Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

I'm just back from an interesting and demanding week of booth duty at it-sa Expo&Congress in Nuremberg, where Talos had a Point of Demonstration at the Cisco booth.

I personally see it-sa as the German or European counterpart to the RSA Conference in San Francisco, with a slightly different center of gravity in at least two dimensions. 

First, the expo is the main event, not the congress. The congress is organized by associations, industry groups, and exhibitors, and plays more of a supporting role. Second, the focus is more local and European. Major topics were (of course) AI for defense tooling, securing AI systems themselves, and post-quantum cryptography. And here comes the local touch (in my opinion): digital sovereignty and regulatory compliance, with NIS2, CRA, and DORA. 

But local doesn't translate to small, or to the city of Nuremberg. With more than 1,000 exhibitors and 33,000 visitors from 70 countries over three days of exhibition, preceded by a congress day, it was huge. Even as a trade show veteran, I was overwhelmed. 

My conversations at the booth had a different focus, though. It was a lot of chatter about vulnerabilities like php2shell or broccoli2shell and state-sponsored actors, but again with a local touch: education.  

I was very surprised how many teenagers stopped by to ask for advice. Here in Germany, you mainly have two paths for your career. One is the university route, and the other is vocational (apprenticeship). Across all industries the split is roughly 50/50, while in IT it is more like 80% university, 20% apprenticeship. The common minimum age to start university is 18, while it is 16 for apprenticeships. Reality is way more complex, but the details don’t matter for the point I want to make. 

For university opportunities in cyber, I count close to 30 bachelor programs. For apprenticeships, I count ZERO. There is the "IT Specialist" (Fachinformatiker), but it only has specializations like application development, system integration, digital networking, or data and process analysis. That is why an initiative exists to get an "IT Security" specialization going. 

Even the degree route is thin. There are no official statistics, but my guess is 800 to 900 graduates a year, compared to a demand of more than 100,000. We need a second route into the field for the 16-year-old who finished various CTFs or Hack the Box challenges and wants to join the good side now. Honestly speaking, I would rather have them on our side of the fence at 16 than wonder at 26 where they ended up. 

How does it look in your country? 

On a personal note: If you consider visiting it-sa in 2027, book your accommodation early. The hotels are gone fast. That is the one downside, because Nuremberg isn't exactly a city with the infrastructure for more than 30,000 visitors. (Don't ask me how I learned that there are also camping spots close to the exhibition area.)

See you in Nuremberg next year. Bring a tent, just in case. I've got the coffee.

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos recently discovered VOLTA, a mature, self-deleting Windows infostealer that uses AI to act as a personal intelligence analyst for cybercriminals. After harvesting a massive haul of credentials, sessions, and cryptocurrency wallets, VOLTA sends a structured evidence bundle to a large language model to rank the victim’s assets by monetization value. The malware even uses stolen session access to enrich this data, searching the victim's emails for purchase receipts to corroborate home addresses. If an AI model refuses to perform the target assessment, VOLTA seamlessly fails over to a multi-model chain to ensure the attackers get their prioritized dossier. 

Why do I care? 

VOLTA replaces the manual work of data sorting with automated, AI-driven victim profiling. By letting an LLM determine a target's worth, attackers drastically reduce the human effort required to monetize stolen data. This commoditized threat allows even low-level actors to bypass security measures like Chrome's App-Bound Encryption and receive ranked target assessments, escalating the risk of severe follow-on attacks. 

So now what? 

Organizations should implement application control policies to restrict or alert on processes launching Chrome with the --headless flag. Defenders must also enforce best practices for storing credentials in hardware-backed stores.  

Revoke any potentially compromised tokens and change passwords. For cryptocurrency wallets, if the seed phrase was in plaintext on disk, treat the wallet as fully compromised and migrate funds to a new wallet with a seed generated on an air-gapped device. For more information and sample details, read the full blog. 

Top security headlines of the week 

AI agents used by Railway breach systems of rival Primcloud
This one is juicy. According to Primcloud’s founder, Railway’s agents used credentials from inside their own application’s containers to request every secret from Primcloud customers and employees and then twice port-scanned all 65,536 addresses on the company’s network. (Security Boulevard) (X)

Europe on alert after supermarket freezers hit by cyber-attacks in 10 countries
A significant increase in freezer temperature has forced retailers to discard food in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, and Sweden. Beyond supermarkets, cold storage for French plasma stock were affected, as well. (BBC) (The Register) 

Binance reveals how fake job interviews and AI tool abuse led to $6.43B theft 
Binance said the record-setting theft was the culmination of a "sophisticated, multi-stage campaign" that involved the use of a tampered Homebrew installation and recruitment-themed social engineering attack targeting two of its engineers. (The Hacker News) 

AI threats create urgent need to renew cybersecurity information-sharing law, businesses tell Congress 
After the law’s initial 10-year operating period expired in 2025, lawmakers passed several short-term extensions, with the latest one set to lapse on Dec. 11. Cybersecurity experts and industry leaders have repeatedly urged lawmakers to renew the law. (Cybersecurity Dive) 

Cops bust botnet of 1.3M infected Android TV boxes 
Security firms working with Japan’s National Police Agency has disrupted XCPE, a backdoor used to build a massive botnet comprising more than 1.3 million Android devices across more than 200 countries. (The Register) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

The VOLTA infostealer: Outsourcing cybercrime grunt work to AI 
Ryan Fetterman breaks down the newly discovered infostealer. Unlike traditional stealers, VOLTA integrates LLMs to analyze stolen credentials in real-time, effectively turning raw data into a prioritized, high-value dossier for the attacker. 

Stealing AI secrets and breaking EDRs 
Phishing may have dropped from last quarter's highs, but ransomware engagements climbed as attackers shifted their focus toward disabling EDR systems and scraping AI credentials. The financial sector also returned as a top target. 

NIK C2: The new AI-enabled command-and-control framework 
NIK C2 contains a Windows implant, using which, an actor can dump credentials, stream the victim's keystrokes to collect the targeted victim’s sensitive data, and instruct an integrated AI model to analyze the harvested data, all within the compromised session. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• CYBERWARCON (Nov. 20) Arlington, VA 
• AVAR 2026 (Dec. 2 – 4) Hyderabad, India 
• Black Hat Europe (Dec. 7 – 10) London, U.K. 
• JSAC2027 (Jan. 19 – 22) Tokyo, Japan 
• Insomni’hack (Feb. 1 – 5) Lausanne, Switzerland 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week  

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 73a25ff8893260418c2271b863c567e40e842adbab3c57023cb72de590ea377d 
MD5: 0cf0271c3564881fce95f44c649bd745 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=73a25ff8893260418c2271b863c567e40e842adbab3c57023cb72de590ea377d 
Example Filename: KMSAuto++.exe 
Detection Name: HackTool:WZTeam-tpd 

SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
Example Filename: d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_62_Exe.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg** 

SHA256: f4b1f888f29faa7fbec180f42bdc78596e8a8b908c0a6e6c419933703c81df85 
MD5: 95a6a4b638cfdfbe3afc883d593a1f87 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=f4b1f888f29faa7fbec180f42bdc78596e8a8b908c0a6e6c419933703c81df85 
Example Filename: f4b1f888f29faa7fbec180f42bdc78596e8a8b908c0a6e6c419933703c81df85.js 
Detection Name: W32.F4B1F888F2-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 7fc50b69b56bfdfa9fc0a3e088ff13904587d6336a51e9edcc7919cba83d4e3f 
MD5: cca616647db9370c88998ae25da6997f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=7fc50b69b56bfdfa9fc0a3e088ff13904587d6336a51e9edcc7919cba83d4e3f 
Example Filename: cca616647db9370c88998ae25da6997f.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Kmsauto::1201 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.

“The darkest period of my life, so far, arrived the summer I was pregnant with my eldest son. The future was growing in me with all of its terrifying unpredictability, and I found myself anxious, unable to work and woefully at sea.” — Lauren Groff  

I doubt Lauren had this maniacal infosec news cycle in mind when she wrote about the terrifyingly unpredictable future, but honestly, she’s got our current careers down cold. Let he who is not woefully at sea cast the first water balloon? I’ll work on it.  
  
Here we are with PHP taking up every available ounce of oxygen, Node.js adding its own spice to the sauce... and here’s me, staring my screen blankly, waiting for an original thought to leak out and onto this page. Not to worry, none have. There is simply nothing novel to say because the entire internet has it covered. In triplicate. With graphs and compelling statistics and AI-generated evil bad guy images galore.  

These vulnerabilities are serious, and the remediations matter. Teams need to know what they run, find the affected systems, and get them patched and determine ways to secure systems that can’t be patched. I’m simply not going to add another dramatic headline to the stack or pretend there’s a clever new angle hiding in the margins. The thing I keep looping on is that the work underneath the headlines is familiar and it’s the real story. To defend your environment, you need a team that knows that environment, has enough time and expertise to investigate the telemetry, that can tell an anomaly from the usual benign noise, and take action. Yes, the right tools help, and without them you can’t do it — but the people doing the work are still what make those tools useful.  

Give smart people enough room to do smart people stuff. This is the entire ballgame. Read it again: Give smart people enough room to do smart people stuff. Because a good response starts way before the headline. Know what you own, who owns it, what version is running, whether it can be reached from the internet, what identities can do what task on the device, etc. When a fix is available, make sure it actually reaches the system you meant to fix. If a system cannot be updated yet, give that exception an owner and a deadline. Reduce its exposure, add monitoring, and keep checking until the fix is in place. “We’ll get to it” is not a plan.   

So, there may be nothing new to say about PHP this week, but the work is still worth talking about: Know your environment, take care of your team members, and keep paying attention when the weird thing stops being weird and starts becoming evidence. When the next headline arrives, help your teammate do the same.  

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” — Ursula K. Le Guin 

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos has recently discovered "NIK C2," a new command-and-control framework that integrates AI directly into its attack chain. This Go-based Windows implant allows adversaries to dump credentials, stream keystrokes, and deploy screen-locking ransomware. It also uses an integrated OpenAI model to analyze harvested data on the fly. By hijacking the victim's own API keys to fund these requests, NIK C2 collapses data collection and exploitation into a single, continuous session. 

Why do I care? 

By embedding a live AI pipeline directly into the C2 loop, NIK C2 turns a compromised host into an active operational asset rather than a passive foothold. Because it processes data and generates context-aware payloads locally, it erases the offline processing delays that historically gave defenders a critical detection window. Furthermore, by piggybacking on the victim's OpenAI account, threat actors completely mask their infrastructure, leaving no attributable trace and complicating incident response. 

So now what? 

Defenders must embrace continuous behavioral vigilance. Ensure endpoint solutions monitor for unusual local proxy routing, unexpected PowerShell executions, and unauthorized access to browser databases or crypto wallets. Update your defenses using the ClamAV signature and indicators of compromise (IOCs) provided in the full blog. 

Top security headlines of the week 

CISA gives agencies days to patch critical PHP bugs 
CISA added the two vulnerabilities in the PHP open-source scripting software to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog Monday. (Federal News Network) 

Node2Shell: Brotli flaw triggers patching across Microsoft, Node.js, Python packages
An out-of-bounds write in Google’s Brotli decoder affects Node.js, .NET, PowerShell, and Python packages, and can lead to code execution. (SecurityWeek) 

Gheist uses stolen GitHub tokens to steal private repository secrets via Actions logs 
Each workflow sits on a new branch named ci-sync- followed by six random characters. Deleting a branch, or the run it started, does not undo the exposure. (The Hacker News) 

Japan internet giant GMO says hackers posted stolen customer data 
GMO Internet is investigating a data leak after suspected unauthorized access to its Onamae cloud desktop service, which provides virtualized desktops to financial traders. (TechCrunch) 

Third Serengeti sweep tops 1,400 arrests as investigations mature 
Interpol's annual Operation Serengeti, now on its third iteration, led to 1,462 arrests across 20 African countries and the U.S., recovering $105 million in stolen funds. (Dark Reading)

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Stealing AI secrets and breaking EDRs 
Phishing may have dropped from last quarter's highs, but ransomware engagements climbed as attackers shifted their focus toward disabling EDR systems and scraping AI credentials. The financial sector also returned as a top target. 

From federal SOCs to Talos: Ryan Fetterman on practical security research 
What does it mean to be "blue collar" for the blue team? Amy sat down with security researcher Ryan Fetterman to discuss his journey from federal agency work to his new role at Talos. 

The Guy Who Invented Pain (plus first reactions to PHP2Shell) 
David Bianco built the Pyramid of Pain, so we offered him some more. David joins the Beers with Talos crew for a conversation how AI changes about his famous model, how EvidenceForge creates simulated incidents for research and training, and why his red-team entrance exam didn’t go to plan. 

Compromised eMudhra intermediate certificates 
Cisco Talos is aware of eight compromised intermediate certificates belonging to the intermediate certificate authority. eMudhra has revoked the certificates and stopped issuing new certificates under its G3 root. 

Two critical RCEs in PHP core 
Two critical remote code execution vulnerabilities in PHP core could have implications across its wider ecosystem. This blog explains what we know so far, and details the Snort coverage available. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• SAINTCON (Oct. 26 – 30) Provo, UT 
• CYBERWARCON (Nov. 20) Arlington, VA 
• AVAR 2026 (Dec. 2 – 4) Hyderabad, India 
• Black Hat Europe (Dec. 7 – 10) London, U.K. 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week  

SHA256: 73a25ff8893260418c2271b863c567e40e842adbab3c57023cb72de590ea377d 
MD5: 0cf0271c3564881fce95f44c649bd745 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=73a25ff8893260418c2271b863c567e40e842adbab3c57023cb72de590ea377d 
Example Filename: KMSAuto++.exe 
Detection Name: HackTool:WZTeam-tpd 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: 7fc50b69b56bfdfa9fc0a3e088ff13904587d6336a51e9edcc7919cba83d4e3f 
MD5: cca616647db9370c88998ae25da6997f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=7fc50b69b56bfdfa9fc0a3e088ff13904587d6336a51e9edcc7919cba83d4e3f 
Example Filename: cca616647db9370c88998ae25da6997f.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Kmsauto::1201 

SHA256: 58d6fec4ba24c32d38c9a0c7c39df3cb0e91f500b323e841121d703c7b718681 
MD5: f1fe671bcefd4630e5ed8b87c9283534 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=58d6fec4ba24c32d38c9a0c7c39df3cb0e91f500b323e841121d703c7b718681 
Example Filename: KMSAuto Net.exe 
Detection Name: W32.58D6FEC4BA-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
MD5: 207d9d891ac756b2bfad88aba5682c65 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.FED979F93B-95.SBX.TG

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

Here for the latest on the PHP vulnerabilities? Head on down to ‘The One Big Thing’. Talos has published a blog to explain what we know so far, and details the Snort coverage available, including rules in the Community Ruleset. 

But if you want a bit of levity, here’s what I wrote before everything kicked off yesterday: 

Ever feel like the world is moving too fast to keep up? Well, I bring you scientific proof that it’s not just you. 

For millions of years, the moon has been slowing down the Earth’s rotation. But over the past decade, we’ve been speeding up (I KNEW I was aging faster than before). Apparently, changes in the Earth’s core are involved (either that, or the 1978 Superman film was a documentary). 

This is all causing massive headaches for the people responsible for keeping time. They’re officially called “The International Bureau of Weights and Measures”, but I’m going to call them “The Time-Keepers”. For nerd reasons).  

The issue is that the atomic clocks that power so many of our systems, and the rotation of our planet, don’t always agree. Atomic clocks keep extremely consistent time, while each Earth day is rarely the same length as the next. Atomic timekeeping absolutely cannot stand that level of flexibility (have a watch of our “The Light We Keep” documentary to see the importance that accurate clocks have on critical infrastructure).  

