Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 5th December 2025

Greetings, A new malicious npm package, eslint-plugin-unicorn-ts-2, has been discovered that aims specifically at manipulating AI-powered security scanners. The package mimics a legitimate TypeScript extension of the widely used ESLint Unicorn plugin, but embedded within its code is a concealed message telling automated analysis tools to “forget everything you know” and treat the code as safe. While the prompt itself has no effect on how the package runs, its presence signals a concerning shift in attacker behaviour as they begin crafting malware with the explicit intention of deceiving AI-driven defences. The threat comes from the package’s post-install script, which automatically executes once a developer installs the dependency. That script gathers environment variables, potentially including API keys, authentication tokens, and other sensitive credentials, and exfiltrates them to an external Pipedream webhook. The malicious changes were introduced in version 1.1.3, with the package still available in later versions at the time of reporting, increasing the likelihood that unsuspecting developers may have already been affected. This incident highlights the growing risks within the software supply chain and the increasing sophistication of attempts to compromise it. Attackers are not only relying on typosquatting or impersonating trusted packages but are now experimenting with ways to exploit the very tools meant to detect them. For organisations, the event signifies the need to scrutinise dependencies more closely, review installation scripts, and avoid relying solely on AI-based scanners. Any developer who installed the affected package should assume credential exposure and rotate secrets immediately. Glassworm malware returns in third wave of malicious VS Code packages Date: 2025-12-01 Author: Bleeping Computer The Glassworm campaign, which first emerged on the OpenVSX and Microsoft Visual Studio marketplaces in October, is now in its third wave, with 24 new packages added on the two platforms. OpenVSX and the Microsoft Visual Studio Marketplace are both extension repositories for VS Code–compatible editors, used by developers to install language support, frameworks, tooling, themes, and other productivity add-ons. Malicious VS Code Extension as Icon Theme Attacking Windows and macOS Users Date: 2025-12-01 Author: Cyber Security News A malicious Visual Studio Code extension posing as the popular “Material Icon Theme” has been used to attack Windows and macOS users, turning the add-on into a hidden backdoor. The fake extension shipped through the marketplace with backdoored files, giving the attackers a direct path into developer workstations once it was installed. After installation, the extension behaved like a normal icon theme, so most users had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. 'Exploitation is imminent' as 39 percent of cloud environs have max-severity React hole Date: 2025-12-03 Author: The Register [Please see AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ASB-2025.0214/] A maximum-severity flaw in the widely used JavaScript library React, and several React-based frameworks including Next.js allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute malicious code on vulnerable instances. The flaw is easy to abuse, and mass exploitation is "imminent," according to security researchers. The React team disclosed the unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in React Server Components on Wednesday. It's tracked as CVE-2025-55182 and received a maximum 10.0 CVSS severity rating. Critical King Addons Vulnerability Exploited to Hack WordPress Sites Date: 2025-12-03 Author: Security Week Tracked as CVE-2025-8489 (CVSS score of 9.8), the critical-severity bug is described as a privilege escalation issue that allows attackers to obtain administrative privileges. The vulnerability impacts versions 24.12.92 to 51.1.14. King Addons for Elementor’s maintainers patched the issue in version 51.1.35 of the plugin, which was released on September 25. Roughly a month later, threat actors started targeting the CVE in attacks, and Defiant has observed roughly 50,000 exploit attempts to date. Android Zero-Days Patched in December 2025 Security Update Date: 2025-12-02 Author: Security Week [Please see AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.8757.2/] Google warns that two out of the 107 vulnerabilities patched in Android this month have been exploited in limited, targeted attacks. The exploited zero-days, tracked as CVE-2025-48633 and CVE-2025-48572, impact the platform’s Framework component and could be exploited for information disclosure or elevation of privilege, respectively. ASB-2025.0214 – React and Next.js: CVSS (Max): 10.0 A maximum-severity flaw in the widely used JavaScript library React, and several React-based frameworks including Next.js allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute malicious code on vulnerable instances. The flaw is easy to abuse, and mass exploitation is "imminent," according to security researchers. ESB-2025.8758 – SUSE: Linux Kernel: CVSS (Max): 7.8 An update that solves 20 vulnerabilities, contains one feature and has five security fixes can now be installed. The SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP4 kernel was updated to fix various security issues. ESB-2025.8792 – Apple: Compressor: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Impact: An unauthenticated user on the same network as a Compressor server may be able to execute arbitrary code. Description: The issue was addressed by refusing external connections by default. CVE-2025-43515: CodeColorist and Pedro Tôrres(@t0rr3sp3dr0). ESB-2025.8794 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): 8.8* This update includes 13 security fixes addressing issues across several browser components. ESB-2025.8815 – Splunk Enterprise: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Splunk remedied common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) in Third Party Packages in Splunk Enterprise versions 10.0.2, 9.4.6, 9.3.8, 9.2.10, and higher. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 28th November 2025

Greetings, A new episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast is out now! Episode 50: The Economy of Algorithms with Marek Kowalkiewicz Our host, Ivano Bongiovanni, sits down with Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz, Chair in Digital Economy at QUT and author of The Economy of Algorithms. This episode explores Marek’s RACERS framework, viewing AI as a creative partner, and why experimentation is key to managing risks. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss, and it’s available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Soundcloud! This week, it was reported that OpenAI has severed ties with Mixpanel after a security incident exposed limited data associated with some of its API users. The leak, discovered on November 9 and communicated to OpenAI on November 25, did not involve any breach of OpenAI’s own systems such as chat logs, API requests, API keys, payment information or personal IDs. However, the compromised data set included account-holder names, email addresses, broad location information, referring websites, and internal user or organisation IDs. In response, OpenAI removed Mixpanel from its production systems, initiated a full vendor-security audit, and began notifying impacted users and organisations directly. While the company asserted that there is “no evidence of any effect on systems or data outside Mixpanel’s environment,” it cautioned users to watch out for phishing or social-engineering attempts using the exposed information. OpenAI emphasised that regular users of its consumer products, such as ChatGPT, were not impacted, as the breach pertained only to its API-platform analytics. Critical 7 Zip Vulnerability With Public Exploit Requires Manual Update Date: 2025-11-23 Author: Hackread A vulnerability has been found in the very popular, free file-compressing tool 7-Zip. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-11001, has a public exploit, leading to a high-risk warning from the UK’s NHS England Digital. While the NHS confirmed active exploitation has not been observed in the wild, the public PoC means the risk of future attacks is extremely high. The vulnerability was discovered by Ryota Shiga of GMO Flatt Security Inc., with help from their AI tool AppSec Auditor Takumi. CISA warns Oracle Identity Manager RCE flaw is being actively exploited Date: 2025-11-21 Author: Bleeping Computer [Please see AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ASB-2025.0185.2/] The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is warning government agencies to patch an Oracle Identity Manager tracked as CVE-2025-61757 that has been exploited in attacks, potentially as a zero-day. CVE-2025-61757 is a pre-authentication RCE vulnerability in Oracle Identity Manager, discovered and disclosed by Searchlight Cyber analysts Adam Kues and Shubham Shahflaw. Popular Forge library gets fix for signature verification bypass flaw Date: 2025-11-26 Author: Bleeping Computer A vulnerability in the ‘node-forge’ package, a popular JavaScript cryptography library, could be exploited to bypass signature verifications by crafting data that appears valid. