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MiniPlasma Windows 0-Day Enables SYSTEM Privilege Escalation on Fully Patched Systems

MiniPlasma Windows 0-Day Enables SYSTEM Privilege Escalation on Fully Patched Systems

May 18, 2026 Zero Day / Vulnerability
Chaotic Eclipse, the security researcher behind the recently disclosed Windows flaws, YellowKey and GreenPlasma , has released a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a Windows privilege escalation zero-day flaw that grants attackers SYSTEM privileges on fully patched Windows systems. Codenamed MiniPlasma , the vulnerability impacts "cldflt.sys," which refers to the Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver, and resides in a routine named "HsmOsBlockPlaceholderAccess." It was originally reported to Microsoft by Google Project Zero researcher James Forshaw in September 2020. Although it was assumed that the shortcoming was fixed by Microsoft in December 2020 as part of CVE-2020-17103 , Chaotic Eclipse said further investigation has uncovered that the "exact same issue [...] is actually still present, unpatched." "I'm unsure if Microsoft just never patched the issue or the patch was silently rolled back at some point for unknown reasons. The original PoC by...
Four Malicious npm Packages Deliver Infostealers and Phantom Bot DDoS Malware

Four Malicious npm Packages Deliver Infostealers and Phantom Bot DDoS Malware

May 18, 2026 Supply Chain Attack / Botnet
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered four new npm packages containing information-stealing malware, one of which is a clone of the Shai-Hulud worm open-sourced by TeamPCP . The list of identified packages is below - chalk-tempalte (825 Downloads) @deadcode09284814/axios-util (284 Downloads) axois-utils (963 Downloads) color-style-utils (934 Downloads) "One of the packages (chalk-tempalte) contains a direct clone of the Shai-Hulud source code that TeamPCP leaked last week, probably inspired as part of the supply chain attack competition that was published in BreachForums not long after," OX Security's Moshe Siman Tov Bustan said. Interestingly, the malicious payloads embedded into the four npm packages are different, despite them being published by the same npm user, " deadcode09284814 ." As of writing, the four libraries are still available for download from npm. An analysis of the packages has revealed that "axois-utils" is designed ...
Pre-Stuxnet Fast16 Malware Tampered with Nuclear Weapons Simulations

Pre-Stuxnet Fast16 Malware Tampered with Nuclear Weapons Simulations

May 18, 2026 Industrial Sabotage / Malware
A new analysis of the Lua-based fast16 malware has confirmed that it was a cyber sabotage tool designed to tamper with nuclear weapons testing simulations. According to Broadcom-owned Symantec and Carbon Black teams, the pre-Stuxnet tool was engineered to corrupt uranium-compression simulations that are central to nuclear weapon design. "Fast16's hook engine is selectively interested in high-explosive simulations inside LS-DYNA and AUTODYN," the Threat Hunter Team said . "The malware checks for the density of the material being simulated and only acts when that value passes 30 g/cm³, the threshold uranium can only be reached under the shock compression of an implosion device. The development comes weeks after SentinelOne presented an analysis of fast16, describing it as the first sabotage framework whose components may have developed as early as 2005, predating the earliest known version of Stuxnet (aka Stuxnet 0.5) by two years. Evidence unearthed by the cybe...
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The AI Security Starter Pack

websiteWizAI Security / Cloud Security
Unlock 7 of the most widely used AI security resources in one place. Each asset provides practical tools for securing AI apps, models, and agents.
cyber security

11 real-world stories proving how identity drift opens active attack paths

websiteXM CyberIdentity Security / Exposure Management
Learn how attackers leverage privilege drift to reach critical assets across 11 architectural teardowns.
NGINX CVE-2026-42945 Exploited in the Wild, Causing Worker Crashes and Possible RCE

NGINX CVE-2026-42945 Exploited in the Wild, Causing Worker Crashes and Possible RCE

May 17, 2026 Server Security / Vulnerability
A newly disclosed security flaw impacting NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source has come under active exploitation in the wild, days after its public disclosure, according to VulnCheck . The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-42945 (CVSS score: 9.2), is a heap buffer overflow in ngx_http_rewrite_module affecting NGINX versions 0.6.27 through 1.30.0. According to AI-native security company depthfirst, the vulnerability was introduced in 2008. Successful exploitation of the flaw can permit an unauthenticated attacker to crash worker processes or execute remote code with crafted HTTP requests. However, it bears noting that code execution is possible only on devices where Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), a safeguard against memory-based attacks, is turned off.
Grafana GitHub Token Breach Led to Codebase Download and Extortion Attempt

Grafana GitHub Token Breach Led to Codebase Download and Extortion Attempt

May 17, 2026 Data Breach / Cybercrime
Grafana has disclosed that an "unauthorized party" obtained a token that granted them the ability to access the company's GitHub environment and download its codebase. "Our investigation has determined that no customer data or personal information was accessed during this incident, and we have found no evidence of impact to customer systems or operations," Grafana said in a series of posts on X. The company also said it immediately launched a forensic analysis upon discovering the activity and that it identified the source of the leak, adding the compromised credentials have since been invalidated, and extra security measures have been implemented to secure against unauthorized access. Furthermore, Grafana revealed the attacker tried to blackmail and extort the company, demanding they make a payment to prevent the stolen database from being published. Grafana said it has opted not to pay the ransom, citing guidance issued by the U.S. Feder...
Funnel Builder Flaw Exploited to Enable WooCommerce Checkout Skimming

Funnel Builder Flaw Exploited to Enable WooCommerce Checkout Skimming

May 16, 2026 Vulnerability / Website Security
A critical security vulnerability impacting the Funnel Builder plugin for WordPress has come under active exploitation in the wild to inject malicious JavaScript code into WooCommerce checkout pages with the goal of stealing payment data. Details of the activity were published by Sansec this week. The vulnerability currently does not have an official CVE identifier. It affects all versions of the plugin before 3.15.0.3. It's used in more than 40,000 WooCommerce stores.  The flaw lets unauthenticated attackers inject arbitrary JavaScript into every checkout page on the store, the Dutch e-commerce security company said. FunnelKit, which maintains Funnel Builder, has released a patch for the vulnerability in version 3.15.0.3. "Attackers are planting fake Google Tag Manager scripts into the plugin's 'External Scripts' setting," it noted. "The injected code looks like ordinary analytics next to the store's real tags, but...
Turla Turns Kazuar Backdoor Into Modular P2P Botnet for Persistent Access

Turla Turns Kazuar Backdoor Into Modular P2P Botnet for Persistent Access

May 15, 2026 Botnet / Threat Intelligence
The Russian state-sponsored hacking group known as Turla has transformed its custom backdoor Kazuar into a modular peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet that's engineered for stealth and persistent access to compromised hosts. Turla, per the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is assessed to be affiliated with Center 16 of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). It overlaps with activity traced by the broader cybersecurity community under the names ATG26, Blue Python, Iron Hunter, Pensive Ursa, Secret Blizzard (formerly Krypton), Snake, SUMMIT, Uroburos, Venomous Bear, Waterbug, and WRAITH. The hacking group is known for its attacks targeting government, diplomatic, and defense sectors in Europe and Central Asia, as well as endpoints previously breached by Aqua Blizzard (aka Actinium and Gamaredon) to support the Kremlin's strategic objectives. "This upgrade aligns with Secret Blizzard's broader objective of gaini...
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