NSA, CISA, FBI, DOE, and EPA warn of active AI-assisted attacks against Siemens S7 PLCs across US critical infrastructure sectors. Five U.S. federal agencies issued a joint advisory this week warning of an active hacking campaign against Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers. The advisory, CISA AA26-231A, is co-signed by NSA, FBI, DOE, and EPA and covers every S7 generation, from the S7-200 to the S7-1500 F-series safety controllers. The advisory is direct about one thing from the first paragraph: this is not a theoretical risk. “The threat actors are conducting reconnaissance and capability development against U.S.-based Siemens PLC installations using AI-generated exploitation scripts disguised as legitimate monitoring tools. The actors leverage Internet scanning services to find Internet-exposed PLCs running outdated software or that are otherwise poorly protected.” reads the advisory. “The U.S. critical infrastructure sectors most targeted by this threat activity include Critical Manufacturing, Energy, Water and Wastewater, Chemical, Food and Agriculture, and Commercial Facilities. This is not a theoretical risk—it is an active threat. “ The key detail is how the attackers try to hide their activity. They make their scripts look like legitimate OT monitoring software, making it harder for security teams to notice them while they map the target environment. The tools themselves are not custom malware. The attackers use the open-source snap7.dll and python-snap7 libraries, which are legitimate industrial automation tools. These libraries can communicate directly with Siemens PLCs over S7comm on TCP port 102, allowing access to PLC memory, configuration data and ladder logic programs. “Using AI to generate exploitation scripts represents an evolution in threat actor capabilities, dramatically reducing the technical expertise and time required to develop working ICS exploitation scripts and malicious tools. In addition, AI enables adversaries to rapidly leverage additional attack vectors and adapt to defensive measures.” continues the advisory. “Threat actors can easily collect public information about vulnerabilities and weaknesses, find exposed and exploitable PLCs, and use AI-generated scripts to act on that information. If PLCs are exposed to the Internet, they are at high risk for exploitation.” Researchers warn that a defender who patches a vulnerability may now find the attacker’s tooling already adapted before the change window closes. The observed activity breaks into two phases. Actors use scanning services like Censys and ZoomEye to locate Internet-exposed PLCs, then run read operations to understand the target environment before any writes happen. The authoring agencies assess this as pre-positioning: the actors are building a map and testing their techniques against specific CPU models, refining as they go, before they’re ready to cause disruption. The target list covers Critical Manufacturing, Energy, Water and Wastewater, Chemical, Food and Agriculture, and Commercial Facilities. The Defense Industrial Base is also named, given its use of S7-series hardware. If these actors move from read to write, the potential consequences include process disruption, equipment damage, and safety incidents through manipulation of interlocks or emergency shutdown systems, and cascading effects across interconnected supply chains. The advisory flags third-party exposure as a specific problem. Asset owners who rely on system integrators or managed service providers for remote PLC access may not know their controllers are reachable from the Internet. If an external support partner holds credentials for your S7 devices and you haven’t recently verified that those connections are segmented and monitored, this advisory is a good prompt to check. There are several clear signs defenders can monitor. They should look for S7comm connections from devices that are not normally used for engineering, PLC read or write activity outside scheduled maintenance, and scans of multiple IP addresses on TCP port 102. It is also worth checking for Python processes loading snap7.dll on systems where it should not be present. Connections from unexpected countries or locations should also raise an alert. On the mitigation side, the agencies prioritize inventory first, then patching with Internet-facing controllers at the top of the queue. Block TCP port 102 at the perimeter firewall, require password protection on all controllers, configure protection levels to limit what an unauthenticated or low-privilege session can read or write, and deploy ICS-aware monitoring capable of baselining legitimate S7comm behavior. Disabling the PLC web server where it’s not needed and limiting simultaneous S7comm sessions also appear in the guidance, alongside TIA Portal’s know-how protection and complete restart protection features. The advisory closes by recommending direct engagement with Siemens ProductCERT for model-specific hardening and patch compatibility verification, which matters in OT environments where a firmware update can interact badly with third-party integrations and can’t simply be rolled back. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, CISA)
A critical vulnerability in the Elementor Pro WordPress plugin could allow attackers to upload executable files for remote code execution on the server. Identified as CVE-2026-32475, the flaw affects Elementor Pro versions before 4.2.2 and stems from the File Upload module, which uses separate loops for file validation and processing that handle empty filename uploads differently. “The problem is that these two loops disagree about what to do with an empty file entry (an upload part whose filename is blank, which PHP reports as UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE),” clarifies a report from Patchstack, a cybersecurity company focused on the WordPress ecosystem. “The validation loop and the processing loop have different early-exit logic for these empty entries, so a carefully shaped multi-part upload can be seen one way by the validator and another way by the mover.”