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2025-12816 and received a high severity rating. It arises from the library’s ASN.1 validation mechanism, which allows malformed data to pass checks even when it is cryptographically invalid. Gainsight Cyber-Attack Affect More Salesforce Customers Date: 2025-11-26 Author: Infosecurity Magazine The cyber-attack targeting Gainsight has affected more Salesforce customers than initially expected. In a customer FAQ, first posted on November 20 and regularly updated since, the customer support platform provider said Salesforce initially provided a list of three customers impacted by the breach. Microsoft Teams Flaw in Guest Chat Exposes Users to Malware Attacks Date: 2025-11-26 Author: HackRead Microsoft Teams has become the main tool for communication in businesses globally. Due to this, security teams spend a lot of time and money on protection services like Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to guard against dangers like phishing emails, malicious links, and malware. However, new research from the security firm Ontinue, released on Wednesday, November 26, shows a huge security flaw in the standard setup of Microsoft Teams collaboration with outside partners, known as B2B Guest Access, which lets attackers entirely bypass a company’s Microsoft Defender protections. ASB-2025.0185.2 – Oracle Fusion Middleware: CVSS (Max): 9.8 This Critical Patch Update contains 20 new security patches, plus additional third party patches noted below, for Oracle Fusion Middleware. 17 of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e., may be exploited over a network without requiring user credentials. ESB-2025.8534 – F5 BIG-IP DNS: CVSS (Max): 7.5 In specific circumstances, due to a weakness in the Pseudo Random Number Generator (PRNG) that is used, it is possible for an attacker to predict the source port and query ID that BIND will use. This issue affects BIND 9 versions 9.16.0 through 9.16.50, 9.18.0 through 9.18.39, 9.20.0 through 9.20.13, 9.21.0 through 9.21.12, 9.16.8-S1 through 9.16.50-S1, 9.18.11-S1 through 9.18.39-S1, and 9.20.9-S1 through 9.20.13-S1. (CVE-2025-40780). ESB-2025.8648 – Ubuntu: H2O: CVSS (Max): 7.5 H2O could be made to crash if it received specially crafted network traffic. It was discovered that H2O exhibited poor server resource management in its HTTP/2 protocol. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause H2O to crash, resulting in a denial of service. ESB-2025.8662 – Splunk SOAR: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Splunk remedied common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) in Third Party Packages in Splunk SOAR version 7.0.0, and higher. ESB-2025.8673 – GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition: CVSS (Max): 7.7 Several GitLab CE/EE vulnerabilities were identified, including high-severity race condition and denial-of-service flaws, along with medium-severity authentication bypass, DoS, and authorization issues. A low-severity information disclosure bug in the Terraform registry was also reported. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 21st November 2025

Greetings, AUSCERT recently received Shadowserver’s latest Special Report containing intelligence from Operation Endgame, the international law enforcement effort announced on 13 November 2025. The dataset reveals historical infections linked to the Rhadamanthys information-stealing malware, covering activity between March and November 2025. Unlike Shadowserver’s routine daily feeds, these Special Reports provide rare, high-value insights drawn from long-term forensic investigations, helping organisations understand compromises that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. Rhadamanthys is a credential-harvesting malware known for targeting browser data, system details, and sensitive login information. Shadowserver classified every entry in this dataset as CRITICAL due to the potential severity of exposure. While exact timestamps weren’t available, the dataset includes “first seen” and “last seen” indicators to show likely periods of infection. Upon receiving the report, AUSCERT Analysts immediately processed the data through internal systems to identify any potentially affected members. Each affected organisation was contacted directly with tailored details to support rapid awareness and remediation. Several members have since expressed appreciation for the proactive outreach, reinforcing the importance of timely, actionable threat intelligence in responding to long-running malware activity. IBM AIX Vulnerability Lets Remote Attackers Execute Arbitrary Commands Date: 2025-11-17 Author: Cyber Press IBM has released urgent security patches addressing four severe vulnerabilities in AIX and VIOS systems that enable remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands, intercept credentials, and compromise system integrity. The vulnerabilities span multiple AIX versions and demand immediate remediation from affected organizations. PoC Exploit Tool Released for FortiWeb WAF Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild Date: 2025-11-15 Author: Cyber Security News [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for FortiWeb updates – https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.8364] A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit tool for CVE-2025-64446 has been publicly released on GitHub. This vulnerability, affecting FortiWeb devices from Fortinet, involves a critical path traversal flaw that has already been observed in real-world attacks, allowing unauthorized access to sensitive CGI endpoints. Security researchers warn that the tool’s availability could accelerate exploitation attempts against unpatched systems worldwide. Fortinet warns of new FortiWeb zero-day exploited in attacks Date: 2025-11-18 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.8401/] Today, Fortinet released security updates to patch a new FortiWeb zero-day vulnerability that threat actors are actively exploiting in attacks. Tracked as CVE-2025-58034, this web application firewall security flaw was reported by Jason McFadyen of Trend Micro's Trend Research team. W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin vulnerable to PHP command injection Date: 2025-11-19 Author: Bleeping Computer A critical flaw in the W3 Total Cache (W3TC) WordPress plugin can be exploited to run PHP commands on the server by posting a comment that contains a malicious payload. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-9501, affects all versions of the W3TC plugin prior to 2.8.13 and is described as an unauthenticated command injection. GlobalProtect VPN portals probed with 2.3 million scan sessions Date: 2025-11-20 Author: Bleeping Computer Malicious scanning activity targeting Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect VPN login portals has increased 40 times in 24 hours, indicating a coordinated campaign. Real-time intelligence company GreyNoise reports that activity began climbing on November 14 and hit its highest level in 90 days within a week. "GreyNoise has identified a significant escalation in malicious activity targeting Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect portals," reads the bulletin. ESB-2025.8360 – Red Hat: lasso: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Critical. The lasso packages provide the Lasso library that implements the Liberty Alliance Single Sign-On standards, including the SAML and SAML2 specifications. It allows handling of the whole life-cycle of SAML-based federations and provides bindings for multiple languages. ESB-2025.8364 – Fortinet FortiWeb: CVSS (Max): 9.8 A relative path traversal vulnerability [CWE-23] in FortiWeb may allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute administrative commands on the system via crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests. ESB-2025.8412 – Linux Kernel (Live Patch 61 for SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP5): CVSS (Max): 8.8 Security update for the Linux Kernel (Live Patch 61 for SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP5) that solves 58 vulnerabilities and has eight security fixes. ESB-2025.8446 – Atlassian Products: CVSS (Max): 10.0 The vulnerabilities reported in this Security Bulletin include 34 high-severity vulnerabilities and 5 critical-severity vulnerabilities which have been fixed in new versions of our products, released in the last month. ESB-2025.8463 – Linux kernel (Oracle): CVSS (Max): 9.1 The Linux kernel contained insufficient branch predictor isolation between a guest and a userspace hypervisor for certain processors. This flaw is known as VMSCAPE. An attacker in a guest VM could possibly use this to expose sensitive information from the host OS. ( CVE-2025-40300 ) Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 14th November 2025

