Researcher Spotlight: Globetrotting with Yuri Kramarz

From the World Cup in Qatar to robotics manufacturing in east Asia, this incident responder combines experience from multiple arenas Yuri "Jerzy" Kramarz helped secure everything from the businesses supporting the upcoming World Cup in Qatar to the Black Hat security conference and critical...

Threat Source newsletter (Sept. 1, 2022) — Conversations about an unborn baby's privacy

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. This week marks about 90 days before my wife’s due date with our first child, a baby girl. We’re both incredibly excited and nervous at the same time, and we have much to discuss, like how to lay out the nursery, what...

EMEAR Monthly Talos Update: Training the next generation of cybersecurity researchers

Cisco Talos and Cisco Secure have the latest edition of the Talos EMEAR Threat Update series out now, which you can watch above or over at this link, where Martin Lee and Hazel Burton talk about the cybersecurity skills gap that currently exists and how we can better train the next generation of...

Threat Source newsletter (June 30, 2022) — AI voice cloning is somehow more scary than deepfake videos

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. We took a week off for summer vacation but are back in the thick of security things now. My first exposure to deepfake videos was when Jordan Peele worked with BuzzFeed News to produce this video of... This is only th...

Threat Source newsletter (May 26, 2022) — BlackByte adds itself to the grocery list of big game hunters

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Given the recent tragedies in the U.S., I don’t feel it’s appropriate to open by being nostalgic or trying to be witty — let’s just stick to some security news this week. The one big... This is only the beginning!...

EMEAR Monthly Talos Update: Wiper malware

Cisco Talos and Cisco Secure are launching a new video series to fill you in on the latest cybersecurity trends. We’re thrilled to launch our first video in the new Talos Threat Update series, which you can watch above or over at this link, where Martin Lee and Hazel Burton talk about wiper... Th...

Threat Source newsletter (May 12, 2022) — Mandatory MFA adoption is great, but is it too late?

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Mandatory multi-factor authentication is all the rage nowadays. GitHub just announced that all contributors would have to enroll in MFA by 2023 to log into their accounts. And Google announced as part of... This is on...

Threat Advisory: Critical F5 BIG-IP Vulnerability

Summary A recently disclosed vulnerability in F5 Networks' BIG-IP could allow an unauthenticated attacker to access the BIG-IP system to execute arbitrary system commands, create and delete files, disable services and could lead to additional malicious activity. This vulnerability, tracked as...

Conti and Hive ransomware operations: What we learned from these groups' victim chats

As part of Cisco Talos’ continuous efforts to learn more about the current ransomware landscape, we recently examined a trove of chat logs between the Conti and Hive ransomware gangs and their victims. Ransomware-as-a-service groups have exploded in popularity over the past few years, with these...

Threat Roundup for April 8 to April 15

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 8 and April 15. 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...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday includes most vulnerabilities since Sept. 2020

By Jon Munshaw and Nick Biasini. Microsoft released its latest security update Tuesday, disclosing more than 140 vulnerabilities across its array of products. This is a departure from past Patch Tuesdays this year, which have only featured a few dozen vulnerabilities, and is the largest... This i...

Threat Roundup for April 1 to April 8

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 1 and April 8. 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...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Heap overflow in Sound Exchange libsox library

Lilith of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered an exploitable heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the sphere.c startread functionality of Sound Exchange libsox. The libsox library is a library of... This is only the beginning!...

Threat Advisory: Cyclops Blink

Update Feb. 25, 2022In our ongoing research into activity surrounding Ukraine and in cooperation with Cisco Duo data scientists Talos discovered compromised MikroTik routers inside of Ukraine being leveraged to conduct brute force attacks on devices protected by multi-factor authentication. This...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Buffer overflow vulnerabilities in Accusoft ImageGear could lead to code execution

Francesco Benvenuto and Emmanuel Tacheau of Cisco Talos and another team member discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in Accusoft ImageGear. The ImageGear library is a document-imaging developer toolkit that... This is only...

