Cheating the cheater: How adversaries are using backdoored video game cheat engines and modding tools

By Nick Lister and Holger Unterbrink, with contributions from Vanja Svajcer. News summary Cisco Talos recently discovered a new campaign targeting video game players and other PC modders.Talos detected a new cryptor used in several different malware campaigns hidden in seemingly legitimate files...

Threat Source newsletter (Jan. 21, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. We know it’s hard to focus on anything happening outside of Washington, D.C. this week. But we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the exciting news that the Snort 3 GA is officially out now! This update has been literally years ...

Beers with Talos Ep. #99: P@ssw0rds and closing out 2020

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 99 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 late November 2020. We recorded this episode toward...

Threat Roundup for September 25 to October 2

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2. 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 Source newsletter for Sept. 3, 2020

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. We recently uncovered a series of email campaigns utilizing links to malicious documents hosted on legitimate file-sharing platforms to spread malware. The campaigns distributed various malware payloads including Gozi ISFB, ZLoade...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for July 2020 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities

By Jon Munshaw. Microsoft released its monthly security update Tuesday, disclosing more than 120 vulnerabilities across its array of products. While only a few vulnerabilities are considered critical, users of all Microsoft and Windows products are urged to update their software as soon as possib...

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...

SigAnalyzer: Signature analysis with CASC

Executive summary ClamAV Signature Creator CASC is an IDA Pro plugin that assists in the creation of ClamAV pattern signatures. We have enhanced this plugin to also analyze these signatures. The plugin highlights matching parts in a binary when its given a particular signature. This function is...

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...

The story behind the intelligence

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Our goal is to get accurate threat intelligence to our audience as quickly as possible, with all the context you need to ask the right questions of your own environment: How at risk are we from this threat? Are we prepared for it? An...

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'...

From PDB strings to MaaS: Tracking a commodity BadIIS ecosystem used by Chinese-speaking threat

Cisco Talos has uncovered a BadIIS variant -- identifiable by its embedded "demo.pdb" strings -- that functions as commodity malware. This variant is likely sold or shared among multiple Chinese-speaking cybercrime groups that operate under a malware-as-a-service MaaS model for continuous...

It pays to be a forever student

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. If I haven't said it in a newsletter before, I'll say it now: If you want to be good at cybersecurity, be a forever student. Cultivating and feeding your desire to know how things work is one of the key ingredients to being a hacker...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for April 2026 - Snort Rule and Prominent Vulnerabilities

Microsoft has released its monthly security update for April 2026, which includes 165 vulnerabilities affecting a wide range of products, including eight Microsoft marked as "critical." CVE-2026-23666 is a critical Denial of Service DoS vulnerability that affects the .NET framework. Successful...

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...

2025 Talos Year in Review: Speed, scale, and staying power

The 2025 Talos Year in Review is now available to view online. The pace and scale of adversary activity in 2025 placed sustained pressure on security teams across industries. As with each annual report, our goal at Talos is to provide the security community with a clear analysis of the tactics,...

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...

Henry IV, Hotspur, Hal, and hallucinations

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. " 'Tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety." - Hotspur, Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1: Act 2 Scene 3 I get it. Hotspur is the...

“Good enough” emulation: Fuzzing a single thread to uncover vulnerabilities

A Cisco Talos researcher worked around the limitations of hardware-level Code Read-out Protection RDP on the Socomec DIRIS M-70 gateway by pivoting from physical debugging to a "good enough" emulation approach. By focusing on emulating only the single thread responsible for Modbus protocol handli...

Ryan Liles, master of technical diplomacy

Cisco Talos is back with another inside look at the people who keep the internet safe. This time, Amy chats with Ryan Liles, who bridges the gap between Cisco's product teams and the third-party testing labs that put Cisco products through their paces. Ryan pulls back the curtain on the delicate...

Microsoft releases update to address zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Office

Microsoft has published three out-of-band OOB updates so far in January 2026. One of these updates was released to address a vulnerability, CVE-2026-21509, affecting Microsoft Office that has been reportedly exploited in the wild. Additional OOB updates have been published to resolve operational...

Dissecting UAT-8099: New persistence mechanisms and regional focus

Cisco Talos has identified a new campaign by UAT-8099, active from late 2025 to early 2026, that is targeting vulnerable Internet Information Services IIS servers across Asia with a specific focus on victims in Thailand and Vietnam. Analysis confirms significant operational overlaps between this...

Family group chats: Your (very last) line of cyber defense

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter, and happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Like everyone under the age of 35 who has at least one father, my dad sends me advice on online safety at least once a week. Does he work in information security? No. He's a recently retired...

