Last updated: August 19, 2026 at 1:47 AM UTC
All 741 Vulnerability 286 Breach 129 Threat 319 Defense 7

DentaQuest notifies more than 23 million people after a data theft attack

Dental benefits administrator DentaQuest, part of Sun Life, is notifying more than 23 million people that their personal and health information was stolen in a May 2026 network intrusion. The company found unauthorized access on May 20 and determined attackers were in its network between May 17 and 20. Exposed data includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, member, Medicaid, and Medicare identifiers, and dental and vision health details such as diagnoses, treatments, and billing. The extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility and leaked roughly 234GB. DentaQuest has confirmed at least 15 million affected, with independent analysis putting the figure above 23 million, and is offering two years of monitoring.

Check
People with DentaQuest or associated Medicaid or Medicare dental coverage should watch for a notification, enroll in the offered monitoring, consider a credit freeze, and be alert to health-themed phishing.
Affected
More than 23 million DentaQuest members whose names, Social Security numbers, government program identifiers, and dental and vision health records were exposed and leaked, supporting identity theft and targeted fraud.
Fix
Affected people should freeze credit and monitor benefits statements. Organizations holding health data should segment it, enforce phishing-resistant MFA, monitor for bulk data access, and prepare for extortion-driven leaks.

Dysphoria botnet moves command and control onto the blockchain to resist takedown

An IoT botnet tracked as Dysphoria has adopted blockchain-based name services and relays built from its own victims after a March law enforcement operation disrupted related botnet infrastructure. Rather than hardcoding servers, it resolves command-and-control details through Ethereum and Solana naming systems, with addresses hidden inside fake IPv6 strings and recovered by a custom algorithm, which makes conventional server seizure harder. A separate relay build drops the attack modules and instead shuttles traffic between outside connections and remote servers through compromised devices. It spreads mainly through weak Telnet and SSH passwords and known device flaws. Researchers put its size above 200,000 bots, though that count is not independently verified.

Check
Take IoT and networking devices off direct internet exposure, replace default and weak Telnet and SSH credentials, patch known device flaws, and disable remote management where it is not needed.
Affected
Internet-exposed IoT and networking devices with weak Telnet or SSH passwords or unpatched flaws; these get recruited for denial-of-service attacks or as relays that hide the operator's real infrastructure.
Fix
Enforce strong unique device credentials, disable Telnet and unnecessary remote services, keep firmware patched or replace unsupportable devices, and monitor outbound connections for relay and blockchain name-service activity.

Cruciferra crypter uses vulnerable drivers and process ghosting to hide malware

Researchers detailed Cruciferra, a crypter service that packages Windows malware to evade detection using two notable techniques. It brings a vulnerable signed driver to disable security tooling, an approach known as bring-your-own-vulnerable-driver, and it uses process ghosting, where a malicious file is deleted before its code is mapped into a running process, so the running program has no backing file for tools to inspect. Together these let common payloads run while sidestepping many endpoint defenses. Crypter services matter because they lower the skill needed to deploy malware stealthily, letting many separate actors wrap their payloads in the same evasion layer rather than building it themselves.

Check
Enable vulnerable driver blocklisting on Windows, hunt for known bad drivers being loaded, and ensure endpoint tooling can detect process ghosting rather than relying on scanning files on disk.
Affected
Windows environments relying on file-based or easily disabled endpoint defenses; Cruciferra-wrapped malware disables protections through a vulnerable driver and runs with no backing file to scan.
Fix
Turn on Microsoft's vulnerable driver blocklist, restrict driver loading, deploy behavior-based detection that catches process ghosting and driver abuse, and alert on unexpected kernel driver installs.

Unpatched Fastjson flaw lets a single JSON request run code on Spring Boot apps

Security firms ThreatBook and Imperva report attackers targeting a critical flaw in Fastjson, Alibaba's widely used JSON library for Java. On affected Spring Boot applications, a malicious JSON request can execute code without authentication, running with the privileges of the Java process. Tracked as CVE-2026-16723 with an Alibaba-assigned score of 9.0, the confirmed chain needs Fastjson 1.2.68 through 1.2.83, a Spring Boot executable fat-JAR, a network-reachable path that feeds attacker-controlled JSON to the parser, and SafeMode left at its disabled default. Notably, the AutoType feature can stay off and no classpath gadget is required. As of July 25, Alibaba had not shipped a fixed 1.x version.

Check
Inventory Java services for Fastjson 1.x on the classpath, identify any endpoint that parses untrusted JSON, and enable SafeMode now rather than waiting for a fixed release.
Affected
Spring Boot applications packaged as fat-JARs using Fastjson 1.2.68 through 1.2.83 with SafeMode disabled (CVE-2026-16723); an unauthenticated JSON request reaches code execution, and no fixed 1.x version exists yet.
Fix
Enable SafeMode by setting fastjson.parser.safeMode to true, or switch to the noneautotype build, restrict network paths that parse untrusted JSON, and plan migration off Fastjson 1.x.

Public exploit runs commands as git on unpatched self-managed GitLab servers

A researcher at depthfirst published a working exploit on July 24 for a GitLab flaw patched on June 10, running commands as the git user on any self-managed 18.11.3 server that has not updated. Any authenticated user who can push to a project can trigger it: the attacker commits a crafted Jupyter notebook and opens its commit diff to leak a heap pointer, repeats until an automated probe locates libraries in memory, then fires the payload with two more notebooks. No administrator rights, runner access, or victim interaction are needed. The bug sits in the notebook renderer, which passes repository-controlled data to a parser inside a long-lived worker.

