Vulnerability Spotlight: Information disclosure vulnerability in Microsoft Media Foundation

Marcin “Icewall” Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Microsoft Media Foundation contains an information disclosure vulnerability that could allow an attacker to eventually remotely execute code on the victim machine. Media Foundation is a COM-based multimedia...

Threat Source newsletter (March 26, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. Just because we’re all still working from home doesn’t mean you can stop patching. We’ve been busy this week with a new wave of...

Threat actors attempt to capitalize on coronavirus outbreak

By Nick Biasini and Edmund Brumaghin. Coronavirus is dominating the news and threat actors are taking advantage. Cisco Talos has found multiple malware families being distributed with Coronavirus lures and themes. This includes emotet and several RAT variants. Executive Summary Using the news to...

Threat Source newsletter (Sept. 12, 2019)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. You’ve heard it a million times: Always patch. But in case you needed another example that it’s important, Cisco Incident Response took ...

Threat Roundup for Nov. 23 to Nov. 30

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Nov. 23 and Nov. 30. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics...

Beers with Talos EP 39: VB 2018 Rundown and Prevalent Problems with PDF

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Ep. 39 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Ep. 39 show notes: Recorded Oct. 5, 2018 - We start out with a quick chat to get to know this week’s special guests from the Talo...

Threat Roundup for October 5 to October 12

Today, as we do every week, Talos is giving you a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we’ve observed this week — covering the dates between Oct. 5 and 12. As with previous roundups, this post isn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, we will summarize the threats we’ve observed by...

Vulnerability Spotlight: VMWare Workstation DoS Vulnerability

Today, Cisco Talos is disclosing a vulnerability in VMware Workstation that could result in denial of service. VMware Workstation is a widely used virtualization platform designed to run alongside a normal operating system, allowing users to use both virtualized and physical systems concurrently...

VPNFilter Update - VPNFilter exploits endpoints, targets new devices

Introduction Cisco Talos, while working with our various intelligence partners, has discovered additional details regarding "VPNFilter." In the days since we first published our findings on the campaign, we have seen that VPNFilter is targeting more makes/models of devices than initially thought,...

New VPNFilter malware targets at least 500K networking devices worldwide

Intro For several months, Talos has been working with public- and private-sector threat intelligence partners and law enforcement in researching an advanced, likely state-sponsored or state-affiliated actor's widespread use of a sophisticated modular malware system we call "VPNFilter." We have no...

Beers with Talos EP24: Reflections on DDoS and Bad Authentication Schemes

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Episode 24 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing: www.talosintelligence.com/podcast EP24 Show Notes: Recorded 3/2/18 - Craig is out this week, but the rest of the crew goes through...

The threat hunter’s gambit

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. " Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible." ― Richard Feynman " I had discovered that learning something, no matter how complex, wasn't hard when I had a reason to wan...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for May 2025 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

Microsoft has released its monthly security update for May of 2025 which includes 78 vulnerabilities affecting a range of products, including 11 that Microsoft marked as "critical". Microsoft noted five vulnerabilities that have been observed to be exploited in the wild. CVE-2025-30397 is a remot...

Miniaudio and Adobe Acrobat Reader vulnerabilities

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed a Miniaudio and three Adobe vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities mentioned in this blog post have been patched by their respective vendors, all in adherence to Cisco 's third-party vulnerability disclosure policy. For Snort...

New details on TinyTurla’s post-compromise activity reveal full kill chain

Cisco Talos is providing an update on its two recent reports on a new and ongoing campaign where Turla, a Russian espionage group, deployed their TinyTurla-NG TTNG implant. We now have new information on the entire kill chain this actor uses, including the tactics, techniques and procedures TTPs...

QR codes are relevant again for everyone from diners to threat actors

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Although we can probably largely consider the COVID-19 pandemic "over," many relics from the peak of lockdown and concerns over the virus are still around in mid-2023. Its still impossible to get a doctors appointment quickly, but man...

