zero-day | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

An unpatched security flaw impacting Microsoft Windows has been exploited by 11 state-sponsored groups from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia as part of data theft, espionage, and financially motivated campaigns that date back to 2017. The zero-day vulnerability, tracked by Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) as ZDI-CAN-25373 , refers to an issue that allows bad actors to execute hidden malicious commands on a victim's machine by leveraging crafted Windows Shortcut or Shell Link (.LNK) files. "The attacks leverage hidden command line arguments within .LNK files to execute malicious payloads, complicating detection," security researchers Peter Girnus and Aliakbar Zahravi said in an analysis shared with The Hacker News. "The exploitation of ZDI-CAN-25373 exposes organizations to significant risks of data theft and cyber espionage." Specifically, this involves the padding of the arguments with Line Feed (\x0A) and Carriage Return (\x0D) characters...

The China-nexus cyber espionage group tracked as UNC3886 has been observed targeting end-of-life MX Series routers from Juniper Networks as part of a campaign designed to deploy custom backdoors, highlighting their ability to focus on internal networking infrastructure. "The backdoors had varying custom capabilities, including active and passive backdoor functions, as well as an embedded script that disables logging mechanisms on the target device," Google-owned Mandiant said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The threat intelligence firm described the development as an evolution of the adversary's tradecraft, which has historically leveraged zero-day vulnerabilities in Fortinet, Ivanti, and VMware devices to breach networks of interest and establish persistence for remote access. First documented in September 2022, the hacking crew is assessed to be "highly adept" and capable of targeting edge devices and virtualization technologies with the ultima...

The Need For Unified Security Google Workspace is where teams collaborate, share ideas, and get work done. But while it makes work easier, it also creates new security challenges. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving, finding ways to exploit misconfigurations, steal sensitive data, and hijack user accounts. Many organizations try to secure their environment by piecing together different security tools, hoping that multiple layers of protection will keep them safe.  But in reality, this patchwork approach often creates blind spots, making it harder—not easier—to defend against threats. To truly secure Google Workspace, businesses need a unified security strategy that offers complete protection without unnecessary complexity. The problem with most security solutions is that they only solve part of the puzzle. Point solutions, like tools that block malware or phishing attacks, might work well for a specific type of threat but fail to recognize suspicious user behavior, unauthori...

Threat intelligence firm GreyNoise is warning of a "coordinated surge" in the exploitation of Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerabilities spanning multiple platforms. "At least 400 IPs have been seen actively exploiting multiple SSRF CVEs simultaneously, with notable overlap between attack attempts," the company said , adding it observed the activity on March 9, 2025. The countries which have emerged as the target of SSRF exploitation attempts include the United States, Germany, Singapore, India, Lithuania, and Japan. Another notable country is Israel, which has witnessed a surge on March 11, 2025. The list of SSRF vulnerabilities being exploited are listed below - CVE-2017-0929 (CVSS score: 7.5) - DotNetNuke CVE-2020-7796 (CVSS score: 9.8) - Zimbra Collaboration Suite CVE-2021-21973 (CVSS score: 5.3) - VMware vCenter CVE-2021-22054 (CVSS score: 7.5) - VMware Workspace ONE UEM CVE-2021-22175 (CVSS score: 9.8) - GitLab CE/EE CVE-2021-22214 (...

Microsoft on Tuesday released security updates to address 57 security vulnerabilities in its software, including a whopping six zero-days that it said have been actively exploited in the wild. Of the 56 flaws, six are rated Critical, 50 are rated Important, and one is rated Low in severity. Twenty-three of the addressed vulnerabilities are remote code execution bugs and 22 relate to privilege escalation. The updates are in addition to 17 vulnerabilities Microsoft addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of last month's Patch Tuesday update , one of which is a spoofing flaw specific to the browser ( CVE-2025-26643 , CVSS score: 5.4). The six vulnerabilities that have come under active exploitation are listed below - CVE-2025-24983 (CVSS score: 7.0) - A Windows Win32 Kernel Subsystem use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability that allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally CVE-2025-24984 (CVSS score: 4.6) - A Windows NTFS information disclosu...

Apple on Tuesday released a security update to address a zero-day flaw that it said has been exploited in "extremely sophisticated" attacks. The vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2025-24201 and is rooted in the WebKit web browser engine component. It has been described as an out-of-bounds write issue that could allow an attacker to craft malicious web content such that it can break out of the Web Content sandbox. Apple said it resolved the issue with improved checks to prevent unauthorized actions. It also noted that it's a supplementary fix for an attack that was blocked in iOS 17.2 . Furthermore, it acknowledged that the vulnerability "may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 17.2." However, the advisory does not mention if Apple's own security team discovered the flaw or if it was reported by an external researcher.. It also does not mentio...

