Publications

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform the cyber landscape, access to practical, trustworthy guidance is imperative. These assets empower organisations to stay ahead of emerging threats, foster a culture of responsible innovation, and contribute to a safer digital future for all. The following resources are freely available for download: Artificial Intelligence Perspective – Executive Briefing Pack AI Policy Statement and Guidelines for Staff A webinar recording outlining the use of this toolkit is available to watch here. Developed by the Cyber Leaders Network’s Artificial Intelligence working group, these resources were created to help organisations confidently navigate and implement responsible AI practices. The Cyber Leaders Network brings together cyber security professionals from across industries to collaborate, share best practices, and exchange insights on emerging challenges. Coordinated by AUSCERT, the Network provides a trusted forum for leaders to collectively strengthen Australia’s cyber resilience. All resources are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing you to share and adapt the material with appropriate credit to the AUSCERT Cyber Leaders Network.

Third-party providers remain one of the biggest blind spots in cyber security. With most major breaches originating from third-party vulnerabilities, it’s critical to assess and manage these relationships with precision. Developed by the Cyber Leaders Network’s Third-Party Risk Management working group, this resource offers a practical framework to help security teams make informed decisions and reduce exposure: Third-Party Risk and Contract Management Decision Tree Toolkit A webinar recording outlining the use of this toolkit is available to watch here. The Cyber Leaders Network brings together cyber security professionals from across industries to collaborate, share best practices, and exchange insights on emerging challenges. Coordinated by AUSCERT, the Network provides a trusted forum for leaders to collectively strengthen Australia’s cyber resilience. This artefact is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing you to share and adapt the material with appropriate credit to the AUSCERT Cyber Leaders Network.

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

LISTEN HERE: AUSCERT “Share Today, Save Tomorrow” – ep 47: Building Cyber Resilience with Lucas from the AUSCERT Dev Team In this episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast, host Bek chats with Lucas, one of our senior software developers, for a behind-the-scenes look at MSINs — a vital security service for AUSCERT members. Lucas takes us through his development journey and explains how the dev team builds and maintains the systems that power AUSCERT’s incident response and threat intelligence capabilities. He also shares practical advice on how members can make the most of these services to strengthen their own cyber resilience. This episode was hosted by Bek Cheb. The AUSCERT podcast can also be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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

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

LISTEN HERE: AUSCERT “Share Today, Save Tomorrow” – ep 46: Jess Dodson on Security, Strategy & Sci-Fi In this episode of Share Today, Save Tomorrow, our General Manager Ivano Bongiovanni sits down with Jess Dodson, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft and long-time friend of AUSCERT. With her signature blend of technical insight and infectious enthusiasm, Jess shares her unconventional journey into cyber security – from sysadmin roots to strategic security leadership. The conversation dives into the importance of mastering the basics, the evolving role of communication in cyber strategy, and the challenges facing SMBs and government sectors. Jess also offers her take on AI’s impact on data protection, the Essential Eight (with a sci-fi twist), and why reframing cyber security as business transformation is key to resilience. Listen now and join the conversation on how we can build a more secure, inclusive, and forward-thinking cyber industry. This episode was hosted by Ivano Bongiovanni. The AUSCERT podcast can also be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and our YouTube channel!

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

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

LISTEN HERE: AUSCERT “Share Today, Save Tomorrow” – ep 45: Phishing, Passion & Progress: A Conversation with Shane Lim In this episode of the AUSCERT podcast, host Bek Cheb sits down with Shane Lim, Senior Analyst at AUSCERT, for a deep dive into his journey from IT generalist to cyber security specialist. Shane shares how a cyber champions program sparked his passion for the field, and how he quickly rose through the ranks at AUSCERT thanks to his curiosity, leadership, and collaborative spirit. Get an insider’s 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. From impersonation tactics to CAPTCHA barriers, Shane offers practical insights into how AUSCERT protects member brands and data. Whether you’re curious about career paths in cyber or want to understand the real-world impact of phishing protection, this episode is packed with relatable stories, expert knowledge, and even a few surprises. Tune in now to hear how passion, teamwork, and a love of cars intersect in the world of cyber security.   This episode was hosted by Bek Cheb The AUSCERT podcast can also be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts

