⚡ Weekly Recap: VPN 0-Day, Encryption Backdoor, AI Malware, macOS Flaw, ATM Hack & More

Malware isn't just trying to hide anymore—it's trying to belong. We're seeing code that talks like us, logs like us, even documents itself like a helpful teammate. Some threats now look more like developer tools than exploits. Others borrow trust from open-source platforms, or quietly build...

New 'Plague' PAM Backdoor Exposes Critical Linux Systems to Silent Credential Theft

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a previously undocumented Linux backdoor dubbed Plague that has managed to evade detection for a year. "The implant is built as a malicious PAM Pluggable Authentication Module, enabling attackers to silently bypass system authentication and gain persistent S...

Coward: toward Practical Proactive Federated Backdoor Defense Via Collision-Based Watermark

Backdoor detection is currently the mainstream defense against backdoor attacks in federated learning FL, where malicious clients upload poisoned updates that compromise the global model and undermine the reliability of FL deployments. Existing backdoor detection techniques fall into two...

Proactive Disentangled Modeling of Trigger-Object Pairings for Backdoor Defense

Deep neural networks DNNs and generative AI GenAI are increasingly vulnerable to backdoor attacks, where adversaries embed triggers into inputs to cause models to misclassify or misinterpret target labels. Beyond traditional single-trigger scenarios, attackers may inject multiple triggers across...

BeDKD: Backdoor Defense Based on Dynamic Knowledge Distillation and Directional Mapping Modulator

Although existing backdoor defenses have gained success in mitigating backdoor attacks, they still face substantial challenges. In particular, most of them rely on large amounts of clean data to weaken the backdoor mapping but generally struggle with residual trigger effects, resulting in...

DUP: Detection-Guided Unlearning for Backdoor Purification in Language Models

As backdoor attacks become more stealthy and robust, they reveal critical weaknesses in current defense strategies: detection methods often rely on coarse-grained feature statistics, and purification methods typically require full retraining or additional clean models. To address these challenges...

New Attack Uses Windows Shortcut Files to Install REMCOS Backdoor

Security firm Point Wild has exposed a new malware campaign using malicious LNK files to install the REMCOS backdoor. This report details how attackers disguise files to gain full system control...

Storm-2603 Deploys DNS-Controlled Backdoor in Warlock and LockBit Ransomware Attacks

The threat actor linked to the exploitation of the recently disclosed security flaws in Microsoft SharePoint Server is using a bespoke command-and-control C2 framework called AK47 C2 also spelled ak47c2 in its operations. The framework includes at least two different types of clients, HTTP-based...

How the FBI got everything it wanted (re-air) (Lock and Code S06E15)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… For decades, digital rights activists, technologists, and cybersecurity experts have worried about what would happen if the US government secretly broke into people’s encrypted communications. The weird thing, though, is that, in 2018, it already happened...

ConSeg: Contextual Backdoor Attack against Semantic Segmentation

Despite significant advancements in computer vision, semantic segmentation models may be susceptible to backdoor attacks. These attacks, involving hidden triggers, aim to cause the models to misclassify instances of the victim class as the target class when triggers are present, posing serious...

FedBAP: Backdoor Defense Via Benign Adversarial Perturbation in Federated Learning

Federated Learning FL enables collaborative model training while preserving data privacy, but it is highly vulnerable to backdoor attacks. Most existing defense methods in FL have limited effectiveness due to their neglect of the model's over-reliance on backdoor triggers, particularly as the...

Cyber Espionage Campaign Hits Russian Aerospace Sector Using EAGLET Backdoor

Russian aerospace and defense industries have become the target of a cyber espionage campaign that delivers a backdoor called EAGLET to facilitate data exfiltration. The activity, dubbed Operation CargoTalon , has been assigned to a threat cluster tracked as UNG0901 short for Unknown Group 901...

Hackers Deploy Stealth Backdoor in WordPress Mu-Plugins to Maintain Admin Access

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new stealthy backdoor concealed within the "mu-plugins" directory in WordPress sites to grant threat actors persistent access and allow them to perform arbitrary actions. Must-use plugins aka mu-plugins are special plugins that are automatically activate...

ShrinkBox: Backdoor Attack on Object Detection to Disrupt Collision Avoidance in Machine Learning-Based Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems ADAS significantly enhance road safety by detecting potential collisions and alerting drivers. However, their reliance on expensive sensor technologies such as LiDAR and radar limits accessibility, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Machine...

Microsoft Fix Targets Attacks on SharePoint Zero-Day

On Sunday, July 20, Microsoft Corp. issued an emergency security update for a vulnerability in SharePoint Server that is actively being exploited to compromise vulnerable organizations. The patch comes amid reports that malicious hackers have used the SharePoint flaw to breach U.S. federal and...

Scaling Decentralized Learning with FLock

Fine-tuning the large language models LLMs are prevented by the deficiency of centralized control and the massive computing and communication overhead on the decentralized schemes. While the typical standard federated learning FL supports data privacy, the central server requirement creates a...

CVE-2025-34117

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in multiple Netcore and Netis routers models with firmware released prior to August 2014 due to the presence of an undocumented backdoor listener on UDP port 53413. Exact version boundaries remain undocumented. An unauthenticated remote attacker can se...

MAL-2025-191883 Malicious code in svcmanager (PyPI)

--- -= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=- Source: kam193 062d589e7c49394864a13694f3de2a89589fd2f5e6a4d2e43e35ce136b6e7e9c Package attempts to download an executable and install it as a privileged service. The executable seems to be modified remote access tool --- Category: MALICIO...

Malicious code in svcmanager (PyPI)

--- -= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=- Source: kam193 062d589e7c49394864a13694f3de2a89589fd2f5e6a4d2e43e35ce136b6e7e9c Package attempts to download an executable and install it as a privileged service. The executable seems to be modified remote access tool --- Category: MALICIO...

GhostContainer backdoor: malware compromising Exchange servers of high-value organizations in Asia

In a recent incident response IR case, we discovered highly customized malware targeting Exchange infrastructure within government environments. Analysis of detection logs and clues within the sample suggests that the Exchange server was likely compromised via a known N-day vulnerability. Our...