The China-linked threat actor behind the zero-day exploitation of security flaws in Microsoft Exchange servers in January 2021 has shifted its tactics to target the information technology (IT) supply chain as a means to obtain initial access to corporate networks. That's according to new findings from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team, which said the Silk Typhoon (formerly Hafnium) hacking group is now targeting IT solutions like remote management tools and cloud applications to obtain a foothold. "After successfully compromising a victim, Silk Typhoon uses the stolen keys and credentials to infiltrate customer networks where they can then abuse a variety of deployed applications, including Microsoft services and others, to achieve their espionage objectives," the tech giant said in a report published today. The adversarial collective is assessed to be "well-resourced and technically efficient," swiftly putting to use exploits for zero-day vulnerabil...

Google has released its monthly Android Security Bulletin for March 2025 to address a total of 44 vulnerabilities, including two that it said have come under active exploitation in the wild. The two high-severity vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2024-43093 - A privilege escalation flaw in the Framework component that could result in unauthorized access to "Android/data," "Android/obb," and "Android/sandbox" directories, and their respective sub-directories. CVE-2024-50302 - A privilege escalation flaw in the HID USB component of the Linux kernel that could lead to a leak of uninitialized kernel memory to a local attacker through specially crafted HID reports. It's worth noting that CVE-2024-43093 was previously flagged by Google in its security advisory for November 2024 as actively exploited in the wild. It's not clear what prompted the tech giant to issue the alert a second time. When reached for comment, Google told The Hacker...

Threat actors have been exploiting a security vulnerability in Paragon Partition Manager's BioNTdrv.sys driver in ransomware attacks to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code. The zero-day flaw (CVE-2025-0289) is part of a set of five vulnerabilities that was discovered by Microsoft, according to the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC). "These include arbitrary kernel memory mapping and write vulnerabilities, a null pointer dereference, insecure kernel resource access, and an arbitrary memory move vulnerability," CERT/CC said . In a hypothetical attack scenario, an adversary with local access to a Windows machine can exploit these shortcomings to escalate privileges or cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition by taking advantage of the fact that "BioNTdrv.sys" is signed by Microsoft. This could also pave the way for what's called a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver ( BYOVD ) attack on systems where the driver is not installed, thereby allowing t...

A 23-year-old Serbian youth activist had their Android phone targeted by a zero-day exploit developed by Cellebrite to unlock the device, according to a new report from Amnesty International. "The Android phone of one student protester was exploited and unlocked by a sophisticated zero-day exploit chain targeting Android USB drivers, developed by Cellebrite," the international non-governmental organization said , adding traces of the exploit were discovered in a separate case in mid-2024. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-53104 (CVSS score: 7.8), a case of privilege escalation in a kernel component known as the USB Video Class (UVC) driver. A patch for the flaw was released for the Linux kernel in December 2024. It was subsequently addressed in Android earlier this month. It's believed that CVE-2024-53104 was combined with two other flaws – CVE-2024-53197 and CVE-2024-50302 – both of which have been resolved in the Linux kernel. They are yet to be included i...

Threat actors who were behind the exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products in December 2024 likely also exploited a previously unknown SQL injection flaw in PostgreSQL, according to findings from Rapid7. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-1094 (CVSS score: 8.1), affects the PostgreSQL interactive tool psql. "An attacker who can generate a SQL injection via CVE-2025-1094 can then achieve arbitrary code execution (ACE) by leveraging the interactive tool's ability to run meta-commands," security researcher Stephen Fewer said . The cybersecurity company further noted that it made the discovery as part of its investigation into CVE-2024-12356 , a recently patched security flaw in BeyondTrust software that allows for unauthenticated remote code execution. Specifically, it found that "a successful exploit for CVE-2024-12356 had to include exploitation of CVE-2025-1094 in order to achie...

Apple on Monday released out-of-band security updates to address a security flaw in iOS and iPadOS that it said has been exploited in the wild. Assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2025-24200 (CVSS score: 4.6), the vulnerability has been described as an authorization issue that could make it possible for a malicious actor to disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device as part of a cyber physical attack. This suggests that the attackers require physical access to the device in order to exploit the flaw. Introduced in iOS 11.4.1, USB Restricted Mode prevents an Apple iOS and iPadOS device from communicating with a connected accessory if it has not been unlocked and connected to an accessory within the past hour. The feature is seen as an attempt to prevent digital forensics tools like Cellebrite or GrayKey , which are mainly used by law enforcement agencies, from gaining unauthorized entry to a confiscated device and extracting sensitive data. In line with advisories of this k...

