-value environments, including critical infrastructure. However, activity against those networks was limited to scanning and connection attempts rather than confirmed compromise. Controlling the routers gave the actor a vantage point over traffic moving through trusted network paths, Sygnia said. "...

Microsoft has disclosed details of a new ClickFix variant, dubbed TerminalFix , that aims to trick users into running a malicious command in Windows Terminal or PowerShell. "While traditional ClickFix campaigns direct victims to the Windows Run dialog, TerminalFix campaigns apply the same technique but direct users to Windows Terminal or PowerShell instead, increasing the likelihood that complex, multi-line scripts execute successfully," Microsoft security researchers Sagar Patil, Suriyaraj Natarajan, and Parasharan Raghavan said in an analysis published this week. The campaign, targeting organizations across multiple sectors, leverages compromised websites as a starting point to serve fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA verifications that prompt unsuspecting site visitors to copy and execute a malicious PowerShell command. The attack chain, per the Windows maker, is a sophisticated multi-stage process that leverages DLL sideloading, steganographic payload extraction, extensive ...

Berlin's state government has confirmed that it is the target of an extortion attempt following the August compromise of the city's state administrative network, and said it will not meet the extortionists' demands. The same statement disclosed that forensic work had found further data outflows in the portfolio of the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment, with the exfiltration dated between August 7 and August 12, 2026. Scope and content are still being examined, and the Senate Chancellery said personal or other non-public data cannot be excluded from what was taken. The department first reported an outflow on August 7, the Senate Chancellery said in response to questions, seven days before it was cut off from the network on August 14. Berlin has published no figure for how much left the network. The only itemized account in circulation is the attackers' own, a leak-site post indexed on August 28 that claims 5.79 terabyt...

Google on Thursday announced new network security protections in Android 17 to bolster connection privacy, address cellular vulnerabilities, and safeguard the privacy of users' home networks. Topping the list is support for Encrypted Client Hello ( ECH ), a privacy standard that prevents networks from eavesdropping on which websites a user is visiting. "This new privacy standard works in tandem with private DNS to obscure the domain names you visit, hiding metadata that can be used to profile you," Google's Bram Bonné and Shuaibo Huang said . "By encrypting the destination website name from the very start, ECH helps ensure that, for supported websites and apps, network providers and network snoopers can no longer easily see which websites or apps you are accessing."

Security researcher Olivier Laflamme has disclosed two independent root remote code execution (RCE) chains affecting the Unitree G1 EDU , including a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) path that can reach root on the robot's Locomotion PC. The flaws are tracked as  CVE-2026-76639  and  CVE-2026-76640 , with the first involving a network-adjacent path through chat_go and bashrunner and the second beginning from BLE proximity. An exact fixed firmware release has not been verified in any accessible Unitree guidance, leaving G1 EDU owners without a confirmed release target for either vulnerability. Laflamme said Unitree patched the cloud account-to-robot ownership check in July 2026, closing the cross-owner arbitrary-G1 path. As of the August 27 disclosure, a G1 owner could still use an account bound to their own robot to recover its Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) key. The underlying BLE issues, a write to 0xFFE2 that does not require pairing and the BSS buffer overflow,...

VulnCheck has disclosed two previously undocumented factory implants in firmware for routers built by Shenzhen Zhibotong Electronics ( ZBT ), each of which gives an unauthenticated remote attacker the ability to run commands as root on affected devices. The implants, named SPEAKINGSTONE and DARKLANTERN by the company's zero-day research team, are tracked as CVE-2026-74232 and CVE-2026-74233 . VulnCheck, which assigned both identifiers as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA), rated each 9.3 on the CVSS 4.0 scoring system and 9.8 on CVSS 3.1. Both vectors record a network attack requiring no privileges and no user interaction. SPEAKINGSTONE, which runs as the service yunmgrd , sends beacons over UDP port 10000 to a hardcoded command-and-control (C2) server. Because the implant dials outward, it functions from behind NAT and ordinary egress filtering. Its protocol supports message types that execute arbitrary commands as root, exfiltrate the WAN PPPoE username and password, wri...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday announced the disruption of two hacking platforms named QScan and QTRouter operated by Chinese threat actors to target critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks in the country. The activity has been attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored group known as QTFY, employed by Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company (南京鑫玖维网络科技有限公司).  "Among the targets of QTFY are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Federal Reserve, Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Senate," DoJ said. Damon Rouse, a security researcher at Lumen Black Lotus Labs who has been tracking the activity for over the past 18 months, told The Hacker News that the digital quartermaster has been active since May 2018. Nanjing counts both China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) among its customers. ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered additional infrastructure and previously undocumented malware associated with Nimbus Manticore , an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Group-IB, in a new analysis published today, described the cyber espionage actor as among the most active Iranian APT groups in 2026. Nimbus Manticore (aka GalaxyGato, Mirage Kitten, Screening Serpens, Smoke Sandstorm, Subtle Snail, and UNC1549) is assessed to be linked to Tortoiseshell (aka Imperial Kitten and Unyielding Wasp), which is part of the Charming Kitten (aka Eclipsed Wasp) cluster. Tortoiseshell is known to be active since at least July 2018, mainly targeting defense, aerospace, IT service providers, and military organizations in the Middle East and the U.S. Nimbus Manticore also has a history of orchestrating its own version of the Dream Job campaign to deliver malware under the pretext of job opportunity-themed social engine...

The SOC we've always known was built around a model that guarantees most of the alert queue will never receive analyst review. There's never time. In a traditional SOC, the typical progression follows a well-known pattern: an alert arrives; a detection engine assigns a severity score. The issue then waits for a human to decide if it should escalate to an investigation. Given the volume of network telemetry in the security stack, the queue is an unavoidable result of humans as the investigative layer. Long alert queues also force security teams to decide which signals to analyze before they even know what those signals represent. Threat hunting has always addressed security questions via an alternative approach: start with a hypothesis about attacker behavior, search the available evidence, then prove or disprove it. The sequence is powerful, but it hits the same wall: human capacity. Agentic security operations change the paradigm. The SOCs now being built are predica...