To keep Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is based on atomic clocks, aligned with Earth’s rotation, we introduced a “leap second” in 1972. This system allows for an extra second to be added, or taken away, when we stray too far from atomic time. 

A few days ago, The Time-Keepers voted to officially abolish the leap second. Why? Well, there’s a few parts to it. 

For the past 54 years, we’ve never once had a second removed from our lives. They’ve always been added (27 of them to be precise). I myself have experienced 20 of these extra seconds. If I’d have known that, I’d have used them more wisely. Like thinking before saying, “Love you too!” to the post-person this morning. 

That added time, while it seems nice to have on the surface, can wreak havoc with our modern technology systems. In 2012, the extra second caused so much confusion that it crashed Reddit, among other systems. 

The recent speeding-up of the Earth’s rotation complicates things further. If we keep going at this rate, it could result in the world’s first ever “negative second”. If you thought our technology systems struggled with added time, there are a lot of sciency brains who are very worried about the impact of taking time away. One of those concerns being… it’s never been done before.  

So, what’s The Time-Keeper’s solution? Invent more time! Woooo. 

Starting next May, the leap second will be replaced with a "leap hour," allowing UTC to diverge from Earth's rotation by up to an hour before a correction is made.  None of us will get to experience that extra hour in our lifetimes, but our Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great grandchildren are going to have one hell of a party. 

For us current mortals, we’re all getting a little less time, and we’re hurtling through space a little faster. Happy Thursday! 

But I guess I do want to make the point that I’m glad the risk has been thoroughly assessed ahead of, ahem, time. The Time-Keepers have decided that the world’s infrastructure should not have to find out how it handles a missing second by collectively experiencing one.  

And I don’t even want to think about how all the AIs would cope with a negative second… 

There’s something here for incident response planning. “It’s never happened before” is an excellent reason to test whether you’re ready for it. Run the exercise. Find out which part of your plan depends on something that, in this scenario, is also broken. Preferably before an adversary gets to supervise the practical demonstration. 

Now, if only the Time-Keepers can abolish Daylight Savings Time next... 

The one big thing  

Two unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) flaws were discovered in PHP, rocking the internet. Dubbed "php2shell" and triggered by a simple HTTP request, this vulnerability affects every build since 5.4. Talos assesses that all industries running PHP applications are at risk for exploitation if systems remain unpatched.

Why do I care? 

PHP runs WordPress, Drupal, Magento, Shopware, WooCommerce, and many other ubiquitous internet staples, so the possible blast radius is enormous. Older branches are end of life (EOL) and will not receive patches; these could account for around 50% of use cases.

So now what? 

Cisco customers are covered with the Cisco Talos Network Intrusion Prevention (SNORT®) signatures 67359 and 67360. If your organization is running PHP 8.1 or older, Talos very strongly advises immediate update to PHP 8.2 or later. There is no patch for PHP 8.1 or older. See the article for more specific coverage and detection guidance.

See an interview with Nick Biasini on php2shell defense:

Top security headlines of the week 

'PHP2Shell' Bugs Signal Red Alert for Security Industry
Security teams are scrambling to remediate two critical PHP vulnerabilities following leaked details and reports of exploitation attempts. (Dark Reading)

INC and The Gentlemen Ransomware Affiliates expose 8,257 AI messages
SOCRadar has found seven exposed servers linked to INC and The Gentlemen ransomware affiliates, holding AI chats, stolen credentials and 46 encryptor builds. (Hack Read) 

The AI hacking apocalypse is not inevitable
While large language models present real risks to society, experts say they can be tested and largely controlled using well-worn cybersecurity and policy choices. (Cyberscoop)

‘Context Bombs’ Cut AI Attack Success by Misleading Agents With Fake Targets
Deceptive prompts lure AI agents into decoys and dead ends, cutting attack success by up to 91% in tests and raising the cost of a successful attack 23-fold.(SecurityWeek) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Compromised eMudhra intermediate certificates
Cisco Talos is aware of eight intermediate certificates belonging to the intermediate certificate authority, eMudhra.

Parasitizing trust: How legitimate infrastructure becomes a delivery pipeline for attackers
Adversaries are turning the tools businesses trust into delivery mechanisms for malicious activity. Cisco Talos observed abuse of more than 25 legitimate platforms over the past year, exploiting the built-in trust of collaboration, file-sharing, payment and other services to reach their targets.

There's only so much code: the rise in vulnerability numbers
The September Microsoft Patch Tuesday release included 975 vulnerability advisories. This month, 1,415 vulnerabilities were just dropped. Compared to a pre-June average of 100 a month, that increase is staggering. Where did they come from? And what does the future look like?

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 
• SecurityOnion Conference (Oct. 23) Augusta, GA 
• BsidesAugusta (Oct. 24) Augusta, GA 
• SAINTCON (Oct. 26 – 30) Provo, UT 
• CYBERWARCON (Nov. 20) Arlington, VA 
• AVAR 2026 (Dec. 2 – 4) Hyderabad, India 
• Black Hat Europe (Dec. 7 – 10) London, U.K. 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week  

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507
Example Filename:sample.exe
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG

SHA256: 7fc50b69b56bfdfa9fc0a3e088ff13904587d6336a51e9edcc7919cba83d4e3f
MD5: cca616647db9370c88998ae25da6997f
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=7fc50b69b56bfdfa9fc0a3e088ff13904587d6336a51e9edcc7919cba83d4e3f
Example Filename:cca616647db9370c88998ae25da6997f.exe
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Kmsauto::1201

SHA256: 985c3972712218c62d2418b41056dba5fe883ca5104d8ec12041f8611db344f9
MD5: 485055033bcddfde56325c0d2feea4f2
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=985c3972712218c62d2418b41056dba5fe883ca5104d8ec12041f8611db344f9
Example Filename:485055033bcddfde56325c0d2feea4f2.exe
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Kmsauto::1201

SHA256: d921fc993574c8be76553bcf4296d2851e48ee39b958205e69bdfd7cf661d2b1
MD5: 0c883b1d66afce606d9830f48d69d74b
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=d921fc993574c8be76553bcf4296d2851e48ee39b958205e69bdfd7cf661d2b1
Example Filename:d921fc993574c8be76553bcf4296d2851e48ee39b958205e69bdfd7cf661d2b1.exe
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Zard::95.sbx.tg

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

I've been following a lot of (sometimes heated) threads and discussions lately about the current vulnerability landscape. I learned new words/phrases such as Summer of Hell (although I'm writing this with 1°C/34°F outside), Vulnpocalypse, Bugmageddon, Bugpocalypse, Breachpocalypse... 

Let's look at some numbers:

We crossed the 70k mark, and it's only the end of September. This has never been seen before — I think we can agree this number is skyrocketing. Also, CVE numbering organically grew into the six-digit range. Check your tooling. Some might say we broke that barrier already in 2014 (CVE-2014-125110), or even hit seven digits in 2015 (CVE-2015-1000013), but those were allocated artificially. (History note: Before 2014, 9999 was the highest possible identifier.) 

So that could be seen as the apocalypse argument. On the other hand, we have the KEV numbers:

They didn't explode... yet? Counting by sheer volume, YoY, CVEs increased by 105%, while KEV only grew 37%. Sounds huge at first, but following a 30% increase from 2024 to 2025, that's less dramatic — a counter-argument of sorts.

CVEs from 2025 or older still account for 33%. In other words, a good third of the KEVs are suggesting there is a patch gap. Looking at the 2026 CVEs, the share where the publication date matches the date added to KEV is 29%, which is only 2% more than (all of) 2025. Acknowledging this "math" is not the whole ball of wax, but it still tells me we are not living in a zero-day apocalypse right now. There’s also a slight uptick in networking gear-related CVEs, to 27%.

This is the second time I'll ask you to check your tooling. A new column, “forensicTriage,” was added to the KEV to flag which high-risk vulnerabilities require mandatory forensic triage and incident response workflows. You can read more about it in BOD 26-04, or the Implementation Guidance. 

So where does that leave us? The CVE numbers alone — that +70k mark, now that Q3 is behind us — make a decent case for Vulnpocalypse, or whichever name you prefer. That part of the story is real. But discovery isn't exploitation, and that gap is exactly what the KEV numbers remind us of. Vendors seem to be keeping pace too, at least partially — KEV is growing, just not nearly at CVE's speed, which on its own would almost be good news. 

Where the story breaks down is on the practical side. More than a third of actively exploited vulnerabilities still trace back to 2025 or earlier. Patch debt doesn't care how many new apocalypse-themed hashtags we invent. 

So, panic? I still don't think so. Relax? Definitely not either. Somewhere between the two is where the real work sits — chipping away at that backlog, one legacy system at a time. Maybe by next quarter it'll feel less like Bugmageddon and more like business as usual. Or maybe I won't even need a warmer jacket for the upcoming "Winter of Hell."

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos and Recorded Future’s Insikt Group are disclosing new espionage activity from UAT-6275 targeting government and critical infrastructure across the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Thanks to the threat actor's own operational security lapses, researchers gained direct visibility into their infrastructure and malware development. We observed four distinct infection chains delivering custom reverse shells via macro-enabled documents, GitHub-hosted scripts, and a WinRAR vulnerability. 

Why do I care? 

Regional government and critical infrastructure entities are actively being targeted for diplomatic and economic intelligence. UAT-6275 is consistently evolving its tradecraft, abusing legitimate platforms like GitHub to host payloads and deploying lightweight reverse shells. Furthermore, recovered tooling suggests the group is preparing to expand its reach into Linux hosts and internet-facing appliances. 

So now what? 

Defenders in targeted regions and sectors should monitor for unexpected PowerShell activity and payload downloads originating from public services like GitHub. It is also critical to watch for suspicious scheduled tasks and unauthorized changes to the Windows Startup folder, which this group uses for persistence. Finally, ensure archive utilities are fully patched to prevent exploit-assisted delivery. ClamAV signatures and indicators of compromise (IOCs) to detect this threat can be found in the full blog post. 

Top security headlines of the week 

Hackers heat supermarket fridges to 50°C in France cyber attack 
The attack began overnight from Sunday to Monday. The unknown attackers reportedly abused the defrosting function in older control software, setting some equipment to heat continuously, with temperatures said to have reached 50°C. (Hack Read) 

Ivanti zero-day chain gave attackers root access to fully patched VPN 
CVE-2026-104935 affects Ivanti Connect Secure and it can be exploited for unauthenticated remote code execution with elevated privileges. (SecurityWeek) 

U.S. arrests two in crackdown on North Korean IT worker laptop farms
As part of the scheme, which allegedly ran between 2019 and July 2025, the two housed and configured laptops issued by victim U.S. companies so ITWs would appear to work from the U.S. (SecurityWeek) 

Canadian cybersecurity executive arrested in U.S. federal extortion case 
While the FBI did not publicly announce Dubrovsky’s arrest, the case appears to align with actions taken in the wake of the ShinyHunters’ attack on the FBI’s IT systems, which exposed personal data about thousands of bureau employees. (CyberScoop) 

Maximum-severity SSRF flaw in SonicWall SMA devices under attack 
The vulnerability, which SonicWall assigned a maximum 10 out of 10 CVSS score, stems from an "unintended alternate access path," according to the vendor's advisory. (Dark Reading) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

You've got to lurk before you can smirk 
How do you get under a cybercriminal’s skin? Sometimes you expose their operations. Sometimes you make every step through a network painfully slow. And sometimes, if you’re Azim, you join a dark web forum where they’re insulting you, and help them to do it. 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for October 2026 
Microsoft has released its monthly security update for October 2026, which includes 1,415 vulnerabilities affecting a range of products, including 85 that Microsoft marked as "critical." 

One breach, please, and make no mistakes 
The cybersecurity community has seen examples of autonomous agents, built inside AI labs, attacking public infrastructure. How you prepare for agentic threats is what makes the difference during real incidents. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 
• SecurityOnion Conference (Oct. 23) Augusta, GA 
• BsidesAugusta (Oct. 24) Augusta, GA 
• SAINTCON (Oct. 26 – 30) Provo, UT 
• CYBERWARCON (Nov. 20) Arlington, VA 
• AVAR 2026 (Dec. 2 – 4) Hyderabad, India 
• Black Hat Europe (Dec. 7 – 10) London, U.K. 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week  

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: sample.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: 73ac1bbfaee6c76c34f655ac0477a4cd930f2aa55e658c8e312ff81aac9a741f 
MD5: 63f3351cfdf618bec6045f60203e7978  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=73ac1bbfaee6c76c34f655ac0477a4cd930f2aa55e658c8e312ff81aac9a741f 
Example Filename: f_00478d.exe 
Detection Name: W32.PUP:PulseBrowser.29kh.in12.Talos 

SHA256: 58d6fec4ba24c32d38c9a0c7c39df3cb0e91f500b323e841121d703c7b718681 
MD5: f1fe671bcefd4630e5ed8b87c9283534 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=58d6fec4ba24c32d38c9a0c7c39df3cb0e91f500b323e841121d703c7b718681 
Example Filename: KMSAuto Net.exe 
Detection Name: W32.58D6FEC4BA-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
MD5: 207d9d891ac756b2bfad88aba5682c65 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.FED979F93B-95.SBX.TG 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

My name is Pierre Cadieux, and I’ll be helping contribute to these newsletters. A little about me: I’ve been working in the cybersecurity industry in many roles over the past 20+ years, first focusing on endpoint security, policies, and firewalls, then moving to risk management and compliance, disaster recovery, and investigations. I spent about 15 years as a consultant working across many well-known consultancy firms and eventually moved to Cisco where I spent time doing security operations center (SOC) design and assessments as well as segmentation before moving to the Talos IR team. I spent many years there, first as an Incident Commander and then a manager of our excellent team of global IR consultants and investigators. My current role is with the Talos Threat Intelligence and Interdiction team, where I’m focused on intelligence efficacy — how we can do better with the data we have, how we can get more data, and what our customers want from our intelligence products. 

Since it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I wanted to take a few minutes to collectively thank all of the defenders out there for the hard work you do each day. The work you do may not always be visible, but it matters.  

I remember one job I had many years ago when I was in charge of security for a financial institution. I spent time learning each of the business processes that we had so I could understand each of the moving parts, what was essential, and what was on the horizon for change. I even spent a couple days meeting with the folks who handled printing. Yeah, printing — but not reports or internal documents. These were the people that created the checks that our institution used to pay other institutions, and more importantly (to me) our customers. 

I recall there being many out-of-patch compliance boxes in this area of the company, so I, being the diligent Director, decided to find out why. It turns out the software being used to print these business essential checks would not run on the current operating systems, and the physical printer cards used to connect to these non-network printers also required older hardware ports. As one of the people I interviewed said, “We don’t want to be the reason someone’s grandma doesn’t get her check and can’t go to the grocery store.” 

There were (at the time) no other alternatives that we could deploy, and the environment had zero tolerance for downtime. The solution I proposed was to isolate these devices into their own network, which blocked access to and from the internet for these devices, and also reduced the likelihood that these devices would be identified during an adversary’s internal reconnaissance or mapping. It didn’t patch the vulnerable devices, but it went a long way to reducing the likelihood of a bad thing happening to these devices due to their out-of-date OS and software. 

This story is especially appropriate today, as we face ever-increasing numbers of vulnerabilities announced by software vendors, and can only expect this volume to continue to increase. Do what you can to make sure the checks still get printed, while managing your risks intentionally. 

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos is disclosing new findings from our CAIRN research that show malware authors are embedding natural-language instructions into their code to evade AI-assisted analysis. We classify this growing trend as "A3: AI-Analysis Evasion." Over the past 18 months, we've tracked techniques ranging from simple comments telling an AI to ignore a file, to advanced "template spraying" designed to trick specific large language models (LLMs).  

Why do I care? 