Greetings, This week, we released an exciting episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast! Episode 49 – AUSCERT2026: Game On and Win! As we prepare to mark the 25th anniversary of the AUSCERT Cyber Security Conference in 2026, we’re counting down with a special giveaway. Hidden within this episode is a codeword, which you can enter using the form linked in the episode description. Entering the correct codeword will put you in the running to win a free registration to AUSCERT2026! This episode is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Soundcloud. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 uncovered a sophisticated commercial-grade spyware campaign targeting users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones across 2024 and into early 2025. The malware, named “LANDFALL”, exploited a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-21042) in Samsung’s image-processing library, allowing attackers to execute code via malicious DNG (Digital Negative) image files delivered through WhatsApp. Active for at least seven months, the campaign specifically targeted devices including the Galaxy S24, Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4. Once infected, LANDFALL enabled extensive surveillance by harvesting audio, phone calls, SMS messages, camera photos and real-time location data. The infrastructure points to a commercial surveillance-tool vendor working with government clients, rather than a traditional cyber-crime gang. The discovery signals a growing trend of “zero-click” or minimal-interaction attacks that leverage vulnerabilities in image parsing libraries. Organisations and individuals should remain vigilant by applying patches promptly, restrict app permissions where possible and monitor for unusual device behaviour. Microsoft November 2025 Patch Tuesday fixes 1 zero-day, 63 flaws Date: 2025-11-11 Author: Bleeping Computer [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for these Microsoft updates] Today is Microsoft's November 2025 Patch Tuesday, which includes security updates for 63 flaws, including one actively exploited zero-day vulnerability. This Patch Tuesday also addresses four "Critical" vulnerabilities, two of which are remote code execution vulnerabilities, one is an elevation of privileges, and the fourth is an information disclosure flaw. Hackers exploited Citrix, Cisco ISE flaws in zero-day attacks Date: 2025-11-12 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT Bulletins: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.4160.4/ https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.4041.2/] An advanced threat actor exploited the critical vulnerabilities “Citrix Bleed 2" (CVE-2025-5777) in NetScaler ADC and Gateway, and CVE-2025-20337 affecting Cisco Identity Service Engine (ISE) as zero-days to deploy custom malware. Amazon’s threat intelligence team, analyzing “MadPot” honeypot data, found that hackers leveraged the two security issues before the security issues were disclosed publicly and patches became available. Critical Triofox Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild Date: 2025-11-11 Author: Security Week [AUSCERT has shared IoCs related to CVE-2025-12480 via its MISP instance] A threat actor has exploited a critical vulnerability in Triofox to obtain remote access to a vulnerable server and then achieve code execution, Google warns. Designed to ease remote work and data management, Gladinet’s Triofox is a secure file sharing and remote access solution that can be integrated with existing IT infrastructure. Critical Cisco Firewall Flaws Exploited for Denial-of-Service Attacks Date: 2025-11-09 Author: Cyberwarzone [See AUSCERT bulletins: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6814.2/ & https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6813.2/] Cisco firewalls, widely deployed across enterprises for their security infrastructure, are now facing a new wave of attacks exploiting previously identified critical vulnerabilities to launch denial-of-service (DoS) campaigns. This development intensifies concerns surrounding two security flaws for which Cisco released patches in late September. Have I Been Pwned Adds 1.96B Accounts From Synthient Credential Data Date: 2025-11-11 Author: Hackread Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), the popular breach notification service, has added another massive dataset to its platform. This time, 1.96 billion accounts connected to the Synthient Credential Stuffing Threat Data, in collaboration with the threat-intelligence firm Synthient. Users who subscribe to HIBP alerts, including this writer, received an email notification stating: “You’ve been pwned in the Synthient Credential Stuffing Threat Data data breach.” ESB-2025.8191 – Intel CIP Software: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Intel has addressed high-severity flaws in its Computing Improvement Program (CIP) software that could allow privilege escalation or information disclosure. ESB-2025.8224 – Zoom: CVSS (Max): 8.1 A high-severity CVE-2025-62484 vulnerability in Zoom Workplace clients allowed an unauthenticated network attacker to escalate privileges. Zoom recommends updating to version 6.5.10 or later on iOS/Android. ESB-2025.8281 – runc: CVSS (Max): 7.8 Dangerous flaws in runC could let attackers escape Docker containers and gain root access on the host. Fixes are available in updated runC versions. ASB-2025.0213 – Microsoft Windows: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Microsoft patched CVE-2025-62215, a Windows Kernel race-condition flaw that allowed authorized attackers to locally elevate privileges to SYSTEM. The zero-day was actively exploited. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 7th November 2025

Greetings, Time is running out to submit a tutorial proposal for AUSCERT2026! Submissions close Monday November 10, so be sure to get in now before it’s too late. If you have practical experience or a unique perspective on cyber security practices, this is your chance to lead an in-depth session and share your insights with peers from across the industry. We encourage submissions from professionals of all backgrounds and experience levels, whether you're a seasoned trainer or a first-time presenter. All successful applicants will receive complimentary conference registration, plus costs covered for flights and accommodation. In a recent update, SonicWall has confirmed that the September security breach involving unauthorised access to firewall configuration backup files was the work of a state-sponsored threat actor. The company enlisted cyber security firm Mandiant, to investigate the incident, which has now concluded with findings that the breach was limited to a specific cloud environment accessed via an API call. Mandiant determined that SonicWall’s core products, firmware, systems, tools, source code, and customer networks remained unaffected. The breach, first disclosed on September 17, exposed sensitive data stored in certain MySonicWall accounts. These configuration files contained credentials and tokens that could potentially simplify exploitation of customer firewalls. In response, SonicWall urged affected users to reset various credentials linked to their accounts and network configurations. By October 9, SonicWall clarified that all customers utilising its cloud backup service were impacted, though the breach was contained and did not compromise the integrity of its broader infrastructure. The company also emphasised that this incident was unrelated to separate attacks by the Akira ransomware gang, which targeted MFA-protected VPN accounts later that month. Critical WordPress Post SMTP Plugin Vulnerability Puts 400,000 Sites at Risk of Account Takeover Date: 2025-11-04 Author: GBHackers A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the Post SMTP WordPress plugin, affecting over 400,000 active installations across the web. