privilege escalation | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a now-patched vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that could have enabled an attacker to elevate their privileges in the Cloud Composer workflow orchestration service that's based on Apache Airflow. "This vulnerability lets attackers with edit permissions in Cloud Composer to escalate their access to the default Cloud Build service account, which has high-level permissions across GCP services like Cloud Build itself, Cloud Storage, and Artifact Registry," Liv Matan, senior security researcher at Tenable, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The shortcoming has been codenamed ConfusedComposer by the cybersecurity company, describing it as a variant of ConfusedFunction , a privilege escalation vulnerability impacting GCP's Cloud Functions service that an attacker could exploit to access other services and sensitive data in an unauthorized manner. The disclosure comes weeks after Tenable detailed another pr...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed four different vulnerabilities in a core component of the Windows task scheduling service that could be exploited by local attackers to achieve privilege escalation and erase logs to cover up evidence of malicious activities. The issues have been uncovered in a binary named " schtasks.exe ," which enables an administrator to create, delete, query, change, run, and end scheduled tasks on a local or remote computer. "A [User Account Control] bypass vulnerability has been found in Microsoft Windows, enabling attackers to bypass the User Account Control prompt, allowing them to execute high-privilege (SYSTEM) commands without user approval," Cymulate security researcher Ruben Enkaoua said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "By exploiting this weakness, attackers can elevate their privileges and run malicious payloads with Administrators' rights, leading to unauthorized access, data theft, or further system c...

The problem is simple: all breaches start with initial access, and initial access comes down to two primary attack vectors – credentials and devices. This is not news; every report you can find on the threat landscape depicts the same picture.  The solution is more complex. For this article, we'll focus on the device threat vector. The risk they pose is significant, which is why device management tools like Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) are essential components of an organization's security infrastructure. However, relying solely on these tools to manage device risk actually creates a false sense of security. Instead of the blunt tools of device management, organizations are looking for solutions that deliver device trust . Device trust provides a comprehensive, risk-based approach to device security enforcement, closing the large gaps left behind by traditional device management solutions. Here are 5 of those limitations and how to ov...

Intro: Why hack in when you can log in? SaaS applications are the backbone of modern organizations, powering productivity and operational efficiency. But every new app introduces critical security risks through app integrations and multiple users, creating easy access points for threat actors. As a result, SaaS breaches have increased, and according to a May 2024 XM Cyber report, identity and credential misconfigurations caused 80% of security exposures. Subtle signs of a compromise get lost in the noise, and then multi-stage attacks unfold undetected due to siloed solutions. Think of an account takeover in Entra ID, then privilege escalation in GitHub, along with data exfiltration from Slack. Each seems unrelated when viewed in isolation, but in a connected timeline of events, it's a dangerous breach. Wing Security's SaaS platform is a multi-layered solution that combines posture management with real-time identity threat detection and response. This allows organizations to get a ...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a case of an incomplete patch for a previously addressed security flaw impacting the NVIDIA Container Toolkit that, if successfully exploited, could put sensitive data at risk. The original vulnerability CVE-2024-0132 (CVSS score: 9.0) is a Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) vulnerability that could lead to a container escape attack and allow for unauthorized access to the underlying host. While this flaw was resolved by NVIDIA in September 2024, a new analysis by Trend Micro has revealed the fix to be incomplete and that there also exists a related performance flaw affecting Docker on Linux that could result in a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. "These issues could enable attackers to escape container isolation, access sensitive host resources, and cause severe operational disruptions," Trend Micro researcher Abdelrahman Esmail said in a new report published today. The fact that the TOCTOU vulnerability persists means that a ...