Attackers expect AI to be in your analysis pipeline, and they’re developing cheap methods to manipulate those systems. While we found these prompt-injection techniques only steer the AI's verdict in the attacker's favor about 35 percent of the time, they are being adopted across all levels of malware sophistication. A3 families like MANTLEMAZE also pair these AI deceptions with serious underlying threats, such as abusing vulnerable drivers to disable EDR from kernel space. 

So now what? 

Because these evasion instructions must be written in plaintext, defenders have a highly stable detection surface to monitor. Security teams should flag imperative language addressed to analysis systems within binaries as a suspicious signal. Most importantly, anyone building or using AI-assisted pipelines must ensure that text extracted from a sample is strictly treated as evidence, never as a system directive. Read the full blog for more information on these techniques and a list of sample hashes. 

Top security headlines of the week 

Citrix NetScaler security snafus get even worse amid more zero-day reports 
This latest vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-88779, is a memory overflow bug that leads to denial of service attacks. (The Register) 

Hackers steal 8 million citizens’ records from Danish government database 
The Danish government would not say who is behind the breach, which happened in September but was discovered on October 2. However, it said the unauthorized access was obtained by “abusing a Danish company’s lawful access to search for information in the CPR system.” (TechCrunch) 

Google narrows open-source bug bounty amid wave of invalid automated reports 
Google has temporarily closed its Open Source Software Vulnerability Reward Program (OSS VRP) to product vulnerability submissions. According to Google, it has no impact on the program’s supply chain reports or on any pending reports. (SecurityWeek) 

Warlock ransomware hits large Spanish, Portuguese orgs 
In the last two months, researchers observed Warlock attacks against four victims: a water utility, a telecommunications provider, a regional government body, and a university. (Dark Reading) 

U.S. Senate passes health care cybersecurity bill after 190 million impacted by Change Healthcare breach 
The Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2026 was passed by unanimous consent last week, potentially expanding federal cyber requirements for health care organizations. (The Record) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

One breach, please, and make no mistakes 
The cybersecurity community has seen examples of autonomous agents, built inside AI labs, attacking public infrastructure. How you prepare for agentic threats is what makes the difference during real incidents. 

Talos Takes: Honey, I Trapped the Adversary 
It’s time to start having fun and messing with your attackers. For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Martin Lee joins Amy to discuss the fine art of making life on your network a complete nightmare for adversaries. 

The Fine Art of Frustrating the Adversary 
What really frustrates an adversary? Eight Cisco Talos researchers share practical ways to make their next move slower and riskier, from deception and behavioral detection to breaking attack dependencies. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 
• SecurityOnion Conference (Oct. 23) Augusta, GA 
• BsidesAugusta (Oct. 24) Augusta, GA 
• SAINTCON (Oct. 26 – 30) Provo, UT 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week  

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG 

SHA256: fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
MD5: 207d9d891ac756b2bfad88aba5682c65 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.FED979F93B-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe 
Detection Name: W32.9896A6FCB9-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 73ac1bbfaee6c76c34f655ac0477a4cd930f2aa55e658c8e312ff81aac9a741f 
MD5: 63f3351cfdf618bec6045f60203e7978 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=73ac1bbfaee6c76c34f655ac0477a4cd930f2aa55e658c8e312ff81aac9a741f 
Example Filename: f_003914.exe 
Detection Name: W32.PUP:PulseBrowser.29kh.in12.Talos 

SHA256: 58d6fec4ba24c32d38c9a0c7c39df3cb0e91f500b323e841121d703c7b718681 
MD5: f1fe671bcefd4630e5ed8b87c9283534 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=58d6fec4ba24c32d38c9a0c7c39df3cb0e91f500b323e841121d703c7b718681 
Example Filename: KMSAuto Net.exe 
Detection Name: W32.58D6FEC4BA-95.SBX.TG

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

Fall is officially here in Maryland, and I can’t be more relieved. I flourish in 50 degree weather, where it feels natural to burrow under blankets, knit sweaters, and listen to an audiobook. 

Beyond that, though, can I say that I’m glad fall is here because the end of summer has been a bit of a shitshow? I’m allowed to curse on here, right? 

Without going into too much detail, my uncle was diagnosed with a rare cancer, and my family decided we were going to fly out to spend a week with him. I was determined to find a way to make it work, but on top of all of the emotions, my mind was racing with trying to figure out how to request the time off and get coverage for the tasks I’d be missing. 

I was anxious to ask, but my manager’s response to me requesting the week off was:

“Family always, always comes first at Talos. You spend as much time with your family as you need. Don’t worry, we’ll work everything out. We have your back.”

I knew I was in such a fortunate position to have that kind of support. Yet, even with the explicit encouragement to step away, there was still a lingering weight on my shoulders that I couldn't quite set down. 

LinkedIn might be an awful, artificial place, but occasionally I’ll find a non-AI-generated think piece or quote that sticks with me. On a recent post, I read, “We’d all be better off if we gave each other a little more room to be human here without worrying it makes us look less capable.” 

Okay, ouch! That described the unsettled feeling to a T. Ever since I was laid off at my previous company, my trauma response has insisted I prove myself, make myself “indispensable” and capable of taking on any challenges thrown my way. I'm sure if you've been through a layoff, you can relate. 

If you’re scared of your team perceiving you as less capable and more dispensable, please hear this: You are not a machine, and your value to your team isn't defined by how much personal or professional weight you take on without a break. It's so easy to extend grace to others, to insist that they spend time with their ill family members, but we have to extend the same grace to ourselves. 

If your team is great, they’ll want you at your best, not just your most productive, so you can fight the good fight. Don't let this fear stop you from taking the time you need. Life is worth living now, and we’re better at what we do when we’re well in all aspects of life.

The one big thing  

For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Talos is sharing crowdsourced strategies from our researchers to help you master “The Fine Art of Frustrating the Adversary.” By deploying deception techniques, behavioral detections, and strict controls over legitimate tools, defenders can strip away an attacker's advantages. The goal is to make every alternative slower, less stealthy, and significantly more expensive for the threat actor. Ultimately, we want to force them to make mistakes or give up entirely. 

Why do I care? 

Threat actors rely on predictable environments, dual-use tools, and manufactured urgency to execute operations at scale. If defenders rely solely on tool-specific detections, adversaries can easily pivot by simply swapping out a payload. Shifting to behavior-based detections and introducing friction, like honeypots or strict AI boundaries, exploits the fact that attackers have rigid end goals. This approach slows down their operations and gives defenders earlier opportunities to interrupt the attack chain. 

So now what? 

Start by allowlisting approved remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools and blocking unauthorized ones to prevent dual-use abuse. Build resilient behavioral analytics that target underlying techniques rather than specific malware. Consider deploying deception tactics like fake employee profiles or false infrastructure. Ensure any AI agents in your environment have identifiable, short-lived credentials and strict network boundaries. And, of course, explore the blog to dive deeper into these strategies. 

Top security headlines of the week 

South Africa seeks help after cyber attack targets air traffic control 
The South African state-owned company that provides air traffic control and weather operations for approximately 10% of the world's airspace discovered ransomware-linked malware in an OT network. (Dark Reading) 

Automated AI agent used to breach cybersecurity nonprofit DIVD 
The Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD) suffered an AI-driven cyber attack that the organization described as “loud and very, very messy.” Evidence uncovered during the ongoing investigation indicates the attacker exploited a vulnerability, but the attack's purpose and impact remain unclear at this stage. (Bleeping Computer)

Citrix confirms 2 NetScaler zero-days after admins pulled the plug 
Citrix rushed out patches for two critical NetScaler zero-day vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild. The advisory covers eight vulnerabilities affecting NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway. (SecurityWeek) 

Pentagon personnel agency data breach impacts 3 million people 
The US Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), which maintains personnel records for the Pentagon, has started notifying people that their personal information was exposed. Unauthorized users had access to one of its file-sharing servers for roughly nine months. (SecurityWeek) 

TeamViewer urges users to patch severe flaws “as soon as possible” 
Remote access software company TeamViewer warned customers on Tuesday to immediately patch a set of high-severity vulnerabilities affecting its client and host software. (Bleeping Computer) 

Cisco’s Relentless Defense report is available now 
Cisco asked 8,000 security leaders from across the globe how they’re coping with a threat landscape being reshaped by AI, including whether their processes can keep pace with AI’s ability to surface thousands of vulnerabilities at once, and whether they’re confident staying ahead of the volume of new threats being discovered. (Cisco) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

China-nexus UAT-11587 targets government and policy organizations across Asia with Antino backdoor 
Cisco Talos uncovered a cluster of activity we track as UAT-11587 targeting government and policy organizations across Asia, including in Taiwan, India, the Philippines, and Cambodia, to deliver a previously undocumented backdoor referred to as “Antino” in developer artifacts. 

Securing the keys to the kingdom: Announcing Executive Threat Detection 
For a sophisticated threat actor, an executive is not only a high-ranking employee, but also a high-yield target. Talos IR’s new service offers protection for up to 10 principals, with monthly custom threat hunts and reports relevant to your organization’s most high-value IT assets. 

Beers with Talos: Your AI malware experiments are showing 
Adversaries are experimenting with AI-integrated malware, and today's guest, Talos researcher Ryan Fetterman, has been looking at their working notes. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 
• SecurityOnion Conference (Oct. 23) Augusta, GA 
• BsidesAugusta (Oct. 24) Augusta, GA 
• SAINTCON (Oct. 26 – 30) Provo, UT 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: sample.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: 96fa6a7714670823c83099ea01d24d6d3ae8fef027f01a4ddac14f123b1c9974 
MD5: aac3165ece2959f39ff98334618d10d9  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=96fa6a7714670823c83099ea01d24d6d3ae8fef027f01a4ddac14f123b1c9974 
Example Filename: d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_63_Exe.exe  
Detection Name: W32.Injector:Gen.21ie.1201 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59  
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
Example Filename: tmp00055df5.dll  
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02 

SHA256: 540080fea97d88ed902c5e4f9a026b4fcd32ab263706c520e00728f1a29578b8 
MD5: d65c7b544a97b0c3f2773b5fcc57d30e  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=540080fea97d88ed902c5e4f9a026b4fcd32ab263706c520e00728f1a29578b8 
Example Filename: f_006048.exe  
Detection Name: W32.540080FEA9-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9896A6FCB9-95.SBX.TG

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

In the cybersecurity industry, trust is the invisible currency. Every practitioner carries the implicit trust not to abuse privileged access or knowledge of vulnerabilities in each employment or engagement. This trust is valued by those who require our services, but also by threat actors. 

Clumsy phishing attacks may be easy to identify, but be wary of unsolicited messages on social media, especially if someone is offering payment for a simple service or suggests a lucrative job offer. These might be an enticement to unknowingly sell your professional integrity. 

When an unknown profile contacted me offering $300 for an hour’s telephone consultation on digital transformation, I knew something was up. Firstly, the profile was remarkably sparse — there was none of the usual clutter that accumulates in a social media profile. The individual claimed to work as a consultant, but their employer had no footprint and only one employee. The profile didn’t pass the “smell” test, and it looked fake. 

Secondly, although I’m flattered, I doubt my opinions on digital transformation are worth $300. The figure is low enough to be plausible and high enough to be tempting, but at the same time suspiciously high for an initial consultation without prior qualification. 

The attack itself is a confidence trick. The initial phone consultation is merely a screening process to see if the target has the access or knowledge the attacker needs. If the target passes muster, the next step is commissioning a written report, and then being asked to deliver a "special report." 

Plied with professional praise, the target is asked to provide insights that aren't in the public domain. To deliver the report and claim their fee, the target must reach out to co-workers, probe internal systems, or abuse professional relationships. Completing the assignment requires the target to abuse their trusted access and professional relationships and friendships. In the process, they burn trust worth far more than any monetary compensation. 

This social engineering attempt masquerading as an offer of consultancy is one variant. Fake recruiters offering prestigious and well-paid jobs, requiring candidates to install trojanised software under some pretence, is another. 

Security professionals spend their days protecting others, yet flattery and overconfidence often remain our greatest vulnerabilities. We are prone to believe that we could identify any social engineering, but this is exactly the weakness that attackers count on. 

Trust is the most valuable commodity in our industry. Be careful not to trade it for a $300 consultation or a fake job offer. Once that currency is spent, you can rarely earn it back. 

The one big thing  

Talos released CAIRN (Cognitive Artifact Intelligence Research Network), a new open-source research toolkit designed to hunt, classify, and track emerging AI-integrated malware. Instead of relying on traditional reverse engineering, CAIRN uses a metadata-first methodology to identify cognitive artifacts like prompt templates, API keys, and jailbreak terms left behind by attackers. This allows researchers to extract, relate, and classify these artifacts quickly and at scale without ever touching the underlying binary. 

Why do I care? 

AI-integrated malware is evolving quickly, shifting from optional features to fully autonomous orchestrators in just a year. Adversaries are already sharing AI-specific tradecraft, including techniques designed to evade LLM sandboxes. Defenders need scalable frameworks to track this rapid transition before these experimental tactics become the new standard for modern attacks. 

So now what? 

Security teams can leverage the open-source CAIRN toolkit to expand their hunting capabilities and map out related malware infrastructure. While analysts should anticipate some noise from benign frameworks — meaning final verdicts still require manual reverse engineering — CAIRN can provide a massive head start. Read the full blog to explore the methodology, access the YARA-based classification tiers, and watch a demo of the toolkit in action. 

Top security headlines of the week 

Hackers say they have data on all FBI employees 
ShinyHunters claims it has breached multiple FBI-related services and stolen data “on all FBI employees and applicants.” A representative told 404 Media the data includes FBI agents’ names, home addresses, phone number, and information on their spouse. (404 Media) 

Fake LastPass installers push kernel-level EDR killer, “Rapuncel” stealer 
A fake LastPass Authenticator distributed via GitHub has led to the discovery of a broad impersonation campaign delivering infostealer malware. The lure represents opportunistic brand spoofing — with no internal LastPass systems compromised. (SecurityWeek) 

Japan dismantles first North Korean laptop farm as U.S. and allies detail wider scheme 
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies from Japan, the United States, Australia and Germany have published a joint advisory attributing a long-running hiring scheme to a North Korean group they call WaterPlum, also known as Contagious Interview. (SecurityWeek) 

Colorado water utilities face foreign cyberattacks targeting pumps, alarms and remote access 
Hackers targeted and manipulated equipment at two privately owned Colorado water utilities in late August, changing pumping cycles, disabling remote access and alarms, and altering equipment settings. (Industrial Cyber) 

Gemini hacked three companies in first known breakout by Google’s AI  
In one of the cases, the model guessed passwords until it gained access to a protected system. In the other two cases, the model found credentials in a public repository that allowed it to then access protected systems. (The Wall Street Journal) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Inside the first reported autonomous AI C2 implant 
CLOSEDQUORUM, a malware binary discovered through Talos’ CAIRN project, exhibits fully autonomous command and control. After deployment, it delegates the selection of its next action to a panel of commercial large language models (LLMs) and executes the resulting decision. 

ClickFix, EtherHiding, and the rise of malicious code in the blockchain 
In this episode of Talos Takes, Amy sits down with researcher Vanja Svajcer to break down a sophisticated, multi-stage infection chain that leverages a combination of ClickFix social engineering, WebDAV, and decentralized infrastructure.

Ransomware incidents in Japan in the first half of 2026 
Ransomware incidents in Japan rose 4.7% year over year. The Gentlemen was the most active group, with leak-site listings more than doubling from January to July. Qilin ranked second and appeared to use AI, while SMEs with capital under JPY 1 billion represented 80% of victims.

