Search results for plugins.security.disabled | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new stealthy backdoor concealed within the "mu-plugins" directory in WordPress sites to grant threat actors persistent access and allow them to perform arbitrary actions. Must-use plugins (aka mu-plugins) are special plugins that are automatically activated on all WordPress sites in the installation. They are located in the "wp-content/mu-plugins" directory by default. What makes them an attractive option for attackers is that mu-plugins do not show in the default list of plugins on the Plugins page of wp-admin and cannot be disabled except by removing the plugin file from the must-use directory. As a result, a piece of malware that leverages this technique allows it to function quietly, without raising any red flags. In the infection spotted by web security company Sucuri, the PHP script in the mu-plugins directory ("wp-index.php") serves as a loader to fetch a next-stage payload and save it in the WordPr...

In a world where threats are persistent, the modern CISO's real job isn't just to secure technology—it's to preserve institutional trust and ensure business continuity. This week, we saw a clear pattern: adversaries are targeting the complex relationships that hold businesses together, from supply chains to strategic partnerships. With new regulations and the rise of AI-driven attacks, the decisions you make now will shape your organization's resilience for years to come. This isn't just a threat roundup; it's the strategic context you need to lead effectively. Here's your full weekly recap, packed with the intelligence to keep you ahead. ⚡ Threat of the Week New HybridPetya Ransomware Bypasses UEFI Secure Boot — A copycat version of the infamous Petya/NotPetya malware dubbed HybridPetya has been spotted. But no telemetry exists to suggest HybridPetya has been deployed in the wild yet. It also differs in one key respect: It can compromise the secure boot featu...

Google has finally rolled out the latest version of its popular web browser, i.e. Chrome 42 for Windows, Mac, and Linux users that now lets websites send you alerts, no matter your browser is open or not. The release of the latest Chrome 42 version is a great deal as it costs Google more than $21,000. Yes, $21,000! The latest version of Chrome comes with fixes for 45 security vulnerabilities in the web browser, reported by different security researchers [listed below]. Let's know about the Major updates : Major updates and significant improvements for Chrome version 42 includes: Advanced Push API and Notifications API Disabled Oracle's Java plugin by default as well as other extensions that use NPAPI Patched 45 security bugs and paid out more than $21,000 Push API : Google includes Push API in its web browser for the first time. Push API, when combined with the new notifications API, allows websites to push notifications to you through y...

Yesterday we learned of a critical Zero-day vulnerability in a popular image resizing library called TimThumb, which is used in thousands WordPress themes and plugins. WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) with more than 30,000 plugins, each of which offers custom functions and features enabling users to tailor their sites to their specific needs, therefore it is easy to setup and use, that's why tens of millions of websites across the world opt it. But if you or your company are the one using the popular image resizing library called " TimThumb " to resize large images into usable thumbnails that you can display on your site, then you make sure to update the file with the upcoming latest version and remember to check the TimThumb site regularly for the patched update. 0-Day REMOTE CODE EXECUTION & NO PATCH The critical vulnerability discovered by Pichaya Morimoto in the TimThumb Wordpress plugin version 2.8.13, ...

In an effort to mitigate a large class of potential cross-site scripting issues in Firefox, Mozilla has blocked execution of all inline scripts and potentially dangerous eval-like functions for built-in "about: pages" that are the gateway to sensitive preferences, settings, and statics of the browser. Firefox browser has 45 such internal locally-hosted about pages , some of which are listed below that you might have noticed or used at some point: about:config — panel to modify Firefox preferences and critical settings. about:downloads — your recent downloads done within Firefox. about:memory — shows the memory usage of Firefox. about:newtab — the default new tab page. about:plugins — lists all your plugins as well as other useful information. about:privatebrowsing — open a new private window. about:networking — displays networking information. To be noted, these changes do not affect how websites from the Internet work on the Firefox browser, but going forwar...

Unknown threat actors are abusing lesser-known code snippet plugins for WordPress to insert malicious PHP code in victim sites that are capable of harvesting credit card data. The campaign, observed by Sucuri on May 11, 2024, entails the abuse of a WordPress plugin called  Dessky Snippets , which allows users to add custom PHP code. It has over 200 active installations. Such attacks are known to leverage previously disclosed flaws in WordPress plugins or easily guessable credentials to gain administrator access and install other plugins (legitimate or otherwise) for post-exploitation. Sucuri said the Dessky Snippets plugin is used to insert a server-side PHP credit card skimming malware on compromised sites and steal financial data. "This malicious code was saved in the dnsp_settings option in the WordPress wp_options table and was designed to modify the checkout process in WooCommerce by manipulating the billing form and injecting...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a credit card stealing malware campaign that has been observed targeting e-commerce sites running Magento by disguising the malicious content within image tags in HTML code in order to stay under the radar. MageCart is the name given to a malware that's capable of stealing sensitive payment information from online shopping sites. The attacks are known to employ a wide range of techniques – both on client- and server-side – to compromise websites and deploy credit card skimmers to facilitate theft. Typically, such malware is only triggered or loaded when users visit the checkout pages to enter credit card details by either serving a fake form or capturing the information entered by the victims in real time. The term MageCart is a reference to the original target of these cybercrime groups, the Magento platform that offers checkout and shopping cart features for online retailers. Over the years, such campaigns adapted their tactics by conce...