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-11833 with a CVSS score of 9.8, allows unauthenticated attackers to access sensitive email logs and execute account takeover attacks on vulnerable WordPress sites. Critical Flaw in Popular React Native NPM Package Exposes Developers to Attacks Date: 2025-11-05 Author: Security Week Software supply chain security firm JFrog has disclosed the details of a critical vulnerability affecting a popular React Native NPM package. React Native is an open source framework designed for creating applications that work across mobile, desktop and web platforms. The vulnerability discovered by JFrog researchers, tracked as CVE-2025-11953 and assigned a CVSS score of 9.8, impacts the React Native Community CLI NPM package (@react-native-community/cli), which provides command-line tools for building apps and which has roughly two million downloads every week. Australia warns of BadCandy infections on unpatched Cisco devices Date: 2025-10-31 Author: Bleeping Computer The Australian government is warning about ongoing cyberattacks against unpatched Cisco IOS XE devices in the country to infect routers with the BadCandy webshell. The vulnerability exploited in these attacks is CVE-2023-20198, a max-severity flaw that allows remote unauthenticated threat actors to create a local admin user via the web user interface and take over the devices. Hackers Exploit WSUS Flaw to Spread Skuld Stealer Despite Microsoft Patch Date: 2025-11-01 Author: Hackread A vulnerability in the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) is being actively exploited by cybercriminals to plant Skuld Staler malware, according to new research from the cybersecurity firm Darktrace. This service, which helps companies manage Microsoft updates in a centralised manner across corporate networks, contains a flaw, identified as CVE-2025-59287, which Microsoft disclosed in October 2025. Because WSUS servers hold key permissions within a network, they are considered high-value targets. Zscaler Discovers Vulnerability in Keras Models Allowing Arbitrary File Access and SSRF (CVE-2025-12058) Date: 2025-11-04 Author: Zscaler Zscaler uncovered a vulnerability in Keras that exposed AI and machine learning environments to file access and network exploitation risks, highlighting the urgent need to secure the AI model supply chain. Through responsible disclosure and ongoing research, Zscaler helps enterprises stay protected from emerging AI threats with a Zero Trust approach. ESB-2025.7991/ – Apple iOS and iPadOS 18.7.2: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Apple has released iOS 18.7.2 and iPadOS 18.7.2 to address multiple security vulnerabilities—including several high-severity issues (up to CVSS 8.8)—that could allow data exposure, privilege escalation, or remote code execution. ESB-2025.7983 – Cisco Unified Contact Center Express: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Cisco has released critical patches for Unified Contact Center Express to fix two remote code execution and authentication bypass vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-20354, CVE-2025-20358) that could allow unauthenticated attackers to gain root privileges or execute arbitrary scripts remotely. ESB-2025.7947 – Radiometrics VizAir: CVSS (Max): 10.0 CISA has issued an advisory for multiple critical (CVSS 10.0) vulnerabilities in Radiometrics VizAir that allow unauthenticated remote attackers to alter weather and runway data, potentially disrupting airport operations and flight safety. ESB-2025.7914 – Tenable Identity Exposure: CVSS (Max): 9.9 Tenable has released Identity Exposure version 3.77.14 to address multiple high and critical vulnerabilities (up to CVSS 9.9) in third-party components including .NET, SQL Server, and curl. ESB-2025.7911/ – Google Android: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Google has released the November 2025 Android Security Bulletin addressing critical vulnerabilities, including a remote code execution flaw in the System component (CVSS 9.8), which could be exploited without user interaction. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 31st October 2025

Greetings, A new episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast is out now! Episode 48: Cyber Resilience and AI Risk: Insurance, Regulation & Boardroom Strategy. Our host, Bek Cheb, is joined by two of WTW’s Cyber and Technology Risk team, Ben Di Marco & Leah Mooney, to expertly unpack the evolving landscape of AI governance, cyber risk, and insurance. They explore how voluntary guardrails are shaping future regulation, why cyber insurance is now essential (not optional), and the practical steps SMEs and large enterprises can take to boost resilience. This episode is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube! This week, it was reported that several Tasmanian government agencies have been affected by a cyber attack on a third-party system used to manage student data. The breach stems from VETtrak, a student management software platform developed by ReadyTech, which provides services to the Department for Education, Children and Young People, the state’s fire and emergency services, and the health department. ReadyTech first disclosed the incident to the ASX on October 17, confirming that the affected platform had been isolated while an investigation was underway. Although the Tasmanian government has stated there is currently no evidence that sensitive student information was accessed, ReadyTech later confirmed that cybercriminals had posted a small number of documents containing personal data online. The company has reported the breach to the Australian Federal Police and advised the public not to attempt to view or download the stolen material. Newly Patched Critical Microsoft WSUS Flaw Comes Under Active Exploitation Date: 2025-10-24 Author: The Hacker News [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for these Microsoft updates] Microsoft on Thursday released out-of-band security updates to patch a critical-severity Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) vulnerability with a proof-of-concept (Poc) exploit publicly available and has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-59287 (CVSS score: 9.8), a remote code execution flaw in WSUS that was originally fixed by the tech giant as part of its Patch Tuesday update published last week. QNAP warns of critical ASP.NET flaw in its Windows backup software Date: 2025-10-27 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ASB-2025.0173/] QNAP warned customers to patch a critical ASP.NET Core vulnerability that also impacts the company's NetBak PC Agent, a Windows utility for backing up data to a QNAP network-attached storage (NAS) device. Tracked as CVE-2025-55315, this security bypass flaw was found in the Kestrel ASP.NET Core web server and enables attackers with low privileges to hijack other users' credentials or bypass front-end security controls via HTTP request smuggling. 10 npm Packages Caught Stealing Developer Credentials on Windows, macOS, and Linux Date: 2025-10-29 Author: The Hacker News Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a set of 10 malicious npm packages that are designed to deliver an information stealer targeting Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. "The malware uses four layers of obfuscation to hide its payload, displays a fake CAPTCHA to appear legitimate, fingerprints victims by IP address, and downloads a 24MB PyInstaller-packaged information stealer that harvests credentials from system keyrings, browsers, and authentication services across Windows, Linux, and macOS," Socket security researcher Kush Pandya said. Chrome Zero-Day Exploitation Linked to Hacking Team Spyware Date: 2025-10-27 Author: Security Week The exploited Chrome vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-2783 and described as a sandbox escape issue, was caught in the wild in a sophisticated cyberespionage campaign attributed to a state-sponsored APT. Firefox was affected by a similar flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-2857. Dubbed Operation ForumTroll, the campaign targeted education, finance, government, media, research, and other organizations in Russia and used phishing emails masquerading as forum invitations to deliver personalized, short-lived links taking victims to websites containing the exploit for CVE-2025-2783. WordPress security plugin exposes private data to site subscribers Date: 2025-10-29 Author: Bleeping Computer The Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugin for WordPress, installed on over 100,000 sites, has a vulnerability that allows subscribers to read any file on the server, potentially exposing private information. The plugin provides malware scanning and protection against brute-force attacks, exploitation of known plugin flaws, and against database injection attempts. Identified as CVE-2025-11705, the vulnerability was reported to Wordfence by researcher Dmitrii Ignatyev and affects versions of the plugin 4.23.81 and earlier. ESB-2025.7820 – Splunk: Splunk AppDynamics Private Synthetic Agent: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Splunk remedied common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE-2022-48622, CVE-2024-45159) in Third Party Packages in Splunk AppDynamics Private Synthetic Agent version 25.7.0 and higher. ESB-2025.7801 – Ubuntu: Squid: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Leonardo Giovannini discovered that Squid failed to redact HTTP Authentication credentials in a default configuration. An attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information. ESB-2025.7733 – SUSE: MozillaFirefox: CVSS (Max): 9.8 The Firefox Extended Support Release 140.4.0 ESR update addresses multiple security vulnerabilities, including use-after-free, out-of-bounds access, information leaks, and potential code execution issues. It also includes fixes for several memory safety bugs in Firefox and Thunderbird. ESB-2025.7722 – SUSE: govulncheck-vulndb: CVSS (Max): 9.9 This update adds or updates a large set of new Go CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) identifiers each mapped to corresponding CVE and/or GHSA aliases, expanding the vulnerability database index for Go modules. ESB-2025.7712 – Debian: thunderbird: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Multiple security issues were discovered in Thunderbird, which could result in the execution of arbitrary code. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 24th October 2025

