2025-09-01 AI创业新闻

Attackers Abuse Velociraptor Forensic Tool to Deploy Visual Studio Code for C2 Tunneling

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a cyber attack in which unknown threat actors deployed an open-source endpoint monitoring and digital forensic tool called Velociraptor , illustrating ongoing abuse of legitimate software for malicious purposes. “In this incident, the threat actor used the tool to download and execute Visual Studio Code with the likely intention of creating a tunnel to an attacker-controlled command-and-control (C2) server,” the Sophos Counter Threat Unit Research Team said in a report published this week. While threat actors are known to adopt living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques or take advantage of legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools in their attacks, the use of Velociraptor signals a tactical evolution, where incident response programs are being used to obtain a foothold and minimize the need for having to deploy their own malware. Further analysis of the incident has revealed that the attackers used the Windows msiexec utility to download an MSI installer from a Cloudflare Workers domain, which serves as a staging ground for other tools used by them, including a Cloudflare tunneling tool and a remote administration utility known as Radmin.

The MSI file is designed to install Velociraptor, which then establishes contact with another Cloudflare Workers domain. The access is then leveraged to download Visual Studio Code from the same staging server using an encoded PowerShell command and execute the source code editor with the tunnel option enabled in order to allow both remote access and remote code execution. The threat actors have also been observed utilizing the msiexec Windows utility again to download additional payloads from the workers[.]dev folder. “Organizations should monitor for and investigate unauthorized use of Velociraptor and treat observations of this tradecraft as a precursor to ransomware,” Sophos said.

“Implementing an endpoint detection and response system, monitoring for unexpected tools and suspicious behaviors, and following best practices for securing systems and generating backups can mitigate the ransomware threat.” The disclosure comes as cybersecurity firms Hunters and Permiso detailed a malicious campaign that has leveraged Microsoft Teams for initial access, reflecting a growing pattern of threat actors weaponizing the platform’s trusted and deeply embedded role in enterprise-focused communications for malware deployment. These attacks begin with the threat actors using newly created or compromised tenants to send direct messages or initiate calls to targets, impersonating IT help desk teams or other trusted contacts to install remote access software like AnyDesk, DWAgent, or Quick Assist, and seize control of victim systems to deliver malware. While similar techniques involving remote access tools have been linked to ransomware groups like Black Basta since mid-2024, these newer campaigns forgo the preliminary email bombing step and ultimately make use of the remote access to deliver a PowerShell payload with capabilities commonly associated with credential theft, persistence, and remote code execution. “The lures used to initiate engagement are tailored to appear routine and unremarkable, typically framed as IT assistance related to Teams performance, system maintenance, or general technical support,” Permiso researcher Isuf Deliu said.

“These scenarios are designed to blend into the background of everyday corporate communication, making them less likely to trigger suspicion.” It’s worth noting that similar tactics have been employed to propagate malware families like DarkGate and Matanbuchus malware over the past year. The attacks also serve a Windows credential prompt to trick users into entering their passwords under the guise of a benign system configuration request, which are then harvested and saved to a text file on the system. “Microsoft Teams phishing isn’t a fringe technique anymore — it’s an active, evolving threat that bypasses traditional email defenses and exploits trust in collaboration tools,” security researchers Alon Klayman and Tomer Kachlon said. “By monitoring audit logs like ChatCreated and MessageSent, enriching signals with contextual data, and training users to spot IT/help desk impersonations, SOC teams can close this new gap before it’s exploited.” The findings also follow the discovery of a novel malvertising campaign that combines legitimate office[.]com links with Active Directory Federation Services ( ADFS ) to redirect users to Microsoft 365 phishing pages that are capable of harvesting login information.

The attack chain, in a nutshell, begins when a victim clicks on a rogue sponsored link on search engine results pages, triggering a redirect chain that ultimately leads them to a fake login page mimicking Microsoft. “It turns out the attacker had set up a custom Microsoft tenant with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) configured,” Push Security’s Luke Jennings said . “This means Microsoft will perform the redirect to the custom malicious domain.” “While this isn’t a vulnerability per se, the ability for attackers to add their own Microsoft ADFS server to host their phishing page and have Microsoft redirect to it is a concerning development that will make URL-based detections even more challenging than they already are.” Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

WhatsApp Patches Zero-Click Exploit Targeting iOS and macOS Devices

WhatsApp has addressed a security vulnerability in its messaging apps for Apple iOS and macOS that it said may have been exploited in the wild in conjunction with a recently disclosed Apple flaw in targeted zero-day attacks. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-55177 (CVSS score: 8.0 [CISA-ADP]/5.4 [Facebook]), relates to a case of insufficient authorization of linked device synchronization messages. Internal researchers on the WhatsApp Security Team have been credited with discovering and rerating the bug. The Meta-owned company said the issue “could have allowed an unrelated user to trigger processing of content from an arbitrary URL on a target’s device.” The flaw affects the following versions - WhatsApp for iOS prior to version 2.25.21.73 (Patched on July 28, 2025) WhatsApp Business for iOS version 2.25.21.78 (Patched on August 4, 2025), and WhatsApp for Mac version 2.25.21.78 (Patched on August 4, 2025) It also assessed that the shortcoming may have been chained with CVE-2025-43300, a vulnerability affecting iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, as part of a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users.

