A newly disclosed Linux kernel vulnerability called Bad Epoll lets an ordinary user with no special privileges take full control of a machine as root, and it affects Linux desktops, servers, and Android. Tracked as CVE-2026-46242, the flaw is a use-after-free in epoll, a core Linux feature for watching many files or connections at once that programs and browsers rely on and cannot simply turn off. Two parts of the kernel try to free the same object at once, letting an attacker corrupt kernel memory and climb to root. It is a race-condition bug, harder to exploit than recent deterministic Linux flaws, but a working exploit exists and a fix is available.
CISA has updated its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog to warn that ransomware gangs are now exploiting BlueHammer, a Microsoft Defender privilege-escalation flaw. The bug (CVE-2026-33825) lets a local attacker who already has a foothold escalate to SYSTEM by abusing Defender's file-remediation logic, giving them access to password hashes and the control needed to disable defenses and prepare systems for encryption. It was leaked with proof-of-concept code by a researcher in early April as a protest over Microsoft's disclosure process, exploited as a zero-day, then patched on April 14. It cannot be used for remote compromise on its own, but it strengthens attackers after initial access.
Researchers disclosed closely related Linux kernel flaws in the traffic-control subsystem that let an unprivileged local user gain root, and working exploits appeared within a day of disclosure. The main bug, nicknamed pedit COW (CVE-2026-46331), is an out-of-bounds write in the packet-editing action that corrupts shared page-cache memory; a related variant tracked as DirtyClone (CVE-2026-43503) was demonstrated by JFrog. Rather than touching files on disk, the exploit poisons the cached copy of a setuid root program like /bin/su in memory and runs the altered version as root, so file-integrity checks still pass. Exploitation needs the act_pedit module loadable and unprivileged user namespaces enabled, both common defaults on RHEL and Debian.
Researchers at XM Cyber detailed a macOS technique that lets an attacker with only standard user privileges disable enterprise security tools and call privileged functions, with no admin credentials, kernel exploit, or alerts. It abuses how macOS caches an application's code signature: once cached, the system keeps trusting the app even after an attacker modifies its components, letting a normal user impersonate trusted code and reach privileged XPC services by injecting into interface files. The team showed it disabling CrowdStrike Falcon and Kandji's MDM agent. CrowdStrike and Kandji have fixed their products, with Kandji assigning CVE-2026-39118, but XM Cyber frames the root cause as a flaw in macOS itself.
Researchers at Novee disclosed Cordyceps, a systemic class of weaknesses in CI/CD pipelines, especially GitHub Actions workflows, that lets an attacker with nothing more than a free account hijack a project's build and release process. The danger is not a single bug but how workflows chain together: an untrusted pull request or comment feeds a low-privilege workflow whose output flows into a higher-privilege one, ending in stolen credentials, poisoned artifacts, or malicious releases. A scan of 30,000 repositories found over 300 fully exploitable, with fixes confirmed by Microsoft, Google, Apache, Cloudflare, and the Python Software Foundation. Standard scanners miss it because they check files in isolation.
CISA has added a LiteSpeed cPanel plugin flaw to its known-exploited list and given federal agencies until June 18 to patch. The bug (CVE-2026-54420, rated 8.5) lets a user who already has FTP or web-shell access on a shared hosting server escalate to root by abusing how the plugin follows symbolic links, on servers running CloudLinux or CageFS. On multi-tenant hosting that turns one compromised account into full control of the whole server and every site on it. Namecheap reported it after spotting suspicious activity, and LiteSpeed flagged active exploitation in early June. The fix is LiteSpeed WHM Plugin 5.3.2.1 with cPanel plugin 2.4.8.
Hours after Patch Tuesday, the researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse published a working exploit, dubbed RoguePlanet, for an unpatched Microsoft Defender flaw that opens a command prompt with full SYSTEM privileges on fully updated Windows 10 and 11. The bug is a race condition, so the exploit is hit or miss, but the researcher reports a 100 percent success rate on some machines. They posted the proof-of-concept on a self-hosted Git server after Microsoft had earlier taken down their GitHub and GitLab repositories. It is the latest in a string of Windows zero-days (BlueHammer, RedSun, YellowKey, GreenPlasma) the researcher has released in protest of Microsoft's disclosure practices.
A working exploit is now public for a Linux kernel bug that lets an ordinary local user become root and break out of containers. The flaw (CVE-2026-23111) lives in nf_tables, the kernel's packet-filtering code, and came down to a single inverted character that the upstream fix removed in one line back in February. It is reachable on common setups that have nf_tables plus unprivileged user namespaces enabled, both default on most desktops and many servers. Ubuntu rates it 7.8. There is no remote path on its own, but Exodus Intelligence published a full exploit walkthrough on June 8, making weaponization easy.
Cisco has warned of an actively exploited, unpatched zero-day in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager (CVE-2026-20245) that enables root privilege escalation across all deployment types, including on-prem, Cloud, Managed, and FedRAMP Government. The flaw stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied input: an attacker who uploads a crafted file can perform command injection and run arbitrary commands as root. Exploitation requires netadmin privileges - obtained via valid credentials or by chaining CVE-2026-20182 or CVE-2026-20127. Mandiant reported the activity to Cisco's PSIRT in June. Cisco has observed limited cases where exploitation pushed configuration changes to edge devices, and published IoCs pointing to suspicious tenant-list uploads in scripts.log.
Hackers are exploiting CVE-2026-8206, a critical privilege-escalation flaw in the Kirki - Freeform Page Builder WordPress plugin, to take over any account including administrators. Defiant's Wordfence blocked over 222 attempts against customers in 24 hours. The plugin is active on more than 500,000 sites; the bug was introduced in version 6.0.0 and affects up to 6.0.6 (nearly 40% of the userbase). It stems from a custom REST password-reset endpoint that accepts an arbitrary email: when a username is supplied, the plugin sends a valid reset link to the attacker-controlled address instead of the owner's. The vendor fixed it in 6.0.7 on May 18; admins should upgrade or disable immediately.
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