Greetings, Today we officially opened our Call for Tutorials for the AUSCERT2026 Conference, and we can’t wait to see the incredible submissions that come through. The standard rises every year, and we know 2026 will be no exception. Submissions close 10 November, so get in early! For details on tutorial categories and submission tips, head to our conference website. In case you missed it, we’ve also revealed our AUSCERT2026 theme: Game On! Step into the cyber arena where defenders are the most valuable players, tactics are everything, and every move matters. Game On! embodies the fast-paced, high-stakes nature of cyber security today where teamwork, quick thinking, and domain mastery are the keys to victory. With the threat landscape as our playing field, AUSCERT2026 challenges players to level up, unite under pressure, and face adversaries head-on. Featuring the International Cyber Championships, next year’s conference promises high-impact learning, fierce collaboration, and game-changing moments. Because in this arena, the stakes are real and it’s Game On! We look forward to welcoming you 19-22 May 2026 at The Star Gold Coast, Australia. Keep an eye out, registrations will open in January! AWS outage crashes Amazon, Prime Video, Fortnite, Perplexity and more Date: 2025-10-20 Author: Bleeping Computer AWS outage has taken down millions of websites, including Amazon.com, Prime Video, Perplexity AI, Canva and more. The outage started approx 30 minutes ago and it's affecting consumers in all regions, including the United States and Europe. According to AWS Health page, Amazon is aware of major disruption affecting multiple services. Oracle Releases October 2025 Patches Date: 2025-10-21 Author: Security Week [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for these Oracle updates] Oracle on Tuesday released 374 new security patches as part of its October 2025 Critical Patch Update (CPU), including over 230 fixes for vulnerabilities that are remotely exploitable without authentication. There appear to be roughly 260 unique CVEs in Oracle’s October 2025 CPU advisory, including a dozen critical-severity flaws. CISA Adds Microsoft, Oracle Vulnerabilities To KEV Catalog Date: 2025-10-20 Author: The Cyber Express The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added five CVEs to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog today, including Microsoft, Apple and Oracle vulnerabilities. Hidden "Glassworm" malware spreads through infected VS Code extensions Date: 2025-10-21 Author: iTnews A new malware worm campaign has infected multiple Microsoft Visual Studio Code extensions using invisible Unicode characters to hide malicious code from both reviewers and security tools, security researchers say. The worm, named Glassworm, compromised seven extensions on the OpenVSX marketplace on October 17, reaching more than 10,700 downloads. Email Bombs Exploit Lax Authentication in Zendesk Date: 2025-10-17 Author: Krebs on Security Cybercriminals are abusing a widespread lack of authentication in the customer service platform Zendesk to flood targeted email inboxes with menacing messages that come from hundreds of Zendesk corporate customers simultaneously. Zendesk is an automated help desk service designed to make it simple for people to contact companies for customer support issues. Earlier this week, KrebsOnSecurity started receiving thousands of ticket creation notification messages through Zendesk in rapid succession, each bearing the name of different Zendesk customers, such as CapCom, CompTIA, Discord, GMAC, NordVPN, The Washington Post, and Tinder. ESB-2025.7610 – Atlassian Products: CVSS (Max): 10.0 14 high-severity vulnerabilities which have been fixed in new versions of Atlassian products. ASB-2025.0198 – Oracle Communications Applications: CVSS (Max): 9.8 This Critical Patch Update contains 64 new security patches for Oracle Communications Applications. 46 of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication. ESB-2025.7565 – Rockwell Automation 1783-NATR: CVSS (Max): 10.0 This upgrade patches vulnerabilities where successful exploitation could result in a denial-of-service, data modification, or in an attacker obtaining sensitive information. ESB-2025.7544 – Samba: CVSS (Max): 10.0 USN-7826-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Samba where an authenticated attacker could possibly use this vulnerability to obtain sensitive information. ESB-2025.7495 – Tenable Identity Exposure: CVSS (Max): 9.9 Tenable Identity Exposure leverages third-party software to help provide underlying functionality. One of the third-party components (.NET) was found to contain vulnerabilities. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 17th October 2025

Greetings, This week, we have released a new episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast, Episode 47: Building Cyber Resilience with Lucas from the AUSCERT Dev Team. Our host, Bek, chats with Lucas Rossdeutscher, one of AUSCERT’s senior software developers, for an engaging behind-the-scenes look at MSINs (Member Security Incident Notifications) – a personalised and vital security service that helps AUSCERT members stay ahead of emerging threats. Lucas offers practical advice on how members can make the most of this tool to strengthen their cyber resilience and streamline their incident response efforts. Listeners will also get to know the person behind the code, as Lucas shares stories from his half-marathon training journey, his love of coffee, and how his passion for cyber security developed over time. This episode is available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts now! After nearly a decade, Windows 10 is now unsupported as of 14th October 2025, marking a major shift for millions of users and organisations still relying on the operating system. Despite running on over a third of the world’s PCs, Microsoft have now ceased providing security updates, leaving unpatched vulnerabilities that cybercriminals could exploit. Ondrej Kubovič from ESET (a global digital company) warned that continuing to use unsupported systems creates “a significantly larger attack surface,” exposing users to data theft, malware, and potential operational or reputational damage. He recommends that if upgrading isn’t immediately possible, organisations should implement strict security controls such as restricting user privileges, limiting exposed services, using VPNs, and enhancing monitoring and audits. Still, Kubovič stresses that these measures are only stopgaps. “Temporary fixes can buy you time, but they are not a substitute for a full upgrade,” he said. “Start planning your transition now to avoid unnecessary risks.” F5 releases BIG-IP patches for stolen security vulnerabilities Date: 2025-10-15 Author: Bleeping Computer [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for these F5 updates and an ASB-https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ASB-2025.0175] Cybersecurity company F5 has released security updates to address BIG-IP vulnerabilities stolen in a breach detected on August 9, 2025. The company disclosed today that state hackers breached its systems and stole source code and information on undisclosed BIG-IP security flaws. F5 added that there's no evidence the threat actors leveraged the undisclosed vulnerabilities in attacks and said it has not yet found evidence that the flaws have been disclosed. Microsoft October 2025 Patch Tuesday fixes 6 zero-days, 172 flaws Date: 2025-10-14 Author: Bleeping Computer [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for these Microsoft updates] Today is Microsoft's October 2025 Patch Tuesday, which includes security updates for 172 flaws, including six zero-day vulnerabilities. This Patch Tuesday also addresses eight "Critical" vulnerabilities, five of which are remote code execution vulnerabilities and three are elevation of privilege vulnerabilities. Qantas says customer data released by cyber criminals Date: 2025-10-13 Author: iTnews Qantas Airways confirmed customer data stolen in a July breach had been published by cybercriminals. Qantas says customer data released by cyber criminals The airline said in July that more than a million customers had sensitive details such as phone numbers, birth dates or home addresses accessed in one of Australia's biggest cyber breaches in years. Another four million customers had just their name and email address taken during the hack, it said at the time. Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024-2025 Date: 2025-10-14 Author: ASD ACSC Australia is an early and substantial adopter of digital technology which drives public services, productivity and innovation. Our increasing dependency on digital and internet-connected technology means Australia remains an attractive target for criminal and state-sponsored cyber actors. In FY2024–25, ASD’s ACSC received over 42,500 calls to the Australian Cyber Security Hotline – a 16% increase from the previous year, over 1,200 cyber security incidents – an 11% increase, more than 1,700 times of potentially malicious cyber activity – an 83% increase from last year – highlighting the ongoing need for vigilance and action to mitigate against persistent threats. Oracle silently fixes zero-day exploit leaked by ShinyHunters Date: 2025-10-14 Author: Bleeping Computer Oracle has silently fixed an Oracle E-Business Suite vulnerability (CVE-2025-61884) that was actively exploited to breach servers, with a proof-of-concept exploit publicly leaked by the ShinyHunters extortion group. The flaw was addressed with an out-of-band security update released over the weekend, which Oracle said could be used to access “sensitive resources.” ESB-2025.7359 – Adobe: Adobe Connect: CVSS (Max): 9.3 Adobe has released a security update for Adobe Connect. This update resolves critical and moderate vulnerabilities that could lead to arbitrary code execution and security feature bypass. ESB-2025.7350 – F5 Networks: F5 BIG-IP (all modules): CVSS (Max): 9.8 Heap-based buffer overflow in the DHCP client (udhcpc) in BusyBox before 1.25.0 allows remote attackers to have unspecified impact via vectors involving OPTION_6RD parsing. (CVE-2016-2148) ESB-2025.7295 – Debian: Linux: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel that may lead to a privilege escalation, denial of service or information leaks. ESB-2025.7269 – Linux kernel (Azure): CVSS (Max): 9.8* Several security issues were discovered in the Linux kernel. An attacker could possibly use these to compromise the system. ESB-2025.7222 – Red Hat: kernel: CVSS (Max): 7.8 A heap out-of-bounds write affecting Linux since v2.6.19-rc1 was discovered in net/netfilter/x_tables.c. This allows an attacker to gain privileges or cause a DoS (via heap memory corruption) through user name space. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 10th October 2025

Greetings, The hacking collective Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters has continued its campaign of cyber extortion this week, targeting major Australian organisations including Telstra and Qantas. The group, which has claimed responsibility for a string of recent Salesforce-based attacks, alleged it had stolen millions of customer records from both companies and threatened to release the data unless “a resolution” was reached. Telstra was listed on the group’s darknet leak site overnight, with hackers claiming to hold 19 million sets of personal data including names, mobile numbers, and addresses. However, Telstra has denied the breach, confirming that the data was scraped from publicly available sources and did not come from its systems. Cyber Daily’s analysis suggests the information instead matches data from Reverse Australia, a public reverse phone lookup service. Meanwhile, Qantas has also reappeared on Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters’ leak site following an earlier breach in June. The group claims to possess over five million records of personally identifiable information, including customer names, contact details, and Frequent Flyer numbers, with a data release deadline set for 10 October. Qantas said its systems remain secure and that the incident stemmed from a third-party contact centre platform. The airline continues to strengthen its cyber defences and support affected customers. Oracle Rushes Patch for CVE-2025-61882 After Cl0p Exploited It in Data Theft Attacks Date: 2025-10-06 Author: The Hacker News [AUSCERT has published a MISP event with IOCs. Also see bulletin https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ASB-2025.0163] Oracle has released an emergency update to address a critical security flaw in its E-Business Suite that it said has been exploited in the recent wave of Cl0p data theft attacks. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-61882 (CVSS score: 9.8), concerns an unspecified bug that could allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise and take control of the Oracle Concurrent Processing component. ShinyHunters Wage Broad Corporate Extortion Spree Date: 2025-10-07 Author: Krebs on Security A cybercriminal group that used voice phishing attacks to siphon more than a billion records from Salesforce customers earlier this year has launched a website that threatens to publish data stolen from dozens of Fortune 500 firms if they refuse to pay a ransom. The group also claimed responsibility for a recent breach involving Discord user data, and for stealing terabytes of sensitive files from thousands of customers of the enterprise software maker Red Hat. Salesforce refuses to pay a ransom in recent wave of attacks Date: 2025-10-08 Author: SC Media News that Salesforce has refused to negotiate or pay a ransom in the recent wave of cyberattacks experienced by at least 39 of its customers was viewed as a double-edged sword by some security professionals. “Salesforce's public refusal to pay the ransom sets a precedent that discourages future extortion attempts,” MacKenzie Brown, vice president, Adversary Pursuit Group at Blackpoint Cyber. “However, this strategy shifts the risk to their customers, who must now prepare for a potential data leak.” Redis warns of critical flaw impacting thousands of instances Date: 2025-10-06 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.7128] The Redis security team has released a patch for a vulnerability CVE-2025-49844 which could allow threat actors to gain remote code execution on thousands of vulnerable instances. An authenticated threat actor can exploit a 13-year-old use-after-free vulnerability to escape the Lua sandbox to establish a reverse shell for persistent access and achieve remote code execution on the targeted Redis host. SonicWall Concludes Investigation Into Incident Affecting MySonicWall Configuration Backup Files Date: 2025-10-08 Author: Arctic Wolf Recommendations On September 17, 2025, SonicWall released a knowledge base article detailing the exposure of firewall configuration backup files stored in certain MySonicWall accounts. As of October 8, 2025, the investigation has concluded and SonicWall has updated their advisory accordingly. While the original SonicWall advisory stated that under 5% of customers using the MySonicWall configuration file backup feature were affected by the incident, the finalized verbiage now specifies that all customers who have used SonicWall’s cloud backup service were affected. ASB-2025.0163 – Oracle E-Business Suite: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Oracle released an emergency patch to fix CVE-2025-61882, a critical remote-code-execution flaw in its E-Business Suite that has already been exploited by the Cl0p group in data theft campaigns. ESB-2025.7127 – Tenable Security Center: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Tenable fixed a medium-severity access control flaw (CVE-2025-36636) in Security Center ≤ 6.6.0, with the issue resolved in version 6.7.0. ESB-2025.7128 – redis: CVSS (Max): 9.9 Redis has disclosed a maximum-severity use-after-free flaw (CVE-2025-49844) in its Lua scripting engine that enables remote code execution when exploited. ESB-2025.7165 – IBM Db2 Data Management Console: CVSS (Max): 8.3 IBM warned of critical flaws in Db2 Data Management Console 3.1.12, including RCE via SnakeYAML, now added to CISA’s KEV catalog. Upgrading to version 3.1.13+ is strongly advised. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 3rd October 2025

