All news with #privilege escalation tag

Microsoft October Patch Tuesday addresses 172 bugs

🔒 Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday delivers updates for 172 vulnerabilities, including six classed as zero-days. Three of those zero-days are being actively exploited, affecting the Windows Remote Access Connection Manager (CVE-2025-59230), an Agere modem kernel driver, and a secure-boot bypass in IGEL OS (CVE-2025-47827). Microsoft has removed the legacy Agere driver rather than patch it, citing risks in modifying unsupported code. This release also marks the final free Patch Tuesday for Windows 10; continued updates will require the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program.

Capita Fined £14m Over 2023 Data Breach Failings, Remediated

🔒 The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) confirmed Capita will not appeal a £14m penalty for security failings that led to a March 2023 breach affecting nearly seven million people. The fine was reduced from an initial £45m after the ICO considered post-incident remediation, support to affected individuals and engagement with the NCSC. The regulator cited delayed SOC response, absence of a tiered privileged-access model and siloed pen testing that allowed a threat actor linked to Black Basta to escalate privileges and deploy ransomware.

Anatomy of a BlackSuit Ransomware Blitz at Manufacturer

🔐 Unit 42 responded to a significant BlackSuit ransomware campaign after attackers obtained VPN credentials via a vishing call and immediately escalated privileges. The adversary executed DCSync, moved laterally with RDP/SMB using tools like Advanced IP Scanner and SMBExec, established persistence with AnyDesk and a custom RAT, and exfiltrated over 400 GB before deploying BlackSuit across ~60 ESXi hosts. Unit 42 expanded Cortex XDR visibility from 250 to over 17,000 endpoints and used Cortex XSOAR to automate containment while delivering prioritized remediation guidance.

Patch Tuesday Oct 2025: 172 Flaws, End of Windows 10

⚠️ Microsoft’s October 2025 updates close 172 security holes and include at least two actively exploited zero‑days. The company removed a decades-old Agere modem driver to mitigate CVE-2025-24990 and patched an elevation-of-privilege zero-day in RasMan (CVE-2025-59230). A critical unauthenticated RCE in WSUS (CVE-2025-59287) carries a 9.8 threat score and should be prioritized. This release also marks the end of security updates for Windows 10, prompting ESU enrollment or migration options.

October 2025 Patch Tuesday: 172 CVEs, 3 Zero-Days, 8 Critical

🔒 Microsoft’s October 2025 Patch Tuesday addresses 172 vulnerabilities, including two publicly disclosed issues, three zero‑day flaws and eight Critical CVEs. The bulk of fixes target Windows (134 patches), Microsoft Office (18) and Azure (6), with elevation-of-privilege and remote code execution as the primary risks. Windows 10 reaches end of life on October 14, 2025; hosts must be on 22H2 to receive Extended Security Updates. CrowdStrike recommends prioritizing patches for actively exploited zero‑days and using Falcon Exposure Management dashboards to track and remediate affected systems.

Velociraptor Abused in LockBit Ransomware Campaign Wave

🔒 Threat actors are abusing Velociraptor, an open-source DFIR tool, to support ransomware operations attributed to Storm-2603. Attackers exploited on-premises SharePoint ToolShell flaws to deploy an outdated Velociraptor build (0.73.4.0) vulnerable to CVE-2025-6264, enabling privilege escalation and remote command execution. After lateral movement and creation of domain admin accounts, the group tampered with GPOs, disabled real‑time protection, and staged exfiltration before deploying Warlock, LockBit, and Babuk. Vendors caution that legitimate collection and orchestration capabilities can be repurposed by adversaries.

Velociraptor Abuse Enables Stealthy Ransomware Campaigns

🔒 Researchers report that the open-source DFIR tool Velociraptor was abused by threat actors to maintain stealthy persistent access while deploying multiple ransomware families, including Warlock, LockBit and Babuk. Cisco Talos observed the activity in August 2025 and attributed the multi-vector operation to a China-linked cluster tracked as Storm-2603. Attackers exploited a vulnerable agent (v0.73.4.0) via CVE-2025-6264 to escalate privileges and persist; defenders are urged to verify deployments and update to v0.73.5 or later.