Threat actors have been observed exploiting multiple security flaws in various software products, including Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX and Advantive VeraCore, to drop reverse shells and web shells, and maintain persistent remote access to compromised systems. The zero-day exploitation of security flaws in VeraCore has been attributed to a threat actor known as XE Group , a cybercrime group likely of Vietnamese origin that's known to be active since at least 2010. "XE Group transitioned from credit card skimming to targeted information theft, marking a significant shift in their operational priorities," cybersecurity firm Intezer said in a report published in collaboration with Solis Security. "Their attacks now target supply chains in the manufacturing and distribution sectors, leveraging new vulnerabilities and advanced tactics." The vulnerabilities in question are listed below - CVE-2024-57968 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An unrestricted upload of f...

BeyondTrust has revealed it completed an investigation into a recent cybersecurity incident that targeted some of the company's Remote Support SaaS instances by making use of a compromised API key. The company said the breach involved 17 Remote Support SaaS customers and that the API key was used to enable unauthorized access by resetting local application passwords. The breach was first flagged on December 5, 2024. "The investigation determined that a zero-day vulnerability of a third-party application was used to gain access to an online asset in a BeyondTrust AWS account," the company said this week. "Access to that asset then allowed the threat actor to obtain an infrastructure API key that could then be leveraged against a separate AWS account which operated Remote Support infrastructure." The American access management company did not name the application that was exploited to obtain the API key, but said the probe uncovered two separate flaws in it...

Cybersecurity researchers are warning that a critical zero-day vulnerability impacting Zyxel CPE Series devices is seeing active exploitation attempts in the wild. "Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary commands on affected devices, leading to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, or network infiltration," GreyNoise researcher Glenn Thorpe said in an alert published Tuesday. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-40891, a critical command injection vulnerability that has neither been publicly disclosed nor patched. The existence of the bug was first reported by VulnCheck in July 2024. Statistics gathered by the threat intelligence firm show that attack attempts have originated from dozens of IP addresses , with a majority of them located in Taiwan. According to Censys, there are more than 1,500 vulnerable devices online. "CVE-2024-40891 is very similar to CVE-2024-40890, with the main difference being that the former is Teln...

Apple has released software updates to address several security flaws across its portfolio, including a zero-day vulnerability that it said has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24085 (CVSS scores: 7.3/7.8), has been described as a use-after-free bug in the Core Media component that could permit a malicious application already installed on a device to elevate privileges. "Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 17.2," the company said in a terse advisory. The issue has been addressed with improved memory management in the following devices and operating system versions - iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 - iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later macOS Sequoia 15.3 - Macs running mac...

SonicWall is alerting customers of a critical security flaw impacting its Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 Series appliances that it said has been likely exploited in the wild as a zero-day. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-23006 , is rated 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system. "Pre-authentication deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability has been identified in the SMA1000 Appliance Management Console (AMC) and Central Management Console (CMC), which in specific conditions could potentially enable a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary OS commands," the company said in an advisory. It's worth noting that CVE-2025-23006 does not affect its Firewall and SMA 100 series products. The flaw has been addressed in version 12.4.3-02854 (platform-hotfix). SonicWall also said that it has been notified of "possible active exploitation" by unspecified threat actors, necessitating that customers apply the fixes as soon as p...

Threat actors are exploiting an unspecified zero-day vulnerability in Cambium Networks cnPilot routers to deploy a variant of the AISURU botnet called AIRASHI to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. According to QiAnXin XLab, the attacks have leveraged the security flaw since June 2024. Additional details about the shortcomings have been withheld to prevent further abuse. Some of the other flaws weaponized by the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet include CVE-2013-3307 , CVE-2016-20016 , CVE-2017-5259 , CVE-2018-14558 , CVE-2020-25499 , CVE-2020-8515 , CVE-2022-3573 , CVE-2022-40005 , CVE-2022-44149 , CVE-2023-28771 , as well as those impacting AVTECH IP cameras, LILIN DVRs, and Shenzhen TVT devices. "The operator of AIRASHI has been posting their DDoS capability test results on Telegram," XLab said. "From historical data, it can be observed that the attack capacity of the AIRASHI botnet remains stable around 1-3 Tbps." A majority ...