IT News Analysis

1

This Windows Malware is Built to Let Up to Four AI Models Vote on Its Next Move

A Windows malware called CLOSEDQUORUM is built to take orders from a vote of up to four AI models instead of an attacker's server, Cisco Talos said on September 22. The models can choose to steal Windows credentials, saved browser passwords, and crypto wallet data. Talos has not seen this setup work from start to finish, and the public version of the malware does not work as it is. Talos found the malware with  CAIRN , an open-source tool it released the same day to hunt for malware that uses AI services. The malware is at least three months old, because Talos's analysis of the code is dated June 17, 2026. The researchers did not describe how the malware would get onto a victim's computer. It said clues in the code tied the developer to criminal forum posts about carding, the trade in stolen card data, dating to 2025. How the AI Vote Works Malware usually takes orders from a command-and-control (C2) server that the attacker runs. CLOSEDQUORUM instead asks up t...

Sep 23, 2026

2

Compromised MemTensor Packages Deliver sckit Credential Stealer via npm and PyPI

Unknown threat actors have managed to compromise two legitimate MemTensor packages across the npm and Python Package Index (PyPI) repositories to push a platform-specific Go-based implant dubbed sckit designed for Windows, Linux, and macOS. According to reports from Aikido , SafeDep , Socket , and StepSecurity , the libraries in question below - @memtensor/memos-cloud-openclaw-plugin versions 0.1.21, 0.1.23 and 0.1.25 (versions 0.1.22 and 0.1.24 are clean) MemoryOS version 2.0.34 (project currently quarantined on PyPI) The malicious npm package versions include a "hidden Go payload into a legitimate AI memory integration. Versions 0.1.21, 0.1.23, and 0.1.25 contain code that launches the payload when the agent gateway starts and whenever the plugin handles a memory-recall event," StepSecurity said. "The launcher passes the host process environment and, during recall, the user's prompt text directly to the malicious executable."

Sep 23, 2026

3

Do You Need to Protect AI, Use AI, or Govern AI? SANS has Mapped All Three.

Free frameworks, guidelines, and role-based AI security training, gathered in one place.

4

New cPanel Flaw Lets a Hosting Account Run Code as Root, Take Full Server Control

A flaw in cPanel's  CalDAV and CardDAV service  lets anyone with a cPanel hosting account run code as root and take "full control of the server," the company said on September 22. A  second bug in the WP Toolkit plugin, used to install and manage WordPress sites, allows an account holder to change databases that belong to other accounts. cPanel has released fixed versions for both, along with a fix for a  third flaw  in the same service, which stores each account's calendars and contacts. That third flaw lets a local user on the server read other accounts' calendar events and contacts, but not change them or gain root access. cPanel lists no requirements for the root flaw other than having an account. On a shared server where a hosting provider sells accounts to the public, that means any customer could use it. So could anyone who gets hold of a customer's login. The three flaws and the versions that fix them:

Sep 23, 2026

5

545 Hackers Tested It First. Now XRanges for AI Scores Your Security Agent

Autonomous security agents are getting good at finding bugs. Nobody has a good way to measure how good. Point one at a realistic target and what comes back is a report the agent wrote about itself: confident prose, a list of findings, and no way to tell which of them happened. Someone with a security background then sits down and checks every claim against the target. Which findings are real, which are duplicates, which are inventions, and, the question nobody has time for, what did the agent never try? That is a day of expert work for one run. Multiply it by three models, four prompt variants and ten repetitions, and the review queue is longer than the experiment. XRanges for AI, built by CTF.ae, exists for that loop. It deploys realistic target applications with instrumentation baked into every service, records what an agent actually does inside them, and scores each run live on four independent signals. This walkthrough covers how it works, what a run looks like from deployment t...

Sep 23, 2026

6

Anthropic and OpenAI Models Still Attempt Restricted Actions in Safety Tests

Anthropic and OpenAI on Tuesday announced new models, with both artificial intelligence (AI) companies noting that they are continuing to invest in improving alignment to combat risky behavior. Opus 5.5, per Anthropic , is a "major step up from Opus 5," and "achieves the best scores of any model to date on our automated behavioral audit, our alignment suite that tests Claude across thousands of simulated scenarios." The AI company said the model is less likely than its other recent models to carry out hard-to-reverse actions or act outside the boundaries it's been given, adding it's more resistant than Opus 5 to prompt injection. In its systems card, Anthropic explained that the latest model exhibited less misaligned behavior and less cooperation with misuse than any other recent Claude model. "It also took overeager or destructive actions less than any other model we tested," Anthropic said. "Regressions included being more likely ...

Sep 23, 2026

7

Mikko Hyppönen and Enterprise CISOs on What AI-Speed Attacks Actually Change

Join the summit where leading security teams lay out how they prepare for attackers with AI on their side.

8

Exploit Released for Unpatched Ubuntu Linux Flaw Enabling Host-Root Container Escape

A use-after-free in the Linux kernel's AF_UNIX socket subsystem can be used to escape a container and gain root on the host, security firm DepthFirst  said in research published September 22. The flaw, tracked as  CVE-2026-80521  (CVSS score: 7.8), was fixed upstream on August 6, but Ubuntu has not shipped the patch for its 26.04, 24.04, or 22.04 LTS releases. DepthFirst  released exploit code  targeting Ubuntu 26.04. Ubuntu's security tracker  lists the Linux package on 26.04 as "vulnerable, work in progress." The 24.04 and 22.04 releases are also affected through newer kernel packages, including those for AWS, Azure, and GCP workloads. No fix has shipped on any affected release. The flaw is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and there are no confirmed reports of attacks using it. The vulnerability sits in the kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX sockets. That collector cleans up file descriptors passed between processes t...

Sep 23, 2026

9

F5 Patches Critical BIG-IP APM Zero-Day Exploited for Unauthenticated RCE on OAuth Servers

Attackers are exploiting a critical flaw in F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) that lets them run code on a BIG-IP system without logging in, F5 says. The flaw,  CVE-2026-94127 , affects only systems in which APM serves as an OAuth authorization server, issuing access tokens to applications. F5 disclosed it in  an advisory  on September 22 and has released engineering hotfixes. APM is the BIG-IP module that controls how users reach an organization's applications and networks. The vulnerable setup has an APM access policy and an OAuth authorization server profile on the same virtual server, which hosts the BIG-IP address that receives the OAuth traffic. Specific malicious traffic sent to that virtual server can lead to remote code execution. The flaw is a heap-based buffer overflow. F5 rates it 9.8 out of 10 on CVSS v3.1 and 9.3 on CVSS v4.0. Because the malicious traffic goes to the virtual server itself, limiting access to the BIG-IP management interface does...

Sep 23, 2026

10

Chinese Hackers Exploit Chrome-Windows Zero-Day Chain to Deploy CLEANGULP Malware

A Chinese threat actor codenamed UTA0565 has been observed exploiting the recently disclosed Google Chrome-Microsoft Windows exploit chain as zero-days through fake websites. The attacks, detected on September 3 and 4, 2026, involved the chaining of two vulnerabilities in Chrome (CVE-2026-85046, CVE-2026-87491) and one impacting Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call (CVE-2026-85880) to break out of the browser's sandbox and achieve remote code execution. "UTA0565 masqueraded as various entities including media organizations and a non-governmental organization (NGO)," Volexity researchers Damien Cash and Tom Lancaster said in an analysis published this week. "Notably, this threat actor's campaigns differed from previously documented attacks by using multiple fake websites to deceive victims." One such campaign targeted Asian government entities with Chinese- and English-language phishing emails that urged recipients to support Hong Kong activist Cho...

Sep 23, 2026