Threat actors abusing Velociraptor in ransomware attacks

⚠️Researchers have observed threat actors leveraging the open-source DFIR tool Velociraptor to maintain persistent remote access and deploy ransomware families including LockBit and Babuk. Cisco Talos links the campaigns to a China-based group tracked as Storm-2603 and notes use of an outdated Velociraptor build vulnerable to CVE-2025-6264. Attackers synchronized local admin accounts to Entra ID, accessed vSphere consoles, disabled Defender via AD GPOs, and used fileless PowerShell encryptors with per-run AES keys and staged exfiltration prior to encryption.

Velociraptor Abused in Ransomware Attacks by Storm-2603

🔐 Cisco Talos confirmed ransomware operators abused Velociraptor, an open-source DFIR endpoint tool, to gain arbitrary command execution in August 2025 by deploying an outdated agent vulnerable to CVE-2025-6264. Talos links the activity with moderate confidence to Storm-2603 based on overlapping tooling and TTPs. Operators used the tool to stage lateral movement, deploy fileless PowerShell encryptors, and deliver multiple ransomware families, severely disrupting VMware ESXi and Windows servers.

CISA Adds Seven CVEs to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

🔒 CISA has added seven vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog after observing evidence of active exploitation. The newly listed entries include CVE-2010-3765, CVE-2010-3962, CVE-2011-3402, CVE-2013-3918, CVE-2021-22555, CVE-2021-43226, and CVE-2025-61882, impacting Mozilla, Microsoft, the Linux Kernel, and Oracle E-Business Suite. Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies must remediate these vulnerabilities under BOD 22-01, and CISA strongly urges all organizations to prioritize timely remediation as part of routine vulnerability management.

Phoenix Rowhammer: DDR5 Bypass Exploits and Practical Risks

🧪 In September 2025, researchers at ETH Zurich published Phoenix, a Rowhammer variant that targets DDR5 memory by exploiting weaknesses in Target Row Refresh (TRR) logic. The team validated the technique across 15 tested SK Hynix modules and demonstrated practical capabilities including arbitrary read/write primitives, theft of an RSA‑2048 private key, and a Linux sudo bypass in constrained scenarios. Phoenix works by inducing timed access "windows" after 128 and after 2608 refresh intervals that momentarily degrade TRR responses, allowing precise bit flips. The authors recommend mitigations such as reduced refresh intervals, deployment of ECC memory, and adoption of Fine Granularity Refresh to harden platforms.

Chinese Cybercriminals Hijack IIS Servers for SEO Fraud

🔍 A Chinese-speaking cybercrime group tracked as UAT-8099 is hijacking trusted Microsoft IIS servers worldwide to run SEO scams that redirect users to unauthorized adverts and illegal gambling sites. According to Cisco Talos, attackers exploit server vulnerabilities, upload web shells, and conduct reconnaissance before enabling the guest account, escalating privileges and activating RDP. For persistence they deploy SoftEther VPN, EasyTier and the FRP reverse proxy and install the BadIIS malware variants designed to evade detection.

Critical RBAC Flaw in Red Hat OpenShift AI Risks Clusters

⚠ Red Hat has patched a design flaw in OpenShift AI (CVE-2025-10725) with a CVSS score of 9.9 that can let an authenticated low-privilege user escalate to full cluster administrator and fully compromise clusters and hosted applications. The vulnerability stems from an overly permissive ClusterRole binding that grants broad permissions to system:authenticated. Red Hat advises removing the kueue-batch-user-role ClusterRoleBinding, tightening job-creation permissions to follow least privilege, and upgrading to fixed RHOAI images (2.19 and 2.21). Administrators should audit affected environments and apply the recommended fixes promptly.