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 
• SecurityOnion Conference (Oct. 23) Augusta, GA 
• BsidesAugusta (Oct. 24) Augusta, GA 
• SAINTCON (Oct. 26 – 30) Provo, UT 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe 
Detection Name: W32.9896A6FCB9-95.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: 540080fea97d88ed902c5e4f9a026b4fcd32ab263706c520e00728f1a29578b8 
MD5: d65c7b544a97b0c3f2773b5fcc57d30e 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=540080fea97d88ed902c5e4f9a026b4fcd32ab263706c520e00728f1a29578b8
Example Filename: f_000bc7.exe 
Detection Name: W32.Superfluss.29lm.1201 

SHA256: cfa1997682e4ed41bc691ba848d845abbe0b75ec97e640c2b015b4d1624a108a 
MD5: 415898f14843d4a6537cf8f43d328eaf 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=cfa1997682e4ed41bc691ba848d845abbe0b75ec97e640c2b015b4d1624a108a 
Example Filename: KMSAuto.exe 
Detection Name: PUA.Win.Tool.Hackkms::1201** 

SHA256: 38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55 
MD5: 41444d7018601b599beac0c60ed1bf83  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55 
Example Filename: content.js  
Detection Name: W32.38D053135D-95.SBX.TG

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

There’s been a lot of talk recently about slowing down the pace of AI development. And yes, there are legitimate moral, ethical, geopolitical, and safety concerns with the use of AI. It’s not clear yet whether an AI slowdown could happen, let alone whether it should (hat tip to Dr. Ian Malcolm). I admit, I’m not really qualified to opine on the impacts unrestricted AI might have on bioterrorism, the balance of international power, or even our chances of being eaten by dinosaurs. What I can tell you, though, is that any sort of “AI slowdown” is not likely to have much of an impact on cybersecurity.  

There are a few reasons to think this. The most obvious one is that models are already really good. We’re at the point where the newest models bring only incremental improvements in cybersecurity capabilities. Arguably, they’ve been getting better so fast that our ability to use them effectively for defensive tasks hasn’t kept up. On the offensive side, practically every recent model is already able to mine decades of tech debt to uncover an uncomfortable number of vulnerabilities. Instead of chasing model improvements, our best strategy might be to improve our agentic harnesses and frameworks, essentially giving us better capabilities with our existing models. 

Maybe even more importantly, many of us are still not eating our cyber-vegetables. I get it: AI is hot. It’s sexy. It brings the money and the board’s attention. But no matter how great your AI is, if it’s sitting on the typical two-and-a-half-legged stool that is most IT environments, you’re still going to have compromises and breaches no matter how much AI you throw at it. We’ve known for a long time now that good security depends on things like asset and role inventories, identity management, least privilege, and segmented networks. They’re not as shiny as AI, but they’re more impactful in terms of making it harder for threats both human and agentic to successfully carry out attacks. This is not to say that you shouldn’t be looking at AI until you’ve solved all your other security problems; just don’t look only to AI. 

Regardless of whether we slow the pace of AI development or not, we still have plenty of places to make significant security improvements using the models we already have access to. By making better use of what we already have and by investing in well-known security fundamentals, we can come out ahead no matter whether AI development accelerates, slows down, or is trapped in a kitchen with a pack of hungry velociraptors. 

P.S. I’ve got some speaking engagements coming up soon (see below). If you see me, don’t be shy about asking for a Pyramid of Pain sticker or button! 

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos is sharing new insights into Japan's ransomware landscape, where incidents rose nearly 5 percent in the first half of 2026. This increase is driven by two prominent actors: "The Gentlemen," a rapidly expanding ransomware-as-a-service group, and "Qilin," which is leveraging generative AI to streamline its attacks. Both groups are aggressively targeting small- and medium-sized enterprises with double-extortion tactics. 

Why do I care? 

Adversaries are working smarter, not harder. Qilin uses large language models to generate destructive scripts, accelerating their attack speed and lowering the barrier to entry. Meanwhile, The Gentlemen relies on legitimate red-teaming frameworks like AdaptixC2 to blend in, making lateral movement difficult to detect. This combination of AI-driven efficiency and stealthy techniques puts organizations at risk of data theft and operational disruption. 

So now what? 

Strictly manage internet-accessible devices and lock down credentials. Start by auditing VPNs, disabling unused features, and enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) across all administrative and third-party accounts. Ensure you have robust endpoint detection to monitor for suspicious remote access or attempts to disable backups. Finally, update your defenses using the Snort rules provided in the full blog to help detect and block this activity. 

Top security headlines of the week 

Indonesia hit by Android banking app-cloning campaign 
Indonesia has emerged as an early testing ground for a new Android banking malware technique that uses Google's Work Profile feature to help fraudsters evade banking security controls. (Dark Reading) 

Apple patches 200 vulnerabilities with new iOS 27, macOS Golden Gate 27 releases  
Approximately 100 of the resolved security defects affect both the mobile and desktop operating systems. The fixes target more than 90 platform components, including AppleKeyStore, Authentication Services, Foundation, Safe Browsing, Sandbox, Security, TCC, and WebKit. (SecurityWeek) 

ClickFix attacks are tricking Mac and Windows users into hacking themselves 
Hackers posting fake ads on Reddit, linking to a page that looks like HBO Max but contains a ClickFix lure that tricks people into hacking themselves. The hackers compromised the official HBO Max’s account on Reddit that was then used to post hundreds of fake but real-looking adverts to the news-sharing site. (TechCrunch) 

VectraRAT can hack Windows enterprises for $250 per month 
VectraRAT, a previously undocumented platform that includes a full-featured Windows implant, command-and-control (C2) infrastructure, and an operator panel built entirely from scratch rather than based on existing malware (Dark Reading) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Securing the unpatchable in an age of AI-driven vulnerabilities 
Advances in AI technology will continue to identify vulnerabilities that in some circumstances are difficult, or effectively impossible, to patch. Appropriate network segmentation, rigorous visibility, and the deployment of NGFW/IPS combinations can provide a powerful compensatory layer. 

Beers with Talos: Martin Lee would like everyone to go outside 
Martin may have stopped being a Talos employee, but we made him come on the podcast anyway to talk about abandoning his early career aspirations of researching human viruses so he could play on the internet — and also running very long distances in crazy conditions. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• LABSCon (Sept. 16 – 19) Scottsdale, AZ 
• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 
• SecurityOnion Conference (Oct. 23) Augusta, GA 
• BsidesAugusta (Oct. 24) Augusta, GA 
• SAINTCON (Oct. 26 – 30) Provo, UT 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
Example Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
MD5: 9a47c4d379998ade2f8f99e23a630c06  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
Example Filename: WCInstaller_NonAdmin.exe  
Detection Name: W32.C4DD71E347-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f  
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: 38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55  
MD5: 41444d7018601b599beac0c60ed1bf83  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55 
Example Filename: content.js  
Detection Name: W32.38D053135D-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
MD5: 207d9d891ac756b2bfad88aba5682c65  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=fed979f93bcaf4e73ebd25748093a92095d5109cbd01d55f97bdc50ce509ad2f 
Example Filename: AAct.exe  
Detection Name: W32.FED979F93B-95.SBX.TG**

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

Ask anybody in this industry what the work does to the health of the people who do it and you get one word back: burnout. It's a fine word, in and of itself. It’s easy to reach for, understandable to everyone… and it's the wrong one, most of the time. 

So, story time. Last year I gave an interview with the amazing Hazel Burton about VPNFilter, and my run-in with burnout. I was a manager during that time, and it took a toll on me and on the people around me, and when it was over I didn't have language for what had happened. Neither did my peers. Neither did my leadership. Nobody was withholding help from me… we just didn't have the words.  

Enter this summer, and I was afforded a unique opportunity to mentor some MBA students on burnout in cybersecurity. I know a thing or two about it, so I leapt at a chance to share and help grow future leaders. But I decided I was going to do more than share and relieve my experiences in this industry – I wanted to give back to them and the security industry. So, I fell down a fascinating and revealing research hole and learned better words to describe my experiences over my career. 

I spent my summer reviewing trauma case studies, clinical and academic literature on trauma in career fields like first responders, doctors, social workers, and the military. There are many decades of research focusing on trauma in those fields. Subsequently, my brain is packed full of better words! For example, burnout is exhaustion from chronic workload, and it eases when the load eases. We know this one well. Secondary traumatic stress is what absorbing somebody else's trauma does to you, and it looks like trauma. Think the CTI analyst exposed to horrible things on the dark web. Vicarious trauma is what years of other people's worst days do to how you see the world. It changes your beliefs, not your mood. Work in cybersecurity long enough, and it can pile up on your views. Moral injury is the damage from being made to act against your own values, or stopped from doing what you knew was right. This one can affect anyone who’s ever owned an outcome, but not the decision, and that’s common in this industry. 

One word, four injuries, and four different fixes. All of them are present in the industry that is cybersecurity. The problem? We’re just a young industry. Compared to medical, helping professions, or social workers, we’re incredibly immature with understanding the consequences of the work and the toll it takes on us. Next week I’ll be revealing my research and a peer-deployable framework to help others process, cope, and respond in healthy ways to keep us all in a better mental space, and staying in this good fight of protecting others.  

I'm still not good at this. I'm writing it all down because I was bad at it in a way that cost me something. There's more of this in my talk at CYBR.SEC.CON next week if you're in Houston. 

Go ask somebody how they're doing and wait for the answer. Be present for them. It matters.  

Take care of yourselves, and take care of each other. 

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos is disclosing a complex WebDAV infection chain discovered after investigating an incident at a Ukrainian government organization. Attributed to a Russian threat actor tracked as UAT-10820, the campaign delivers the Amatera stealer alongside secondary payloads like ZigCryptoStealer and NetSupport Manager. Despite the high-profile initial victim, we assess with moderate confidence that this is an opportunistic, broad-based cryptocurrency and credential-stealing operation rather than a highly targeted attack. 

Why do I care? 

Threat actors are getting really creative with their delivery mechanisms and evasion tactics. By abusing legitimate infrastructure like the BNB Smart Chain for bulletproof hosting and leveraging fake CAPTCHA prompts, attackers can easily bypass traditional web filters. Additionally, the secondary payloads pack a serious punch. The inclusion of a vulnerable driver to terminate EDR software and the deployment of unauthorized remote access tools give attackers deep, persistent control over infected systems. 

So now what? 

Security teams should monitor for unusual WebDAV activity and the execution of disguised DLLs through "rundll32.exe" using suspicious ordinal calls. Make sure to educate your users on the dangers of copying and pasting commands from fake verification prompts. Since the Amatera payload often resides entirely in memory, defenders should also ensure their endpoint solutions are configured for robust memory scanning. Finally, you can find a comprehensive list of indicators of compromise (IOCs) in the full blog. 

Top security headlines of the week 

New Microsoft Defender 'ShieldCrash' zero-day grants SYSTEM access 
An anonymous security researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse has released a new Microsoft Defender zero-day exploit named "ShieldCrash" right after Microsoft rolled out its September 2026 Patch Tuesday security updates. (Bleeping Computer) 

North Korean hackers deploy new Linux espionage toolkit 
The stealthy toolkit embeds a backdoor in HAProxy and targets automotive and media organizations in South Korea for long-term surveillance. The toolkit supports remote command execution, credential harvesting, and script injection into web traffic. (SecurityWeek) 

Attackers use multi-hop Google redirects for phishing campaign 
What sets this campaign apart is that in order to bypass gateways, email filters, and other security tools, the link relies on a chain of redirects across Google domains, intending for link inspectors to see multiple Google domains and let the URL through. (DarkReading) 

OpenAI agents took over Wiki site before Hugging Face attack 
A team of independent researchers revealed the parallel incident on Sept. 4, which was first reported by Reuters, affecting a largely defunct German language wiki for programmers called “DeutschesSoftwareEntwickler wiki.” (DarkReading) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Patch Tuesday for September 2026 
Microsoft has released its monthly security update for September 2026, which includes 973 vulnerabilities affecting a range of products, including 113 that Microsoft marked as "critical." 

Active exploitation of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center vulnerabilities 
Cisco Talos is actively tracking the exploitation of two vulnerabilities in Cisco’s Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software: CVE-2026-20079 and CVE-2026-20316. Customers are strongly advised to apply hotfixes for affected software versions already released by Cisco. 

ClickFix moves into the browser: Cryptocurrency theft with Google-hosted C2 
Cisco Talos is tracking a cryptocurrency-stealing campaign that abuses the Google Visualization API for command and control (C2), retrieving obfuscated JavaScript from a publicly published Google Sheets document and injecting it into the victim's browser session. 

Browser betrayal: When your tabs turn against you 
Security Engineer Sean Gallagher joins Amy to break down a scam where threat actors are weaponizing greed to turn amateur cybercriminals against themselves. While this current operation mostly targets the amateur dark-web circuit, the underlying use of the Google Visualization API as a command-and-control channel is a red flag for the future of web security. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• .conf26 (Sept. 14 – 17) Denver, CO 
• CYBR.SEC.CON. (Sept. 15 – 16) Houston, TX 
• LABSCon (Sept. 16 – 19) Scottsdale, AZ 
• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59  
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
Example Filename: tmp00055df5.dll  
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02 

SHA256: c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
MD5: 9a47c4d379998ade2f8f99e23a630c06  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: W32.C4DD71E347-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: 5bb86c1cd08fe5e1516cba35c85fc03e503bd1b5469113ffa1f1b9e10897f811  
MD5: f3e82419a43220a7a222fc01b7607adc 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=5bb86c1cd08fe5e1516cba35c85fc03e503bd1b5469113ffa1f1b9e10897f811 
Example Filename: 5bb86c1cd08fe5e1516cba35c85fc03e503bd1b5469113ffa1f1b9e10897f811.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Suloc::1201 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

Our goal is to get accurate threat intelligence to our audience as quickly as possible, with all the context you need to ask the right questions of your own environment: How at risk are we from this threat? Are we prepared for it? And what can we do about it? 

What you don’t often see is all the... well, frankly, “mess” involved in producing it. All the dead ends we followed until we could confirm those ends were as dead as a doornail. All the work it took to ultimately produce an assessment, supported by evidence and written so that defenders can act on it. 

Much of that abstraction is necessary. Defenders need intelligence they can use, not a complete account of every conversation we had, or investigative detour behind it. But it can create an overly tidy picture of both cybercrime and the work required to understand it. 

If you do fancy a look behind the curtain, though, may I recommend our just-published episode of Beers with Talos? 

Our guest is Azim Khodjibaev, whose remit is adversary engagement. His work involves developing personas for deep- and dark-web research, engaging directly with threat actors, and building relationships with people who may become (and have been) openly threatening to him. 

At one point, he was maintaining eight separate personas, some of which were interacting with one another. Azim’s engagements have helped Talos identify prolific cybercriminals and contributed to wider disruption efforts. They have also resulted in ransomware operators placing “Azim sucks” in their code and accusing him of belonging to the very criminal groups he was investigating. 

His experiences also expose the problem with treating adversaries as uniformly sophisticated operators. Some are technically capable and highly organised. Others are impulsive, ego-driven, or one-trick ponies. Many have a scary detachment from the consequences of their actions. Increasingly, Azim is seeing less-experienced threat actors working through loosely organised online collectives.  

Intelligence necessarily turns that disorder into something defenders can understand and use. But occasionally, it is worth looking behind the finished product – the patience it takes to get accurate answers, who we are investigating, and the deeply human behaviour that shapes both sides. 

This Beers with Talos episode, “Eight People Walk Into a Dark Web Forum. They’re All Azim,” isn’t exactly going to help many people in our industry sleep better at night. But for anyone wanting to understand more about the threat we’re up against, as a co-host of the pod I’m biased, but I believe it’s an essential listen. 

And if that doesn’t inspire you to download the episode, perhaps my live review of trying Flamin’ Hot Cheetos for the very first time (with a chaser of Nerds) will. 

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos is highlighting a growing operational hurdle for security teams that we call the AI "safety penalty." As frontier AI models advance, their built-in guardrails are increasingly blocking legitimate defensive tasks. This was evident in July 2026 when Hugging Face's primary cloud LLM refused to analyze forensic data during a breach, delaying their response. While defenders are slowed by these frustrating refusals, adversaries are freely leveraging unconstrained models to attack at machine speed.  