Greetings, We are excited to release our latest episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast, Episode 46: Jess Dodson on Security, Strategy & Sci-Fi. Our General Manager, Ivano Bongiovanni, sits down with Jess Dodson, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, and a long-time friend of AUSCERT. Jess shares her unconventional journey from sysadmin to cyber security leader, exploring the importance of mastering the basics, the role of communication, and challenges for SMBs and government. She also unpacks AI’s impact on data protection, the Essential Eight (with a sci-fi twist), and why cyber security should be seen as business transformation. This episode is sure to educate and entertain, and it’s available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube! This October is Cyber Awareness Month 2025, with the theme, Building our cyber safe culture, reminding us to make cyber safe practices part of our everyday lives. This month encourages us to not only strengthen our own habits but also help friends and family build their confidence in cyber security. From spotting phishing attempts to using stronger passwords and enabling multi-factor authentication, small steps can go a long way in protecting the people around you. By sharing your knowledge, you can help extend a culture of cyber safety beyond the workplace and into the community. The ASD has developed a wide range of resources to support Cyber Awareness Month, including practical guides, tips, and shareable tools to help you and your loved ones stay secure online. CISA warns of critical Linux Sudo flaw exploited in attacks Date: 2025-09-30 Author: Bleeping Computer [AUSCERT has published bulletins for Sudo security updates] Hackers are actively exploiting a critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-32463) in the sudo package that enables the execution of commands with root-level privileges on Linux operating systems. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, describing it as “an inclusion of functionality from untrusted control sphere.” 50K Cisco firewalls remain vulnerable to advanced attacks Date: 2025-09-30 Author: The Register Nearly 50,000 Cisco ASA/FTD instances vulnerable to two bugs that are actively being exploited by "advanced" attackers remain exposed to the internet, according to Shadowserver data. The internet monitoring outfit said that as of Monday, the internet-facing Cisco firewalls are potentially exploitable, with the vast majority of those – more than 19,000 – located in the US. How to Use a Password Manager to Share Your Logins After You Die Date: 2025-09-29 Author: WIRED It’s not fun to talk about, but there’s only one thing certain in life. You need to have a plan for your digital legacy, just like you make a plan for your physical assets; otherwise, your accounts, services, and logins will rot away in a data center before they’re inevitably erased by a data retention policy. Some services recognize how important digital legacy is. Apple and Facebook have legacy contacts that can gain access to your accounts, and the American Bar Association is still grappling with the legalities of accessing online accounts when someone passes away. Most online services don't. Apple Patches Single Vulnerability CVE-2025-43400 Date: 2025-09-29 Author: SANS ISC [See AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6939, https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6938, https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6937, https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6936, https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6935, https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6934] It is typical for Apple to release a ".0.1" update soon after releasing a major new operating system. These updates typically fix various functional issues, but this time, they also fix a security vulnerability. The security vulnerability not only affects the "26" releases of iOS and macOS, but also older versions. Apple released fixes for iOS 18 and 26, as well as for macOS back to Sonoma (14). Apple also released updates for WatchOS and tvOS, but these updates do not address any security issues. For visionOS, updates were only released for visionOS 26. Hackers Actively Scanning to Exploit Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Global Protect Vulnerability Date: 2025-09-30 Author: Cyber Security News Security researchers are observing a significant increase in internet-wide scans targeting the critical PAN-OS GlobalProtect vulnerability (CVE-2024-3400). Exploit attempts have surged as attackers seek to leverage an arbitrary file creation flaw to achieve OS command injection and ultimately full root code execution on vulnerable firewalls. Since late September 2025, honeypots deployed globally have logged thousands of TCP connections probing PAN-OS SSL VPN portals. ESB-2025.7032 – chromium Security issues were discovered in Chromium which could result in the execution of arbitrary code, denial of service, or information disclosure. ESB-2025.7020 – Linux kernel (Oracle) Several security issues were discovered in the Linux kernel. An attacker could possibly use these to compromise the system. ESB-2025.7007 – Splunk Enterprise Splunk remedied common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) in Third Party Packages in Splunk Enterprise versions 10.0.1, 9.4.4, 9.3.6, 9.2.8, and higher. ESB-2025.6759.2 – Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted SNMP packet to an affected device over IPv4 or IPv6 networks. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 26th September 2025

Greetings, Cisco is warning customers to urgently patch two critical zero-day vulnerabilities affecting the VPN web server of its Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software. Both flaws, which the company confirmed have been exploited in the wild, pose serious risks to affected networks. The first, tracked as CVE-2025-20333 with a CVSS score of 9.9, could allow an attacker with valid VPN credentials to execute arbitrary code as root by sending crafted HTTP requests. The second, CVE-2025-20362, with a CVSS score of 6.5, could enable unauthenticated attackers to access restricted endpoints without authentication. Cisco noted that attackers appear to be chaining the vulnerabilities to bypass authentication and run malicious code on vulnerable devices. The company credited international partners including the ACSC, CISA, and the UK’s NCSC, for assisting with the investigation. In response, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued Emergency Directive ED 25-03, requiring federal agencies to immediately identify, analyse, and mitigate potential compromises. Both flaws have also been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue, with a 24-hour deadline for applying mitigations. CISA warned that the campaign, linked to the advanced threat cluster ArcaneDoor, is ongoing and widespread. Attackers are said to be leveraging these zero-day flaws to gain unauthenticated remote code execution on ASA devices, even manipulating read-only memory to persist through reboots and upgrades. Customers are strongly urged to apply patches without delay to defend against ongoing exploitation. Fortra warns of max severity flaw in GoAnywhere MFT’s License Servlet Date: 2025-09-19 Author: Bleeping Computer Fortra has released security updates to patch a maximum severity vulnerability in GoAnywhere MFT's License Servlet that can be exploited in command injection attacks. GoAnywhere MFT is a web-based managed file transfer tool that helps organizations securely transfer files and maintain audit logs of who accesses the shared files. Tracked as CVE-2025-10035, this security flaw is caused by a deserialization of untrusted data weakness and can be exploited remotely in low-complexity attacks that don't require user interaction. While Fortra stated that the vulnerability was discovered over the weekend, it didn't specify who reported it or whether the flaw has been exploited in attacks. Cisco warns of IOS zero-day vulnerability exploited in attacks Date: 2025-09-24 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6759/] Cisco has released security updates to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability in Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software that is currently being exploited in attacks. Tracked as CVE-2025-20352, the flaw is due to a stack-based buffer overflow weakness found in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) subsystem of vulnerable IOS and IOS XE software, impacting all devices with SNMP enabled. Authenticated, remote attackers with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability to trigger denial-of-service (DoS) conditions on unpatched devices. High-privileged attackers, on the other hand, can gain complete control of systems running vulnerable Cisco IOS XE software by executing code as the root user. Microsoft Entra ID flaw allowed hijacking any company's tenant Date: 2025-09-21 Author: Bleeping Computer A critical combination of legacy components could have allowed complete access to the Microsoft Entra