U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Atlassian flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added an Atlassian flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-21589 (CVSS score of 9.3), to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. In early October, threat actors started exploiting CVE-2026-21589, a critical arbitrary file access flaw in Atlassian Data Center products. The vulnerability could allow attackers to access sensitive files under certain conditions. Affected products include Bitbucket, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Jira Software, Bamboo, Crowd, Crucible, and Fisheye. “This Arbitrary File Access vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to access specific files within the web application root directory in affected versions. Exploitation requires prior knowledge of the target file’s exact name and path; this vulnerability does not allow attackers to enumerate or list directory contents.” reads the advisory. “In some configurations, there may be some sensitive files that make this highly severe.” Previdian telemetry has detected 15 exploitation attempts from three IP addresses in Japan and the U.S.. “Exploitation has now started to hit our honeypot network” Previdian Founder Ryan Dewhurst wrote on LinkedIn. On October 6, watchTowr Labs published a technical analysis of CVE-2026-21589 after comparing vulnerable and patched Atlassian packages. Researchers found a path traversal flaw where double-colon (::) sequences can be treated as path separators, allowing attackers to read files from the application web root. “While semicolons (;) are very common in path traversal within Java applications, along with the everyday dots (.) and slashes (/), one item stood out: the matching of double colons (::).” reads the analysis. “This is uncommon syntax for this type of vulnerability, but grepping through the codebase we came across an all too familiar sight.” In one Crowd deployment with Jira, researchers were able to read crowd.properties, which exposed application credentials. They then used those credentials to create a user and add it to the jira-administrators group. Crowd IP allowlisting can block this attack path. Exploitation attempts against its honeypot network reportedly began two hours after watchTowr published additional technical details about the vulnerability. According to watchTowr, the problem is in Atlassian’s web-resource handling. It can turn a string such as ..::..::..::..::WEB-INF::web.xml into ../../../../WEB-INF/web.xml, allowing attackers to move through directories and access files they should not be able to read. Atlassian says all versions before the listed fixed versions are affected: ProductFixed versionsBitbucket Data Center9.4.26, 10.2.8, 10.5.1Confluence Data Center9.2.26, 10.2.19Jira Service Management Data Center5.12.40, 10.3.26, 11.3.12Jira Software Data Center9.12.40, 10.3.26, 11.3.12Bamboo Data Center10.2.24, 12.1.12Crowd Data Center6.3.7, 7.0.3, 7.1.7, 7.2.4Crucible4.9.15Fisheye4.9.15 watchTowr has released a free tool on GitHub to help check if a server is vulnerable. According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog. Experts also recommend that private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. CISA orders federal agencies to fix the flaw by October 18, 2026. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, CISA)
The regulated utility company CenterPoint Energy says a data breach exposed the personal information of more than 1 million people in Texas. CenterPoint Energy is a regulated utility company used to deliver natural gas and electricity infrastructure, maintain power grids and pipelines, and restore service across parts of Texas, Indiana, Ohio, and Minnesota. The organization disclosed a data breach affecting more than 1 million people in Texas. This week, CenterPoint Energy told the Texas Attorney General’s Office that the breach affected 1,062,060 Texas residents. The company does not appear to have notified the affected individuals by letter. “More than one million Texans were affected by a CenterPoint Energy data breach that compromised sensitive personal information, according to newly published information from the Texas Attorney General’s Office.” reported the broadcast Click2Huston. “The state’s data breach database lists 1,062,060 Texans as being affected. The information involved includes customers’ names, addresses, Social Security information and driver’s-license numbers.” Days before the first disclosure, on September 12, a threat actor using the alias “4d722e4d656f77” claimed on a cybercrime forum to have extracted roughly 7.49 million customer records from CenterPoint Energy. “In September 2026, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (the “Company”) became aware of an online post by a third party claiming to have obtained a data set containing certain of the Company’s customer information.” reads the FORM 8-K report filed with SEC.”While the investigation remains ongoing, the Company has determined that an unauthorized third party obtained personal information relating to a portion of the Company’s customers through one of the Company’s external facing systems (the “Incident”).” The hacker claimed the theft of names, phone numbers, service and billing addresses, account numbers, billing amounts, payment status, and partial Social Security numbers. He offered a 2.5 GB archive for download. The attacker warned that “next time we won’t simply pull data, we’ll start attacking the main infrastructure,” a line that reads well on a forum but should still be taken seriously by any critical infrastructure operator. The attackers claimed they stole over the records through an API they say lacked proper WAF protection, rate limiting, and authentication. They also claimed the company tried to stop the data dump only after millions of records had been extracted. “CenterPoint Energy continues to actively investigate the cybersecurity incident disclosed last month. Upon learning of the issue, CenterPoint activated our incident response procedures and engaged external cybersecurity, forensic, and legal advisors to assist with the investigation.” a spokesperson for CenterPoint said on Wednesday. “We continue to work with third-party experts to assess the scope of affected customer data to identify which customers will be provided notifications in accordance with applicable legal requirements.” Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, data breach)
Threat actors are exploiting a critical command execution flaw, now tracked as CVE-2026-110447, in the Collabora Online - Built-in CODE Server app (richdocumentscode) for Nextcloud. Multiple administrator reports indicate that attacks began in mid-September, roughly a month before the formal security bulletin, the GitHub advisory, and CVE publication. CVE-2026-110447 impacts richdocumentscode versions before 26.4.303 and resides in the Nextcloud app’s mechanism for starting the bundled Collabora server. The flaw affects only the optional built-in CODE server app. Standalone Collabora Online servers, Docker and RPM/DEB installations, and Nextcloud All-in-One deployments remain unaffected, according to Collabora. The attacks involve sending a malicious request to the app’s proxy.php endpoint, triggering OS command injection.
