All news in category "Security Advisory and Patch Watch"

Google AI 'Big Sleep' Finds Five WebKit Flaws in Safari

🔒 Google’s AI agent Big Sleep reported five vulnerabilities in Apple’s WebKit used by Safari, including a buffer overflow, two memory-corruption issues, an unspecified crash flaw, and a use-after-free (CVE-2025-43429 through CVE-2025-43434). Apple issued patches across iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, visionOS 26.1 and Safari 26.1. Users are advised to install the updates promptly to mitigate crash and memory-corruption risks.

Critical Auth Bypass in JobMonster WordPress Theme Attack

🔒 Threat actors are actively exploiting a critical authentication bypass in the JobMonster WordPress theme (CVE-2025-5397) that can lead to administrator account takeover under specific conditions. The flaw affects all versions up to 4.8.1 and is caused by the theme's check_login() function trusting external social login data without proper verification. To succeed, attackers typically need social login enabled and knowledge of an admin username or email. The issue is fixed in 4.8.2; immediate mitigations include upgrading, disabling social login, enabling two‑factor authentication, rotating credentials, and reviewing access logs.

GDI Vulnerabilities in Windows Enable RCE and Data Leak

🔒 Microsoft has issued updates to address three previously unknown flaws in the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) that could permit remote code execution and information disclosure. The issues, rooted in malformed EMF/EMF+ records, cause out-of-bounds memory access in GdiPlus.dll and gdi32full.dll during image rendering, thumbnailing and print initialization. Patches were released across the May, July and August 2025 Patch Tuesdays (KB5058411, KB5062553, KB5063878); administrators should apply updates promptly and avoid opening untrusted EMF files.

Microsoft WSUS Patch Disrupted Windows Server Hotpatching

⚠️ An out-of-band update, KB5070881, that addressed CVE-2025-59287 for Windows Server Update Service inadvertently removed Hotpatch enrollment on a very limited number of Windows Server 2025 machines. Microsoft has stopped offering KB5070881 to Hotpatch-enrolled devices and released KB5070893 the next day to fix the flaw without breaking Hotpatch. Systems that installed the buggy update will receive regular monthly security updates requiring restarts in November and December and will rejoin Hotpatch after the January 2026 baseline. As part of mitigations, Microsoft also disabled the display of WSUS synchronization error details.

Windows Task Manager Won't Quit After KB5067036 Update

⚠️ Microsoft confirmed a known issue where closing Task Manager does not terminate the taskmgr.exe process after installing the October 28, 2025 preview update (KB5067036). Multiple background instances can consume CPU and cause stutters. As a temporary workaround, end each process in a new Task Manager window or run: taskkill.exe /im taskmgr.exe /f while Microsoft investigates a permanent fix.

ASD Warns of Ongoing BADCANDY Attacks on Cisco IOS XE

🛡️ The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has issued a bulletin warning of ongoing attacks using a Lua-based implant dubbed BADCANDY to compromise unpatched Cisco IOS XE devices via CVE-2023-20198. ASD reports variations have been seen since October 2023 and estimates about 400 Australian devices were compromised since July 2025, with 150 infections in October. Operators are urged to apply patches, restrict public access to the web UI, and follow Cisco hardening guidance.

Agencies Publish Best Practices to Secure Exchange Server

🔒 Cybersecurity agencies in the United States, Australia and Canada have issued coordinated best-practice guidance to help organizations harden on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server installations against ongoing attacks and misconfiguration risks. The advisory emphasizes keeping servers fully patched and on the supported Subscription Edition, enabling Microsoft’s Emergency Mitigation Service, and establishing security baselines. It also urges stronger authentication and encryption, dedicated administrative workstations, and built-in protections such as Microsoft Defender Antivirus and App Control to reduce attack surfaces.

CISA: High-Severity Linux Privilege Flaw Used by Ransomware

🔒 CISA confirmed that CVE-2024-1086, a high-severity use-after-free bug in the nf_tables component of the Linux kernel, is being exploited in ransomware campaigns. The flaw, introduced in 2014 and patched in January 2024, enables local attackers to escalate to root. A publicly released PoC targets kernels 5.14–6.6. CISA added the issue to its KEV list and recommended mitigations such as blocklisting nf_tables, restricting user namespaces, or loading the LKRG module.

Go clients, HTTP/2 PING floods, and ENHANCE_YOUR_CALM

🔍 This post investigates why Cloudflare returned ENHANCE_YOUR_CALM for internal HTTP/2 traffic and traces the issue to an easy-to-make Go client behavior. An incorrect pattern where a response is closed without being fully read caused the Go HTTP/2 library to emit RST_STREAM and PING frames in quick succession, triggering PING-flood mitigations. The fix: always drain response bodies (for example, io.Copy(io.Discard, resp.Body)) before calling Close().

CISA and NSA Urge Immediate Hardening of Exchange Servers

🔒 CISA, the NSA and international partners have issued urgent guidance to harden on‑premises Microsoft Exchange Server instances by restricting administrative access, enforcing multi‑factor authentication, and applying strict transport security. The agencies recommend migrating or decommissioning end‑of‑life and hybrid Exchange servers, enabling the Exchange Emergency Mitigation Service, and disabling remote PowerShell for users. Organizations are also advised to maintain patch cadence, apply security baselines, and enable antivirus, EDR, ASR, and AppLocker controls.