CVE-2025-43300 was disclosed by Apple last week as having been weaponized in an “extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.” The vulnerability in question is an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the ImageIO framework that could result in memory corruption when processing a malicious image. Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of the Security Lab at Amnesty International, said WhatsApp has notified an unspecified number of individuals that they believe were targeted by an advanced spyware campaign in the past 90 days using CVE-2025-55177. In the alert sent to the targeted individuals, WhatsApp has also recommended performing a full device factory reset and keeping their operating system and the WhatsApp app up-to-date for optimal protection. It’s currently not known who, or which spyware vendor, is behind the attacks.

Ó Cearbhaill described the pair of vulnerabilities as a “zero-click” attack, meaning it does not require any user interaction, such as clicking a link, to compromise their device. “Early indications are that the WhatsApp attack is impacting both iPhone and Android users, civil society individuals among them,” Ó Cearbhaill said . “Government spyware continues to pose a threat to journalists and human rights defenders.” Update In a statement shared with The Hacker News, WhatsApp said it sent in-app threat notifications to less than 200 users who may have been targeted as part of the campaign. (The story was updated after publication to clarify that patches were released for the flaw in late July/August 2025.) Found this article interesting?

Researchers Warn of Sitecore Exploit Chain Linking Cache Poisoning and Remote Code Execution

Three new security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the Sitecore Experience Platform that could be exploited to achieve information disclosure and remote code execution. The flaws, per watchTowr Labs , are listed below - CVE-2025-53693

HTML cache poisoning through unsafe reflections CVE-2025-53691
Remote code execution (RCE) through insecure deserialization CVE-2025-53694
Information Disclosure in ItemService API with a restricted anonymous user, leading to exposure of cache keys using a brute-force approach Patches for the first two shortcomings were released by Sitecore in June and for the third in July 2025 , with the company stating that “successful exploitation of the related vulnerabilities might lead to remote code execution and non-authorized access to information.” The findings build on three more flaws in the same product that were detailed by watchTowr back in June - CVE-2025-34509 (CVSS score: 8.2) - Use of hard-coded credentials CVE-2025-34510 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Post-authenticated remote code execution via path traversal CVE-2025-34511 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Post-authenticated remote code execution via Sitecore PowerShell Extension watchTowr Labs researcher Piotr Bazydlo said the newly uncovered bugs could be fashioned into an exploit chain by bringing together the pre-auth HTML cache poisoning vulnerability with a post-authenticated remote code execution issue to compromise a fully-patched Sitecore Experience Platform instance. The entire sequence of events leading up to code execution is as follows: A threat actor could leverage the ItemService API, if exposed, to trivially enumerate HTML cache keys stored in the Sitecore cache and send HTTP cache poisoning requests to those keys. This could then be chained with CVE-2025-53691 to supply malicious HTML code that ultimately results in code execution by means of an unrestricted BinaryFormatter call.

“We managed to abuse a very restricted reflection path to call a method that lets us poison any HTML cache key,” Bazydlo said. “That single primitive opened the door to hijacking Sitecore Experience Platform pages - and from there, dropping arbitrary JavaScript to trigger a Post-Auth RCE vulnerability.” Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Webinar: Learn How to Unite Dev, Sec, and Ops Teams With One Shared Playbook

Picture this: Your team rolls out some new code, thinking everything’s fine. But hidden in there is a tiny flaw that explodes into a huge problem once it hits the cloud. Next thing you know, hackers are in, and your company is dealing with a mess that costs millions. Scary, right?

In 2025, the average data breach hits businesses with a whopping $4.44 million bill globally. And guess what? A big chunk of these headaches comes from app security slip-ups, like web attacks that snag credentials and wreak havoc. If you’re in dev, ops, or security, you’ve probably felt that stress—endless alerts, teams arguing over who’s to blame, and fixes that take forever.

But hey, it doesn’t have to be this way. What if you could spot those risks early, from the moment code is written all the way to when it’s running in the cloud? That’s the magic of code-to-cloud visibility, and it’s changing how smart teams handle app security. Our upcoming webinar, “Code-to-Cloud Visibility: The New Foundation for Modern AppSec,” is your chance to learn how.