Why do I care? 

This guardrail asymmetry hands the advantage directly to attackers. When a cloud-hosted AI model refuses a forensic request mid-incident, defenders lose precious time. Security teams are paying for vendor-imposed limitations without gaining a capability edge, especially as open-weight alternatives close the reasoning gap. Ultimately, relying on third-party alignment policies means a sudden update in Silicon Valley could quietly break your defensive workflows overnight.  

So now what? 

Security leadership must reclaim operational sovereignty by ensuring they have the final say over their AI's capabilities. Start by auditing your AI refusal rates to measure the exact cost of this safety penalty. From there, evaluate alternative architectures like private infrastructure, Model-as-a-Service platforms, or a hybrid fallback system that reroutes refused prompts to an unconstrained local model. Read the full blog to explore these roadmaps and learn how to keep pace with adversaries. 

Top security headlines of the week 

ShinyHunters claims it stole 284 million patient records from McKesson 
ShinyHunters told BleepingComputer and said it got in through vishing calls to McKesson employees, then used stolen credentials to take over Okta single sign-on accounts. (Help Net Security) 

Anthropic warns Claude users of infostealer malware infections 
Anthropic emphasized that the malware is general-purpose and not tied to Claude itself, typically arriving via unofficial downloads or malicious apps. The company said the malware quietly copies saved passwords, browser login cookies, and credentials for other local applications. (Security Week) 

EU puts ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox under stricter DSA rules 
The DSA establishes rules governing areas including platform transparency, illegal content, advertising, researcher access, recommender systems, and systemic-risk management. (CyberInsider) 

PaperCut issues emergency patches as threat actors target chained vulnerabilities 
PaperCut issued the patches on Friday to address critical vulnerabilities in its print-management software. The company confirmed in a security advisory that multiple customers were successfully targeted and that it is working with security researchers to respond to the attacks. (Cybersecurity Dive) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

JavaScript obfuscation: From party trick to phishing kit
We've spent a lot of time pulling apart suspicious JavaScript from phishing kits, malware packages, compromised sites, and more. Learn the basics of what obfuscation is, why a researcher would try to reverse it, and several ways to approach the problem. 

Choose your fighter: Balancing competing AI SOC model requirements 
Selecting a model for your security operations center (SOC) and digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) tasks is important, but selecting the best one is more involved than you might think. Here's how to choose. 

Beers with Talos: Eight people walk into a dark web forum. They're all Azim.
What does it take to become someone a cybercriminal will trust? Talos' Azim Khodjibaev takes us inside the psychology of direct adversary engagement. At one point, he was maintaining eight different personas, some of which were talking to each other. He explains how discipline and patience help keep his cover intact, and what can provoke threat actors into revealing information.

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• International European Cyber Threat Intelligence Conference (IECTIC) (Sept. 9) Kassel, Germany 
• Secure Iowa (Sept. 9) Altoona, IA 
• .conf26 (Sept. 14 – 17) Denver, CO 
• LABSCon (Sept. 16 – 19) Scottsdale, AZ 
• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: 228c316455d5ed69232adcbe9acd033092f200014cfa7ed40d6c382f07b19b82  
MD5: 61e046145ee5cf45aeb033cd71e8b07c  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=228c316455d5ed69232adcbe9acd033092f200014cfa7ed40d6c382f07b19b82 
Example Filename: NetGuard.exe  
Detection Name: W32.228C316455-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91  
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
Example Filename: d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_62_Exe.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg** 

SHA256: c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2  
MD5: 9a47c4d379998ade2f8f99e23a630c06  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
Example Filename: sample.exe  
Detection Name: W32.C4DD71E347-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55  
MD5: 41444d7018601b599beac0c60ed1bf83  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55 
Example Filename: content.js  
Detection Name: W32.38D053135D-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f  
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

Hello, everyone. Long time reader, first time writer here at the Threat Source newsletter! I wanted to start out by introducing myself. My colleague and friend Mick Baccio set the bar pretty high last week, so I was planning to tell you all about myself, including: 

• How I did my first real IR under the influence of The Cuckoo’s Egg while an undergraduate (and failed) 
• My pre-bug bounty flirtation with vulnerability research, including an arbitrary file overwrite in biff(1) and how I once hacked MIT’s website 
• My first ever hands-on experience with a computer, the display demo Commodore 64 at the Montgomery Ward 

Unfortunately, my editor says we don’t have the “space” for that, the MIT thing might open me up to “liability,” and it’s not the kind of “professional image” we strive for here at Talos. (I'm watching. Always watching. -Amy) 

So instead, I’ll just play it safe and say that I’ve been in the security field for a little over 30 years now, mostly concentrating on the defensive side (Go, Team Blue!). I’ve helped set up SOCs, run threat hunting teams, and even published a few things you might have heard of.  

Speaking of things I’ve published, I’ve written before about the Attacker’s Dilemma. The idea that defenders have inherent advantages over attackers runs contrary to what most of us have heard throughout our careers. An attacker must evade monitoring and technical controls at every step of their attack lifecycle, because the defender only needs to notice once in order to respond and prevent them from achieving their goal. This is one of the most important advantages of any security team has, but we are currently witnessing a self-imposed erosion of this advantage through the rise of poorly-designed AI guardrails.  

I’m not opposed to guardrails, but we have to carefully consider what we’re guarding against and where we deploy them. As I explored in a recent piece on The Safety Penalty, by allowing third-party AI providers to implement and control safety filters and the policies behind them, we may in fact be helping the attacker. If agentic SOC process experience refusals, it can slow or even halt investigations. Of course, these should get flagged for human intervention, but that takes time and may give the attacker breathing room in which to complete their mission.  

It may turn out that the where of the guardrails is even more important than the what. Operational sovereignty relies on having control of our own limits. Any vision of an agentic SOC must allow the security teams to customize the guardrails according to their own threat model. They should also have the flexibility to temporarily remove specific safeguards under authorized circumstances, something you won’t get with guardrails from a frontier provider. These controls belong inside your organization’s agentic harness where you can set the policies and technical controls to allow you to analyze threats while ensuring your agents stay within their lanes.  

Ultimately, operational sovereignty means engaging with the reality of the threat landscape, ensuring that the adversary can’t derail the defender’s investigation and response processes, either accidentally or intentionally. We need to move toward a model where each organization can choose the guardrails that work for them, rather than having inflexible guardrails chosen for them. 

The one big thing  

Cisco Talos recently evaluated 66 large language model (LLM) and reasoning combinations to see if we could find a clear winner for security operations. Instead, we found that selecting the right model is a complex balancing act between efficacy, speed, cost, and consistency. Cranking up a model's reasoning effort doesn't guarantee better analysis and can actually degrade performance. Ultimately, we developed a repeatable methodology to help organizations navigate these tradeoffs for their own workflows. 

Why do I care? 

Choosing an AI model based solely on generic leaderboard scores is a recipe for operational disaster. An exceptionally smart model might cost a fortune, take half an hour to analyze a single log, or completely fail to format its output. Assuming more compute power equals better results is a costly trap, as higher reasoning settings sometimes produce weaker or blocked responses. Defenders must remember that prompts, analyst personas, and model consistency drastically alter an investigation's outcome.  

So now what? 

Test models against your organization’s specific workflows before deploying them. Build a focused set of representative cases and test them multiple times using the exact prompts and tools your analysts will actually use. Track the quality, cost, time, consistency, and usable-answer rates in a simple spreadsheet to expose the real-world tradeoffs. Finally, establish acceptable thresholds for these variables to eliminate underperforming models, and regularly revisit your decisions as AI technology and pricing inevitably shift. 

Top security headlines of the week 

ToxicPanda banking trojan matures into enterprise threat 
ToxicPanda 2.0 expands substantially on its predecessor, adding 167 remote commands and broadening its targeting from 16 financial institutions to 349 banking, e-wallet, and cryptocurrency applications. (Dark Reading) 

Interpol's Jackal IV disrupts West African crime infrastructure 
Law enforcement from 22 countries across six continents worked together to arrest 58 suspects and identify 263 more. The first two Jackal operations in 2022 and 2023 led to approximately 200 arrests in total and millions of dollars more in seized assets. (Dark Reading) 

First malware built specifically for car head units fuels botnet 
Researchers have found what appears to be the first malware specifically designed for car head units, with links to the notorious BadBox botnet, on an Android-powered aftermarket infotainment system made by Chinese company DoFun, which is widely used in China and other APAC countries. (SecurityWeek) 

A Tale of Two SOCs: Insights From Two Red Team Assessments 
A CISA red team fully compromised two critical infrastructure organizations at the domain level and reached sensitive business systems and cloud resources. Organization A failed to detect or contain the activity. Organization B rapidly identified initial compromise attempts, isolated affected systems, and forced the red team into an assume breach model. (CISA)

NovaCookies campaigns abuse genuine Docusign notifications to steal M365 sessions 
The $320/month service is a subscription-based phishing platform that facilitates real-time M365 session theft. The kit has been used to target hundreds of organizations across multiple sectors in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, and more. (The Hacker News) 

Can’t get enough Talos?

JavaScript obfuscation: From party trick to phishing kit 
We've spent a lot of time pulling apart suspicious JavaScript from phishing kits, malware packages, compromised sites, and more. Learn the basics of what obfuscation is, why a researcher would try to reverse it, and several ways to approach the problem. 

The safety penalty: Reclaiming operational sovereignty in the age of AI 
As frontier AI models become increasingly restrictive, security teams are facing a "safety penalty" that hampers real-time incident response. Discover how organizations can move toward operational sovereignty to ensure their defensive AI keeps pace with unconstrained adversaries. 

Back-to-school cybersecurity: Protecting education networks from ransomware and threats 
As the new academic year begins, school districts face a surge in cybersecurity threats, from phishing attacks and ransomware to student experimentation with network devices. In this episode, Amy sits down with Cisco Talos expert Pierre Cadieux to discuss practical strategies for IT practitioners. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• International European Cyber Threat Intelligence Conference (IECTIC) (Sept. 9) Kassel, Germany 
• Secure Iowa (Sept. 9) Altoona, IA 
• .conf26 (Sept. 14 – 17) Denver, CO 
• LABSCon (Sept. 16 – 19) Scottsdale, AZ 
• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: e7e784cae8d37f12a5af0bc9b3975c8d3e668142e9c6b0b365ed4f4e80933c47 
MD5: a4480423617d0b0d3b38c8471cbf594c  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=e7e784cae8d37f12a5af0bc9b3975c8d3e668142e9c6b0b365ed4f4e80933c47 
Example Filename: client32.exe  
Detection Name: W32.Trojan.29ev.1201 

SHA256: c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
MD5: 9a47c4d379998ade2f8f99e23a630c06  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
Example Filename: WCInstaller_NonAdmin.exe  
Detection Name: W32.C4DD71E347-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55 
MD5: 41444d7018601b599beac0c60ed1bf83  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=38d053135ddceaef0abb8296f3b0bf6114b25e10e6fa1bb8050aeecec4ba8f55 
Example Filename: content.js  
Detection Name: W32.38D053135D-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f  
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
Example Filename:  
d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_62_Exe.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg**

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.  

Hello friend.  

I’m Mick.  

This is my first Threat Source newsletter, so I should probably introduce myself before I start telling you all the things I think you should be paying attention to. With assistance from an unnamed LLM, my bio reads like this:  

Mick Baccio is a globally recognized security strategist with a career spanning offensive operations, threat intelligence, and national-level incident response. He currently advises organizations around the world through his role at Talos, helping security leaders improve operations through data-informed approaches. Mick was the first-ever Chief Information Security Officer for a U.S. presidential campaign (2020) and previously served in multiple White House administrations as Threat Intelligence Branch Chief.   

In his spare time, Mick is the Founder and President of THRUNT® Corp, IANS Faculty, and a KC7 Cyber Foundation board member.  

DEFCon Goon and Purveyor of Fine Experience.  

Veteran. 

I also have a cat named qwerty and own too many Air Jordans.   

I’ve spent most of my career somewhere in the intersection of threat intelligence, cybersecurity, government, and the people trying to make sense of all of it. These days, i spend a lot of time thinking about the decisions we make about security ripple outward, often in ways we didn't consider. Most of my ramblings will probably center around that. There will be threats. There will be intelligence. Occasionally something weird, but always something that caught my eye, and maybe worth checking out.   

Which brings us this week. I picked a hell of a week to start.   

Last Wednesday, the White House issued a presidential memorandum titled “Expanding Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime.” You should probably read it. The memorandum directs the DOJ and DHS to establish a program that can use private companies to conduct cyber operations against transnational criminal organizations outside the United States — beyond providing intelligence and assisting in the investigation. The memorandum explicitly envisions private companies conducting cyber surveillance and cyber effects operations under the direction and delegated authority of the U.S. government. 

This is a pretty big thing.  

For years, this industry has debated where line should exist between defending a network and reaching through the wire. We’ve debated hack back, active defense, attribution, proportional response, collateral damage, and what roles private companies have in offensive cyber operations. This is absolutely not “hack back" and calling it that misses important oversight built into the memorandum. 

At the same time, let’s be clear about what we are reading. The United States is creating a mechanism for private companies to participate directly in government-authorized offensive cyber operations against systems outside the United States. There will be plenty of debate whether this is good or bad policy; I will leave that for someone else. I’m much more interested in the operational questions it creates. 

Who establishes attribution strongly enough to authorize an operation? What happens when criminal and state infrastructure overlap? What happens when infrastructure is compromised and used as an ORB? Who owns access discovered during one of these operations? How is intelligence collected by a private company handled? What happens when a company conducting these operations also provides security services in that country?   

Most importantly (in my head): What happens when another country discovers that employees of an American cybersecurity company are conducting offensive operations against infrastructure inside its borders? 

This is not an argument against disrupting cybercrime. I’m all for it. These are questions about what happens when we fundamentally change who gets to do the disrupting. 

Read the memorandum.  

Seriously. 

What we have today is a framework. In 60 days, we should have a much better idea of what this will look like in practice, so circle that on your calendar. The memorandum gives DOJ and DHS 60 days to establish the operating procedures for the program, and no operation can be approved until those procedures are in place. 

In the area between “private cybersecurity company” and “authorized participant in U.S. offensive cyber operations,” the threat model for that company and its employees just changed considerably. 

The biggest question isn’t “Does this work?” 

It’s whether we’ve fully considered what happens if it does. 

Read the memorandum.  

And in 60 days, come back and ask again. 

The one big thing  

Talos posted two blogs on UAT-10147, a recently discovered Chinese-speaking cybercrime group that uses agentic AI to orchestrate sophisticated post-compromise operations across global web servers. UAT-10147 uses AI to generate operational playbooks, automate exploits, and develop custom malware. This includes the newly identified SPECTRE implant, a cross-platform backdoor featuring a custom Linux kernel rootkit and Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) capabilities designed to completely blind endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. 

Why do I care? 

The integration of agentic AI into offensive workflows means threat actors can now scale complex attacks with ruthless efficiency. UAT-10147 is using AI to dynamically troubleshoot, validate exploit paths, and generate custom rootkits that neutralize organizations' security stacks from the kernel level up. When an adversary can automate their reconnaissance and seamlessly blind your EDR, your window for detection shrinks drastically. 

So now what? 

Defenders need to prioritize patching known one-day vulnerabilities in internet-facing applications like Zimbra, Nacos, and Telerik UI. Since UAT-10147 relies heavily on stolen ASP.NET MachineKeys for ViewState deserialization attacks, locking down your key material is an absolute must. You should also block known vulnerable drivers to shut down their BYOVD attacks, and tune your network monitoring to catch the anomalous HTTP 500 errors they use to silently validate exploits. Read both blogs for comprehensive coverage and indicators of compromise (IOCs). 