OpenShift AI Privilege Escalation Flaw Exposes Clusters

🔒 Red Hat has disclosed a severe privilege escalation vulnerability in OpenShift AI (CVE-2025-10725) that can allow an authenticated, low-privileged user to escalate to full cluster administrator and fully compromise a deployment. The issue carries a CVSS score of 9.9 but is rated Important by Red Hat because exploitation requires an authenticated account. Affected releases include OpenShift AI 2.19, 2.21 and RHOAI. Administrators are advised to avoid broad ClusterRoleBindings such as binding kueue-batch-user-role to system:authenticated, and to grant job creation permissions only on a granular, need-to-know basis while applying vendor guidance.

Festo CPX-CEC-C1 and CPX-CMXX Privilege Flaw — Remote

⚠️ Festo CPX-CEC-C1 and CPX-CMXX devices contain an improper privilege management vulnerability (CWE-269) that permits unauthenticated remote access to critical webserver functions and may cause a denial of service. The issue is identified as CVE-2022-3079 with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/A:H). Festo currently has no firmware fix planned; recommended mitigations include restricting access to TCP port 80 and replacing affected units with specified follow-up products.

China-linked UNC5174 exploiting VMware Tools zero-day

⚠️ NVISO Labs says China-linked UNC5174 has been exploiting a newly patched local privilege escalation bug, CVE-2025-41244, in Broadcom VMware Tools and VMware Aria Operations since mid-October 2024. The vulnerability (CVSS 7.8) stems from a vulnerable get_version() regex that can match non-system binaries in writable directories (for example, /tmp/httpd) and cause metrics collection to execute them with elevated privileges. VMware and Broadcom have released fixes and mitigations; affected organizations should apply vendor patches and follow VMware's guidance, and Linux distributions will receive patched open-vm-tools packages from vendors.

CISA Adds Critical Sudo Vulnerability to KEV Catalog

🔒 CISA added a critical vulnerability affecting the Sudo utility to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The flaw, CVE-2025-32463 (CVSS 9.3), impacts Sudo versions prior to 1.9.17p1 and can be abused via the -R (--chroot) option to execute arbitrary commands as root, bypassing sudoers. Four additional flaws were also added to the KEV list. Agencies and organizations are advised to apply mitigations and updates by October 20, 2025 and upgrade or implement compensating controls immediately.

AutomationDirect CLICK PLUS Firmware Vulnerabilities Identified

🔒 AutomationDirect has disclosed multiple vulnerabilities in the CLICK PLUS series affecting firmware releases prior to v3.71. Issues include cleartext credential storage, a hard-coded AES key, an insecure RSA implementation, a predictable PRNG seed, authorization bypasses, and resource exhaustion flaws. CVSS v4 severity reaches 8.7 for the most critical cryptographic and key-generation weaknesses. AutomationDirect and CISA recommend updating to v3.80 and applying network isolation, access restrictions, logging, and endpoint protections until patches are deployed.

Microsoft Fixes Entra ID Token Flaw Allowing Impersonation

🔒 Microsoft has patched a critical token validation failure in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), tracked as CVE-2025-55241 and assigned a CVSS score of 10.0. The flaw combined misused service-to-service (S2S) actor tokens issued by the Access Control Service (ACS) with a validation gap in the legacy Azure AD Graph API that enabled cross-tenant impersonation, including Global Administrators. Microsoft released a fix on July 17, 2025 and said no customer action is required; there is no indication the issue was exploited in the wild. Security firms warned the vulnerability could bypass MFA, Conditional Access and logging, potentially enabling full tenant compromise.

Microsoft Entra ID Flaw Could Allow Tenant-Wide Hijack

🔒 A critical token validation flaw in Microsoft Entra ID could permit full tenant compromise by abusing undocumented, unsigned actor tokens issued by a legacy Access Control Service. Researcher Dirk-jan Mollema showed that when paired with a vulnerability in the deprecated Azure AD Graph API (CVE-2025-55241) those tokens could impersonate any user — including Global Administrators — across tenants without leaving tenant logs. Microsoft confirmed a fix after the July report and later patched the CVE.