It’s happening on September 8, 2025—just a few weeks away. This isn’t some boring lecture; it’s real talk from experts who’ve been there, packed with tips you can use right away. Sign up for the Webinar Now and grab your spot before it’s gone! The Real Headache Hiding in Your Apps Let’s be honest: As companies grow and push more work onto dev teams, things get messy.

Risks pop up in code but only show up later in the cloud, leading to confusion, slow fixes, and attackers getting the jump on you. Recent reports show that inefficient vulnerability handling is a top pain for 32% of organizations, and securing AI tools like GenAI is right behind at 30%. Even worse, 97% of companies are dealing with GenAI-related security issues. Without a clear view from code to cloud, you’re basically guessing—and that leaves doors open for bad guys.

I’ve chatted with folks in the trenches who share war stories: Late nights scrambling to patch holes that could’ve been fixed days earlier. It’s draining, and with breaches costing more than ever, it’s hitting the bottom line hard. The good news? Code-to-cloud visibility connects the dots, giving you full sight into vulnerabilities, secrets, and setup mistakes.

It helps teams catch issues early, fix them fast, and work together better—no more finger-pointing. What You’ll Walk Away With: Simple Steps to Level Up Your Security In this quick 60-minute chat, our pros will break down why this approach is becoming a must-have for app security programs. Gartner says by 2026, 40% of companies will jump on board with tools like ASPM to handle risks smarter. We’ll keep it straightforward, no tech overload—just practical stuff.

Here’s what you’ll get:
Get Everyone on the Same Page: See how linking code risks to cloud behavior creates a simple shared plan. Dev, ops, and security teams can finally team up, cut the noise, and speed up feedback. Focus on What Really Matters; Learn easy ways to map out risks and zero in on your key apps. We’ll share real examples, like tracing a code glitch to its cloud weak spot, so you can plug holes before hackers notice.
Fix Things Quicker: Grab step-by-step ideas to automate fixes and slash remediation time—some teams see drops of 30% or more in vulnerabilities and days shaved off fixes. Imagine adding this to your workflow without slowing down your work. Stay Ahead of New Threats; We’ll cover hot topics like safe AI use and rules pushing for better security. Plus, a handy checklist to check your setup and quick wins to try tomorrow.

People who’ve joined similar sessions say it changed how they work: “It connected the dots and stopped us from chasing shadows,” one ops guy told me. Ready to make that change for your team? Sign up for the Webinar Now and start turning those insights into action. Watch this Webinar Now Why Jump In Now?

Threats Aren’t Waiting With big attacks making headlines—like the PowerSchool breach hitting millions or ransomware messing with supply chains in 2025—delaying isn’t smart. Code-to-cloud visibility isn’t fancy tech; it’s your shield to bake security in from start to finish. Don’t wait for a crisis—get ahead and make your apps tougher. Seats are going quickly, so sign up today.

You’ll also snag a free ASPM checklist and the recording to watch later. It’s a small time investment for big peace of mind. Sign Up for the Webinar Now – Can’t wait to see you there! Found this article interesting?

This article is a contributed piece from one of our valued partners. Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Amazon Disrupts APT29 Watering Hole Campaign Abusing Microsoft Device Code Authentication

Amazon on Friday said it flagged and disrupted what it described as an opportunistic watering hole campaign orchestrated by the Russia-linked APT29 actors as part of their intelligence gathering efforts. The campaign used “compromised websites to redirect visitors to malicious infrastructure designed to trick users into authorizing attacker-controlled devices through Microsoft’s device code authentication flow,” Amazon’s Chief Information Security Officer CJ Moses said . APT29, also tracked as BlueBravo, Cloaked Ursa, CozyLarch, Cozy Bear, Earth Koshchei, ICECAP, Midnight Blizzard, and The Dukes, is the name assigned to a state-sponsored hacking group with ties to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). In recent months, the prolific threat actor has been linked to attacks leveraging malicious Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) configuration files to target Ukrainian entities and exfiltrate sensitive data.

Since the start of the year, the adversarial collective has been observed adopting various phishing methods, including device code phishing and device join phishing , to obtain unauthorized access to Microsoft 365 accounts. As recently as June 2025, Google said it observed a threat cluster with affiliations to APT29 weaponizing a Google account feature called application-specific passwords to gain access to victims’ emails. The highly targeted campaign was attributed to UNC6293. The latest activity identified by Amazon’s threat intelligence team underscores the threat actor’s continued efforts to harvest credentials and gather intelligence of interest, while simultaneously sharpening their tradecraft.

“This opportunistic approach illustrates APT29’s continued evolution in scaling their operations to cast a wider net in their intelligence collection efforts,” Moses said. The attacks involved APT29 compromising various legitimate websites and injecting JavaScript that redirected approximately 10% of visitors to actor-controlled domains, such as findcloudflare[.]com, that mimicked Cloudflare verification pages to give an illusion of legitimacy. In reality, the end goal of the campaign was to entice victims into entering a legitimate device code generated by the threat actor into a sign-in page, effectively granting them access to their Microsoft accounts and data. This technique was detailed by both Microsoft and Volexity back in February 2025.