Researcher Spotlight: Giannis Tziakouris first learned how to fix his family’s PC, and now he’s fixing networks all over the globe

Giannis Tziakouris had a problem growing up: He kept breaking his PC. He loved experimenting on his familys home computer, but things didnt always go as planned. Thats when his dad told him he had to learn how to fix the PC and get it back up and running, or hed revoke Giannis computer access...

Threat Landscape Topic Summary Report: Cisco Talos Year in Review 2022

While our ongoing support to Ukraine and response to the Log4j vulnerabilities were two of our most comprehensive and impactful efforts in 2022, we also dealt with a multitude of other threats as the security community faced an expanding set of adversaries and malware. In January, we identified...

Threat Source newsletter (Jan. 12, 2023): Did ChatGPT write our newsletter?

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. We tried to get ChatGPT to write this weeks newsletter but it was at capacity, so youll have to stick with us for another week. Or maybe thats just what the robots want you to think, you be the judge. The one big thing This week Talos...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Authentication bypass and enumeration vulnerabilities in Ghost CMS

Dave McDaniel and other members of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Cisco Talos recently discovered two vulnerabilities in Ghost CMS, one authentication bypass vulnerability and one enumeration vulnerability. Ghost is a content management system with tools to build a website, publish...

Threat Round up for December 2 to December 9

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats weve observed between Dec. 2 and Dec. 9. As with previous roundups, this post isnt meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats weve observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics,...

Threat Source newsletter (July 28, 2022) — What constitutes an "entry-level" job in cybersecurity?

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Between the White House’s recent meeting, countless conference talks and report after report warning of cybersecurity burnout, there’s been a ton of talk recently around the cybersecurity skills...

Mustang Panda deploys a new wave of malware targeting Europe

By Jung soo An, Asheer Malhotra and Justin Thattil, with contributions from Aliza Berk and Kendall McKay. In February 2022, corresponding roughly with the start of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Cisco Talos began observing the China-based threat actor Mustang Panda conducting phishing...

Threat Advisory: Apache HTTP Server zero-day vulnerability opens door for attackers

A recently discovered vulnerability in Apache HTTP Server CVE-2021-41733 is being actively exploited in the wild. This vulnerability is a path traversal and file disclosure vulnerability that could allow an attacker to map URLs outside of the document root. It could also result in the exposure...

TinyTurla - Turla deploys new malware to keep a secret backdoor on victim machines

News summary Cisco Talos recently discovered a new backdoor used by the Russian Turla APT group.We have seen infections in the U.S., Germany and, more recently, in Afghanistan. It is likely used as a stealth second-chance backdoor to keep access to infected devicesIt can be used to download,...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Memory corruption vulnerability in PowerISO’s DMG handler

Piotr Bania of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered a memory corruption vulnerability in PowerISO’s handler that deals with DMG files. PowerISO is a CD/DVD/BD image file processing tool, which allows users to open, extract,... This is onl...

Threat Roundup for June 18 to June 25

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 18 and June 25. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Talos Takes Ep. #57: A ransomware-as-a-service explainer

By Jon Munshaw. The latest episode of Talos Takes is available now. Download this episode and subscribe to Talos Takes using the buttons below, or visit the Talos Takes page. How much is ransomware-as-a-service like a McDonald’s franchise? More similar than you’d think! The RaaS model has... This...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple remote code execution vulnerabilities in Microsoft Azure Sphere

Claudio Bozzato and Lilith of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos researchers recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Azure Sphere, a cloud-connected and custom SoC platform designed specifically with IoT application security... This ...

Talos Takes Ep. #40: Takeaways from interviewing a ransomware operator

The latest episode of Talos Takes is available now. Download this episode and subscribe to Talos Takes using the buttons below, or visit the Talos Takes page. This week, we have two guests on a Talos Takes first! to discuss our recent research paper on the LockBit ransomware. Two of the authors,...

Talos Takes Ep. #39: SolarWinds' implications for IoT and OT

The latest episode of Talos Takes is available now. Download this episode and subscribe to Talos Takes using the buttons below, or visit the Talos Takes page. This week, we're continuing our deep dive into the SolarWinds campaign. After Nick Biasini gave us a broad overview of supply chain attack...

Threat Roundup for November 6 to November 13

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics,...

