SonicWall warned customers of two security flaws affecting end-of-life Global Management System (GMS) systems that will not be patched. Global Management System (GMS) helps IT admins deploy and manage thousands of SonicWall security appliances from a single interface, but SonicWall has officially replaced it with the Network Security Manager (NSM) management platform. The two vulnerabilities were found and reported by Pentest-Tools security researchers and affect systems running SonicWall GMS 9.5.2 and earlier. The first GMS flaw disclosed this week is tracked as CVE-2026-109593, and it enables unauthenticated attackers with network access to vulnerable instances (running GMS 9.5.2 and earlier versions) to steal sensitive information by reading internal files. SonicWall also flagged a second security issue (CVE-2026-109594) that can let threat actors with high privileges access or modify information stored in the GMS database through low-complexity SQL Injection attacks.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned federal agencies that attackers have started exploiting a recently patched high-severity WordPress vulnerability in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2026-119977, this high-severity WordPress Core flaw stems from a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition and was reported by Picus Security researcher Umut Bayram. Successful exploitation can let remote threat actors without privileges execute code on the server in high-complexity attacks due to predictable, web-accessible staging paths used during full-package core upgrades. "A weakness in the WordPress upgrade process which can lead to remote code execution during the upgrade window," the WordPress security team said on October 28 when it released WordPress 7.1.4 with patches to address this security issue. "Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately."
U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds WordPress flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a WordPress flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-119977 (CVSS score of 8.1), to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. CVE-2026-119977 is a high-severity remote code execution vulnerability affecting WordPress versions 4.7 through 7.1.3. It stems from predictable, web-accessible staging directories used during core updates. Unauthenticated attackers could exploit a race condition to execute malicious code on the server while an update is in progress, potentially compromising the website. WordPress addressed the flaw in version 7.1.4. Threat actors began scanning for CVE-2026-119977 shortly after WordPress released the security update. Wordfence recorded more than 18,500 requests targeting vulnerable staging installer paths within the first 21 hours. However, these figures document exploitation attempts, not confirmed successful compromises. “Wordfence telemetry shows that threat actors are already actively attempting to exploit the vulnerability. The first match for our new firewall rule arrived nine minutes after deployment. During the first 21 hours, we recorded more than 18,500 requests targeting staged setup-config.php installer paths.” reads the report published by Wordfence. “Two of the largest sources repeatedly polled small groups of sites for roughly 14.5 hours, behavior consistent with trying to catch the brief upgrade window. Other sources tested many staging-directory and version-name variations.” 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 November 6, 2026. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, CVE-2026-119977)
The Russia-linked threat actor known as APT29 is said to be behind a large-scale watering hole campaign targeting iOS and Android users through compromised websites, fake domains, and a supply chain attack involving a Ukrainian web analytics service called Plerdy SEO Tracker. "The injected JavaScript code collects browser and device attributes," Sekoia researchers Amaury-Jacques Garçon and
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a security flaw in WordPress Core to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-119977 (CVSS score: 8.1), is a case of Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition that could be exploited to achieve arbitrary code
Large language model hijacking attacks, also known as LLMjacking, are generating large fraudulent cloud charges, with some organizations losing more than $100,000 per day. Companies can record costs as high as $1 million due to fraudulent calls using stolen API keys, researchers at Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) and Mandiant in analyzed incidents. Based on their observations, there are "two distinct operational clusters coordinating to compromise and monetize enterprise LLM infrastructure." The researchers identified two categories of threat actors: those who scan for publicly exposed LLM endpoints and those who steal valid API keys from unprotected machines. After gaining initial access, the attackers sell it to services known as LLM mixers, which provide their subscribers with unauthorized access to LLMs.
Google has expanded its Cloud Vulnerability Reward Program (VRP) with a new top-tier reward for high-impact architectural security flaws. Starting this month, researchers can earn $250,000 for Root-in-Cloud bugs, including tenant-isolation bypasses and complex cross-service logic flaws that let attackers gain full administrative control over arbitrary Google Cloud organizations. "To earn this premier reward, you must demonstrate full administrative control, the equivalent of 'roles/owner' or complete IAM control, over arbitrary Google Cloud organizations or projects with no prior access or special project setup," said Chris Betz, Google Cloud's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). "Additionally, valid vulnerability reports demonstrating remote code execution (RCE) in underlying Google production infrastructure (Borg) or achieving root-in-prod will automatically be evaluated by the Google Cloud VRP panel for root-in-cloud eligibility."