The activity is also noteworthy for incorporating various evasion techniques, such as Base64 encoding to conceal malicious code, setting cookies to prevent repeated redirects of the same visitor, and shifting to new infrastructure when blocked. Amazon told The Hacker News that it doesn’t have additional information on how many websites were compromised as part of this effort, and how these sites were hacked in the first place. The tech giant also noted that it was able to link the domains used in this campaign with infrastructure previously attributed to APT29. “Despite the actor’s attempts to migrate to new infrastructure, including a move off AWS to another cloud provider, our team continued tracking and disrupting their operations,” Moses said.

“After our intervention, we observed the actor register additional domains such as cloudflare.redirectpartners[.]com, which again attempted to lure victims into Microsoft device code authentication workflows.” Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Abandoned Sogou Zhuyin Update Server Hijacked, Weaponized in Taiwan Espionage Campaign

An abandoned update server associated with input method editor (IME) software Sogou Zhuyin was leveraged by threat actors as part of an espionage campaign to deliver several malware families, including C6DOOR and GTELAM, in attacks primarily targeting users across Eastern Asia. “Attackers employed sophisticated infection chains, such as hijacked software updates and fake cloud storage or login pages, to distribute malware and collect sensitive information,” Trend Micro researchers Nick Dai and Pierre Lee said in an exhaustive report. The campaign, identified in June 2025, has been codenamed TAOTH by the cybersecurity company. Targets of the activity mainly include dissidents, journalists, researchers, and technology/business leaders in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and overseas Taiwanese communities.

Taiwan accounts for 49% of all targets, followed by Cambodia (11%) and the U.S. (7%). It’s said the attackers, in October 2024, took control of the lapsed domain name (“sogouzhuyin[.]com”) associated with Sogou Zhuyin, a legitimate IME service that stopped receiving updates in June 2019, to disseminate malicious payloads a month later. It’s estimated that several hundred victims were impacted.

“The attacker took over the abandoned update server and, after registering it, used the domain to host malicious updates since October 2024,” the researchers said. “Through this channel, multiple malware families have been deployed, including GTELAM, C6DOOR, DESFY, and TOSHIS.” The deployed malware families serve different purposes, including remote access (RAT), information theft, and backdoor functionality. To evade detection, the threat actors also leveraged third-party cloud services to conceal their network activities across the attack chain. These malware strains enable remote access, information theft, and backdoor functionality, with the attackers also using legitimate cloud storage services like Google Drive as a data exfiltration point and to conceal the malicious network traffic.

The attack chain begins when unsuspecting users download the official installer for Sogou Zhuyin from the Internet, such as the Traditional Chinese Wikipedia page entry for Sogou Zhuyin, which, in March 2025, was modified to point users to the malicious domain dl[.]sogouzhuyin[.]com. While the installer is completely innocuous, the malicious activity kicks in when the automatic update process is triggered a couple of hours after installation, causing the updater binary, “ZhuyinUp.exe,” to fetch an update configuration file from an embedded URL: “srv-pc.sogouzhuyin[.]com/v1/upgrade/version.” It’s this update process that has been tampered with to DESFY, GTELAM, C6DOOR, and TOSHIS with the ultimate goal of profiling and gathering data from high-value targets - TOSHIS (First detected December 2024), a loader designed to fetch next-stage payloads (Cobalt Strike or Merlin agent for Mythic framework) from an external server. It’s also a variant of Xiangoop , which has been attributed to Tropic Trooper and has been used to deliver Cobalt Strike or a backdoor called EntryShell in the past. DESFY (First detected May 2025), a spyware that collects file names from two locations: Desktop and Program Files GTELAM (First detected May 2025), another spyware that collects file names matching a specific set of extensions (PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, and PPTX), and exfiltrates the details to Google Drive C6DOOR , a bespoke Go-based backdoor that uses HTTP and WebSocket protocols for command-and-control so as to receive instructions to gather system information, run arbitrary commands, perform file operations, upload/download files, capture screenshots, list running processes, enumerate directories, and inject shellcode into a targeted process Further analysis of C6DOOR has uncovered the presence of embedded Simplified Chinese characters within the sample, suggesting that the threat actor behind the artifact may be proficient in Chinese.

