All news with #disclosure tag

Defense Contractor Pleads Guilty to Selling Zero-Days

🛡️ The former general manager of L3Harris cyber-division Trenchant, Australian national Peter Williams, pleaded guilty in a US district court to stealing and selling zero-day exploit components to a Russian cyber broker. Prosecutors allege he exfiltrated at least eight exploit components via encrypted channels in exchange for millions in cryptocurrency and follow-on support payments. Authorities say the code could be worth tens of millions and that the broker’s clients include the Russian government, creating a national security threat. Williams faces up to 20 years in prison and significant fines.

Smashing Security Podcast 441: Poker, F1 Data Risks

🎧 In episode 441 Graham Cluley and guest Danny Palmer discuss an alleged poker scam that reportedly involved basketball players working with organised crime to cheat high‑stakes games using hacked shufflers, covert cameras and an X‑ray card table. Researchers also uncovered that an FIA driver portal could be probed to expose personal details of Formula 1 stars. The hosts close with Graham’s “Pick of the Week,” a surreal CAPTCHA browser game, and a lighter cultural segment.

Plugin Flaw Lets Subscribers Read Any Server File Now

⚠️ The Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall WordPress plugin (versions up to 4.23.81) contains a vulnerability (CVE-2025-11705) that allows low-privileged subscribers to read arbitrary files on the server. The issue is caused by missing capability checks in the GOTMLS_ajax_scan() AJAX handler, enabling attackers who can obtain a nonce to access sensitive files like wp-config.php. The developer released v4.23.83 on October 15, which adds a proper capability check via a new GOTMLS_kill_invalid_user() function; administrators of membership sites should update immediately.

TEE.Fail breaks confidential computing on DDR5 CPUs

🔓 Academic researchers disclosed TEE.Fail, a DDR5 memory-bus interposition side-channel that can extract secrets from Trusted Execution Environments such as Intel SGX, Intel TDX, and AMD SEV-SNP. By inserting an inexpensive interposer between a DDR5 DIMM and the motherboard and recording command/address and data bursts, attackers can map deterministic AES-XTS ciphertexts to plaintext values and recover signing and cryptographic keys. The method requires physical access and kernel privileges but can be implemented for under $1,000; Intel, AMD and NVIDIA were notified and are developing mitigations.

Vertikal Systems Hospital Manager Backend Services

⚠️ CISA disclosed critical vulnerabilities in Vertikal Systems Hospital Manager Backend Services that were fixed as of September 19, 2025. One flaw exposed the unauthenticated ASP.NET tracing endpoint (/trace.axd), allowing disclosure of request traces, headers, session identifiers, and internal paths. A second flaw returned verbose ASP.NET error pages for invalid WebResource.axd requests, revealing framework versions, stack traces, and server paths. CVE-2025-54459 and CVE-2025-61959 were assigned; organizations should apply vendor updates and follow network isolation best practices.

First Wap Altamides: SS7 Phone-Tracking Empire Revealed

🔎 Operating from Jakarta, First Wap markets a covert phone-tracking system called Altamides that leverages the legacy telecom protocol SS7 to locate subscribers in real time. Unlike device-targeting spyware such as Pegasus, Altamides requires no malicious link or implant and leaves minimal forensic traces on phones. Reporting from Mother Jones and Lighthouse Reports traces how permissive export rules and a global client network have allowed this capability to spread.

Kryptos Part Four Claimed Solved Amid Auction Dispute

🧩 Two researchers say they have solved the long-elusive fourth section of Kryptos, but reached the answer through documentary research rather than cryptanalysis, finding clues in the Sanborn papers at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. The discovery comes as Jim Sanborn is preparing to auction what he describes as the solution, and the solvers report they will not publish their work. Legal threats have been made over disclosure and sale, though the legal basis is unclear. The episode raises immediate questions about provenance, transparency, and the ethics of selling a solution to a famous cryptographic artwork.

FIA drivers' portal breached, Formula 1 data exposed

🔐 Hackers gained access to a drivers' portal run by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) during the summer, potentially exposing Formula 1 driver records. The three individuals said they were fans who reported a vulnerability instead of pursuing malicious use and claimed they neither viewed nor stored sensitive data after noticing passport details could be retrievable. The FIA took the site offline, secured the system and worked with the researchers to strengthen the portal.

WhatsApp $1M Zero-Click Hack Mystery: Pwn2Own Outcome

🔐 A high-profile entry by a hacker known as ‘Eugene’ at Pwn2Own Ireland 2025 withdrew a claimed zero-click remote code execution exploit targeting WhatsApp, forfeiting the event’s $1 million top prize. Organizers Trend Micro ZDI say Team Z3 is sharing findings privately for coordinated disclosure to Meta, while WhatsApp reports no viable exploit was publicly demonstrated. The cancellation has fueled speculation about exploit readiness and underscores the role of responsible disclosure and rigorous triage before public demonstrations.

Toys R Us Canada confirms customer data leak; regulators

🔔 Toys R Us Canada has notified customers that a threat actor leaked records taken from its database after a posting on the dark web on July 30, 2025. An investigation with third-party cybersecurity experts confirmed the data's authenticity and found exposed fields may include full name, physical address, email, and phone number, while passwords and payment card details were not exposed. The retailer says it has strengthened IT security, is notifying Canadian privacy regulators, and warns customers to beware of phishing attempts.