What happens when cybercriminals no longer need deep skills to breach your defenses? Today's attackers are armed with powerful tools that do the heavy lifting — from AI-powered phishing kits to large botnets ready to strike. And they're not just after big corporations. Anyone can be a target when fake identities, hijacked infrastructure, and insider tricks are used to slip past security unnoticed. This week's threats are a reminder: waiting to react is no longer an option. Every delay gives attackers more ground. ⚡ Threat of the Week Critical SAP NetWeaver Flaw Exploited as 0-Day — A critical security flaw in SAP NetWeaver (CVE-2025-31324, CVSS score: 10.0) has been exploited by unknown threat actors to upload JSP web shells with the goal of facilitating unauthorized file uploads and code execution. The attacks have also been observed using the Brute Ratel C4 post-exploitation framework, as well as a well-known technique called Heaven's Gate to bypass endpoint protections. ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered yet another critical security flaw in the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress that could allow unauthenticated users to take control of arbitrary accounts. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-44000 (CVSS score: 7.5), impacts versions before and including 6.4.1. It has been addressed in version 6.5.0.1.  "The plugin suffers from an unauthenticated account takeover vulnerability which allows any unauthenticated visitor to gain authentication access to any logged-in users and at worst can gain access to an Administrator level role after which malicious plugins could be uploaded and installed," Patchstack researcher Rafie Muhammad said . The discovery follows an extensive security analysis of the plugin, which previously led to the identification of a critical privilege escalation flaw ( CVE-2024-28000 , CVSS score: 9.8). LiteSpeed Cache is a popular caching plugin for the WordPress ecosystem with over 5 million active installat...

If you own an eCommerce website built on WordPress and powered by WooCommerce plugin, then beware of a new vulnerability that could compromise your online store. Simon Scannell, a researcher at RIPS Technologies GmbH, discovered an arbitrary file deletion vulnerability in the popular WooCommerce plugin that could allow a malicious or compromised privileged user to gain full control over the unpatched websites. WooCommerce is one the most popular eCommerce plugins for WordPress that helps websites to upgrade their standard blog to a powerful online store. WooCommerce powers nearly 35% of e-stores on the internet, with more than 4 million installations. Exploiting WooCommerce File-Deletion and WordPress Design Flaws The attack demonstrated in the following video takes advantage of the way WordPress handles user privileges and WooCommerce file deletion vulnerability, allowing an account with "Shop Manager" role to eventually reset administrator accounts' pass...

A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the most popular plugin of the WordPress content management platform (CMS) that puts tens of Millions of websites at risks of being hacked by the attackers. The vulnerability actually resides in most versions of a WordPress plugin known as ' WordPress SEO by Yoast ,' which has more than 14 Million downloads according to Yoast website, making it one of the most popular plugins of WordPress for easily optimizing websites for search engines i.e Search engine optimization (SEO). The vulnerability in WordPress SEO by Yoast has been discovered by Ryan Dewhurst , developer of the WordPress vulnerability scanner ' WPScan '. All the versions prior to 1.7.3.3 of 'WordPress SEO by Yoast' are vulnerable to Blind SQL Injection web application flaw, according to an advisory published today. SQL injection (SQLi) vulnerabilities are ranked as critical one because it could cause a database breach and lead to confidential information ...

A recently identified security vulnerability in the official Homebrew Cask repository could have been exploited by an attacker to execute arbitrary code on users' machines that have Homebrew installed. The issue, which was reported to the maintainers on April 18 by a Japanese security researcher named RyotaK, stemmed from the way code changes in its  GitHub repository  were handled, resulting in a scenario where a malicious  pull request  — i.e., the proposed changes — could be automatically reviewed and approved. The flaw was fixed on April 19. Homebrew is a free and open-source software package manager solution that allows the installation of software on Apple's macOS operating system as well as Linux. Homebrew  Cask  extends the functionality to include command-line workflows for GUI-based macOS applications, fonts, plugins, and other non-open source software. "The discovered vulnerability would allow an attacker to inject arbitrary code into a cask...

Eight vulnerabilities have been uncovered in Microsoft applications for macOS that an adversary could exploit to gain elevated privileges or access sensitive data by circumventing the operating system's permissions-based model, which revolves around the Transparency, Consent, and Control ( TCC ) framework. "If successful, the adversary could gain any privileges already granted to the affected Microsoft applications," Cisco Talos said . "For example, the attacker could send emails from the user account without the user noticing, record audio clips, take pictures, or record videos without any user interaction." The shortcomings span various applications such as Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel PowerPoint, and OneNote. The cybersecurity company said malicious libraries could be injected into these applications and gain their entitlements and user-granted permissions, which could then be weaponized for extracting sensitive information depending on the access granted ...

The maintainers of the nx build system have alerted users to a supply chain attack that allowed attackers to publish malicious versions of the popular npm package and other auxiliary plugins with data-gathering capabilities. "Malicious versions of the nx package, as well as some supporting plugin packages, were published to npm, containing code that scans the file system, collects credentials, and posts them to GitHub as a repo under the user's accounts," the maintainers said in an advisory published Wednesday. Nx is an open-source, technology-agnostic build platform that's designed to manage codebases. It's advertised as an "AI-first build platform that connects everything from your editor to CI [continuous integration]." The npm package has over 3.5 million weekly downloads. The list of affected packages and versions is below. These versions have since been removed from the npm registry. The compromise of the nx package took place on August 26, 20...