UAT-8099: Chinese-speaking cybercrime group targets high-value IIS for SEO fraud

Cisco Talos is disclosing details on UAT-8099, a Chinese-speaking cybercrime group mainly involved in search engine optimization SEO fraud and theft of high-value credentials, configuration files, and certificate data. Cisco's file census and DNS analysis show affected Internet Information Servic...

Cherry pie, Douglas firs and the last trip of the summer

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Diane, 2:01 p.m., August 21st. I've just returned from a remarkable journey through Seattle and the misty roads of the Olympic Peninsula. If you ever find yourself driving beneath those towering Douglas firs or dragged by your partne...

This is your sign to step away from the keyboard

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Burnout is a real issue for people in cybersecurity. We protect the systems that allow modern life to function. Our hours are long, our sense of responsibility real and occasionally heavy. Everyone notices when we have a bad day and ...

Know thyself, know thy environment

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. This week, I'm coming to you from Cisco Live in San Diego where I've just talked to a room that some of you may have been in, so writing this feels a bit surreal. It's really hard to try and write a cogent newsletter with all that's...

The IT help desk kindly requests you read this newsletter

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Authority bias is one of the many things that shape how we think. Taking the advice of someone with recognized authority is often far easier and usually leads to a better outcome than spending time and effort in researching the...

Care what you share

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. As we navigate our daily routines, certain tasks become second nature to us, especially if they are integral to our professions. However, what feels instinctive to one person might be foreign to another. This disparity is akin to a...

One mighty fine-looking report

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. They say art is subjective, but have you ever seen a well-formatted bar chart? Van Gogh had Starry Night , but Talos' 2024 Year in Review available now! has color-coded data with perfect labels. True beauty. If you haven't yet had a...

Your item has sold! Avoiding scams targeting online sellers

There are many risks associated with selling items on online marketplaces that individuals and organizations should be aware of when conducting business on these platforms. Many of the general recommendations related to the use of these platforms are tailored towards purchasing items; however,...

Ryan Pentney reflects on 10 years of Talos and his many roles from the Sourcefire days

As the adage goes: "You dont know what you dont know." For Ryan Pentney and his team, they know what they dont know. And they wake up every morning trying to figure out how they can answer those questions about emerging threats and some of the largest state-sponsored actors in the world. Pentney ...

Detecting evolving threats: NetSupport RAT campaign

Cisco Talos is actively tracking multiple malware campaigns that utilize NetSupport RAT for persistent infections. These campaigns evade detection through obfuscation and updates. Snort can provide a strong defense before this malware reaches endpoints. In this first Deep Dive with NTDR, we explo...

Where to find Talos at BlackHat 2024

With Black Hat just a week away, Cisco Talos is gearing up for another year of heading to Las Vegas to share in some of the latest major cybersecurity announcements, research and news. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Cisco Talos, as the Talos brand was officially launched in August 2014 a...

Impact of data breaches is fueling scam campaigns

Data breaches have become one of the most crucial threats to organizations across the globe, and theyve only become more prevalent and serious over time. A data breach occurs when unauthorized individuals gain access to sensitive, protected or confidential data. This stolen data can include...

How are user credentials stolen and used by threat actors?

Youve no doubt heard the phrase, "Attackers dont hack anyone these days. They log on." By obtaining or stealing valid user account details, an attacker can gain access to a system, remain hidden, and then elevate their privileges to "log in" to more areas of the network. Unfortunately, the use of...

How threat actors are using AI and other modern tools to enhance their phishing attempts

Phishing attacks are increasingly more targeted and customized than in the past. The proliferation of additional communications channels such as mobile devices and social media provides attackers with new avenues to phish users. The technology behind phishing attacks evolves as necessary for...

February 24th

Today marks one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. While there is much we could say, we will simply reiterate our unwavering support of our colleagues, partners, and the people of Ukraine as they defend their country and our hope that peace and comfort come quickly to them. Everything we said one...

Threat Source newsletter (Jan. 5, 2023): Digging out of our inboxes

Happy New Year and welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. We cant tell if its the fog from Lurenes deadly eggnog or dare we say pure rest and relaxation but were still digging out of our inboxes, trying to remember logins, and circle back on all the things we prolonged int...

Developer account body snatchers pose risks to the software supply chain

By Jaeson Schultz. Over the past several years, high-profile software supply chain attacks have increased in frequency. These attacks can be difficult to detect and source code repositories became a key focus of this research. Developer account takeovers present a substantial risk to the software...

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...

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 Roundup for June 10 to June 17

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 10 and June 17. 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...

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...