Microsoft has released security fixes to address a massive set of 125 flaws affecting its software products, including one vulnerability that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. Of the 125 vulnerabilities, 11 are rated Critical, 112 are rated Important, and two are rated Low in severity. Forty-nine of these vulnerabilities are classified as privilege escalation, 34 as remote code execution, 16 as information disclosure, and 14 as denial-of-service (DoS) bugs. The updates are aside from the 22 flaws the company patched in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of last month's Patch Tuesday update . The vulnerability that has been flagged as under active attack is an elevation of privilege (EoP) flaw impacting the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver ( CVE-2025-29824 , CVSS score: 7.8) that stems from a use-after-free scenario, allowing an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally. CVE-2025-29824 is the sixth EoP vulnerability to be di...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched security flaw in the Amazon EC2 Simple Systems Manager (SSM) Agent that, if successfully exploited, could permit an attacker to achieve privilege escalation and code execution. The vulnerability could permit an attacker to create directories in unintended locations on the filesystem, execute arbitrary scripts with root privileges, and likely escalate privileges or perform malicious activities by writing files to sensitive areas of the system, Cymulate said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Amazon SSM Agent is a component of Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enables administrators to remotely manage, configure, and execute commands on EC2 instances and on-premises servers.  The software processes commands and tasks defined in SSM Documents , which can include one or more plugins, each of which is responsible for carrying out specific tasks, such as running shell scripts or automating deployment or configura...

Google has shipped patches for 62 vulnerabilities, two of which it said have been exploited in the wild. The two high-severity vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2024-53150 (CVSS score: 7.8) - An out-of-bounds flaw in the USB sub-component of Kernel that could result in information disclosure CVE-2024-53197 (CVSS score: 7.8) - A privilege escalation flaw in the USB sub-component of Kernel "The most severe of these issues is a critical security vulnerability in the System component that could lead to remote escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed," Google said in its monthly security bulletin for April 2025. "User interaction is not needed for exploitation." The tech giant also acknowledged that both the shortcomings may have come under "limited, targeted exploitation." It's worth noting that CVE-2024-53197 is rooted in the Linux kernel and was patched last year, alongside CVE-2024-53104 and CVE-2024-50302...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched privilege escalation vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Cloud Run that could have allowed a malicious actor to access container images and even inject malicious code. "The vulnerability could have allowed such an identity to abuse its Google Cloud Run revision edit permissions in order to pull private Google Artifact Registry and Google Container Registry images in the same account," Tenable security researcher Liv Matan said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The security shortcoming has been codenamed ImageRunner by the cybersecurity company. Following responsible disclosure, Google addressed the problem as of January 28, 2025. Google Cloud Run is a fully managed service for executing containerized applications in a scalable, serverless environment. When the technology is used to run a service, container images are retrieved from the Artifact Registry (or Docker Hub) for subsequent depl...

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in NetApp SnapCenter that, if successfully exploited, could allow privilege escalation. SnapCenter is an enterprise-focused software that's used to manage data protection across applications, databases, virtual machines, and file systems, offering the ability to backup, restore, and clone data resources. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-26512 , carries a CVSS score of 9.9 out of a maximum of 10.0. "SnapCenter versions prior to 6.0.1P1 and 6.1P1 are susceptible to a vulnerability which may allow an authenticated SnapCenter Server user to become an admin user on a remote system where a SnapCenter plug-in has been installed," the data infrastructure company said in an advisory published this week. CVE-2025-26512 has been addressed in SnapCenter versions 6.0.1P1 and 6.1P1. There are currently no workarounds that address the issue.  While there is no evidence that the shortcoming has been exploited in the wild, it'...

Citrix has released security updates for a high-severity security flaw impacting NetScaler Console (formerly NetScaler ADM) and NetScaler Agent that could lead to privilege escalation under certain conditions. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-12284 , has been given a CVSS v4 score of 8.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. It has been described as a case of improper privilege management that could result in authenticated privilege escalation if the NetScaler Console Agent is deployed and allows an attacker to execute post-compromise actions. "The issue arises due to inadequate privilege management and could be exploited by an authenticated malicious actor to execute commands without additional authorization," Netscaler noted . "However, only authenticated users with existing access to the NetScaler Console can exploit this vulnerability, thereby limiting the threat surface to only authenticated users." The shortcoming affects the below versions - NetScaler Cons...

