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Cybersecurity researchers have found that ransomware attacks targeting ESXi systems are also leveraging the access to repurpose the appliances as a conduit to tunnel traffic to command-and-control (C2) infrastructure and stay under the radar. "ESXi appliances, which are unmonitored, are increasingly exploited as a persistence mechanism and gateway to access corporate networks widely," Sygnia researchers Aaron (Zhongyuan) Hau and Ren Jie Yow said in a report published last week. "Threat actors use these platforms by adopting 'living-off-the-land' techniques and using native tools like SSH to establish a SOCKS tunnel between their C2 servers and the compromised environment." In doing so, the idea is to blend into legitimate traffic and establish long-term persistence on the compromised network with little-to-no detection by security controls. The cybersecurity company said in many of its incident response engagements, ESXi systems were compromised eit...

While passwords remain the first line of defense for protecting user accounts against unauthorized access, the methods for creating strong passwords and protecting them are continually evolving. For example, NIST password recommendations are now prioritizing password length over complexity. Hashing, however, remains a non-negotiable. Even long secure passphrases should be hashed to prevent them from being completely exposed in the event of a data breach – and never stored in plaintext. This article examines how today’s cyber attackers attempt to crack hashed passwords, explores common hashing algorithms and their limitations, and discusses measures you can take to protect your hashed passwords, regardless of which algorithm you are using. Modern password cracking techniques Malicious actors have an array of tools and methods at their disposal for cracking hashed passwords. Some of the more widely used methods include brute force attacks, password dictionary attacks, hybrid attacks...

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup that has captured much of the artificial intelligence (AI) buzz in recent days, said it's restricting registrations on the service, citing malicious attacks. "Due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek's services, we are temporarily limiting registrations to ensure continued service," the company said in an incident report page. "Existing users can log in as usual. Thanks for your understanding and support." Users attempting to sign up for an account are being displayed a similar message, stating "registration may be busy" and that they should wait and try again. "With the popularity of DeepSeek growing, it's not a big surprise that they are being targeted by malicious web traffic," Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. "These sorts of attacks could be a way to extort an organization by promising to stop attacks and rest...

The Council of the European Union has sanctioned three individuals for allegedly carrying out "malicious cyber activities" against Estonia. The three Russian nationals – Nikolay Alexandrovich Korchagin, Vitaly Shevchenko, and Yuriy Fedorovich Denisov – are officers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) Unit 29155, it said. Per the council decision, all the individuals are said to be responsible for cyber attacks against computer systems with the aim of collecting data from the data systems of multiple institutions with an aim to gain insights into the cyber security policy of Estonia. "The cyber-attacks granted attackers unauthorized access to classified information and sensitive data stored within several government ministries — including Economic Affairs and Communications, Social Affairs, and Foreign Affairs — leading to the theft of thousands of confidential documents," per the Council . This included business secrets, h...

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...

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in GitHub Desktop as well as other Git-related projects that, if successfully exploited, could permit an attacker to gain unauthorized access to a user's Git credentials. "Git implements a protocol called Git Credential Protocol to retrieve credentials from the credential helper ," GMO Flatt Security researcher Ry0taK, who discovered the flaws, said in an analysis published Sunday. "Because of improper handling of messages, many projects were vulnerable to credential leakage in various ways." The list of identified vulnerabilities, dubbed Clone2Leak, is as follows - CVE-2025-23040 (CVSS score: 6.6) - Maliciously crafted remote URLs could lead to credential leaks in GitHub Desktop  CVE-2024-50338 (CVSS score: 7.4) - Carriage-return character in remote URL allows the malicious repository to leak credentials in Git Credential Manager CVE-2024-53263 (CVSS score: 8.5) - Git LFS permits retrieval of cre...

Welcome to your weekly cybersecurity scoop! Ever thought about how the same AI meant to protect our hospitals could also compromise them? This week, we’re breaking down the sophisticated world of AI-driven threats, key updates in regulations, and some urgent vulnerabilities in healthcare tech that need our attention. As we unpack these complex topics, we'll equip you with sharp insights to navigate these turbulent waters. Curious about the solutions? They’re smarter and more unexpected than you might think. Let’s dive in. ⚡ Threat of the Week Juniper Networks Routers Targeted by J-magic — A new campaign targeted enterprise-grade Juniper Networks routers between mid-2023 and mid-2024 to infect them with a backdoor dubbed J-magic when certain precise conditions. The malware is a variant of a nearly 25-year-old, publicly available backdoor referred to as cd00r, and is designed to establish a reverse shell to an attacker-controlled IP address and port. Semiconductor, energy, manuf...