Citrix has warned customers to immediately secure their systems against two vulnerabilities affecting NetScaler Gateway secure remote access solutions and NetScaler ADC networking appliances. The most severe of the two, tracked as CVE-2026-19490, can allow remote attackers without privileges to bypass authentication when the appliance is configured as an AAA virtual server or as a Gateway (SSL VPN, ICA Proxy, CVPN, RDP Proxy), depending on the NetScaler firmware version and whether SAML Action is configured. Admins can check if an appliance is vulnerable to attacks targeting CVE-2026-19490 by inspecting their NetScaler configuration for SAML action configuration (add authentication samlAction .*) string and Auth or VPN vserver ('add authentication vserver .*' and 'add vpn vserver .*') strings.
Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock (LockA locked padlock) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Staying Secure at Eventsno-cost Cyber ServicesCybersecurity Awareness MonthKnown Exploited Vulnerabilities CatalogReport A Cyber Issue WASHINGTON – Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published the Logging Reference Architecture, an outcome-driven guide for federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agencies to establish logging, visibility and operational standards in an Agency Logging Plan, as required in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-26-14. Developed in collaboration with OMB and the Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) Council, this guidance implements a practical, risk-based, prioritized logging approach that improves agency network monitoring.
A new Android malware named Manic targeting users in multiple European countries has a fallback mechanism for exfiltrating data through nearby infected devices. The malware has been active since at least February and combines spyware, banking fraud, and remote control capabilities. It targets at least 169 banking, government/eID, payment, crypto wallet, messaging, and authenticator/2FA apps, with users in Ukraine being the primary focus. Mobile security company ThreatFabric analyzed the Manic malware and found that it uses transparent overlays on the numeric keypads of legitimate applications to capture victims' taps and reproduce them through Android Accessibility, allowing the legitimate applications to continue functioning normally. After obtaining Accessibility and notification access permissions, the malware can capture the lock PIN/password, intercept notifications and SMS messages, collect files and location data, monitor the screen, and provide remote control to operators via WebRTC sessions.
U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds an MLflow vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a Progress LoadMaster vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-64849 (CVSS score of 9.3), to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. CVE-2026-64849 is a critical server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in MLflow, a platform for managing machine-learning workflows. The issue affects MLflow versions before 3.15.0 and a remote attacker can exploit the issue without authentication. The vulnerability allows attackers to make requests from an exposed MLflow server to internal services, including cloud metadata endpoints, potentially exposing temporary cloud credentials. Attackers are actively exploiting CVE-2026-64849 to access cloud metadata services and steal credentials and secrets. Cybersecurity firm watchTowr also observed widespread scanning for exposed MLflow instances just hours after the CVE was assigned on August 17, 2026. “watchTowr Intel is observing in-the-wild exploitation of a critical unauthenticated Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability in MLflow (CVE-2026-64849), the open-source platform for managing the machine learning and AI development lifecycle, with over 60 million monthly downloads.” watchTowr said in a post on LinkedIn. “Attackers are exploiting the vulnerability to reach cloud metadata services directly, and exfiltrating cloud credentials and secrets. Within hours of the CVE being assigned, Attacker Eye, our global honeypot network, detected attackers indiscriminately scanning for exposed MLflow systems online, capturing attempts against cloud-hosted instances.” Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, CISA)
StopAndProtect turned nearly 2,000 hacked WordPress sites into a criminal network for malware delivery, data theft, surveillance and ransomware. Check Point Research uncovered a cybercrime operation, dubbed StopAndProtect, that has turned thousands of hacked WordPress websites into a shared platform for malware delivery, data theft, surveillance and ransomware. The operation is a good reminder that a compromised website isn’t just a problem for its owner. It can become part of someone else’s attack infrastructure. “StopAndProtect is a newly identified operation that combines file encryption with data theft. The criminals abuse thousands of hacked WordPress websites as their infrastructure – using them to spread the malware, control infected machines, and store stolen documents, screenshots, and activity logs (records created by malware to track its actions, progress, or status during execution).” reads the report published by Check Point. Researchers first identified the campaign in May 2026. The operation starts with a fake CAPTCHA based on the ClickFix technique: visitors are told to prove they’re human, but the instructions actually push them into copying and running a PowerShell command. From there, the infection unfolds through several downloaders and loaders before deploying different malware components. StopAndProtect uses a toolkit of different malware rather than a single strain. Its components can encrypt files, steal documents, lock screens and even provide attackers with a chat channel to communicate with victims. That last point is important because StopAndProtect doesn’t always behave like traditional ransomware. In many cases, the operators first collect file lists and then choose specific files to steal. Encryption or screen locking may come later, depending on what the attackers find and what they want to do with the victim.research. The criminals used compromised WordPress sites for several jobs