Threat Roundup for February 11 to February 18

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 11 and Feb. 18. 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...

Threat Source Newsletter (Jan. 27, 2022)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. It's great to have New Year's resolutions and all. But we don't want you taking the wrong lessons away from 2021, either. Like just because Log4j happened doesn't mean you should stop logging or stop using open-source... This is on...

Threat Roundup for January 14 to January 21

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Jan. 14 and Jan. 21. 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...

Threat Roundup for January 7 to January 14

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Jan. 7 and Jan. 14. 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...

Beers with Talos, Ep. #114: And then there were two...

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 114 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify StitcherRecorded Dec. 9, 2021. If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. We joked... This is only the beginning! Please vis...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for Jan. 2022 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

By Jon Munshaw and Vitor Ventura. Microsoft released its monthly security update Tuesday, disclosing 102 vulnerabilities across its large collection of hardware and software. This is the largest amount of vulnerabilities Microsoft has disclosed in a monthly security update in eight months,... Thi...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Two vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat DC could lead to arbitrary code execution

Aleksandar Nikolic of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC that could allow an attacker to eventually gain the ability to execute arbitrary code. Acrobat is one of the most... This is only...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Heap buffer overflow condition in Google Chrome could lead to code execution

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered an exploitable heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in Google Chrome. Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser — and Chromium is the open-source version of... This is only t...

Threat Roundup for December 3 to December 10

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Dec. 3 and Dec. 10. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant tobifj be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral... This is...

Attackers exploiting zero-day vulnerability in Windows Installer — Here’s what you need to know and Talos’ coverage

Cisco Talos is releasing new SNORTⓇ rules to protect against the exploitation of a zero-day elevation of privilege vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Installer. This vulnerability allows an attacker with a limited user account to elevate their privileges to become an administrator. This... This i...

Threat Roundup for November 5 to November 12

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Nov. 5 and Nov. 12. 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...

Threat Source newsletter (Nov. 4, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. A series of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server made waves earlier this year for coming under attack. And while they've come and gone from the headlines since then, attackers are still very much paying... This is only the...

Threat Source newsletter (Oct. 7, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. Every day, we see mountains and mountains of data. So how do we comb through all of it to find out what's important to customers and users? Well, there are many ways, but we wanted to give readers and researchers a look... This is...

Beers with Talos, Ep. #109: We have not secured our society — Or, working out a conference talk in realtime

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 109 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:Apple Podcasts Google PodcastsSpotify StitcherIf iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Most of the Beers with Talos guys got a chance to take... This is only the...

Malicious Campaign Targets Latin America: The seller, The operator and a curious link

By Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura, with contributions from Vanja Svajcer. Cisco Talos has observed a new malware campaign delivering commodity RATs, including njRAT and AsyncRAT.The campaign targets travel and hospitality organizations in Latin America.Techniques utilized in this campaign...

Beers with Talos Ep. #100: The supersized centennial episode

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 100 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:Apple Podcasts Google PodcastsSpotify StitcherIf iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. By Mitch Neff. Recorded Jan. 8, 2020. It’s hard to believe that we have mad...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Accusoft ImageGear vulnerabilities could lead to code execution

Marcin Towalski, Emmanuel Tacheau and another Cisco Talos team member discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Accusoft ImageGear contains two remote code execution vulnerabilities. ImageGear is a document and imaging library from Accusoft that developers can use to build their...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for Feb. 2021 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

By Jon Munshaw, with contributions from Bill Largent. Microsoft released its monthly security update Tuesday, disclosing 56 vulnerabilities across its suite of products. This is the smallest amount of vulnerabilities Microsoft has disclosed in a month since January 2020. There are only 11 critica...

Vulnerability Spotlight: DoS vulnerability in ATIKMDAG.SYS AMD graphics driver

Piotr Bania of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw.Cisco Talos recently discovered a denial-of-service vulnerability in the ATIKMDAG.SYS driver for some AMD graphics cards. An attacker could send the victim a specially crafted D3DKMTCreateAllocation API request to cause...