NIHON KOHDEN CNS-6201 NULL Pointer DoS Advisory Update

⚠️ A remote NULL pointer dereference in NIHON KOHDEN CNS-6201 central monitors can be triggered by a specially crafted UDP packet, causing the monitoring process to terminate and producing a denial-of-service. The issue is unauthenticated, reproducible when UDP is reachable, and is tracked as CVE-2025-59668 with CVSS v4 8.7. Vendor support for affected versions has ended; users should migrate to successor products or apply strict network-level mitigations such as isolation, boundary devices, and careful traffic monitoring.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Hacked at Pwn2Own Ireland 2025 Event

🔒 At Pwn2Own Ireland 2025, researchers from Mobile Hacking Lab and Summoning Team successfully exploited a Samsung Galaxy S25 using a five‑vulnerability chain to achieve code execution. The findings, credited to Ken Gannon and Dimitrios Valsamaras, were surrendered to Samsung under the event's coordinated disclosure rules. Hours later a second team, Interrupt Labs, used an improper input validation bug to seize camera and location access. Each team received $50,000; Samsung has 90 days to issue fixes.

Critical TAR parsing bug found in popular Rust libraries

🛡️ Researchers at Edera disclosed a critical boundary-parsing flaw called TARmageddon (CVE-2025-62518) in the async-tar family and many forks, including the widely used tokio-tar. The desynchronization bug can smuggle extra archive entries during nested TAR extraction, enabling file overwrites that may lead to Remote Code Execution or supply-chain compromise. Administrators should patch affected forks, consider migrating to the patched astral-tokio-tar ≥0.5.6, and scan Rust-built applications for exposure.

Russian ColdRiver Hackers Use Fake CAPTCHA to Deploy Malware

⚠️ Google Cloud’s Threat Intelligence Group attributes a new campaign to Russian state-linked ColdRiver actors who are using fake “I am not a robot” CAPTCHA pages to deliver espionage malware, including NOROBOT, YESROBOT, and MAYBEROBOT. The attackers use a ClickFix social-engineering chain and multi-stage, encrypted payloads with split cryptographic keys to evade detection and rebuild tooling rapidly after exposure. Organizations are urged to emphasize behavioral monitoring, EDR/NDR telemetry, and simulated interactive-phishing tests to detect these user-assisted intrusions.

Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters Shift to Extortion-as-Service

🔍 Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 reports monitoring a Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters Telegram channel since early October 2025, noting a tactical shift toward an extortion-as-a-service (EaaS) offering that omits file encryption. Researchers also observed posts mentioning a potential new ransomware, SHINYSP1D3R, though its development and the profitability of EaaS remain uncertain. Unit 42 found the group's data leak site apparently defaced and confirmed leaked records tied to at least six firms; the actors had set an Oct 10 ransom deadline but later stated on Oct 11 that "nothing else will be leaked."

TARmageddon: High-Severity Flaw in async-tar Rust ecosystem

⚠️Researchers disclosed a high-severity vulnerability (CVE-2025-62518, CVSS 8.1) in the async-tar Rust library and forks such as tokio-tar that can enable remote code execution via file-overwrite attacks when processing nested TAR archives. Edera, which found the issue in late August 2025, attributes the problem to inconsistent PAX/ustar header handling that allows attackers to 'smuggle' additional entries by exploiting size overrides. Because tokio-tar appears unmaintained, users are advised to migrate to astral-tokio-tar v0.5.6, which patches the boundary-parsing vulnerability affecting projects like testcontainers and wasmCloud.

NTLM/LDAP Authentication Bypass (CVE-2025-54918) Analysis

🔍 This analysis examines CVE-2025-54918, a critical NTLM/LDAP authentication bypass that enables privilege escalation from a standard domain user to SYSTEM on Domain Controllers. The vulnerability chains coercion (PrinterBug-style) with NTLM relay and packet manipulation to evade channel binding and LDAP signing. The post outlines the attack flow, detection indicators such as empty usernames and LOCAL_CALL flags, and mitigations using CrowdStrike Falcon capabilities.

Russian Star Blizzard shifts to 'Robot' malware families

🔐 The Russian state-backed Star Blizzard group (aka ColdRiver/UNC4057) has shifted to modular, evolving malware families — NOROBOT, YESROBOT, and MAYBEROBOT — delivered through deceptive ClickFix pages that coerce victims into executing a fake "I am not a robot" CAPTCHA. NOROBOT is a malicious DLL executed via rundll32 that establishes persistence through registry changes and scheduled tasks, stages components (including a Windows Python 3.8 install), and, after iteration, primarily delivers a PowerShell backdoor. Google Threat Intelligence Group and Zscaler observed the transition from May through September and reported that ColdRiver abandoned the previously exposed LostKeys tooling shortly after disclosure. GTIG has published IoCs and YARA rules to help defenders detect these campaigns.

Developers of Lumma Stealer Doxxed in Rival Campaign

🔍Lumma Stealer operations have been disrupted after an underground doxxing campaign exposed personal and operational details of individuals allegedly tied to the malware’s development and administration. Trend Micro links the exposure to rival cybercriminal actors and reports that leaked data—shared on a site called Lumma Rats—included passports, bank details and contact information. The disclosures coincided with reduced C2 activity and the reported compromise of Telegram accounts, prompting many users to seek alternatives such as Vidar and StealC.

New Russian COLDRIVER Malware: NOROBOT and ROBOTs Variants

🤖 Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) attributes a rapid malware retooling to the Russia-aligned COLDRIVER group after the May 2025 LOSTKEYS disclosure. The campaign uses a COLDCOPY “ClickFix” lure that coerces users to run a malicious DLL via rundll32; the DLL family is tracked as NOROBOT. Early NOROBOT variants fetched a noisy Python backdoor named YESROBOT, which was quickly replaced by a lighter, extensible PowerShell backdoor called MAYBEROBOT. GTIG published IOCs, YARA rules, and protective measures including Safe Browsing coverage and targeted alerts.