“It appears that the attacker was still in the reconnaissance phase, primarily seeking high-value targets,” Trend Micro said. “As a result, no further post-exploitation activities were observed in the majority of victim systems. In one of the cases we analyzed, the attacker was inspecting the victim’s environment and establishing a tunnel using Visual Studio Code.” Interestingly, there is evidence that TOSHIS was also distributed to targets using a phishing website, likely in connection with a spear-phishing campaign targeting Eastern Asia and, to a lesser extent, Norway and the U.S. The phishing attacks have also been observed adopting a two-pronged approach - Serving fake login pages with lures related to free coupons or PDF readers that redirect and grant OAuth consent to attacker-controlled apps, or Serving fake cloud storage pages that mimic Tencent Cloud StreamLink to download malicious ZIP archives containing TOSHIS These phishing emails include a booby-trapped URL and a decoy document that tricks the recipient into interacting with the malicious content, ultimately activating a multi-stage attack sequence designed to drop TOSHIS using DLL side-loading or obtain unauthorized access and control over their Google or Microsoft mailboxes through an OAuth permission prompt.

Trend Micro said the TAOTH shares infrastructure and tooling overlap with previously documented threat activity by ITOCHU, painting the picture of a persistent threat actor with a focus on reconnaissance, espionage, and email abuse. To combat these threats, organizations are recommended to routinely audit their environments for any end-of-support software and promptly remove or replace such applications. Users are urged to review the permissions requested by cloud applications before granting access. “In the Sogou Zhuyin operation, the threat actor maintained a low profile, conducting reconnaissance to identify valuable targets among victims,” the company said.

“Meanwhile, in the ongoing spear-phishing operations, the attacker distributed malicious emails to the targets for further exploitation.” Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Can Your Security Stack See ChatGPT? Why Network Visibility Matters

Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude are increasingly common in organizations. While these solutions improve efficiency across tasks, they also present new data leak prevention for generative AI challenges. Sensitive information may be shared through chat prompts, files uploaded for AI-driven summarization, or browser plugins that bypass familiar security controls. Standard DLP products often fail to register these events.

Solutions such as Fidelis Network ® Detection and Response (NDR) introduce network-based data loss prevention that brings AI activity under control. This allows teams to monitor, enforce policies, and audit GenAI use as part of a broader data loss prevention strategy. Why Data Loss Prevention Must Evolve for GenAI Data loss prevention for generative AI requires shifting focus from endpoints and siloed channels to visibility across the entire traffic path. Unlike earlier tools that rely on scanning emails or storage shares, NDR technologies like Fidelis identify threats as they traverse the network, analyzing traffic patterns even if the content is encrypted.

The critical concern is not just who created the data, but when and how it leaves the organization’s control, whether through direct uploads, conversational queries, or integrated AI features in business systems. Monitoring Generative AI Usage Effectively Organizations can use GenAI DLP solutions based on network detection across three complementary approaches: URL-Based Indicators and Real-Time Alerts Administrators can define indicators for specific GenAI platforms, for example, ChatGPT. These rules can be applied to multiple services and tailored to relevant departments or user groups. Monitoring can run across web, email, and other sensors.

Process: When a user accesses a GenAI endpoint, Fidelis NDR generates an alert If a DLP policy is triggered, the platform records a full packet capture for subsequent analysis Web and mail sensors can automate actions, such as redirecting user traffic or isolating suspicious messages Advantages: Real-time notifications enable prompt security response Supports comprehensive forensic analysis as needed Integrates with incident response playbooks and SIEM or SOC tools Considerations: Maintaining up-to-date rules is necessary as AI endpoints and plugins change High GenAI usage may require alert tuning to avoid overload Metadata-Only Monitoring for Audit and Low-Noise Environments Not every organization needs immediate alerts for all GenAI activity. Network-based data loss prevention policies often record activity as metadata, creating a searchable audit trail with minimal disruption. Alerts are suppressed, and all relevant session metadata is retained Sessions log source and destination IP, protocol, ports, device, and timestamps Security teams can review all GenAI interactions historically by host, group, or time frame Benefits: Reduces false positives and operational fatigue for SOC teams Enables long-term trend analysis and audit or compliance reporting Limits: Important events may go unnoticed if not regularly reviewed Session-level forensics and full packet capture are only available if a specific alert escalates In practice, many organizations use this approach as a baseline, adding active monitoring only for higher-risk departments or activities. Detecting and Preventing Risky File Uploads Uploading files to GenAI platforms introduces a higher risk, especially when handling PII, PHI, or proprietary data.