Check
Move self-managed GitLab to a supported release containing the June fix, and for Helm or Operator deployments verify the GitLab version inside the Webservice image rather than only the chart version.
Affected
Self-managed GitLab servers on 18.11.3 or other unpatched builds; any authenticated user able to push a project can run commands as the git service account, with public exploit code now available.
Fix
Upgrade to a fixed release, since no workaround is offered, and note GitLab did not classify the fix as a security issue, so track upstream library bumps rather than security advisories alone.

Certighost lets any domain user impersonate a domain controller and seize the domain

Researchers published a working exploit on July 24 for Certighost, an Active Directory Certificate Services flaw that lets a low-privileged domain user obtain a certificate for a domain controller and authenticate as that machine. Because domain controller accounts hold directory replication rights, the resulting credential can extract the krbtgt secret through DCSync, effectively handing over the whole domain. Microsoft patched it in the July 14 updates as CVE-2026-54121, an improper authorization issue scored 8.8. Exploitation needs only network access and an ordinary domain account, with no administrator rights or user interaction, and it was tested against a default enterprise certificate authority setup.

Check
Apply the July Microsoft updates to enterprise certificate authorities, and where immediate patching is not possible, disable the vulnerable chase fallback per Microsoft's guidance and restart the certificate service.
Affected
Active Directory environments running an unpatched Enterprise Certification Authority (CVE-2026-54121); any standard domain account can impersonate a domain controller, run DCSync, and take full control of the domain.
Fix
Deploy the July fix, audit certificate authority enrollment and issuance logs for domain controller impersonation, restrict machine account creation, and monitor for unexpected DCSync replication activity.

Cl0p affiliates hit exposed Windchill and FlexPLM through an unauthenticated flaw

Cl0p affiliates are exploiting internet-exposed PTC Windchill and FlexPLM product lifecycle platforms through an unauthenticated remote code execution flaw, in a data theft extortion campaign. Product lifecycle management systems track a product from design to retirement and hold computer-aided design files, bills of materials, engineering data, and workflows, making them a concentrated store of intellectual property for manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, and electronics. Cl0p's established pattern is mass exploitation of one enterprise product followed by extortion over stolen data rather than encryption. PTC patched a critical deserialization flaw in the Windchill data management component earlier this year that has already seen exploitation.

Check
Identify any Windchill or FlexPLM instance reachable from the internet, confirm it is on a patched release, and place it behind access controls rather than leaving it directly exposed.
Affected
Manufacturers running internet-exposed PTC Windchill or FlexPLM; unauthenticated code execution lets Cl0p steal design files, bills of materials, and engineering intellectual property for extortion.
Fix
Patch and restrict access to product lifecycle platforms, require multi-factor authentication, monitor for bulk downloads and unusual export activity, and confirm what intellectual property these systems hold before an incident.

Vatican prayer app left personal data of 700,000 users exposed

Researchers found that an official Vatican prayer app exposed the personal information of more than 700,000 users worldwide through an insecure configuration. The exposed data included details that can identify individuals and tie them to their use of the app. Faith and health apps are sensitive because the mere fact of using them can be revealing, and religious affiliation is a protected category in many jurisdictions, so even a modest data set carries outsized risk for the people in it. The exposure stemmed from the way the app's backend was set up rather than a sophisticated intrusion, a recurring pattern in mobile app data leaks where access controls are misconfigured.

Check
App developers should review backend access controls and confirm that user data stores require authentication and are not readable by anyone who can reach the endpoint.
Affected
More than 700,000 users of the Vatican prayer app whose personal information was exposed; because the data links people to a religious app, it is sensitive even where individual fields seem limited.
Fix
Developers should enforce authentication on all data endpoints, apply least privilege to backend stores, test for misconfiguration before release, and minimize the personal data collected by faith and health apps.

GitHub delays Dependabot version updates to keep poisoned packages out

GitHub is adding a default three-day cooldown before Dependabot opens pull requests for new package versions, aimed at supply chain attacks where a poisoned release spreads through automated updates before anyone catches it. Security updates that answer a known advisory still ship immediately; only routine version updates wait. GitHub points to the September 2025 compromise of chalk, debug, and other packages, whose crypto-stealing versions were live for roughly two hours, and notes its advisory database logged more than 6,500 npm malware advisories in the year to May 2026, around eighteen a day. Most malicious releases are caught within hours, so a short delay filters out the majority.

Check
If you use Dependabot, confirm the cooldown is enabled and consider tuning the window in dependabot.yml, and apply similar delay logic to any other automated dependency tooling you run.
Affected
Projects with automated dependency updates that pull new releases immediately; a poisoned version of a popular package can reach reviewers and installs during the short window before it is caught and yanked.
Fix
Adopt a cooldown on version updates while keeping security fixes immediate, pin and verify dependencies, review update pull requests rather than auto-merging, and monitor for advisories on packages you rely on.

US agencies say Iran-linked actors are disrupting water and energy control systems

CISA, the FBI, NSA, EPA, and Department of Energy updated a joint advisory warning that Iran-affiliated actors are exploiting internet-facing operational technology across US critical infrastructure, and in some cases disrupting it. Since at least March 2026 the group has targeted programmable logic controllers, the small industrial computers that run automation processes, extracting device project files and then modifying or deleting the control logic. Water, wastewater, energy, and government facilities are among the affected sectors, and some victims experienced operational disruption and financial loss. The July update broadened the range of affected device makers, added detection guidance, and refreshed the published indicators of compromise.

Check
Take internet-facing PLCs and operational technology offline or behind a VPN, change default and weak device passwords, and check for unexpected changes to control logic and project files.
Affected
Water, wastewater, energy, and government operators with internet-exposed programmable logic controllers; attackers extract project files and alter control logic, which can push processes into unsafe states.
Fix
Remove operational technology from direct internet exposure, enforce strong unique credentials and multi-factor authentication, segment control networks, back up device logic offline, and apply the advisory's detection guidance and indicators.