Microsoft announced that Windows Server 2022 has reached the end of mainstream support and will remain in extended support until October 2031. Microsoft unveiled Windows Server 2022 in March 2021 and made it generally available in September 2021 as a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release with 10 years of support. "As of October 13, 2026, Windows Server 2022 has reached end of mainstream support and transitioned to extended support. The October 2026 security update is the last mainstream support update available for this version," it said. "Extended support includes security updates at no additional cost, and Windows Server 2022 will continue to receive monthly security updates through October 14, 2031." Microsoft has also extended Windows Server 2022 hotpatching until October 2027, one year after the mainstream end date of October 2026, for systems running the Datacenter: Azure Edition.
A long-running Traffic Distribution System (TDS) known as Help TDS to a Russian-language affiliate program called Hotejka, which appears to be a rebrand of a traffic monetization operation dubbed ROI777. Help TDS is assessed to be active since at least 2017, offering PHP code templates to partners and affiliates that are installed into compromised websites with an aim to direct unsuspecting
NGINX released versions 1.30.6 and 1.31.7 on October 14 to fix five vulnerabilities, one of them present in every release since May 2005. There are three memory bugs that F5, the company behind NGINX, says could crash a worker process or possibly let an attacker run code, and each requires a specific configuration to exploit. A fourth lets an attacker forge a TLS session that could
Attackers are impersonating popular AI products to distribute malware, steal browser sessions, and compromise business accounts. ANY.RUN linked 1,258 public sandbox analyses to fake AI campaigns between April and October of 2026. The campaigns also increase operational pressure on MSSPs serving US businesses, which accounted for 16% of country-attributed targets. Similar attacks
The Indian government has directed telecom service providers (TSPs) in the country to mandatorily display callers' registered names along with their numbers for incoming calls starting November 1, 2026, in an effort to help people identify calls from unknown numbers and tackle spam or fraudulent calls. To that end, the Department of Telecommunications has issued a circular urging service
Attackers exploited a flaw in an optional Nextcloud app, Collabora Online - Built-in CODE Server, to plant web shells on Nextcloud servers. Three administrators reported the issue on GitHub, with the first logged attack on September 10. A web shell is a small file that executes any command an attacker sends via a web request, with the rights of the web server account. The flaw
OpenAI employee charged with planting hidden audio recorders to capture sensitive discussions about AI research and company strategy. On September 30, OpenAI staff found a small audio recording device jammed into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room in their San Francisco office. The device had been there since September 28, its contents were encrypted, and whoever put it there had wrapped it in toilet paper to hide it. Federal prosecutors named the man as Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national who’d been working on OpenAI’s product team since July 2025. Alfozan was fired and arrested on October 9. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. “An employee of OpenAI has been arrested for and charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.” states DoJ. “Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was arrested on Oct. 9, and made his initial appearance in federal court today.” The executive conference room hosted meetings about confidential research, product plans, business deals, government relations, and OpenAI’s technical progress. These were clearly sensitive discussions. FBI Director Kash Patel said the alleged goal was to spy on conversations about the company’s intellectual property. “According to the complaint unsealed today, Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Protecting American SI innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities. Thank you to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and our law enforcement partners for their support — and we will continue working closely with our partners across the U.S. government and private sector to keep American businesses and citizens safe and to ensure our country maintains its competitive edge.” Alfozan had no permission to enter the room or attend meetings there. CCTV footage showed him near the conference room several times before the recording device was discovered. On October 5, five days after OpenAI found it, cameras captured him looking behind the same television where the device had been hidden. He appeared to be checking on it or preparing to retrieve it. Before the device was installed on September 28, Alfozan used an internal OpenAI tool to search for office addresses, meeting rooms and their capacity, room calendars, the locations of executives and senior leaders, and schedules for meetings with external partners. These searches suggest he was gathering information about the company’s facilities and activities. Investigators also found a series of chatbot prompts submitted between September 24 and 30 through an account linked to Alfozan’s spouse. The account shared several identifiers with his own. The prompts covered how to build a continuous audio recorder, configure Wi-Fi, improve recording and live listening quality, encrypt an SD card, and enable remote access. Prosecutors also noted that on September 27 and 28, the account submitted prompts referring specifically to the custom header and unique MAC address of Recording Device 1. This happened just one day before the device was installed. On October 5, the same day Alfozan was caught on camera looking behind the television, he also left a bag unattended in a different room in an OpenAI building. Security staff opened it and found another recording device similar to the first one, along with his wallet and ID. So either he was planning to plant a second device, or he was already carrying a spare. “If convicted, Alfozan faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, followed by 3 years of supervised release.” concludes DoJ. OpenAI said it used its own internal AI models to help analyze the device, which TechCrunch reported “contained advanced encryption, audio monitoring capabilities, and a mechanism for transferring data designed to evade monitoring.” OpenAI also confirmed there’s no indication that Alfozan accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code, or customer data through any other channel. This case is being prosecuted under National Security Presidential Memorandum 11, specifically tied to protecting American superiority in what the government is now formally calling “super intelligence” technology. The Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, weighed in personally, calling AI development a national security prerogative. That framing, a straightforward wire tap case dressed in super intelligence language, tells you something about where this administration sees AI in the broader geopolitical picture. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, OpenAI)
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