Google on Monday warned that threat actors are hijacking enterprise access to Large Language Models (LLMs) to fraudulently leverage expensive computing resources and AI services. The tactic is called LLMjacking, a form of resource hijacking adapted for the LLM era, where an attacker obtains an API key through phishing, source code leaks, misconfigured environments, or exposed client-side code
Threat actors are attempting to exploit an unpatched maximum-severity security vulnerability in the CryptoPayment Gateway WordPress plugin, according to findings from Defused Cyber. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-81648, which carries a CVSS score of 10.0. Successful exploitation of the flaw could permit unauthenticated users to delete arbitrary files on the server and extract
VOLTA is an AI-powered infostealer that steals personal data, then uses LLMs to assess victims’ value and rank targets for attackers. Cisco Talos has analyzed a new Windows infostealer called VOLTA, which calls itself VOLTA-AUTODOXER. It steals the usual data, then hands the loot to a large language model that ranks what the victim is worth. Ryan Fetterman laid it out in a Talos report, after the malware turned up through the CAIRN research effort. “There is a new idea in the cybercrime world — cast a wide net, steal everything, and let AI sort out the specifics. A new malware self-named “VOLTA-AUTODOXER,” surfaced through the CAIRN research effort, is a self-deleting Windows infostealer that augments its post-theft workflow with an LLM-powered victim-profiling stage.” reads the report published by Talos. The malware deletes itself after running and does not use servers controlled by the attacker. Instead, it uses third-party systems to carry out its activities. The malicious code supports data-stealing features are advanced. It collects browser passwords, cookies and saved payment card details from Chromium browsers, as well as data from Firefox, Thunderbird and Outlook. It also steals Slack workspace information and login sessions from Discord, Telegram, Steam, Battle.net and Roblox. The malware also collects Microsoft OAuth tokens, SSH keys, cloud service credentials, screenshots and all saved Wi-Fi passwords. For crypto wallets, it tries to crack the wallet password directly on the infected device and saves the results in its report. To steal some browser tokens, it must bypass Chrome’s App-Bound Encryption. But VOLTA goes further. It also builds a detailed profile of the victim. This includes their location and home address, employer and company domain, estimated year of birth, the last four digits of payment cards, Slack workspaces and information about who created documents. It also looks for signs of iPhone backups and checks the current value of the victim’s Roblox account. “After harvesting the standard stealer haul, including browser passwords; cookies; payment cards; cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases; Discord, Telegram, Steam, and Roblox sessions; Microsoft OAuth tokens; SSH and cloud-provider keys; Wi-Fi profiles; and screenshots, VOLTA builds a structured evidence bundle about the person behind the machine.” states the report. It uses the victim’s own logged-in sessions to fill the gaps. It searches Gmail for receipts from Amazon, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Walmart and PayPal to confirm a home address, pulls order histories from Uber Eats and DoorDash, and adds detail to the victim’s Discord profile. Even a takeout history can now count as evidence. The bundle goes to OpenRouter, a routing service for AI models, with a system prompt that tells the model to act as a forensic intelligence analyst drafting a target assessment. “The required output includes a section titled “WHAT THEY’RE WORTH” with valuables ranked by monetization with a low/medium/high tier, and a section on “THEIR OPSEC” containing an assessment of the victim’s security posture and password hygiene.” states the report. “The model is the operator’s triage analyst; it turns a raw credential log into a prioritized and citation-backed dossier of the victim and their monetizable assets.” It also needs a section called “THEIR OPSEC”, rating the victim’s security habits and password hygiene. In short, it’s a performance review for the person it just robbed. The prompt asks for something agents do well: connecting scattered facts. It pushes the model to link names, addresses or universities to patterns in the victim’s passwords. The model isn’t hunting for new data, only stretching what the malware already took. The operator wants a short, blunt assessment with a trail of citations. By default VOLTA calls Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6. If the model refuses, which VOLTA spots by scanning replies for phrases like “I can’t” or “I’m not able”, it moves on to Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2 and then Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash. A low temperature setting of 0.2 keeps the output consistent. The requests are hand-built JSON with no software kit, and the malware still runs without the AI stage if no API key is present. Talos sees the fallback system as evidence that the malware’s author expected security protections and designed ways to bypass them. The AI analysis runs directly on the victim’s computer, using their own internet connection, before any data is sent out. The malware creates a file called Identity_Report.txt, receives the AI’s response in AI_Analysis.txt, and sends both files together in a ZIP archive called volta_dox.zip. The stolen data can be sent to the attacker in up to three stages. The first archive, volta_log.zip, contains the information collected by the malware. The second, volta_dox.zip, contains the AI analysis. A third archive, volta_doxnet.zip, is created if the malware finds additional network information. The attacker receives everything through a Telegram channel. The malware also has six configurable fields that can be changed when it is built. This suggests that its author may offer a builder service, allowing customers to create their own customised versions. The credentials stored in these fields are encrypted, but the encryption is weak because the key is stored inside the malware itself. Anyone who analyses the file can recover them. If VOLTA is sold as a commercial product, its AI feature could allow even inexperienced criminals to identify valuable victims and receive detailed, ranked profiles directly through Telegram. For defense, Talos suggests an application control policy that restricts which processes can launch Chrome with the –headless flag, which would block the App-Bound Encryption bypass. At minimum, alert when Chrome starts with –headless from any process outside a known developer set. Storing credentials in hardware-backed stores also helps. If you’re compromised, the main program may have deleted itself, but try to keep %APPDATA%\volta_debug.txt. It’s a timestamped log of what was collected and whether the AI call worked. Revoke any exposed tokens and change passwords. If a wallet’s seed phrase sat in plaintext on disk, treat the wallet as fully compromised and move the funds to a new wallet whose seed was generated on an air-gapped device. “VOLTA is a mature stealer with a late-stage AI layer added for one purpose: relieving the operator of analytical work. The axis of AI improvement here is not speed or scale but effort displacement; the same logic visible in CLOSEDQUORUM, though applied to a different phase.” concludes the post. “These implants reflect the same underlying logic: Identify the step that requires the most sustained human attention and replace it with a model call. The question for defenders is not whether this pattern will appear elsewhere, but which phase it touches next.” Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, malware)
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