Top security headlines of the week 

Critical GitLab zero-click flaw poses mitigation challenges 
GitLab wants organizations running self-managed versions of its software development and DevOps platform to immediately upgrade to new versions released Monday, but patching is not going to eliminate the risk to enterprises and others managing projects there. (Dark Reading) 

SANS 2026 AI Survey reveals cybersecurity AI adoption outpaces governance 
The survey found that 61% of cybersecurity practitioners now use AI in red team activities, while 76% have an enterprise AI governance role. Yet more than half said formal audit frameworks are not in place, and only 27% described their AI deployment as mature production. (Industrial Cyber) 

“Unprecedented” number of Apple users received recent spyware alert, say investigators 
Several people publicly and privately reported receiving Apple’s spyware alerts over the weekend, after Apple sent out a new wave of notifications on Friday alerting customers in 110 countries that they had been targeted with powerful spyware.  (TechCrunch) 

Critical macOS, SharePoint, vCenter, and Microsoft IKE flaws under active exploitation  
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday added four critical vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, stating they are being exploited in the wild. (The Hacker News) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Describing attacks with crime script analysis 
Martin explores how using crime script analysis to describe an attack with everyday language makes the situation accessible to non-technical audiences and identify points where the crime can be disrupted. 

Beers with Talos: For the record, no comment 
Kaitlin Acharya joins the crew to take us inside what happens when Talos spots something that could become a major threat, how her team tracks changes in threat actor behavior, and how intelligence moves from an investigation into detection content. 

Don't scan that! QR code phishing and cloud-native threats 
What happens when a  QR code leads to a major security incident? In this episode, Amy sits down with Senior Incident Response Consultant Terryn Valikodath to break down a recent, high-stakes breach at an Australian medical center.

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• International European Cyber Threat Intelligence Conference (IECTIC) (Sept. 9) Kassel, Germany 
• Secure Iowa (Sept. 9) Altoona, IA 
• .conf26 (Sept. 14 – 17) Denver, CO 
• LABSCon (Sept. 16 – 19) Scottsdale, AZ 
• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 
• CAMLIS (Oct. 21 – 23) Arlington, VA 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
Example Filename: d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_62_Exe.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg** 

SHA256: 24fa02c3f6ab460648f2c1274aefffb3e25569b5afdcb0d4a5918c7c742780f1  
MD5: 8ef476fa2322d063896830f85bac2e7f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=24fa02c3f6ab460648f2c1274aefffb3e25569b5afdcb0d4a5918c7c742780f1 
Example Filename: WebCompanion.exe  
Detection Name: W32.24FA02C3F6-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
Example Filename: tmp00055df5.dll  
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02 

SHA256: c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2  
MD5: 9a47c4d379998ade2f8f99e23a630c06  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
Example Filename: WCInstaller_NonAdmin.exe  
Detection Name: W32.C4DD71E347-95.SBX.TG 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.  

“Experiment is the mother of knowledge.” ― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

“Don't slide down the rabbit hole. The way down is a breeze, but climbing back's a battle.” ― Kate Morton, The Clockmaker's Daughter 

Hacker Summer Camp has come and gone, which means it’s time for you to start planning next year’s trip. I’m surely going to recap Camp Season, right? Nope.

One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed lately is a segment on the Beers with Talos podcast that we call “Make Hazel a Hacker.” If you haven’t listened to it, this is a perfect time to start. Each episode we take a few minutes and pose a security question, term, or concept to Hazel and force her to come up with an idea or explanation on the spot. There are no parameters, so she’s faced with the entirety of information security — past, present, and future. I know, it’s insane. The craziest part is that (I think) Hazel came up with this idea and still volunteered to put herself in the line of fire.

As we put Hazel’s feet to the fire, one of my favorite things happens: The rest of us listen in and offer our thoughts during her brainstorming process. Invariably, we’ve got three very different answers, ideas, hints, or directions for her. It’s surely maddening for Hazel, but to me, the best part of the discussion that inevitably follows is that although they’re all different, they’re all correct.  

For example, this past episode I asked her about a behavioral indicator (regarding “wallpaper.bmp”) that seems benign on its own, but can be interesting to use as a pivot for a threat hunt. We had various interesting angles to consider, backed by years of knowledge and experience. It gave us a good conversation, and that was a .bmp!

One of the most nebulous things to learn in this field is that multiple things can be both different and correct. When you are making your decisions this week — whether it’s deciding on a new pivot in your hunting, what devices to prioritize in your patching and updating, or which books or online training to focus on — take a quick second and get a second, third, and fourth opinion. Then try something that’s outside of your normal wheelhouse but sounds good when it’s proposed.  

None of this is a solo sport. It’s a team game and the best plays come from a mix of perspectives, experiences, and mistakes. The “right” answer can wear many faces, and your ability to hold different truths will lead you to undiscovered territory, the rabbit hole where anomaly lives and breathes. So... welcome back from Vegas. Now go down a rabbit hole on a path you wouldn’t normally take because one of your friends (Joe) or your mortal enemy (Dave) told you that it would work.

“She'd been to Narnia, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Dictionopolis. She had tessered, fallen through the rabbit hole, crossed the ice bridge into the unknown world beyond.” ― Anne Ursu, Breadcrumbs 

The one big thing 

Cisco Talos recently discovered "JWR," a previously undocumented, real-time phishing framework and likely variant of "The Outsider" phishing-as-a-service platform. JWR uses an open WebSocket connection that allows attackers to monitor keystrokes live and dynamically steer victims through fake checkout and login flows. Currently deployed via SMS lures impersonating regional toll and postal authorities, JWR enables operators to steal payment data, 2FA codes, identity documents, and device fingerprints. 

Why do I care? 

Because JWR is operator-driven in real time, attackers can actively bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) by prompting victims for 2FA codes exactly when needed. The sheer volume of collected data gives threat actors a comprehensive identity profile primed for extensive follow-on fraud and network compromise. Furthermore, JWR's seamless integration with legitimate e-commerce platforms like Shopify makes these lures incredibly convincing to the untrained eye. 

So now what? 

Prioritize user education around SMS-based phishing (smishing), specifically regarding unsolicited delivery or toll fee messages. Monitor for unusual authentication attempts, as stolen device fingerprints and session tokens can bypass conditional access policies. Where possible, implement phishing-resistant MFA methods like FIDO2 hardware keys. For a complete list of indicators of compromise (IOCs) and coverage updates, read the full blog. 

Top security headlines of the week 

Ransomware hits Colombian Justice Ministry days before presidential transition 
The attack, which disrupted some services around illicit-drug monitoring and legal processes, came a day after Colombia's national CERT published threat intelligence warning that ransomware groups had increased their focus on the country. (Dark Reading) 

FBI investigating North Korean remote IT staffer working for U.S. agency 
It’s unclear what agency was impacted, how long the intrusion lasted, and whether any sensitive data was stolen. Experts say it’s highly likely the staffer was a remote IT employee doing contract work on behalf of an agency. (Federal News Network) 

Hackers leverage new Microsoft SharePoint exploit in attacks 
A proof-of-concept exploit for a critical Microsoft SharePoint authentication bypass security flaw in the JWT token validation pipeline is already being used in attacks. (BleepingComputer) 

Signal adds new security feature to thwart adversary-in-the-middle attacks 
Signal has introduced Automatic Key Verification, a new security feature that gives users a new way to ensure their encrypted chats haven't been intercepted. (BleepingComputer) 

A data breach at shipping giant Ceva Logistics is rippling across banks, retailers, Steam gamers, and beyond 
The cyberattack on Ceva is affecting at least eight warehouses across Europe used for shipping goods across the continent. Several companies reported that hackers took their customers’ names, home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses used to place their orders from Ceva’s systems. (TechCrunch) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Don't scan that! QR code phishing and cloud-native threats 
What happens when a  QR code leads to a major security incident? In this episode, Amy sits down with Senior Incident Response Consultant Terryn Valikodath to break down a recent, high-stakes breach at an Australian medical center 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for August 2026 
Microsoft has released its monthly security update for August 2026, which includes 421 vulnerabilities affecting a range of products, including 62 that Microsoft marked as "critical." One of the vulnerabilities disclosed this month has been exploited in the wild. 

“Keep going, bro. You’ve got this!” A data-driven look at how adversaries are weaponizing AI 
How are adversaries weaponizing AI in the wild? By analyzing prompt logs left behind on endpoints, we found threat actors successfully bypassing guardrails to use AI as malicious software engineers, criminal force multipliers, and vulnerability research accelerators. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• International European Cyber Threat Intelligence Conference (IECTIC) (Sept. 9) Kassel, Germany 
• .conf26 (Sept. 14 – 17) Denver, CO 
• LABSCon (Sept. 16 – 19) Scottsdale, Arizona 
• VB (Oct. 14 – 16) Seville, Spain 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe 
Detection Name: W32.9F1F11A708-100.SBX.TG** 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59  
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
Example Filename: tmp00055df5.dll  
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02 

SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
Example Filename: d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_62_Exe.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg** 

SHA256: c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2  
MD5: 9a47c4d379998ade2f8f99e23a630c06  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=c4dd71e347a076ba24bdd2d0ee532ef991c1ef25a2431a19f850942ba2ab16b2 
Example Filename: WCInstaller_NonAdmin.exe  
Detection Name: W32.C4DD71E347-95.SBX.TG 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f  
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

Metaphor is a powerful tool for understanding emerging issues in cybersecurity. Framing the unfamiliar in terms of the well understood helps us remove the burden of extraneous detail to draw focus to the real issues.  

Recent reports of offensive AI agents "escaping" their sandbox environments to attack external systems have forced the industry into a moment of rapid sense-making. How we interpret this event doesn’t just reflect our perspective, but shapes our long-term response. 

We can imagine three different narratives for interpreting the escape of autonomous agents.  

1. The innovation narrative: We can marvel at the advance of technology, considering these agents as plucky entities with a thirst for knowledge and resources, who found clever ways to sneak out of their digital confines. 
   
   The response: If the AI is a naughty child, our reaction is one of mild disapproval or gentle rebuke where better “parenting” (guardrails) is appropriate. It minimizes the threat, framing it as the unexpected hijinks of a brilliant new technology.
   
   
2. The safety narrative: Imagine a breeder who has trained the world's most intelligent guard dogs. Despite high fences and barriers, their ability to identify weaknesses allows them to escape, run riot and menace local businesses. 
   
   The response: The framing shifts to biology and inherent danger. We question if the breeder can be trusted and whether such inherently wild technology requires strict regulation to ensure public safety. 
    
3. The liability narrative. Finally, we can view the incident as an industrial accident. A company developing a new chemical substance experiences a containment failure. The agent leaks into the environment through an unforeseen mechanism causing damaging pollution to those in its path. 
   
   The response: The framing invokes the language of the lawyer, implying negligence, lack of duty of care, and financial liability for the harm caused. The conversation moves from innovation to corporate responsibility, regulatory oversight, and the diligent management of hazardous materials. 

First impressions matter. Sensemaking shapes how we perceive incidents. Our initial perceptions of an incident dictates how we react to similar situations in the future. If we consider that the escape of an AI agent is an example of innovative autonomous thinking, then we will continue to prioritise speed over safety. Conversely, if we consider the issue as one of failed hazard containment, then we shall build a future of enforced safety standards backed by legal liability.  

There is no right or wrong metaphor. Our interpretation depends on our personal system of beliefs. Personally, I would argue that the unintentional release of something that causes damage is, at its core, a failure of engineering and foresight. 

Words shape our reactions. Metaphors help us understand new situations and tap into our prior experience to address problems that have yet to fully manifest. We need cognitive tools to help our understanding, but we must be aware of the metaphors that are being foisted upon us which may shape our thinking. 

Excuses and the trivialisation of incidents may hide failings, allowing them to accumulate until they manifest as more damaging incidents. Conversely, overreacting risks stifling research and diverting resources away from more relevant and pressing threats. 

New threats require new ideas. Metaphor helps us make sense of a changing world, but in this new era, the person who shapes the narrative controls the strategy. 

The one big thing 

Cisco Talos released a data-driven analysis of how adversaries are weaponizing AI in the wild. By analyzing prompt logs left behind on endpoints, we found threat actors successfully bypassing guardrails to use AI as malicious software engineers, criminal force multipliers, and vulnerability research accelerators. While novice hackers use AI to cobble together buggy malware, sophisticated actors are building highly effective, automated platforms for compromise. 

Why do I care? 

Threat actors no longer need sophisticated jailbreaks; simple ownership claims or "bug bounty" personas are enough to convince models to write malicious code, scale fraud operations, and hunt for zero-days. Because AI doesn't need to sleep, vulnerabilities will surface faster and exploitation will happen sooner, drastically shrinking your response window.  

So now what? 

To survive this impending deluge of AI-generated attacks, organizations must integrate AI into their own defensive pipelines. SOCs need to adopt these capabilities to triage the rising volume of alerts, freeing up human analysts to focus on the most critical threats. Read the full blog for a deep dive into these real-world attacker prompts and case studies. 

Top security headlines of the week 

Cyber attack hits Liechtenstein, with 31,000 records stolen 
The country has a population of around 41,000. The target was the "register of beneficial owners," a database containing the names and other details of the de facto owners of companies, foundations, or trusts. (Yahoo News) 

Decades-old BMC vulnerability exposes thousands of data centers to attacks 
Found in most server platforms, Baseboard Management Controllers enable server management operations even without a working operating system and typically represent some of the most privileged control points in a data center. (SecurityWeek) 

Keyv npm package compromised in Shai-Hulud attack 
Attackers have compromised the GitHub account of the maintainer behind keyv, a popular key-value storage library that pulls in roughly 127 million weekly downloads on npm, and used that access to push credential-stealing malware across the maintainer’s entire package portfolio. (Cyber Security News) 

How volunteer cyber experts are helping protect rural water systems 
DEF CON Franklin is the U.S.’ first significant attempt to connect volunteer security professionals with woefully unprotected critical infrastructure operators. (Cybersecurity Dive) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

"I pay you $200 a month!" - When threat actors argue with AI 
This week on Beers with Talos, researcher Arnaud Zobec joins the team to discuss what happens when attackers leave behind AI prompt logs, agent configurations and other unexpected artifacts. 

Tales from the Frontlines 
On Tuesday, August 11, Talos IR will be hosting an exclusive, unrecorded 30-minute webinar to review the most high-impact incidents our customers faced in Q2 2026. This isn’t a rehashing of the report itself, but a candid discussion of what happened, how we handled it, and what it means for your organization. 

Q2 Talos IR Trends: Phishing and authentication abuse spike 
From creative phishing lures that slip past email gateways to the weaponization of legitimate remote management tools, Lexi and Amy explore why traditional defenses are falling short and the practical things you can do to reclaim the advantage. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• DEF CON 34 (Aug. 6 – 9) Las Vegas, NV 
• International European Cyber Threat Intelligence Conference (IECTIC) (Sept. 9) Kassel, Germany 
• .conf26 (Sept. 14 – 17) Denver, CO 
• LABSCon (Sept. 16 – 19) Scottsdale, Arizona 
• VB (Oct. 14 -16) Seville, Spain 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201** 

SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
Example Filename: d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_62_Exe.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg** 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f  
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59  
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59   
Example Filename: tmp00055df5.dll  
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

For my fianceé’s 30^th birthday, I took her on a weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park – a favorite of ours since we went to a wedding there several years back. We’ve done several incredible hikes over the years, but one in particular had always loomed over my head: Old Rag, a 9.3 mile circuit hike that’s largely considered the most difficult in Virginia. 

I've always been warned that at the beginning and end, you hate Old Rag. For the first 2.6 miles, you’re hiking a steep climb on a dirt road, with lots of switchbacks, and plenty of places where you turn a corner and groan, because there’s an even steeper section ahead. This part was pretty torturous, because 1) I felt like my heart was going to explode out of my chest, 2) I couldn’t breathe, and 3) several times, there was a family we passed as they were taking a break, then WE took a break and THEY passed US, and so on and so forth. So awkward. 