Greetings, This week, a major phishing campaign has led to a large supply chain compromise, targeting the npm (node package manager) ecosystem. Npm is a critical registry hosting over two million reusable code packages used worldwide by developers. The incident began when attackers registered a lookalike domain, npmjs.help, and sent out emails designed to mimic official npm security communications. These emails urged developers to update their two-factor authentication (2FA) credentials. At least one prominent developer fell victim to the phishing attempt, allowing attackers to take control of his account. With access secured, the attackers injected malicious code into at least 18 widely used npm packages, collectively downloaded 2.7 billion times per week. According to security vendor Aikido, the injected code was designed to run on client websites, silently intercepting cryptocurrency and web3 activity. The code manipulated wallet interactions and rewrote payment destinations so that funds and approvals were redirected to attacker-controlled accounts. The attack was particularly insidious because it operated without obvious signs, making detection difficult for end users. The compromise has since been identified and cleanup efforts are underway, though researchers warn that additional developers are being targeted by the same unknown threat actor. The scale of the incident has raised significant concerns across the development community, given how widely npm packages are integrated into both small projects and large-scale enterprise systems. Critical SAP S/4HANA vulnerability now exploited in attacks Date: 2025-09-05 Author: Bleeping Computer A critical SAP S/4HANA code injection vulnerability is being leveraged in attacks in the wild to breach exposed servers, researchers warn. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-42957, is an ABAP code injection problem in an RFC-exposed function module of SAP S/4HANA, allowing low-privileged authentication users to inject arbitrary code, bypass authorization, and fully take over SAP. Adobe Commerce Flaw CVE-2025-54236 Lets Hackers Take Over Customer Accounts Date: 2025-09-10 Author: The Hacker News [See AUSCERT bulletin: https://portal.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2025.6320/] Adobe has warned of a critical security flaw in its Commerce and Magento Open Source platforms that, if successfully exploited, could allow attackers to take control of customer accounts. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-54236 (aka SessionReaper), carries a CVSS score of 9.1 out of a maximum of 10.0. It has been described as an improper input validation flaw. Adobe said it's not aware of any exploits in the wild. More npm packages poisoned, but would-be thieves get little Date: 2025-09-09 Author: The Register During the two-hour window on Monday in which hijacked npm versions were available for download, malware-laced packages reached one in 10 cloud environments, according to Wiz researchers. But crypto-craving crims did little more than annoy defenders. Microsoft Patch Tuesday addresses 81 vulnerabilities, none actively exploited Date: 2025-09-09 Author: CyberScoop [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for these Microsoft updates] The most severe defect disclosed this month — CVE-2025-55232 — is a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability affecting Microsoft High Performance Compute Pack with a CVSS rating of 9.8. Microsoft said exploitation is less likely, but researchers warned organizations to prioritize patching. Fortinet, Ivanti, Nvidia Release Security Updates Date: 2025-09-10 Author: Security Week [AUSCERT has published security bulletins for these Fortinet updates] Fortinet, Ivanti, and Nvidia on Tuesday announced security updates that address over a dozen high- and medium-severity vulnerabilities across their product portfolios. Ivanti resolved two high-severity insufficient filename validation issues in Endpoint Manager (EPM) that could be exploited remotely, without authentication, to execute arbitrary code. The exploitation of both defects, however, require user interaction. ASB-2025.0158 – Microsoft Azure: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Microsoft has released its monthly security patch update for the month of September 2025, which resolves 3 important vulnerabilities with Azure Connected Machine Agent and HPC Pack 2019. Microsoft recommends updating the software to the latest available version available on the Microsoft Update Catalog. ESB-2025.6253 – IBM MQ container software: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Multiple vulnerabilities were addressed in IBM MQ Operator and Queue manager container images, such as memory corruption issues, crashes and denial of service. IBM strongly recommends applying the latest container images. ESB-2025.6435 – kernel: CVSS (Max): 7.8 An update for kernel is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Update Services for SAP Solutions, resolving various security issues and exploited vulnerability as identified on the CISA KEV list. ESB-2025.6441 – Daikin Security Gateway: CVSS (Max): 9.8 A weak password recovery mechanism for forgotten passwords has been identified in this product. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the system. Daikin has reported they will not fix this vulnerability and will respond directly to user inquiries. ESB-2025.6437 – imagemagick: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Multiple memory corruption vulnerbilities were discovered in imagemagick, a software suit used for editing and manipulating digital images, which could lead to information leak, denial of service, and potentially arbitrary code execution. It is recommended that you upgrade your imagemagick packages. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, We’re excited to release a brand-new episode of the Share Today, Save Tomorrow podcast, Episode 44: Security2Cure – Where Cyber Meets Health Planning. In this powerful episode, host Bek Cheb speaks with Zane Jarvis, founder of the charity Security2Cure, an initiative born from personal tragedy and driven by a mission to raise awareness around cancer, health planning, and digital preparedness. Zane shares his deeply personal story and explains how core cyber security principles have inspired a unique framework for personal wellbeing and future planning. With Security2Cure’s upcoming Brisbane conference on the 10th October, this episode offers the perfect opportunity to explore the charity’s mission and learn more about their work. This is an episode you won’t want to miss, and it’s available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube now. This week, a widespread supply chain attack linked to Salesloft Drift has impacted hundreds of organisations, including Cloudflare, Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, PagerDuty, and SpyCloud. While Salesloft initially claimed exposure was limited to Salesforce-integrated customers, Google’s Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant have warned that any platform integrated with Drift may be compromised. The attack, attributed to threat group UNC6395, led to the exposure of sensitive customer data such as business emails, phone numbers, support case details, and, in some cases, credentials. While no core products or infrastructure were directly breached, many companies are rotating tokens, tightening security, and investigating potential impacts. Salesloft announced that Drift will be taken offline to strengthen security and conduct a full review. The incident highlights the growing risks of third-party integrations, with more than 700 organizations potentially affected. Google warns Salesloft breach impacted some Workspace accounts Date: 2025-08-28 Author: Bleeping Computer Google now reports that the Salesloft Drift breach is larger than initially thought, warning that attackers also used stolen OAuth tokens to access a small number of Google Workspace email accounts in addition to stealing data from Salesforce instances. "Based on new information identified by GTIG, the scope of this compromise is not exclusive to the Salesforce integration with Salesloft Drift and impacts other integrations,' warns Google. "We now advise all Salesloft Drift customers to treat any and all authentication tokens stored in or connected to the Drift platform as potentially compromised." NIST Enhances Security Controls for Improved Patching Date: 2025-09-02 Author: Dark Reading Addressing the ongoing patch management problem requires more finessing, especially to protect the software supply chain. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) revised its Security and Privacy Control catalog to help vendors and organizations improve software update and patch release protocols. Originally published in 2020, the Security and Privacy Control catalog details security and privacy safeguards to help organizations mitigate cyber-risks. Federal information systems are required to implement the controls, but the catalog is intended for the private and public sectors. It covers access, authentication, incident response, and supply chain risk management. WhatsApp Patches Zero-Click Exploit Targeting iOS and macOS Devices Date: 2025-08-30 Author: The Hacker News WhatsApp has addressed a security vulnerability in its messaging apps for Apple iOS and macOS that it said may have been exploited in the wild in conjunction with a recently disclosed Apple flaw in targeted zero-day attacks. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-55177 (CVSS score: 8.0 [CISA-ADP]/5.4 [Facebook]), relates to a case of insufficient authorization of linked device synchronization messages. Internal researchers on the WhatsApp Security Team have been credited with discovering and rerating the bug. The Meta-owned company said the issue "could have allowed an unrelated user to trigger processing of content from an arbitrary URL on a target's device." Amazon Disrupts APT29 Watering Hole Campaign Abusing Microsoft Device Code Authentication Date: 2025-08-29 Author: The Hacker News Amazon on Friday said it flagged and disrupted what it described as an opportunistic watering hole campaign orchestrated by the Russia-linked APT29 actors as part of their intelligence gathering efforts. The campaign used "compromised websites to redirect visitors to malicious infrastructure designed to trick users into authorizing attacker-controlled devices through Microsoft's device code authentication flow," Amazon's Chief Information Security Officer CJ Moses said. Melbourne dev finds gift card PINs can be brute-forced Date: 2025-09-03 Author: itnews Gift cards sold in Australian supermarkets can have their PINs easily guessed, thanks to a vulnerability on the issuer's website, opening them up to redemption by thieves who only need to know the card number to access the stored funds. The vulnerability was discovered by Melbourne developer Simon Dean who bought two gift cards worth $500 each, which he intended to use to purchase a laptop at JB Hi-Fi with. After buying the cards, Dean ran into trouble redeeming them as the cards had had the last four digits scratched off them. ESB-2025.6241 – Ruby It was discovered that Ruby incorrectly handled certain IO stream methods. A remote attacker could use this issue to cause Ruby to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly obtain sensitive information. ASB-2025.0156.2 – Salesloft Drift Several major firms, including ZScaler, Cloudflare, and Palo Alto Networks, confirmed breaches of their Salesforce databases. The incidents stem from a data theft campaign exploiting the third-party Salesloft Drift integration with Salesforce. ESB-2025.6176 – Google Android The Android Security Bulletin contains details of security vulnerabilities affecting Android devices. The most severe of these issues is a critical security vulnerability in the System component that could lead to remote (proximal/adjacent) code execution with no additional execution privileges needed. ESB-2025.6205 – Cisco Products A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Evolved Programmable Network Manager (EPNM) and Cisco Prime Infrastructure could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to obtain sensitive information from an affected system. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team