CISA Flags VMware Tools Zero-Day in KEV Catalog; Exploited

🛡️ CISA has added the high-severity flaw CVE-2025-41244, impacting Broadcom VMware Tools and VMware Aria Operations, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog after reports of active exploitation. The bug (CVSS 7.8) allows a malicious local, non-administrative user with VM access and SDMP enabled to escalate privileges to root on the same VM. Broadcom-owned VMware released a patch last month, but NVISO Labs says the zero-day was exploited in the wild since mid-October 2024 and attributes activity to a China-linked actor tracked as UNC5174. Federal civilian agencies must implement mitigations by November 20, 2025.

CISA orders federal patch for VMware Tools privilege bug

⚠️ CISA has ordered Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies to remediate a high-severity vulnerability in Broadcom's VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools (CVE-2025-41244), patched by Broadcom in October 2024. The flaw enables a local, non-administrative user on a VM to escalate privileges to root when Aria Operations’ SDMP is enabled or when VMware Tools runs in credential-less mode. Agencies must patch within three weeks under BOD 22-01; CISA also urges all organizations to prioritize mitigations or discontinue affected products if no fix is available.

Critical Flaws in King Addons for Elementor Risk Takeover

⚠️ King Addons for Elementor, installed on over 10,000 WordPress sites, contains two unauthenticated critical vulnerabilities that can enable full site takeover. Patchstack identified an arbitrary file upload (CVE-2025-6327) and a registration-based privilege escalation (CVE-2025-6325) that allow remote attackers to place files in web-accessible directories and create administrative accounts. The vendor released version 51.1.37 to add a role allowlist, input sanitization, upload permission checks and stricter file-type validation — administrators should update immediately and verify whether the 'King Addons Login | Register Form' widget is active.

CISA and NSA Issue Hardening Guidance for Exchange

🔒 CISA and the NSA, joined by the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, released guidance to harden on-premises and hybrid Microsoft Exchange servers against attacks. The advisory emphasizes stronger authentication, minimized application attack surfaces, robust TLS configurations, and decommissioning unsupported servers after migration to Microsoft 365. It also recommends enabling emergency mitigations and built-in anti-spam and anti-malware protections and restricting administrative access to authorized workstations.

Brash Exploit Crashes Chromium Browsers via Title API

⚠️ Security researcher Jose Pino disclosed "Brash", a severe flaw in the Blink rendering engine that can crash many Chromium-based browsers within 15–60 seconds via a single malicious URL. The root cause is missing rate limiting on the document.title API, enabling attackers to inject millions of DOM mutations per second and saturate the browser UI thread. Pino describes a three-phase technique — hash generation, burst injection, and UI-thread saturation — and warns the code can be time-triggered to act like a logic bomb. Affected products include Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Arc, Dia, and some AI browser interfaces; Firefox and Safari are not vulnerable.

Atlas browser CSRF flaw lets attackers poison ChatGPT memory

⚠️ Researchers at LayerX disclosed a vulnerability in ChatGPT Atlas that can let attackers inject hidden instructions into a user's memory via a CSRF vector, contaminating stored context and persisting across sessions and devices. The exploit works by tricking an authenticated user to visit a malicious page which issues a CSRF request to silently write memory entries that later influence assistant responses. Detection requires behavioral hunting—correlating browser logs, exported chats and timestamped memory changes—since there are no file-based indicators. Administrators are advised to limit Atlas in enterprise pilots, export and review chat histories, and treat affected accounts as compromised until memory is cleared and credentials rotated.

Chromium Blink flaw crashes Chrome, Edge; exploit published

⚠ A researcher, Jose Pino, published a proof-of-concept on October 29 demonstrating a Blink rendering-engine flaw that can crash Chrome, Microsoft Edge and several other Chromium-based browsers within seconds by flooding document.title updates. Pino says he reported the issue to Google on August 28 and, after no response, released the PoC to force public attention. The exploit saturates the main thread with millions of DOM mutations per second, producing rapid CPU spikes, tab freezes and eventual process termination, and it raises particular concern for headless and automated enterprise workflows.

CISA Adds Two CVEs to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

🔔 CISA added two vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog: CVE-2025-24893 (XWiki Platform eval injection) and CVE-2025-41244 (Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools privilege-defined unsafe actions). Evidence indicates active exploitation and substantial risk to the federal enterprise. Under BOD 22-01, affected FCEB agencies must remediate by required due dates. CISA urges all organizations to prioritize timely remediation as part of routine vulnerability management.

Blueprint for Hardening Microsoft Exchange Servers

🔒 CISA, the NSA, and international partners released the Microsoft Exchange Server Security Best Practices blueprint to help administrators of on‑premises and hybrid Exchange environments strengthen defenses against persistent cyber threats. The guidance builds on CISA’s Emergency Directive 25‑02 and emphasizes restricting administrative access, implementing multifactor authentication, enforcing strict transport security, and adopting zero trust principles. It also urges organizations to remediate or replace end‑of‑life Exchange versions, apply recommended mitigations, and consider migrating to cloud-based email to reduce operational complexity and exposure.

ISO 15118-2 SLAC Vulnerability in EV Charging Protocol

🔒 ISO 15118-2-compliant EV charging implementations using the SLAC protocol are vulnerable to spoofed measurements that can enable man‑in‑the‑middle attacks between vehicles and chargers, tracked as CVE-2025-12357 (CVSS v4 7.2). The issue is an improper restriction of communication channel (CWE-923) and may be exploitable wirelessly at close range via electromagnetic induction. ISO recommends using TLS (required in ISO 15118-20) with certificate chaining; CISA advises minimizing network exposure, isolating control networks, and using secure remote access methods.