Finally, we reached the fun part: a mile-long rock scramble, where you're squeezing through (and down) narrow rock crevices, cramming your boots to desperately find any leverage to propel yourself upward, and using all your upper body strength to control your descent. This was definitely the most fun part, although my hands and knees were sore by the end.

After hiking for hours, you reach the top and realize it was all worth it, because the summit has a a spectacular vie—

... That’s what we get for being excited to hike in overcast weather. Well, at least the way back down is fun— oh wait, four miles downward on a fire trail, crushing your toes in the front of your hiking boots? Yike. 

It may sound like I’m complaining a lot about this hike, but it was genuinely the most fun one that I’ve done to date. By the time I was freshly showered and drinking an iced coffee in Culpeper, I was gushing about when we’d go back. 

There’s a really good tie-in to cybersecurity somewhere here. Ah, got it. 

Everyone has had those uphill hike phases with the endless documentation, patching, and alerts that keep you up at night. You’re waiting for the misery to end and hoping that around the next corner, you’ll see a sign that you’re almost out of the woods. Bruised and out of breath, you finally arrive at the exciting parts: a complex project that finally comes together, the thrill of stopping an attack, or a feeling of pride when someone you're mentoring gets a new certification. Maybe the payoff is something completely unexpected.

Those moments definitely don’t erase the exhaustion — you're still sore and bruised, and will be for days — but they do remind you why you started in the first place. 

The one big thing 

Talos released our Q2 2026 Incident Response Trends report, which showed a massive spike in authentication abuse and sophisticated phishing tactics. Phishing drove over half of all engagements, with attackers leveraging QR codes and advanced platforms like ARToken to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA). Additionally, ransomware operators are increasingly weaponizing legitimate remote management tools like MeshAgent and Zoho Assist to establish stealthy, persistent access. 

Why do I care? 

Standard email gateways and basic MFA are no longer enough to stop adversaries from bypassing traditional defenses. By abusing legitimate administrative tools and trusted cloud infrastructure, threat actors can easily blend malicious traffic with normal network activity to remain undetected before deploying ransomware. Furthermore, the continued targeting of health care and public administration highlights a deliberate focus on organizations with zero tolerance for downtime. 

So now what? 

Organizations must transition from push- and SMS-based MFA to phishing-resistant methods like FIDO2 or hardware security keys. Defenders should also shift to behavior-based monitoring, specifically hunting for unauthorized instances of administrative tools. Finally, configure centralized logging with at least 90 days of retention, enforce strict outbound email thresholds, and prioritize patching internet-exposed infrastructure.  

Read the full report for a deeper dive into this quarter's trends and observed MITRE ATT&CK techniques. 

Top security headlines of the week 

Authorities investigating a coordinated cyber attack against Minnesota water systems 
Federal and state authorities are investigating what they call a coordinated cyberattack over two days against operational technology at more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota. (Cybersecurity Dive) 

Hacked public Wi-Fi gateways used to harvest corporate credentials 
As part of the attacks, the hackers modified the DNS configurations of the compromised small office/home office (SOHO) routers to redirect users to attacker-controlled infrastructure for credential theft. (SecurityWeek) 

Default Azure Automation setting enables cross-tenant identity takeover 
Microsoft addressed a public-by-default configuration and chain of code flaws in Azure Automation that could have let attackers seize another tenant's identity and access others' data, credentials, and cloud workloads. (DarkReading) 

Public proof-of-concept released for exploited Check Point SmartConsole authentication bypass 
The vulnerability is an authentication bypass in the SmartConsole login process that allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to obtain an application login token and use it to authenticate with full administrative privileges. (The Hacker News) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

The TTP: Built for IT. Used by attackers 
In this episode of The Talos Threat Perspective, Hazel, Craig and Joe explore how attackers are abusing legitimate Remote Monitoring and Management software, trusted services and compromised identities to evade detection. Based on trends revealed in the latest Talos Incident Response Quarterly Trends report, the discussion covers ransomware groups using remote tools to maintain access, phishing platforms that have evolved into complete attack ecosystems, and an ongoing QR code phishing campaign targeting Microsoft 365 accounts.

Talos Takes: Q2 Talos IR Trends: Phishing and authentication abuse
In this episode, Amy and analyst Lexi DiScola unpack the trends Talos IR saw on the frontlines in Q2 2026. From creative phishing lures that slip past email gateways to the weaponization of legitimate remote management tools, we explore why traditional defenses are falling short and the practical things you can do to reclaim the advantage. 

Preview: Cisco Talos at Black Hat USA 2026 
We have a presence within the Cisco and Splunk booth (2633) during Black Hat where you can chat to us about our latest threat research, incident response, and how Talos powers the Cisco portfolio with our intelligence. Or, feel free to pretend to want to talk to us about those things while grabbing a new multicolored Snorty. That’s fine, too. 

Chaos ransomware's msaRAT: Living off the browser to build a covert C2 channel 
The Chaos ransomware group uses new malware "msaRAT" that hijacks browsers. The malware doesn't communicate directly with C2 but connects through the browser. It enables arbitrary command execution while hiding the attacker's IP from victims via WebRTC over TURN. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• Black Hat USA (Aug. 1 – 6) Las Vegas, NV 
• DEF CON 34 (Aug. 6 – 9) Las Vegas, NV 
• .conf26 (Sept. 14 – 17) Denver, CO 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201 

SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91 
Example Filename: d4aa3e7010220ad1b458fac17039c274_62_Exe.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg** 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: fc18d4060c6dad3057c0b5a70a2081473e066951720cafbd2aa159d3aaccf2e1 
MD5: ded73d04bb3e3525226de64c38a332e3 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=fc18d4060c6dad3057c0b5a70a2081473e066951720cafbd2aa159d3aaccf2e1 
Example Filename: f_000177.exe 
Detection Name: W32.Trojan.29jq.1201 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
Example Filename:tmp00055df5.dll 
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

Lately I've found myself thinking a lot about the Australian TV series Mr. Inbetween (IMDb 8.7/10) — not because I'm a hitman for hire, but because I literally feel in-between. Specifically, in-between what I'd call the "pre-Mythos" and “post-Mythos” eras. We've crossed a capability threshold, and it's not just one model family driving that — Codex 5.3 and GPT-5.5 deliver comparable or better performance, and Tulongfeng or GLM-5.2 (an incredibly powerful open-weight model, MIT-licensed) show the frontier isn't limited to closed models anymore. 

On the other side of that line, real-world impact hasn't caught up yet and we're living in an artificial buffer zone. For me, defining the “pre-” and “post-” status comes down to the gap between "vulnerability discovery" and "vulnerability publication." 

Last week’s Patch Tuesday gave a signal of change, as Joe pointed out, so maybe the buffer zone has come to an end. 

Let's dive into the 2026 Q2 stats.

As in past years, we're seeing a steeper curve than the year before — a solid 49% YoY growth, though still not the hockey-stick moment I keep waiting for. By the end of June we were tracking close to 200 CVEs per day. 

Using the keyword methodology described here, I found 452 AI-related CVEs this calendar year. If "openclaw" is added to the keyword list, that number jumps by another 536 — a reminder that these counts are sensitive to keyword drift. Given how much the keyword list keeps changing, I'm reconsidering whether to keep publishing this particular metric going forward.

KEVs, by contrast, "only" grew 13% — a small April spike aside, it's fairly flat relative to total CVE growth. Networking-gear-related CVEs continued their climb, now accounting for 24% of KEV-related vulnerabilities (up from 20% in Q1) — consistent with the trend I flagged last quarters.

As in previous quarters, CVEs from 2024 or earlier still make up about 24% of everything we're tracking. More strikingly, even though the standard enterprise patch cycle is described  to run 30–90 days, 181 days into 2026, 46% of today's actively-exploited (KEV) CVEs still trace back to 2025 or earlier. 

Old vulnerabilities don't retire, new ones keep arriving, and machine-speed vulnerability discovery is going to keep outpacing human-speed patching. Which brings me back — once again — to EPSS as a tool for prioritizing patching against this dataset.

If you patched purely by CVSS 9+, you'd be urgently chasing ~3,700 CVEs — but 95% of those sit below 5% EPSS, meaning the real-world odds of exploitation are tiny. 

Of the 32 CVSS 9+ CVEs with EPSS ≥ 50%, 25 are already on CISA's KEV list. The remaining seven outliers are still high-probability by EPSS but haven't made KEV yet — worth watching. 

Ray Shoesmith (Mr. Inbetween) once told his therapist, "You know, if I hit somebody, I generally got a pretty good reason." 

Same principle applies to patching. Don't swing at everything — swing at what you have good reason to believe is coming for you. 

The one big thing 

Cisco Talos has discovered "msaRAT," a new Rust-based remote access trojan (RAT) deployed by the Chaos ransomware group. Built on the Tokio asynchronous runtime, it establishes a covert command-and-control (C2) channel by hijacking Chrome or Edge browsers via the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). The infection starts with a deceptive MSI file masquerading as a Windows update that loads the payload directly into memory, paving the way for ransomware deployment. 

Why do I care? 

This RAT is a master of evasion, living off the browser to build its C2 infrastructure without ever directly touching the network. By routing traffic through legitimate browser processes and trusted services, msaRAT easily bypasses traditional network-based detections. Additionally, its use of the Tokio runtime enables highly efficient, parallel execution of malicious tasks, accelerating the attacker's ability to establish persistence and deploy double-extortion ransomware. 

So now what? 

Defenders should monitor for unusual curl commands, especially those downloading MSI files to the ProgramData directory or sending plain HTTP traffic over port 443. Scrutinize unexpected MSI files impersonating Windows updates and watch for unauthorized Chrome or Edge manipulation. Finally, implement behavioral monitoring to catch Chrome DevTools Protocol abuse and unauthorized WebRTC connections. Read the full blog for complete coverage and indicators of compromise (IOCs). 

Top security headlines of the week 

Introducing Antares: Highly efficient open weight AI models for vulnerability localization 
This week, Cisco introduced Antares, a family of security small language models (SLMs) purpose-built for pinpointing where known vulnerabilities exist within a codebase. (Cisco) 

Hacker wipes European country’s entire land registry database, paralyzing real-estate market 
A hacker wiped Romania’s entire land registry database after an unsuccessful extortion attempt. The attack halted all property transactions, preventing notaries from authenticating sales or registering mortgages nationwide. (Cybernews) 

"WP2Shell” opens millions of WordPress sites to remote takeover 
Barely three days after disclosure, attackers are widely chaining together CVE-2026-60137 and CVE-2026-63030 to lob exploit attempts against one of the largest attack surfaces on the Internet. (DarkReading) 

Progress tells ShareFile customers to shut down Storage Zone Controllers over security threat  
Only the Storage Zone Controller is affected, not standard cloud-only ShareFile accounts. The controller is a server that a company runs itself, so files can stay on its own storage while it still uses ShareFile's cloud to share and manage them. (The Hacker News) 

Microsoft SharePoint under attack via new exploit 
Researchers warned that patching is not enough to address the deserialization flaw and that security teams “should rotate credentials on any assets that may have been exposed.” (Cybersecurity Dive) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

[Video] Where protection starts: Cisco Talos Intelligence Integrations 
Every day, defenders make high-consequence decisions with incomplete information. Learn how Cisco Talos Intelligence Integrations help reduce uncertainty by turning the latest threat intelligence into proactive protections across Cisco technologies. 

The Hunter's Paradox: Is it time to embrace automated threat hunting? 
Humans can no longer keep up with the volume and velocity of security data on their own, but AI can't be fully trusted. David discusses the merits of both and what the future might look like. 

The serpent’s tongue: Luring the Python out of its den 
Protect your development environment from rising Python supply-chain threats by understanding the package installation lifecycle and implementing these essential defensive strategies. 

Keeping up with the cybercriminals 
In this episode of Beers with Talos, Hazel, Bill, Dave and Joe are joined by Kendall McKay to dive into the soap opera of modern cybercrime. Turns out, every ransomware operation is one passive-aggressive group chat message away from falling apart. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• Black Hat USA (Aug. 1 – 6) Las Vegas, NV 
• DEF CON 34 (Aug. 6 – 9) Las Vegas, NV 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
Example Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201** 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f  
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f  
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: e60ab99da105ee27ee09ea64ed8eb46d8edc92ee37f039dbc3e2bb9f587a33ba  
MD5: dbd8dbecaa80795c135137d69921fdba  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=e60ab99da105ee27ee09ea64ed8eb46d8edc92ee37f039dbc3e2bb9f587a33ba  
Example Filename: u165714.dat  
Detection Name: W32.Variant:MalwareXgenMisc.29d4.1201 

SHA256: 633bd79d1efd3730234d907a2a0d98e3e253a5f0e222e4e4bf3badb3fd6aea0a  
MD5: 770dbe473180366d7b539ff2c188e551  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=633bd79d1efd3730234d907a2a0d98e3e253a5f0e222e4e4bf3badb3fd6aea0a  
Example Filename: server_tcp.exe  
Detection Name: W32.Trojan.27oc.1201 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59  
Example Filename: tmp00055df5.dll  
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

We all knew, to some degree or another, that this summer was going to a hot mess. I don’t mean FIFA drama or record setting heat waves. I mean the slow but steady momentum that AI frontier models were accruing for vulnerability research. If you were like me, and guesstimating exactly when that shoe would drop, my money was on the middle of summer. And... well, friends, I hate to say it, but I was right.  

This July’s Patch Tuesday is an absolute whopper. There are 622 vulnerabilities being patched, with 62 being a critical severity. To put this context, this month alone has more vulnerabilities listed than all of 2018 combined. Three are zero days, two of which are being actively exploited. July is usually a quiet month historically – two years ago, it was just five patches issued in total! These are wild times, friends.  

Microsoft has said this is due their AI frontier-accelerated research. We knew that this was coming, but what I am less sure about are companies that can meet the demand of this patch flood and getting these patches out to their infrastructures. The pessimist in me knows how most IT enterprises operate: You test, review stability, and then deploy. There’s a lag there – always has been, always will be. But that system worked under a sane patching load. As surely as much as Microsoft is using frontier models to research and announce vulnerabilities, so every is every other vendor.  

Either through bug bounty programs or their own internal research, vendors are eating these bugs from a fire hose. Some are straight-up slop and just noise, but some have absolute value and need to be fixed. A giant like Microsoft has the money and resources to address this – as well they should. But for every Microsoft, there are five other companies who don’t have those resources. They’ll get bugs analyzed and patches issued, surely, but it will be on a much longer timeline.  

The trick, I think, will be identifying what is a “surge” vs. our new normal. If everything is a fire drill to patch, then nothing is a fire drill. What might just be a hot summer for patching, might turn into a 12-month fusillade of KEV and EPSS notifications, with companies already under the gun taxed even more. 

I truly don’t know how this ends, but… Find your change management and IT administrators and give them a hug. There are going to be some long days and hard questions to answer, and they’ll need all the help they can get. 

The one big thing 

Cisco Talos is disclosing a new campaign by UAT-11795, a sophisticated, financially motivated Russian-speaking adversary targeting users in the U.S. and Europe since at least June 2025. UAT-11795 uses trojanized software installers — including popular tools like Webex, Zoom, and MobaXterm — to deliver a custom Python-based remote access tool we track as "Starland RAT." This RAT acts as a gateway to deploy further malicious payloads, most notably a bespoke, in-memory PowerShell command-and-control (C2) implant known as the "WLDR agent." 

Why do I care? 

This opportunistic campaign casts a wide net across multiple victim profiles, turning a simple software download into a full-blown compromise. UAT-11795 employs highly evasive techniques, including AMSI and ETW bypasses, and uses a clever blockchain-anchored fallback mechanism to maintain persistent command and control. Once inside, attackers rapidly deploy secondary payloads like CastleStealer and Remcos RAT to siphon high-value credentials and cryptocurrency assets. 

