IT News Analysis

1

One Extension Could Hijack AI Assistants Across Chrome, Comet, Edge, Opera Neon and Claude

Security researchers at Forever Security have shown that one ordinary browser extension could take control of the AI assistants built into five Chromium-based products: Gemini Live in Chrome, Perplexity Comet, Microsoft Edge, Opera Neon and the Claude in Chrome extension. Once the extension was installed, it could access each product's built-in AI with a single click. On Comet, Edge, Opera Neon, and Claude in Chrome, it could drive the AI agent to act on behalf of the attacker; on Chrome and Comet, it could read files from the user's computer, and on Chrome, it could also switch on the camera and microphone. The findings are researcher demonstrations, not attacks seen in the wild, and each requires the attacker's extension to be already running in the victim's browser. These products all work the same way. The AI has a "body" inside the browser that can see the screen, open files, use the camera, and take actions, and a "brain" that runs on th...

Sep 16, 2026

2

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3

Attacker Hijacks AI Coding Assistant Session, Spreads Shai-Hulud Across About 100 Repositories

Mandiant says an attacker hijacked an active AI coding-assistant session at an unnamed software-as-a-service provider and later spread  Shai-Hulud  across about 100 internal code repositories. Before the repository spread, the assistant recommended software that the attacker had poisoned, and the recommendation was accepted. The worm stole repository secrets and source code for the company's products. The case appears in  Mandiant's September 2026 report . The public case study does not say when the intrusion happened or how the attacker took over the active coding-assistant session. How the Attack Unfolded After the recommendation was accepted, the attacker used the developer's active session to install an infostealer through a poisoned PyPI package. The attacker also stole GitHub OAuth tokens. The attacker then deployed the self-spreading Shai-Hulud worm across approximately 100 internal code repositories. The attacker also poisoned a package in the company...

Sep 16, 2026

4

Parallels Desktop Flaw Lets Non-Admin Mac Users Gain Root, but Intel Macs Can't Install Fix

Parallels Desktop for Mac has a flaw that lets an ordinary local account run code as root, the highest level of access on a Mac, software company JFrog said this week. The attack needs code already running on the machine as a normal user, so it does not work over the network. JFrog says the fix is in Parallels Desktop 27, a version that Intel Macs cannot install. Yuval Moravchick, who leads JFrog's vulnerability research team,  published the finding  on Tuesday and calls it ParaShells. The flaw is tracked as  CVE-2026-90894 , an identifier JFrog assigned itself, and JFrog rates it 7.8 out of 10. Parallels Desktop runs Windows and Linux inside virtual machines on a Mac. It installs a background service called prl_disp_service that runs as root, because its work includes setting up host networking and unpacking virtual machine packages. The flaw is on the Mac side of the product, so the machine at risk is the Mac itself rather than the virtual machines on...

Sep 16, 2026

5

N0va Phishkit Targets US and EU Businesses: A New Challenge for Identity Security

N0va is targeting organizations across North America and Europe with phishing campaigns that impersonate trusted services and abuse legitimate authentication flows. Successful attacks can give threat actors access to valid accounts without relying on obvious malware activity. From there, a single compromised identity can open the door to sensitive data, business systems, and additional cloud resources. The longer that access goes unnoticed, the greater the potential for wider compromise, operational disruption, and financial loss. N0va Is Reaching Organizations Across High-Risk Sectors N0va activity has been observed across organizations in government, technology, consulting, healthcare, and other sectors in North America and Europe. Its use of trusted business platforms and cloud services makes the campaign relevant across a wide range of organizations. N0va phishing campaign attack details Related activity can be traced in ANY.RUN’s Threat Intelligence Lookup using a chara...

Sep 16, 2026

6

Google Patches Pixel Modem Flaw Amid Signs of Limited Targeted Exploitation

Google has disclosed that a high-severity security flaw in its Pixel Cellular Modem has come under exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-58704 (CVSS score: 8.0), is a privilege escalation flaw. "In Cellular Modem, there is a possible permission bypass due to a logic error in the code," according to a description of the bug in the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD). "This could lead to remote (proximal/adjacent) escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation." In an advisory issued Tuesday, Google acknowledged that it has found indications that "CVE-2026-58704 may be under limited, targeted exploitation" but stopped short of sharing any further details surrounding the nature of the attacks exploiting it, as well as the identity of the threat actor behind them. Besides CVE-2026-58704, Google has addressed 109 other security flaws as part of...

Sep 16, 2026

7

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8

Threat Intelligence Alone Won't Close the Exploitation Gap

A leaked credential shows up in a criminal marketplace, or a vulnerability gets a disclosure advisory, and either one can be weaponized against a real target before most security teams have triaged the alert. Attackers are combining that kind of intelligence with AI-assisted exploitation to accelerate the path from exposure to breach faster than most security programs are built to react. Intelligence is still the earliest signal defenders get, and a leaked credential turning up in a feed is proof of how useful that signal has become. The problem sits one step later, in what happens after the signal arrives. The Queue Where Risk Accumulates In most organizations, a high-value indicator waits in a queue instead of getting acted on right away, until someone with the offensive skill to test it actually has the time to determine whether it's exploitable in that specific environment, on that specific day. That queue, more than any shortage of intelligence, is where exposure builds...

Sep 16, 2026

9

Acronis cPanel Backup Plugin Vulnerability Exploited in Targeted Attacks

Acronis has warned that a high-severity security flaw in its Backup plugin for cPanel and Web Host Manager (WHM) deployments has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-87886 (CVSS score: 7.8), is described as a case of local privilege escalation due to insecure file permissions. It affects the following versions - Acronis Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM (Linux) before build 1.9.3.1021 - Fixed in 1.9.3 HF3 Acronis Backup extension for Plesk (Linux) before build 1.8.11.638 Successful exploitation of the flaw could allow an attacker with low privileges to escalate their permissions on a susceptible Linux version, potentially enabling them to perform unauthorized actions or run arbitrary code that could impact the confidentiality and integrity of the application. "This update contains fixes for 1 high-severity security vulnerability and should be installed immediately by all users," Acronis noted in a separate advisory for 1.9.3 HF3...

Sep 16, 2026

10

Attackers Exploit WooCommerce Wholesale Lead Capture Flaw to Plant PHP Web Shells

Threat actors are exploiting a critical security flaw in WooCommerce Wholesale Lead Capture, a premium WordPress plugin that has more than 6,000 active installs. "This vulnerability can be leveraged by unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files, including PHP backdoors, and achieve remote code execution," Wordfence said . The WordPress security company said it has blocked over 100,000 exploit attempts targeting the vulnerability since June 2026, with 99 of those attack attempts recorded over the past 24 hours. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-27540 (CVSS score: 9.8). The issue is a case of arbitrary file uploads due to missing file type validation in an AJAX action named "wwlc_file_upload_handler" that impacts all versions of the plugin up to, and including, 2.0.3.1. This opens the door for an unauthenticated attacker to upload arbitrary files on the affected site's server, paving the way for remote code execution. In the attack obse...

Sep 16, 2026