Beers with Talos Ep. #93: “More Secure” myths and misconceptions

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 93 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:Apple Podcasts Google PodcastsSpotify StitcherIf iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. By Mitch Neff. Recorded Sept. 11, 2020 On today’s show, we take several of t...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Information disclosure vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox

Marcin "Icewall" Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered an information disclosure vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox. An attacker can exploit this bug by tricking a user into visiting a specially crafted web page through the browser. ...

Threat Roundup for June 19 to June 26

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 19 and June 26. 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. #66: I Choose YOU! Attackers view of targets, RLAs, scam season

By Mitch Neff. Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 66 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded Nov. 8, 2019 Joel is out on PTO, so Mitch, Matt, Nigel, and Craig carry the banner this episode...

Beers with Talos EP 34: Click Here to Assign New Mobile Device Owner

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Ep. 34 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. Ep. 34 show notes: Recorded July 20, 2018 — This week, we touch on several topics, but we spend the lion’s...

Beers with Talos EP 32 - Live from Orlando Part 2: Take All the Things Off the Internet

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Episode 32 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. Ep. 32 show notes: Recorded June 13, 2018 — Still live in Orlando, just this time from the lovely lobb...

BWT EP6: Enter the Talos, But Please Use a Unique Password

LISTEN HERE:Listen via iTunesListen directly on the Talos Podcasts page.Episode Notes:The team discusses how to get into threat intel and join a team like Talos. There are many routes to enter the Talos, but no exits. Seriously, they won’t let me leave. Passwords, vaults, and other access control...

You were onto something with “It’s the Climb,” Miley

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. For my fiancee's 30th birthday, I took her on a weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park - a favorite of ours since we went to a wedding there several years back. We've done several incredible hikes over the years, but one in...

The serpent’s tongue: Luring the Python out of its den

Python's popularity, readable syntax, and extensive third-party library ecosystem make it an attractive target for threat actors seeking to compromise developer devices and infrastructure. Malicious packages and supply-chain attacks are increasingly common, exploiting the trust built into Python'...

Catan and Mouse

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. " I do not know everything; still many things I understand." ― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time " Don't try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition." ― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wind in the Door T...

The time of much patching is coming

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Many solutions have been proposed to reduce software bugs: zero-defect mandates, pair programming, formal methods, and mathematical software proofs. The reality is that software engineering is hard. Identifying and fixing bugs before...

AI-powered honeypots: Turning the tables on malicious AI agents

Generative AI allows defenders to instantly create diverse honeypots, like Linux shells or Internet of Things IoT devices, using simple text prompts. This makes deploying complex, convincing deceptive environments much easier and more scalable than traditional methods. AI-driven attacks often...

Five defender priorities from the Talos Year in Review

A familiar theme in security right now is that the barrier to entry for attackers is at an all-time low. AI tools can spin up websites within minutes that can easily direct data to disposable external data stores and send alerts for new captures -- all without code. One such case was recently...

UAT-10608: Inside a large-scale automated credential harvesting operation targeting web applications

Cisco Talos is disclosing a large-scale automated credential harvesting campaign carried out by a threat cluster we are tracking as "UAT-10608." Post-compromise, UAT-10608 leverages automated scripts for extracting and exfiltrating credentials from a variety of applications, that are then posted ...

Inside the Talos 2025 Year in Review: A discussion on what the data means for defenders

Every year, the Cisco Talos Year in Review captures the patterns shaping the threat landscape. The 2025 report paints a clear picture: Attackers are moving faster than ever, while using identity-related attacks as the primary battleground. To unpack the biggest takeaways and what they mean for...

DirectX, OpenFOAM, Libbiosig vulnerabilities

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed vulnerabilities in the BioSig Project Libbiosig library and OpenCFD OpenFOAM, as well as an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft DirectX. The vulnerabilities mentioned in this blog post have been patched by their respective...