Fidelis NDR can monitor such uploads as they happen. Effective AI security and data protection means closely inspecting these movements. Process: The system recognizes when files are being uploaded to GenAI endpoints DLP policies automatically inspect file contents for sensitive information When a rule matches, the full context of the session is captured, even without user login, and device attribution provides accountability Advantages: Detects and interrupts unauthorized data egress events Enables post-incident review with full transactional context Considerations: Monitoring works only for uploads visible on managed network paths Attribution is at the asset or device level unless user authentication is present Weighing Your Options: What Works Best Real-Time URL Alerts Pros: Enables rapid intervention and forensic investigation, supports incident triage and automated response Cons: May increase noise and workload in high-use environments, needs routine rule maintenance as endpoints evolve Metadata-Only Mode Pros: Low operational overhead, strong for audits and post-event review, keeps security attention focused on true anomalies Cons: Not suited for immediate threats, investigation required post-factum File Upload Monitoring Pros: Targets actual data exfiltration events, provides detailed records for compliance and forensics Cons: Asset-level mapping only when login is absent, blind to off-network or unmonitored channels Building Comprehensive AI Data Protection A comprehensive GenAI DLP solutions program involves: Maintaining live lists of GenAI endpoints and updating monitoring rules regularly Assigning monitoring mode, alerting, metadata, or both, by risk and business need Collaborating with compliance and privacy leaders when defining content rules Integrating network detection outputs with SOC automation and asset management systems Educating users on policy compliance and visibility of GenAI usage Organizations should periodically review policy logs and update their system to address new GenAI services, plugins, and emerging AI-driven business uses. Best Practices for Implementation Successful deployment requires: Clear platform inventory management and regular policy updates Risk-based monitoring approaches tailored to organizational needs Integration with existing SOC workflows and compliance frameworks User education programs that promote responsible AI usage Continuous monitoring and adaptation to evolving AI technologies Key Takeaways Modern network-based data loss prevention solutions, as illustrated by Fidelis NDR, help enterprises balance the adoption of generative AI with strong AI security and data protection.

By combining alert-based, metadata, and file-upload controls, organizations build a flexible monitoring environment where productivity and compliance coexist. Security teams retain the context and reach needed to handle new AI risks, while users continue to benefit from the value of GenAI technology. Found this article interesting? This article is a contributed piece from one of our valued partners.

Click Studios Patches Passwordstate Authentication Bypass Vulnerability in Emergency Access Page

Click Studios, the developer of enterprise-focused password management solution Passwordstate, said it has released security updates to address an authentication bypass vulnerability in its software. The high-severity issue , which is yet to be assigned a CVE identifier, has been addressed in Passwordstate 9.9 (Build 9972), released August 28, 2025. The Australian company said it fixed a “potential Authentication Bypass when using a carefully crafted URL against the core Passwordstate Products’ Emergency Access page.” Also included in the latest version are improved protections to safeguard against potential clickjacking attacks aimed at its browser extension, should users end up visiting compromised sites. The safeguards are likely in response to findings from security researcher Marek Tóth, who, earlier this month, detailed a technique called Document Object Model (DOM)-based extension clickjacking that several password manager browser add-ons have been found vulnerable to.

“A single click anywhere on an attacker-controlled website could allow attackers to steal users’ data (credit card details, personal data, login credentials, including TOTP),” Tóth said . “The new technique is general and can be applied to other types of extensions.” According to Click Studios, the credential manager is used by 29,000 customers and 370,000 security and IT professionals, spanning global enterprises, government agencies, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies. The disclosure comes over four years after the company suffered a supply chain breach that enabled attackers to hijack the software’s update mechanism in order to drop malware capable of harvesting sensitive information from compromised systems. Then in December 2022, Click Studios also resolved multiple security flaws in Passwordstate, including an authentication bypass for Passwordstate’s API (CVE-2022-3875, CVSS score: 9.1) that could have been exploited by an unauthenticated remote adversary to obtain a user’s plaintext passwords.

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FreePBX Servers Targeted by Zero-Day Flaw, Emergency Patch Now Available

The Sangoma FreePBX Security Team has issued an advisory warning about an actively exploited FreePBX zero-day vulnerability that impacts systems with an administrator control panel (ACP) exposed to the public internet. FreePBX is an open-source private branch exchange (PBX) platform widely used by businesses, call centers, and service providers to manage voice communications. It’s built on top of Asterisk , an open-source communication server. The vulnerability, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2025-57819 , carries a CVSS score of 10.0, indicating maximum severity.

“Insufficiently sanitized user-supplied data allows unauthenticated access to FreePBX Administrator, leading to arbitrary database manipulation and remote code execution,” the project maintainers said in an advisory. The issue impacts the following versions - FreePBX 15 prior to 15.0.66 FreePBX 16 prior to 16.0.89, and FreePBX 17 prior to 17.0.3 Sangoma said an unauthorized user began accessing multiple FreePBX version 16 and 17 systems connected to the internet starting on or before August 21, 2025, specifically those that have inadequate IP filtering or access control lists (ACLs), by taking advantage of a sanitization issue in the processing of user-supplied input to the commercial “endpoint” module. The initial access obtained using this method was then combined with other steps to potentially gain root-level access on the target hosts, it added. In light of active exploitation, users are advised to upgrade to the latest supported versions of FreePBX and restrict public access to the administrator control panel.