So now what? 

Educate your users on ClickFix social engineering tactics and the dangers of unofficial software downloads. Monitor for suspicious execution of mshta.exe and unusual PowerShell activity, particularly scripts executing from memory or creating unexpected scheduled tasks. Ensure endpoint detection solutions are tuned to catch in-memory execution and AMSI tampering. Read the full blog for coverage and indicators of compromise (IOCs). 

Top security headlines of the week 

Microsoft patches record 622 flaws, including two zero-days under active attack 
Microsoft shipped its largest Patch Tuesday on record, more than triple June's previous high of around 200. (The Hacker News) 

RabbitMQ vulnerability threatens enterprise systems 
RabbitMQ is a popular open-source message broker that routes, buffers, and distributes messages, enabling asynchronous communication between applications. The security defect impacts an open management endpoint that returns the OAuth secret to anyone, without authentication. (SecurityWeek) 

Nigeria deepens cybersecurity efforts as cybercriminals see more profits 
The West African country advanced rules to force organizations to disclose cyberattacks, joining other nations in a shift to mandated transparency. (DarkReading) 

Two-click cursor exploit enables dev environment takeover 
Cursor AI, a popular AI coding tool used by more than 50,000 enterprises and 64% of the Fortune 500, can be exploited in just two clicks, allowing attackers to install permission-rich model context protocol (MCP) servers on privileged developers' machines. (DarkReading) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

[Video] Where protection starts: Cisco Talos Intelligence Integrations 
Every day, defenders make high-consequence decisions with incomplete information. Learn how Cisco Talos Intelligence Integrations help reduce uncertainty by turning the latest threat intelligence into proactive protections across Cisco technologies. 

The Hunter's Paradox: Is it time to embrace automated threat hunting?
Humans can no longer keep up with the volume and velocity of security data on their own, but AI can't be fully trusted. David discusses the merits of both and what the future might look like.

The serpent’s tongue: Luring the Python out of its den 
Protect your development environment from rising Python supply-chain threats by understanding the package installation lifecycle and implementing these essential defensive strategies. 

ARToken: How attackers are bypassing MFA and maintaining access 
In this episode of Talos Takes, we dive deep into ARToken, a sophisticated phishing-as-a-service platform that steals credentials, bypasses MFA entirely, and leverages primary refresh tokens (PRTs) to maintain persistence in your environment long after a password reset. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• Black Hat USA (Aug. 1 – 6) Las Vegas, NV 
• DEF CON 34 (Aug. 6 – 9) Las Vegas, NV 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201** 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: 90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59  
MD5: c2efb2dcacba6d3ccc175b6ce1b7ed0a  
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=90b1456cdbe6bc2779ea0b4736ed9a998a71ae37390331b6ba87e389a49d3d59 
Example Filename: tmp00055df5.dll  
Detection Name: Auto.90B145.282358.in02 

SHA256: b8be9a5e0a191050f9099c11c155b436863e9bc43bc904cdb842e249679aa35a 
MD5: 0398df5a18f71efcfeef4571a2cef577 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=b8be9a5e0a191050f9099c11c155b436863e9bc43bc904cdb842e249679aa35a 
Example Filename: b8be9a5e0a191050f9099c11c155b436863e9bc43bc904cdb842e249679aa35a.js 
Detection Name: W32.B8BE9A5E0A-95.SBX.TG 

Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter. 

There’s a fairly cliché phrase in cybersecurity that I’m sure our audience is familiar with: Attackers only need to be right once, whereas defenders need to be right 100% of the time.  

I guess it captures the asymmetry of this industry, but I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the phrase because it assumes cybersecurity is a game of perfection. One mistake and it's over.  

I’ve been watching a lot of Wimbledon this week, as I have done since childhood. In fact, I believe my first words were, “C’mon Tim!” (For our non-U.K. audience, I’m referring to tennis player Tim Henman, who made four Wimbledon semi-finals in the late 90s and early 2000s and has a hill in the Wimbledon grounds named after him).  

Of the “big three” (or the “big four” if you’re Scottish), my favourite was always Rafa Nadal, but I have to admit there’s no one who could deliver a one-handed backhand quite like Roger Federer. I bet that when he swats at a fly, the fly apologises and claps its wings. 

As I saw him sitting in the Royal Box entirely on his own this week, watching tennis out of pure love of the game while everyone else scoffed their strawberries and cream in the comfort of hospitality, I remembered the commencement speech he gave at Dartmouth a couple of years ago. He told the students that, across his entire career, he won 80% of his matches.  

But of all the total points he played, he won 54% of them.  

Tennis is a long game (no one can tell you that more than Novak Djokovic and Felix Auger Aliassime who just played the longest quarter final in Wimbledon’s history last night). And, mathematically in tennis, you can lose more points and overall games than your opponent and still win the match. Which point you win matters more than the total amount of points you win.  

If you go to the IBM SlamTracker right now, you’ll see all sorts of stats around when players choose to attack, how often they successfully convert those attacking positions into points, and how often they win points they looked destined to lose (the “steal” score). 

Tennis is hundreds of small decisions: When to attack, when to defend, when to be patient, when to let the point develop. Not all of those decisions pan out because, well, you’re playing against an opponent who’s also making decisions within the point… and not a brick wall. 

In the SOC, it’s also about making thousands of judgement calls, using whatever hand you’re dealt. And with more context, you’re able to know your environment better and make better decisions. You can test more assumptions and follow a hypothesis that might lead somewhere, or nowhere at all. 

Because that’s the job, and perfection is a myth. 

The one big thing 

Cisco Talos’ latest findings on the China-nexus threat actor UAT-7810 shows they are expanding their Operational Relay Box (ORB) networks with a fresh suite of custom malware. The group exploits known vulnerabilities in unpatched Ruckus and ASUS routers to deploy new tools, including the upgraded "LONGLEASH" and "DOGLEASH" backdoors. UAT-7810 builds these covert networks to provide infrastructure for other APT groups to launch attacks against high-value targets. 

Why do I care? 

ORB networks create a massive blind spot. They allow secondary threat actors to mask their origins and route malicious traffic through seemingly innocuous nodes. By compromising edge devices like wireless routers, UAT-7810 builds a highly evasive, decentralized proxy network that easily bypasses traditional perimeter defenses. The active development of sophisticated, multi-platform tools like LONGLEASH shows this group is heavily investing in making their infrastructure incredibly resilient and hard to dismantle. 

So now what? 

Because UAT-7810 relies on exploiting n-day vulnerabilities, defenders must ensure all edge devices, particularly Ruckus and ASUS routers, are fully patched. Monitor network traffic for unusual proxying behavior or unauthorized connections on devices that typically lack complex services. The blog post has a complete list of IOCs to help detect and block this malware suite. 

Top security headlines of the week 

The “first” AI-run ransomware attack still needed a human 
Researchers at cloud security firm Sysdig said they’d documented the first known case of “agentic ransomware.” (The encryption was non-reversible — essentially a wiper, not ransomware.) A human provided compromised credentials, provisioned the command-and-control server, the staging server used for the stolen data, chose a victim, and more. (TechCrunch) 

AirDrop and Quick Share flaws let nearby attackers trigger crashes and bypass checks  
Two researchers have found six security flaws in AirDrop and Quick Share. An attacker within wireless range, with just a laptop and no prior connection, can crash the sharing service on a Mac or iPhone set to receive from anyone, with no tap or prompt. (The Hacker News) 

Hidden backdoor in Tenda router firmware grants admin access 
A hidden authentication backdoor has been found in multiple Tenda router firmware versions, potentially allowing an attacker to gain administrative access to the device's web management panel. According to the CERT Coordination Center, the issue remains unfixed because the maker couldn't be reached. (BleepingComputer) 

State IDs for AI agents: Will Estonia set a precedent? 
Estonia's government will soon assign official government ID numbers to AI agents. The point is to enable organizations and individuals to use AI when engaging government systems, but in a way that's limited and auditable. (Dark Reading) 

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Space pirates, Living Off Trusted Services, and Bill declares food war  
The team discusses how Living Off Trusted Services (LOTS) differs from Living Off the Land (LOTL) (and Lord of the Rings (LOTR]), why trusted services create new detection challenges, and what defenders should be monitoring. 

ARToken: Inside an EvilTokens affiliate panel targeting Microsoft 365 
Talos has identified "ARToken," a phishing-as-a-service platform that targets Microsoft 365. The ARToken panel exposes 80+ API endpoints for device code phishing, Primary Refresh Token persistence, email access, BEC operations, and SharePoint exfiltration. 

Martin Lee: Running through the Arctic (and the threat landscape) 
Ever wonder how someone goes from studying human viruses to leading cybersecurity teams? How about running through the Arctic for fun?  In this Humans of Talos you get to hear from Martin and that’s ALWAYS worth pulling up a seat. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• Black Hat USA (Aug. 1 – 6) Las Vegas, NV 
• DEF CON 34 (Aug. 6 – 9) Las Vegas, NV 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507  
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201** 

SHA256: 621c6d42409e8aa423684827b4375a35684c71c600f2dd9101f235e8ec633488 
MD5: 9b512ba139304c247ddd3d2c4b9179fd 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=621c6d42409e8aa423684827b4375a35684c71c600f2dd9101f235e8ec633488 
Example Filename: 9b512ba139304c247ddd3d2c4b9179fd.exe 
Detection Name: W32.HEUR:Attribute.28iy.1201 

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: SECOH-QAD.exe  
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201 

SHA256: afc8a00883a4ea07df2dc1d4ed02f8a23b35c9456413b438a2d9ce3ae5076638 
MD5: cc4d231df34e57f59eb970353c7d9de2 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=afc8a00883a4ea07df2dc1d4ed02f8a23b35c9456413b438a2d9ce3ae5076638 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: PUA.Win.Tool.Kmsactivator::1201 

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.  

“I do not know everything; still many things I understand.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time 

“Don't try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wind in the Door 

The World Cup. The 4^th of July as the US turns 250. Dungeon Crawler Carl. LeBron moving on. Wimbledon. AI. There are so many things that I could draw a parallel to farm for this week’s newsletter content. So let’s talk about board games.  
 
A lot of skills come and go, and your journey with cybersecurity will be full of tools that you learn and then are gone. It’s a never-ending journey of learning. And it’s honestly the best thing about this career path for the kind of minds that are drawn to it. Innate curiosity is the currency of our cyber family.  

Learning new and interesting board games (and I use the term broadly to circle in RPGs, card games, etc) is an incredible way to hone your mind and keep it focused on some of the most important tools that you will have.  

Games will harness your ability to highlight anomalous activity, by players, by rulesets, by structure. They will also highlight your personal brand of brain activity and allow you to leverage your singular style and intuition into a weapon.  

There are countless ways to win Ticket to Ride and your play style may be completely counter to someone you play with. That then creates patterns that you must learn to break. Nothing is more important to your defensive strategies than knowing yourself (know your environment!) and then breaking your tendencies to force your opponent to change their comfortable tactics (maybe, you’ve created some honeypot fake accounts to trigger identity alerts to track threat actors, to track their tooling and methodologies quietly).  

This is nothing compared to the chaotic variance of a game like Go with its simplistic ruleset yet cascading complexity of each stone’s placement.  
 
Learning a new game is a challenge and a great practice in and of itself, but learning how YOU and your strategies evolve as you learn the game will give you a microcosmic view into taking on new technologies, new coding languages, and new skill sets.  

You will have peaks and valleys. So often in the work world we let the complexities and our imposter syndrome keep us from taking a risk or next step in our learning evolutions – next steps that we boldly take in our gaming lives.  

So take what you learn from a Machi Koro, or Pathfinder, or Catan, or Wingspan, or ADnD 2e, or ... you get the idea, take that same aggressive inquisitive mindset to your current work, turn it on its head and find a new way to do something you are already good at. And then look at something you struggle with and treat it like the next level. In the end, the worst that can happen is you fail. Because that’s where we learn.  

"If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"
– Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men  

The one big thing 

Cisco Talos is highlighting research into ARToken a fully-featured phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) operator panel, branded "ARToken," that shares infrastructure, API contracts, and operational patterns with the EvilTokens platform documented by Sekoia and Microsoft in early 2026, and features capabilites previously not documented. 

Why do I care? 

The ARToken panel exposes 80+ API endpoints for device code phishing, Primary Refresh Token (PRT) persistence, email access, business email compromise (BEC) operations, and SharePoint exfiltration — all accessible to operators through a React-based dashboard. These features indicate the platform is more mature than a simple device code phishing kit — it is a complete BEC operations environment. 

So now what? 

Defenders should be aware of the kind of capabilities that this panel gives and use the IOCs provided by Talos to block malicious activity and use them as pivots for their internal hunts if they are present.

Top security headlines of the week 

An aggressive password-spraying campaign targeting Microsoft 365 environments generated more than 81 million login attempts over a two-week period
The threat actor tried to authenticate via Microsoft's Azure command-line interface (CLI) using still valid username and password combinations that had been exposed in past breaches. (BleepingComputer)

Threat actors are trying to leverage organization-owned AI agents to power complex threat activity
By exploiting misconfigured or exposed AI endpoints, adversaries are increasingly turning enterprise-grade automation tools against their owners to facilitate more sophisticated and evasive cyberattacks. (DarkReading)

A recent authentication bypass vulnerability in the SimpleHelp remote monitoring and management (RMM) software has been exploited for malware delivery
Tracked as CVE-2026-48558, the bug impacts SimpleHelp’s OpenID Connect authentication flow and allows a remote attacker to obtain a fully authenticated technician session. (Security Week)

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Martin Lee: Running through the Arctic (and the threat landscape)
Ever wonder how someone goes from studying human viruses to leading cybersecurity teams? How about running through the Arctic for fun?  In this Humans of Talos you get to hear from Martin and that’s ALWAYS worth pulling up a seat. 
 
Beers with Talos has an updated format, which includes making Hazel a hacker and “Reasons not to Quit”, listener questions (yes, that means YOU) - as well as a guest appearance from Nick Biasini who is always worth the price of admission. 

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

• Black Hat USA (Aug. 1 – 6) Las Vegas, NV 
• DEF CON 34 (Aug. 6 – 9) Las Vegas, NV 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Example Filename: VID001.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201**  

SHA256: 9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f
MD5: 38de5b216c33833af710e88f7f64fc98 Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=9896a6fcb9bb5ac1ec5297b4a65be3f647589adf7c37b45f3f7466decd6a4a7f 
Example Filename: sample.exe 
Detection Name: Win.Tool.Procpatcher::1201  

SHA256: afc8a00883a4ea07df2dc1d4ed02f8a23b35c9456413b438a2d9ce3ae5076638
MD5: cc4d231df34e57f59eb970353c7d9de2 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=afc8a00883a4ea07df2dc1d4ed02f8a23b35c9456413b438a2d9ce3ae5076638 
Example Filename: AutoPico.exe 
Detection Name: PUA.Win.Tool.Kmsactivator::1201  

SHA256: c0ad494457dcd9e964378760fb6aca86a23622045bca851d8f3ab49ec33978fe
MD5: bf9672ec85283fdf002d83662f0b08b7 
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=c0ad494457dcd9e964378760fb6aca86a23622045bca851d8f3ab49ec33978fe 
Example Filename: f_000cd7.html
Detection Name: W32.C0AD494457-95.SBX.TG  

SHA256: 853baab97b1f3b03c1ffa55797e87867f5fb7ce33457411f56afd270cb395453
MD5: 41acb30b9d662d48b7b4fc0ac3d4b79f Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos_file_reputation?s=853baab97b1f3b03c1ffa55797e87867f5fb7ce33457411f56afd270cb395453 
Example Filename: SignInfoConsole.exe
Detection Name: W32.853BAAB97B.in12.Talos