Threat Roundup for September 18 to September 25

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 18 and Sept. 25. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

WastedLocker Goes "Big-Game Hunting" in 2020

By Ben Baker, Edmund Brumaghin, JJ Cummings and Arnaud Zobec. Threat summary After initially compromising corporate networks, the attacker behind WastedLocker performs privilege escalation and lateral movement prior to activating ransomware and demanding ransom payment.The use of "dual-use" tools...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Memory corruption vulnerability in GNU Glibc leaves smart vehicles open to attack

By Sam Dytrych and Jason Royes. Executive summary Modern automobiles are complex machines, merging both mechanical and computer systems under one roof. As automobiles become more advanced, additional sensors and devices are added to help the vehicle understand its internal and external...

Threat Source newsletter for April 30, 2020

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. Our newest research post focuses on the Aggah campaign. Threat actors are pushing Aggah to victims via malicious Microsoft Word document...

Threat Source newsletter (March 12, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. Obviously, COVID-19 is dominating headlines everywhere, and for good reason. We hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy and...

Cisco Talos Incident Response "Stories from the Field" #2: When do lawyers get involved?

The second video in our "Stories in the Field" series from Cisco Talos Incident Response is here, with Matt Aubert talking about lawyers. While getting a general counsel involved may seem like an arduous process for many incident response teams, Matt Aubert argues in this video that in his...

Talos Vulnerability Discovery Year in Review — 2019

By Martin Zeiser. Cisco Talos' Systems Security Research Team investigates software, operating system, IoT and ICS vulnerabilities to make sure we find vulnerabilities before the bad guys do. We provide this information to the affected vendors so that they can create patches and protect their...

Threat Source newsletter (Aug. 15)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. Sorry we missed you last week, we were all away at Hacker Summer Camp. If you missed us at Black Hat, we have a roundup up on the blog o...

Threat Source (April 11)

Newsletter compiled by Jonathan Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. If you haven’t yet, there’s still time to register for this year’s Talos Threat Research Summit — our second annual conference by...

Beers with Talos Ep. #49: POS Malware, RSA Highlights, and SOL OpSec Fails

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Ep. 49 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded March 15, 2019. We recorded this after coming back from RSA, with some on-location highlights included. This episode ope...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC text field remote code execution vulnerability

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Executive summary Adobe Acrobat Reader DC contains a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on the victim’s machine. If the attacker tricks the user into opening a specially crafted PDF with specific...

Threat Roundup for September 14 to September 21

Today, as we do every week, Talos is giving you a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we’ve observed this week — covering the dates between Sept. 14 and 21. As with previous roundups, this post isn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, we will summarize the threats we’ve observed by...

Threat Roundup for September 7 to September 14

Today, as we do every week, Talos is giving you a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we’ve observed this week — covering the dates between Sept. 7 and 14. As with previous roundups, this post isn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, we will summarize the threats we’ve observed by...

Files Cannot Be Decrypted? Challenge Accepted. Talos Releases ThanatosDecryptor

This blog post was authored by Edmund Brumaghin, Earl Carter and Andrew Williams. Executive summary Cisco Talos has analyzed Thanatos, a ransomware variant that is being distributed via multiple malware campaigns that have been conducted over the past few months. As a result of our research, we...

Threat Round Up for Dec 01 - Dec 08

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between December 01 and December 08. As with previous round-ups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavior...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities Within libxls

Vulnerabilities discovered by Marcin Noga of Cisco TalosTalos is releasing seven new vulnerabilities discovered within the libxls library: TALOS-2017-0403, TALOS-2017-0404, TALOS-2017-0426, TALOS-2017-0460, TALOS-2017-0461, TALOS-2017-0462, and TALOS-2017-0463. These vulnerabilities result in...

Threat Round-up for May 19 - May 26

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 19 and May 26. As with previous round-ups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavior characteristics,...

New PXA Stealer targets government and education sectors for sensitive information

Cisco Talos discovered a new information stealing campaign operated by a Vietnamese-speaking threat actor targeting government and education entities in Europe and Asia. We discovered a new Python program called PXA Stealer that targets victims' sensitive information, including credentials for...