Users are also advised to scan their environments for the following indicators of compromise (IoCs) - File “/etc/freepbx.conf” recently modified or missing Presence of the file “/var/www/html/.clean.sh” (this file should not exist on normal systems) Suspicious POST requests to “modular.php” in Apache web server logs dating back to at least August 21, 2025 Phone calls placed to extension 9998 in Asterisk call logs and CDRs are unusual (unless previously configured) Suspicious “ampuser” user in the ampusers database table or other unknown users “We are seeing active exploitation of FreePBX in the wild with activity traced back as far as August 21 and backdoors being dropped post-compromise,” watchTowr CEO Benjamin Harris said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. “While it’s early, FreePBX (and other PBX platforms) have long been a favorite hunting ground for ransomware gangs, initial access brokers and fraud groups abusing premium billing. If you use FreePBX with an endpoint module, assume compromise. Disconnect systems immediately.

Delays will only increase the blast radius.” Update The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added CVE-2025-57819 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, requiring Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to apply the fixes by September 19, 2025. “Sangoma FreePBX contains an authentication bypass vulnerability due to insufficiently sanitized user-supplied data allows unauthenticated access to FreePBX Administrator leading to arbitrary database manipulation and remote code execution,” the agency said . Found this article interesting?

Feds Seize $6.4M VerifTools Fake-ID Marketplace, but Operators Relaunch on New Domain

Authorities from the Netherlands and the United States have announced the dismantling of an illicit marketplace called VerifTools that peddled fraudulent identity documents to cybercriminals across the world. To that end, two marketplace domains (verif[.]tools and veriftools[.]net) and one blog have been taken down, redirecting site visitors to a splash page stating the action was undertaken by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pursuant to a warrant issued by a United States District Court. The servers were seized in Amsterdam.

However, a Telegram message posted by operators on August 28, 2025, shows that they have already relaunched the service on the domain “veriftools[.]com.” The domain was created on December 10, 2018, per DomainTools . It’s currently not known who the administrators of the platform are. “The operators of VerifTools produced and sold counterfeit driver’s licenses, passports, and other identification documents that could be used to bypass identity verification systems and gain unauthorized access to online accounts,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said Thursday.

The DoJ said the FBI began investigating the service in 2022 after it discovered a criminal operation to leverage stolen identities to access cryptocurrency accounts. The probe revealed that the illegal platform was being used to generate counterfeit identification documents for all 50 states of the U.S., as well as other foreign countries, for as little as $9. An equivalent of approximately $6.4 million of illicit proceeds has been linked to the VerifTools marketplace, the FBI said. On the VerifTools website, the operators argue plausible deniability by stating that: “Legal usage of the service is your responsibility.

By using the service, you must be aware of the local, state, and federal laws in your jurisdiction and take sole responsibility for your actions.” Following the takedown, a Reddit user by the name Powda_reaper claimed on the r/blackhat subreddit that the site owners messaged them saying “the website is currently down due to major issues” and that they were bringing the site back up by August 29, while reassuring them that “Your funds are safe.” “The internet is not a refuge for criminals. If you build or sell tools that let offenders impersonate victims, you are part of the crime,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison. “We will use every lawful tool to disrupt your business, take the profit out of it, and bring you to justice.

No one operation is bigger than us together.” The Dutch National Police, in a coordinated statement, described VerifTools as one of the largest providers of false identity documents. In addition to two physical servers, more than 21 virtual servers have been confiscated. The officials also noted that the website’s entire infrastructure on the servers has been secured and copied for subsequent analysis. In the Netherlands, forgery, false proof of identity, and deploying counterfeit payment instruments each carry a maximum prison sentence of six years.

“Many companies and agencies use so-called Know Your Customer verification (KYC), which often requires only an image of an ID. By using VerifTools, that KYC control could be bypassed,” the Politie said . “Criminals gratefully use platforms such as VerifTools, because they can commit their fraud with the created documents, such as bank helpdesk fraud and phishing.” Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Google Warns Salesloft Drift Breach Impacts All Drift Integrations Beyond Salesforce

Google has revealed that the recent wave of attacks targeting Salesforce instances via Salesloft Drift is much broader in scope than previously thought, stating it impacts all integrations. “We now advise all Salesloft Drift customers to treat any and all authentication tokens stored in or connected to the Drift platform as potentially compromised,” Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) and Mandiant said in an updated advisory. The tech giant said the attackers also used stolen OAuth tokens to access email from a small number of Google Workspace email accounts on August 9, 2025, after compromising the OAuth tokens for the “Drift Email” integration. It’s worth noting that this is not a compromise of Google Workspace or Alphabet itself.