at once. The sites hosted malware stages, delivered commands, received logs and stored stolen files. Check Point discovered this because one of the servers exposed a directory listing through a PHP script, revealing more files, logs and open folders than the operators probably intended. The campaign appears to have reached close to 2,000 compromised WordPress domains. Many of the sites were running old versions of WordPress or outdated plugins, and one site examined by researchers was still using a 2021 version with almost 40 known weaknesses, including SQL injection, authentication bypasses and arbitrary file upload issues. “In one scenario, we suspect that the malware operator infected themselves and accidentally uploaded some of their desktop files to the collection server. This archive contains the source code of an automation tool for managing injected payloads at scale on compromised WordPress sites.” continues the report. “It also contains a few text files listing close to 2,000 compromised WordPress domains, giving us a hint about the size of the operation.” continues the report. The infection chain is straightforward enough to understand, even if it becomes more complex after the first step. A visitor sees a fake CAPTCHA, follows the instructions, runs PowerShell, and downloads further stages written in .NET. The malware can then encrypt files, spread through SMB shares and USB devices, steal credentials, capture screenshots, collect selected documents or show a ransom message. “We first noticed a ransomware family called StopAndProtect in the middle of May 2026. Further analysis of the infrastructure reveals that the infection chain starts with a ClickFix social-engineering technique, which prompts victims to execute a PowerShell command. This leads to two stages of additional downloaders and loaders written in .NET, followed by several main functional components, such as ransomware, SMB/USB worm, LockScreen, VBS spreader, chat utility and credential stealer.” continues the report. “Although the name StopAndProtect was originally given to the ransomware component, we decided to call the whole operation StopAndProtect, as it does not deploy ransomware on all its victims. In many cases, the attackers silently exfiltrate lists of files and later specific files from the infected machines.” The operators also built tools to manage the infected websites at scale. Check Point found an automation utility that could upload and delete files, enable or disable fake CAPTCHA pages, change redirects and manage additional payloads across the compromised sites. It was written with Visual Basic 6, a technology old enough to have a pension plan, but apparently still useful when the job is mass-managing hacked servers. The campaign also collected a remarkable amount of victim information. From mid-May to the end of July 2026, researchers found more than 700 archives containing stolen files, passwords, wallet information, screenshots and activity logs. One exposed directory held more than 20,000 screenshot files, while the researchers collected roughly 31,000 screenshots during the monitoring period. Some of the captured images showed victims’ desktops, browser activity, antivirus windows, ransom messages and lists of encrypted files. The malware could also monitor WhatsApp activity, search for a contact name and capture the person’s details, including a phone number. That moves the campaign well beyond file encryption: it becomes a surveillance operation with a ransomware component attached.research. Check Point counted more than 6,000 unique IP addresses associated with the campaign by 24 July 2026. The largest groups came from the United States, Russia and India, although IP location does not necessarily identify the victims’ real location or the operators behind the operation. The WordPress side of the story is familiar. Sites are compromised because owners don’t update the core platform, plugins or themes, or because administrative accounts are protected badly. Once attackers obtain access, they can install hidden must-use plugins that load automatically and create file-upload functions capable of accepting PHP files, which may lead to remote code execution. For website owners, the basic response is still the right one: update WordPress and every plugin, remove anything unsupported, protect administrator accounts with strong passwords and multi-factor authentication, review installed plugins and check for unexpected PHP files or unfamiliar administrator accounts. Web server logs, outbound connections and recent file changes deserve particular attention if a site may have been compromised. For visitors, the warning is more specific. A CAPTCHA should not ask someone to open PowerShell, paste a command into a terminal or disable security controls. If a webpage tells you to leave the browser and run instructions on your computer, close it. The CAPTCHA isn’t testing whether you’re human. It’s testing whether you’ll do the attacker’s work for them. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, WordPress)
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a critical security flaw in isolated-vm, a popular open-source sandbox with more than 2,900 stars and 190 forks on GitHub, that could allow attackers to escape the confines of the isolated environment. The vulnerability ("GHSA-864f-rcv7-6rh4"), which has yet to be assigned a CVE identifier, impacts all versions of the library before and including 7.0.0.
Citrix has released updates to address two security flaws impacting NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway deployments, including a critical-severity authentication bypass vulnerability. According to the cloud computing and virtualization technology company, the issues affect customer-managed NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway, including certain FIPS and NDcPP builds, as well as SecurAccess
A new Android threat codenamed Manic has been observed actively targeting Ukrainian banks, government and identity services, and messaging applications, as well as Russian and European financial institutions, global fintech and cryptocurrency services, and military-focused communications. "Manic sits at the intersection of Android banking malware and mobile spyware, combining financial-fraud
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