Attackers compromised Nextend's update infrastructure and pushed a fully weaponized version of Smart Slider 3 Pro (3.5.1.35) through the official WordPress and Joomla update channel on April 7. Sites with auto-updates enabled received a multi-layered remote access toolkit disguised as a legitimate plugin update. The malicious version was live for approximately six hours before detection. Patchstack's analysis found: unauthenticated remote command execution via crafted HTTP headers, a second authenticated backdoor with PHP eval and OS command execution, a hidden administrator account (prefixed wpsvc_) invisible in the admin interface, persistent backdoors planted in the active theme's functions.php and wp-config.php, and automated credential theft sent to an external server. Traditional defenses like firewalls, nonce verification, and role-based access controls are irrelevant here because the malicious code arrived through the trusted update channel. Affected sites should be considered fully compromised.
Attackers compromised a backend API on CPUID's website and replaced the official download links for CPU-Z and HWMonitor with trojanized versions containing the STX RAT. The attack lasted approximately six hours between April 9-10, timed to when the lead developer was on holiday. The malicious packages used DLL sideloading - legitimate CPUID executables (still properly signed) were bundled alongside a malicious CRYPTBASE.dll that masquerades as a standard Windows library. When users launched HWMonitor or CPU-Z, the malicious DLL loaded and deployed the RAT entirely in memory, with four independent persistence paths. The primary goal was browser credential theft, specifically targeting Chrome's IElevation COM interface to dump and decrypt saved passwords. The same threat group previously compromised FileZilla downloads in early March 2026. CPUID's signed original files were not tampered with - this was an infrastructure attack redirecting download links to attacker-controlled Cloudflare R2 storage.
An unpatched zero-day in Adobe Acrobat Reader has been actively exploited since at least November 2025 using booby-trapped PDF documents. The exploit, discovered by EXPMON researcher Haifei Li, works on the latest version of Adobe Reader without any user interaction beyond opening the file. It abuses privileged Acrobat JavaScript APIs (util.readFileIntoStream and RSS.addFeed) to silently harvest local files, OS details, language settings, and the Reader version from the victim's machine, then sends everything to an attacker-controlled server. The PDFs use Russian-language lures related to the oil and gas industry. The attack is a two-stage operation: the first pass fingerprints the target, and if the system meets the attacker's criteria, a follow-on RCE or sandbox escape payload is delivered. Only 5 out of 64 antivirus engines on VirusTotal detected the sample. No CVE has been assigned and no patch is available.
A critical vulnerability in the Ninja Forms File Uploads premium add-on for WordPress allows attackers to upload arbitrary files - including PHP web shells - without any authentication. Over 800,000 WordPress sites use Ninja Forms, and the File Uploads extension is one of its most popular premium add-ons. Successful exploitation gives an attacker full code execution on the web server. No user interaction required - just a crafted request to the file upload endpoint.
A high-severity Docker Engine flaw allows attackers to bypass authorization plugins with a single oversized HTTP request. CVE-2026-34040 (CVSS 8.8) stems from an incomplete fix for CVE-2024-41110 from July 2024 - the original patch missed requests over 1MB, which get forwarded to the Docker daemon without their body, so the AuthZ plugin sees nothing to block while the daemon processes the full malicious payload. The result: a privileged container with root access to the host filesystem, exposing AWS credentials, SSH keys, Kubernetes configs, and everything else on the machine. Critically, Cyera researchers demonstrated that AI coding agents running inside Docker sandboxes can be tricked via prompt injection into crafting the bypass request themselves - no human attacker needed.
A frustrated security researcher published working exploit code for an unpatched Windows local privilege escalation flaw after Microsoft's Security Response Center mishandled the disclosure. The researcher, posting as Chaotic Eclipse, dropped the proof-of-concept on GitHub on April 3 with the message "I was not bluffing Microsoft." Will Dormann of Tharsos confirmed the exploit works - it combines a TOCTOU race condition with path confusion to access the SAM database containing local account password hashes, enabling escalation to SYSTEM privileges. The exploit is confirmed working on Windows desktop but unreliable on Windows Server. The researcher deliberately included bugs in the PoC, but the underlying technique is now public and weaponizable.
If you patched FortiClient EMS for CVE-2026-21643 two weeks ago by upgrading to 7.4.5, you're now vulnerable to a new zero-day. CVE-2026-35616 is a CVSS 9.1 pre-authentication API access bypass affecting versions 7.4.5 and 7.4.6 - the exact versions customers upgraded to. Defused Cyber spotted exploitation in the wild starting March 31. Fortinet released an emergency weekend hotfix on Saturday, with watchTowr noting attackers deliberately timed this for the Easter holiday when security teams are at half strength.
Cisco Talos uncovered a large-scale automated campaign by threat cluster UAT-10608 that exploits React2Shell - a CVSS 10.0 pre-auth RCE flaw in React Server Components used by Next.js. One crafted HTTP request is all it takes to get code execution, no credentials needed. The attackers scan with Shodan and Censys, breach Next.js apps, then deploy the NEXUS Listener framework to harvest database credentials, SSH keys, AWS tokens, Stripe API keys, Kubernetes secrets, and GitHub tokens at scale. At least 766 hosts across multiple cloud providers were compromised within 24 hours.
Two flaws in Progress ShareFile's Storage Zones Controller can be chained for unauthenticated remote code execution - no credentials needed. An attacker first bypasses authentication via improper HTTP redirect handling, then uploads a malicious webshell through the file upload function. watchTowr published full technical details and a proof-of-concept. Around 30,000 instances are exposed online. File transfer solutions are a favorite ransomware target - Clop hit Accellion, GoAnywhere, MOVEit, and Cleo the same way.
Cisco patched a CVSS 9.8 authentication bypass in its Integrated Management Controller - the hardware-level management system built into Cisco UCS servers. An attacker sends one crafted HTTP request to the password change function and can reset any user's password, including Admin, without any credentials. Because IMC operates below the operating system on a dedicated baseboard controller with its own IP address, traditional endpoint security tools can't detect or stop it. The flaw affects dozens of Cisco product lines including APIC servers, Secure Firewall Management Center, and Cyber Vision appliances.
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