Ticker feed

CISA issued urgent security advisories Thursday covering vulnerabilities in devices from Honeywell, Medtronic, Mitsubishi, LG, and Network Thermostat that could allow attackers to execute malicious code or gain administrative access. The flaws affect critical infrastructure including manufacturing equipment, WiFi thermostats in commercial buildings, patient monitors, and security cameras.

Most concerning is a Network Thermostat vulnerability (CVE-2025-6260) with a 9.8 severity score that lets attackers reset credentials remotely. Medtronic's patient monitors contain three vulnerabilities requiring physical access, while Mitsubishi's manufacturing equipment faces DLL hijacking risks. Companies have released patches for most devices, though some older products won't receive fixes.

Source: Industrial Cyber

A Chinese cyberespionage group called Fire Ant has been targeting VMware and F5 vulnerabilities to breach supposedly secure, isolated networks. The hackers exploited critical flaws like CVE-2023-34048 in vCenter Server and CVE-2023-20867 in ESXi to gain complete control over virtualization infrastructure. They then used compromised systems as stepping stones to access guest virtual machines and tunnel between network segments that should've been separated.

Cybersecurity firm Sygnia found the group shows remarkable persistence, quickly adapting when defenders try to kick them out by deploying backup backdoors and changing tactics. The attack methods strongly resemble those used by another Chinese group, UNC3886.

Source: SecurityWeek

Over 400 organizations worldwide fell victim to Chinese hackers exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint servers, including the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. The attack began Friday using the "ToolShell" exploit that bypasses multi-factor authentication.

Three Chinese threat groups are involved: Storm-2603 deployed Warlock ransomware starting July 18, while government-affiliated Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon focused on stealing intellectual property and espionage. Microsoft released emergency patches Monday, but nearly 11,000 SharePoint instances remained exposed Wednesday. Federal agencies report no confirmed data breaches so far, though investigations continue.

Source: CyberScoop

CISA has mandated that US federal agencies urgently patch two critical Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-49706 and CVE-2025-49704) by July 23, following attacks by Chinese hackers. These flaws allow unauthorized access and remote code execution on SharePoint servers. Microsoft has released updates, urging all users to patch immediately.

Security experts warn of risks like data theft and persistent access. The directive underscores the persistent threat from APT groups, stressing the importance of swift patch management to protect government and critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

Source: The Hacker News 

Proofpoint researchers discovered four previously unknown Chinese hacking groups attacking Taiwan's semiconductor industry since last fall, marking a sharp increase in cyber espionage. The attackers used phishing emails disguised as job-seeking students, investment firms, and Microsoft security notices to breach chip manufacturers and investment banks analyzing the sector. One group even targeted legal personnel at semiconductor companies.

The campaigns deployed custom malware including Cobalt Strike, Voldemort backdoor, and SparkRAT. Taiwan's chip industry is globally critical, making it a prime target as China seeks to undermine the island's economic strength and national defense capabilities.

Source: Dark Reading

Nippon Steel Solutions confirmed hackers breached its systems by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in network equipment, potentially exposing customer, partner, and employee data. The stolen information may include names, job titles, email addresses, and phone numbers, though the company hasn't found the data circulating on dark web markets yet.

NS Solutions has isolated affected devices, restricted external network access, and is contacting individuals under Japan's Personal Information Protection Act. The breach follows a separate February incident where the BianLian ransomware group claimed to steal data from Nippon Steel USA, though it's unclear if the attacks are connected.

Source: Dark Reading

Ingram Micro, a major technology distributor with $48 billion in annual sales, confirmed a ransomware attack has disrupted its operations for days. The breach, attributed to the SafePay ransomware group, has halted software licensing services and left customers unable to access products dependent on the company's backend systems.

Sources suggest hackers breached Ingram Micro through Palo Alto's GlobalProtect VPN using stolen credentials. SafePay, active since November 2024 with over 220 victims, has previously targeted organizations across multiple countries. The company's website remains down, with customers reporting continued inability to access portals or receive email responses from departments.

Source: BankInfoSecurity

Security firm Socket discovered an active campaign targeting developers through 60 malicious NPM packages that steal system data when installed. Over two weeks, threat actors published packages containing scripts that collect hostnames, IP addresses, DNS servers, and directory paths, sending everything to a Discord webhook.

The packages have been downloaded over 3,000 times across Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. Three NPM accounts published 20 packages each, all containing identical fingerprinting code designed to evade detection.

Socket warns this data helps attackers map internal developer networks to public infrastructure, enabling future supply chain attacks and targeted intrusions.

Source: Security Week

Researchers from three US universities discovered that AI coding assistants frequently recommend fake software packages that don't exist - a problem they've dubbed "slopsquatting." Hackers can exploit this by creating malicious packages with these hallucinated names, tricking developers into downloading compromised code.

The study tested 16 popular AI models and found none were immune. Commercial models hallucinated packages 5.2% of the time, while open-source models hit 21.7%. Out of 2.23 million generated packages, nearly 20% were fake.

This creates a dangerous supply chain attack where malicious code could infect entire software projects. The researchers suggest better prompt engineering and model training to address the issue.

Source: Security Week