“The only accounts that were potentially accessed were those that had been specifically configured to integrate with Salesloft; the actor would not have been able to access any other accounts on a customer’s Workspace domain,” Google added. Following the discovery, Google said it notified impacted users, revoked the specific OAuth tokens granted to the Drift Email application, and disabled the integration functionality between Google Workspace and Salesloft Drift amid ongoing investigation into the incident. The company is also urging organizations using Salesloft Drift to review all third-party integrations connected to their Drift instance, revoke and rotate credentials for those applications, and investigate all connected systems for signs of unauthorized access. The broadening of the attack radius comes shortly after Google exposed what it described as a widespread and opportunistic data theft campaign that allowed the threat actors, an emerging activity cluster dubbed UNC6395, to leverage compromised OAuth tokens associated with Salesloft Drift to target Salesforce instances from August 8 to 18, 2025.

Salesloft has since revealed that Salesforce has temporarily disabled the Drift integration between Salesforce, Slack, and Pardot, only to follow it up nearly three hours later , saying Salesforce has “elected to temporarily disable all Salesloft integrations with Salesforce.” “Based on the investigation to date, there is no evidence of malicious activity detected in the Salesloft integrations related to the Drift incident,” it noted. “Additionally, at this time, there are no indications that the Salesloft integrations are compromised or at risk.” Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

TamperedChef Malware Disguised as Fake PDF Editors Steals Credentials and Cookies

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a cybercrime campaign that’s using malvertising tricks to direct victims to fraudulent sites to deliver a new information stealer called TamperedChef . “The objective is to lure victims into downloading and installing a trojanized PDF editor, which includes an information-stealing malware dubbed TamperedChef,” Truesec researchers Mattias Wåhlén, Nicklas Keijser, and Oscar Lejerbäck Wolf said in a report published Wednesday. “The malware is designed to harvest sensitive data, including credentials and web cookies.” At the heart of the campaign is the use of several bogus sites to promote an installer for a free PDF editor called AppSuite PDF Editor that, once installed and launched, displays to the user a prompt to agree to the software’s terms of service and privacy policy. In the background, however, the setup program makes covert requests to an external server to drop the PDF editor program, while also setting up persistence on the host by making Windows Registry changes to ensure that the downloaded executable is automatically started after a reboot.

The registry key contains a –cm arguments parameter to pass instructions to the binary. German cybersecurity company G DATA, which also analyzed the activity, said the various websites offering these PDF editors download the same setup installer, which then retrieves the PDF editor program from the server once the user accepts the license agreement. “It then executes the main application with no arguments, which is equivalent to starting the –install routine,” security researchers Karsten Hahn and Louis Sorita said . “It also creates an autorun entry that supplies the command line argument –cm=–fullupdate for the next run of the malicious application.” It’s assessed that the campaign kicked off on June 26, 2025, when many of the counterfeit sites were either registered or began advertising the PDF editing software through at least five different Google advertising campaigns.

“At first the PDF appears to have behaved mostly harmless, but the code included instructions to regularly check back for potential updates in a .js file that includes the –cm arguments,” the researchers explained. “From August 21, 2025, machines that called back received instructions that activated the malicious capabilities, an information stealer, referred to as ‘Tamperedchef.’” Once initialised, the stealer gathers a list of installed security products and attempts to terminate web browsers so as to access sensitive data, such as credentials and cookies. Further analysis of the malware-laced application by G DATA has revealed that it acts as a backdoor, supporting a number of features - –install, to create scheduled tasks named PDFEditorScheduledTask and PDFEditorUScheduledTask that run the application with –cm=–partialupdate and –cm=–backupupdate arguments, respectively, to trigger the –check and –ping routines –cleanup, which is called by the uninstaller to remove the backdoor files, unregister the machine from the server, and delete the two scheduled tasks –ping, to initiate communications with a command-and-control (C2) for actions to execute on the system, which, among others, allow additional malware downloads, data exfiltration, and Registry changes –check, to contact the C2 server for configuration, read browser keys, alter browser settings, and execute arbitrary commands to query, exfiltrate, and manipulate data associated with Chromium, OneLaunch, and Wave browsers, including credentials, browser history, cookies, or setting custom search engines –reboot, same as –check along with capabilities to kill specific processes “The length from the start of the [ad] campaign until the malicious update was also 56 days, which is close to the 60-day length of a typical Google advertising campaign, suggesting the threat actor let the ad campaign run its course, maximizing downloads, before activating the malicious features,” Truesec said. The disclosures coincide with an analysis from Expel that detailed a large ad campaign advertising PDF editors, with the ads directing users to websites offering downloads of tools like AppSuite, PDF OneStart, and PDF Editor.

In some cases, these PDF programs have been found to download other trojanized apps without users’ consent or turn the hosts into residential proxies. “AppSuite PDF Editor is malicious,” G DATA said. “It is a classic trojan horse with a backdoor that is currently massively downloaded.” Found this article interesting? Follow us on Google News , Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.