IT News Analysis

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14 Trojanized npm Packages Drop RedC2 4.0 Linux Backdoor With AI-Assisted C2

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a set of trojanized npm packages that masquerade as working calendar and streak utilities but are engineered to stealthily deliver an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Linux implant dubbed RedC2 4.0. "When the module loads, it locates the bundled binary, marks it executable, and launches it as a detached background process," TrendAI, Trend Micro's enterprise cybersecurity business, said in a report published Thursday. "No install hook function call is needed; a single import anywhere in the dependency graph, even a transitive one, is enough to execute the payload." The list of identified packages is below - streak-metrics-math@1.0.0,1.0.1 kit-map-vim@1.0.0 streak-map-cache@1.0.0 streak-map-kit@1.0.0 map-streak-kit@1.0.0 streak-cache-map@1.0.0 streak-calc-metrics@1.0.0 streak-calc-math@1.0.0 streak-math-abz@1.0.0 streak-metricsaz@1.0.0 streak-math-metrics@1.0.0 streak-metrica...

Aug 21, 2026

2

Microsoft Defender's Own Driver Can Be Weaponized to Delete Security Software at Boot

Check Point Research has disclosed a technique that uses Microsoft Defender's own legitimately signed boot-time remediation driver to perform arbitrary kernel-level file and registry operations on Windows systems ranging from Windows 7 through Windows 11 25H2, with no software flaw exploited and no driver imported from outside the machine. The driver, BTR.sys (Boot Time Removal Tool), is a required Windows component, which means it cannot be added to Microsoft's Vulnerable Driver Blocklist or blocked via Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) without disrupting Defender itself. Jiří Vinopal, a threat researcher and reverse engineer at Check Point Research, presented the findings as a main-stage briefing at Black Hat USA 2026 and DEF CON 34 in Las Vegas and published the accompanying research paper alongside a proof-of-concept tool, BTR_CLI, on August 20, 2026. Check Point Research said it found no evidence the technique has been used in real-world attacks. "Dur...

Aug 21, 2026

3

Android Car Malware Spreads Through Built-In Updaters for Ad Fraud, Proxy Botnet

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new malware family that's specifically designed to infect Android-based vehicle head unit firmware developed by DoFun. Kaspersky, which discovered the threat in June 2026, said the end goal of the malware is to serve a multi-stage downloader to enable ad fraud and creation of a proxy botnet. "The malware spread through the built-in updaters of Android-based automotive head unit firmware," security researcher Dmitry Kalinin said. "This is the first documented case of malware found on a car head unit with an infection chain specific to that type of device." The activity has been attributed with high confidence to the MoYu Group , which was outed by the HUMAN Satori Threat Intelligence and Research team last year as part of a broader ad fraud and residential proxy scheme dubbed BADBOX. In July 2025, Google filed a lawsuit against 25 unnamed individuals or entities in China for allegedly operating the BADBOX botnet a...

Aug 21, 2026

4

AI changed the job for 68% of practitioners, SANS finds

Up 14 points in a year. Training requirements shifted for 73% of teams too. Read the data.

5

Wazuh and AI For Enhanced SOC Workflows

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of this decade's defining technologies. From healthcare and finance to manufacturing and education, organizations increasingly rely on AI to automate repetitive tasks, uncover patterns hidden within large datasets, and support faster decision-making. Cybersecurity has experienced a similar transformation. While attackers employ AI to automate cyberattacks and accelerate vulnerability discovery, defenders are adopting AI to improve threat detection and enhance incident response. Security Operations Centers (SOCs) receive a high volume of alerts from endpoints, cloud workloads, network devices, identity providers, and business applications. Although SIEM and XDR platforms provide visibility into these environments, analysts often spend considerable time correlating alerts, searching documentation, and determining the next investigative steps. AI offers a practical way to augment analysts by providing contextual explanations, summarizing ...

Aug 21, 2026

6

Cisco Patches Nine Crosswork and Secure Workload Flaws, Five Scoring CVSS 10.0

Cisco has published another round of security updates for Crosswork platforms and Secure Workload Software as part of a continued comprehensive internal security review. Four of the security vulnerabilities affect Crosswork Data Gateway, Crosswork Network Controller, and Crosswork Planning, regardless of the device configuration. A brief description of each of the flaws is below - CVE-2026-20030 (CVSS score: 10.0) - An SQL injection vulnerability CVE-2026-20357 (CVSS score: 10.0) - A missing authentication for critical function vulnerability CVE-2026-20358 (CVSS score: 10.0) - An external control of file system vulnerability CVE-2026-20359 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An insufficiently protected credentials vulnerability The issues affect Cisco Crosswork Release version 7.2.1 and earlier, and have been addressed in version 7.2.1-SP. Cisco has also released fixes to remediate five vulnerabilities affecting Cisco Secure Workload, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) a...

Aug 21, 2026

7

11 Real Stories: How Identity Exposure Unlocks Active Attack Paths

Map cross-domain privilege escalation to sever breach routes at key choke points.

8

GitLab CVE-2026-19478 Comes Under Active Exploitation Within Days of Disclosure

A newly disclosed security flaw in GitLab has come under active exploitation within days of public disclosure, according to watchTowr. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-19478 (CVSS score: 9.4), a case of code injection that allows an unauthenticated attacker to modify or delete publicly accessible GitLab projects and rewrite their data under certain conditions without requiring credentials, user interaction, or obscure configuration. The following versions of GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) are affected by the flaw - 18.2 before 18.11.11 19.0 before 19.0.8 19.1 before 19.1.6 19.2 before 19.2.4 In an alert released earlier this week, GitLab said the issue could be exploited via a GraphQL directive. Fixes for the flaw were rolled out in GitLab CE and EE versions 19.2.4, 19.1.6, 19.0.8, and 18.11.11. Preemptive exposure management firm watchTowr told The Hacker News that it was able to reproduce the vulnerability within minutes of ...

Aug 21, 2026

9

Microsoft Patches Severe Entra ID Flaw (CVSS 10.0) Allowing Remote Code Execution

Update: The story was updated after publication to note that the vulnerability has not been exploited. Although the security bulletin originally marked the "Exploited" field under the Exploitability Assessment table as "Yes," on August 21, 2026, Microsoft corrected the "Exploited" status to "No" after The Hacker News contacted the company for comment. It also noted, "this vulnerability was not exploited in the wild." "We identified and addressed this issue with a fix and released CVE-2026-69836 for greater transparency . There are no additional actions customers need to take,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Hacker News. The headline has been edited to reflect this change. The original story follows below - Microsoft on Thursday warned of a maximum-severity security flaw in Entra ID that it said has been exploited in the wild, but noted that no customer action is required. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-69836...

Aug 21, 2026

10

Rust Supply Chain Attack Puts Build-Time Malware in Crates with 245 Million Downloads

The Rust Project has deleted malicious versions of three widely used Rust crates from crates.io after a compromised maintainer account published releases that added a typosquatted dependency whose build script downloaded and executed a remote payload during compilation. The affected releases are arrayref 0.3.10, internment 0.8.7, and append-only-vec 0.1.9, all published from the same owner account on August 20, 2026, and all removed within 86 to 107 minutes. Because the malicious code sat in the build script of the injected dependency, building a project that resolved it was sufficient to run the payload, and nothing from the crates themselves had to be called. Developers are advised to search ~/.cargo/registry/cache for the deleted crate files and to pin arrayref at 0.3.9 or earlier, after the Rust Security Response Team unyanked the maliciously-yanked versions during the response. There is no patched version, no CVE identifier has been assigned, and the RustSec advisories...

Aug 20, 2026