ID tenant of every company in the world. The fatal mix included undocumented tokens called “actor tokens” and a vulnerability in the Azure AD Graph API (CVE-2025-55241) that allowed the tokens to work with any organization’s Entra ID environment. SolarWinds releases third patch to fix Web Help Desk RCE bug Date: 2025-09-23 Author: Bleeping Computer [AUSCERT has contacted potentially affected members about this vulnerability where possible] SolarWinds has released a hotfix for a critical a critical vulnerability in Web Help Desk that allows remote code execution (RCE) without authentication. Tracked as CVE-2025-26399, the security issue is the company's third attempt to address an older flaw identified as CVE-2024-28986 that impacted Web Help Desk (WHD) 12.8.3 and all previous versions. SolarWinds WHD is a help desk and ticketing suite used by medium-to-large organizations for IT support request tracking, workflow automation, asset management, and compliance assurance. Hackers Exploit Pandoc CVE-2025-51591 to Target AWS IMDS and Steal EC2 IAM Credentials Date: 2025-09-24 Author: The Hacker News Cloud security company Wiz has revealed that it uncovered in-the-wild exploitation of a security flaw in a Linux utility called Pandoc as part of attacks designed to infiltrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) Instance Metadata Service (IMDS). The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-51591 (CVSS score: 6.5), which refers to a case of Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) that allows attackers to compromise a target system by injecting a specially crafted HTML iframe element. ESB-2025.6802 – Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Redhat has released important patches for Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.1 on RHEL 7 to fix multiple vulnerabilities, and it has been added to the U.S. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. ESB-2025.6809 – Tenable Security Center: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Tenable addresses PostgreSQL vulnerabilities in Security Center 6.5.1 and 6.6.0. The patch update mitigates risks of data exposure, denial of service, and other security weaknesses in the affected versions. ESB-2025.6814 – Cisco Products: CVSS (Max): 9.9 Cisco has confirmed two critical zero-day vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362) are actively being exploited in its ASA/FTD VPN web server appliances. ESB-2025.6820 – GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition: CVSS (Max): 7.5* GitLab issued patch releases 18.4.1, 18.3.3, and 18.2.7, bringing a number of security and bug fixes and urging all self-managed installations to upgrade immediately Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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Week in review

AUSCERT Week in Review for 19th September 2025

Greetings, This week, we have released an exciting new episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast, Episode 45: Phishing, Passion & Progress: A Conversation with Shane Lim. Our host Bek Cheb sits down with Shane, one of our valued analysts at AUSCERT, for a deep dive into his journey from IT generalist to cyber security specialist. This episode also features an insider look at one of AUSCERT’s most vital member services, Phishing Takedowns. Shane breaks down how the process works, why phishing remains a persistent threat, and the technical and human challenges involved in taking malicious sites offline. This is an episode you won’t want to miss, and it’s available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Soundcloud now. SonicWall has warned customers to reset credentials following a breach that exposed firewall configuration backup files linked to MySonicWall accounts. Attackers exploited the company’s cloud backup API service using brute-force methods, affecting fewer than 5% of its firewall install base. While the files contained encrypted passwords, SonicWall cautioned that they also held details that could make it easier for attackers to exploit impacted devices. The company has since blocked attacker access, launched an investigation with law enforcement and cyber security partners, and published guidance for administrators. Recommendations include restricting WAN access, resetting all credentials, and updating keys and tokens across related services. SonicWall emphasised this was not a ransomware event but a series of targeted brute-force attacks, adding there is no evidence that the files have been leaked online. Apple backports zero-day patches to older iPhones and iPads Date: 2025-09-16 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT bulletin https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6540]​ Apple has released security updates to backport patches released last month to older iPhones and iPads, addressing a zero-day bug that was exploited in "extremely sophisticated" attacks. This security flaw is the same one Apple has patched for devices running iOS 18.6.2 and iPadOS 18.6.2, iPadOS 17.7.10, and macOS (Sequoia 15.6.1, Sonoma 14.7.8, and Ventura 13.7.8) on August 20. Tracked as CVE-2025-43300, this vulnerability was discovered by Apple security researchers and is caused by an out-of-bounds write weakness in the Image I/O framework, which enables apps to read and write image file formats. From ClickFix to MetaStealer: Dissecting Evolving Threat Actor Techniques Date: 2025-09-17 Author: Bleeping Computer During the past fifteen business days, Huntress analysts have observed increased threat activity involving several notable techniques. One case involved a malicious AnyDesk installer, which initially mimicked a standard ClickFix attack through a fake Cloudflare verification page but then utilized Windows File Explorer and an MSI package masked as a PDF to deploy MetaStealer malware. FBI warns of UNC6040, UNC6395 hackers stealing Salesforce data Date: 2025-09-14 Author: Bleeping Computer The FBI has issued a FLASH alert warning that two threat clusters, tracked as UNC6040 and UNC6395, are compromising organizations’ Salesforce environments to steal data and extort victims. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing this FLASH to disseminate Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) associated with recent malicious cyber activities by cyber criminal groups UNC6040 and UNC6395, responsible for a rising number of data theft and extortion intrusions," reads the FBI's FLASH advisory. Threat Actors Leverage Several RMM Tools in Phishing Attack to Maintain Remote Access Date: 2025-09-15 Author: Cyber Security News Cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools to establish persistent access to compromised systems through sophisticated phishing campaigns. Joint research conducted by Red Canary Intelligence and Zscaler threat hunters has identified multiple malicious campaigns utilizing ITarian (also known as Comodo), PDQ, SimpleHelp, and Atera RMM solutions as attack vectors. HiddenGh0st, Winos and kkRAT Exploit SEO, GitHub Pages in Chinese Malware Attacks Date: 2025-09-15 Author: The Hacker News Chinese-speaking users are the target of a search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning campaign that uses fake software sites to distribute malware. "The attackers manipulated search rankings with SEO plugins and registered lookalike domains that closely mimicked legitimate software sites," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Pei Han Liao said. "By using convincing language and small character substitutions, they tricked victims into visiting spoofed pages and downloading malware." ESB-2025.6633 – Linux kernel: CVSS (Max): 9.1* Several security issues were discovered in the Linux kernel. An attacker could possibly use these to compromise the system. ESB-2025.6569 – pcp: CVSS (Max): 8.8 This update for pcp fixes the following issues, exposure of the redis server backend allows remote command execution via pmproxy. ESB-2025.6567 – Mozilla Firefox: CVSS (Max): 8.8* Memory safety bugs are present. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and it's presumed that with enough effort some of these could have been exploited to run arbitrary code. ESB-2025.6636 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google released security updates for the Chrome web browser, to addresses four vulnerabilities, including one that it said has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability has been described as a type confusion issue in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. ESB-2025.6555 – Delta Electronics DIALink: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Delta Electronics DIALink has an Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory vulnerability which could allow an attacker to bypass authentication. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

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