Microsoft on Tuesday released fixes for 63 security flaws impacting its software products, including two vulnerabilities that it said has come under active exploitation in the wild. Of the 63 vulnerabilities, three are rated Critical, 57 are rated Important, one is rated Moderate, and two are rated Low in severity. This is aside from the 23 flaws Microsoft addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of last month's Patch Tuesday update . The update is notable for fixing two actively exploited flaws - CVE-2025-21391 (CVSS score: 7.1) - Windows Storage Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability  CVE-2025-21418 (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "An attacker would only be able to delete targeted files on a system," Microsoft said in an alert for CVE-2025-21391. "This vulnerability does not allow disclosure of any confidential information, but could allow an attacker to delete d...

Cisco has released updates to address two critical security flaws Identity Services Engine (ISE) that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands and elevate privileges on susceptible devices. The vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2025-20124 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An insecure Java deserialization vulnerability in an API of Cisco ISE that could permit an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands as the root user on an affected device. CVE-2025-20125 (CVSS score: 9.1) - An authorization bypass vulnerability in an API of Cisco ISE could could permit an authenticated, remote attacker with valid read-only credentials to obtain sensitive information, change node configurations, and restart the node An attacker could weaponize either of the flaws by sending a crafted serialized Java object or an HTTP request to an unspecified API endpoint, leading to privilege escalation and code execution. Cisco said the two vulnerabilities are not dependent on...

Microsoft has released patches to address two Critical-rated security flaws impacting Azure AI Face Service and Microsoft Account that could allow a malicious actor to escalate their privileges under certain conditions. The flaws are listed below - CVE-2025-21396 (CVSS score: 7.5) - Microsoft Account Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability CVE-2025-21415 (CVSS score: 9.9) - Azure AI Face Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "Authentication bypass by spoofing in Azure AI Face Service allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network," Microsoft in an advisory for CVE-2025-21415, crediting an anonymous researcher for reporting the flaw. CVE-2025-21396, on the other hand, stems from a case of missing authorization that could permit an unauthorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network. A security researcher who goes by the alias Sugobet has been acknowledged for discovering it. The tech giant also noted that it's aware of the existen...

Google has shipped patches to address 47 security flaws in its Android operating system, including one it said has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-53104 (CVSS score: 7.8), which has been described as a case of privilege escalation in a kernel component known as the USB Video Class ( UVC ) driver. Successful exploitation of the flaw could lead to physical escalation of privilege, Google said, noting that it's aware that it may be under "limited, targeted exploitation." While no other technical details have been offered, Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman revealed in early December 2024 that the vulnerability is rooted in the Linux kernel and that it was introduced in version 2.6.26 , which was released in mid-2008. Specifically, it has to do with an out-of-bounds write condition that could arise as a result of parsing frames of type UVC_VS_UNDEFINED in a function named "uvc_parse_format()" i...

Microsoft kicked off 2025 with a new set of patches for a total of 161 security vulnerabilities across its software portfolio, including three zero-days that have been actively exploited in attacks. Of the 161 flaws, 11 are rated Critical and 149 are rated Important in severity. One other flaw, a non-Microsoft CVE related to a Windows Secure Boot bypass ( CVE-2024-7344 , CVSS score: 6.7), has not been assigned any severity. According to the Zero Day Initiative , the update marks the largest number of CVEs addressed in a single month since at least 2017. The fixes are in addition to seven vulnerabilities the Windows maker addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of December 2024 Patch Tuesday updates. Prominent among the patches released by Microsoft is a trio of flaws in Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP ( CVE-2025-21333 , CVE-2025-21334 , and CVE-2025-21335 , CVSS scores: 7.8) that the company said has come under active exploitation in the wild. ...