Cisco patched a high-severity denial-of-service flaw in Cisco Crosswork Network Controller (CNC) and Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) that lets unauthenticated remote attackers exhaust connection resources and force the system into an unresponsive state. CVE-2026-20188. Recovery requires manual reboot. Cisco's PSIRT has not seen exploitation in the wild yet, but Cisco previously patched similar DoS bugs (CVE-2025-20362, CVE-2025-20333) that ended up being weaponized to force ASA and FTD firewalls into reboot loops, which CISA addressed with an emergency directive in November 2025.
Kaspersky disclosed yesterday that the official DAEMON Tools installer - a popular Windows disk-image utility - has been distributing a backdoor since April 8. The trojanized versions (12.5.0.2421 through 12.5.0.2434) are downloaded from the legitimate vendor website and signed with valid AVB Disc Soft certificates. Thousands of infections recorded across 100+ countries, but follow-on payloads went to about a dozen targets in retail, scientific, government, and manufacturing sectors in Russia, Belarus, and Thailand. Kaspersky attributes the attack to Chinese-speaking actors and says it remains active. Detection took roughly a month - similar timeline to the 2023 3CX supply-chain attack.
Apache patched a double-free vulnerability in mod_http2 yesterday. CVE-2026-23918 (CVSS 8.8) lets a remote attacker crash the server immediately, with a path to remote code execution under specific memory-layout conditions. The bug is in the stream cleanup code in h2_mplx.c and is triggered by a crafted sequence of HTTP/2 frames including an early stream reset. mod_http2 ships in default Apache builds and HTTP/2 is widely enabled in production. The MPM prefork worker is not affected. Researchers warn practical RCE requires an info leak and probabilistic heap spray, but in lab conditions execution lands in minutes.
Trend Micro disclosed Quasar Linux (QLNX), a previously undocumented Linux remote access trojan designed for developer workstations and DevOps environments. The malware harvests credentials for npm, PyPI, GitHub, AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes - then uses them to publish trojanized packages to public registries. QLNX runs entirely fileless and in-memory, dynamically compiling its rootkit and PAM backdoor on the target host using gcc, then loading them via /etc/ld.so.preload for system-wide interception. Capabilities include a 58-command RAT, dual-layer rootkit, keylogging, SSH lateral movement, and peer-to-peer mesh networking. Only four security tools detect the binary as malicious.
Progress Software released emergency patches Sunday for two MOVEit Automation flaws. The worst, CVE-2026-4670 (CVSS 9.8), lets remote attackers reach the management interface without logging in - and from there take administrative control. Airbus researchers disclosed both flaws privately and Progress hasn't seen exploitation in the wild, but the comparison with MOVEit's history is uncomfortable: the Cl0p ransomware gang exploited MOVEit Transfer in 2023 to steal data from 2,100 organizations and 62 million individuals. Shodan shows 1,400+ MOVEit Automation instances exposed online, including a dozen linked to US local and state government agencies.
Securonix tracked a phishing campaign called VENOMOUS#HELPER that has hit 80+ organizations (mostly in the US) since April 2025 by getting employees to install legitimate remote-monitoring software they think is a Social Security Administration document. The lure is a fake SSA email asking the recipient to download their statement; the link points to a compromised Mexican business website hosting a SimpleHelp installer. Once installed, the attackers gain SYSTEM-level access, then quietly install ConnectWise ScreenConnect as a backup channel. The pattern aligns with initial-access broker activity: quiet persistence, then sale or hand-off to ransomware operators.
Kaspersky tracked a China-based group called Silver Fox running a tax-themed phishing campaign against organizations in India, Russia, Indonesia, Japan, and South Africa. Phishing emails impersonate the Indian Income Tax Department or Russian tax service with subjects about audits or 'lists of tax violations.' Inside the attached archive sits a modified Rust loader that pulls down a known backdoor called ValleyRAT, plus a brand-new Python-based backdoor called ABCDoor. ABCDoor handles screen recording, keystroke control, clipboard theft, and file operations. Kaspersky logged 1,600+ phishing emails between January and February 2026 across industrial, consulting, retail, and transportation sectors.
Kaspersky reported a sharp rise in phishing campaigns sent through Amazon's Simple Email Service (SES). Because the emails come from Amazon's own infrastructure, they pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks that normally catch fake-brand emails - and reputation-based blocks don't trigger because Amazon's mail servers have legitimate reputation. The pattern starts with attackers harvesting AWS access keys leaked in public GitHub repos, .env files, Docker images, and S3 buckets, then using those keys to send phishing through SES from the victim's own AWS account. Wiz documented similar abuse in 2025 with attackers escalating from sandbox mode (200 emails/day) to production mode (50,000+/day) by issuing PutAccountDetails across all AWS regions in 10 seconds.
Update on the cPanel ransomware wave covered May 3: attackers have shifted focus and are now targeting governments and managed service providers exploiting CVE-2026-41940. Security Affairs reports the operation is no longer just opportunistic mass-encryption of small business websites - the actors are deliberately looking for hosting accounts owned by government agencies and IT firms that manage downstream customers. CISA added the cPanel flaw to its KEV catalog Friday with a federal patch deadline of May 21. With 44,000 cPanel hosts already compromised in the initial wave, the secondary phase targeting MSPs has the potential to multiply impact through customer-tenant relationships - much like the 2023 Kaseya VSA campaign.
Microsoft disclosed Monday that a phishing campaign between April 14 and 16 hit 35,000+ users across 13,000+ organizations in 26 countries (92% in the US). Lures impersonated internal HR with subjects like 'Internal case log issued under conduct policy.' Each email had a PDF attachment with a 'Review Case Materials' link that walked victims through Cloudflare CAPTCHAs and a final adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) Microsoft sign-in page. AiTM proxies the real Microsoft login and captures session tokens after MFA - so traditional MFA is bypassed. Healthcare (19%), financial services (18%), and professional services (11%) were the most-targeted sectors.
TrustStrike Labs