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...

A review of Azure Sphere vulnerabilities: Unsigned code execs, kernel bugs, escalation chains and firmware downgrades

Summary of all the vulnerabilities reported by Cisco Talos in Microsoft Azure Sphere By Claudio Bozzato and Lilith . In May 2020, Microsoft kicked off the Azure Sphere Security Research Challenge, a three-month initiative aimed at finding bugs in Azure Sphere. In the first three months,... This i...

Threat Roundup for September 24 to October 1

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 24 and Oct. 1. 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 release protection against zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft MSHTML

Cisco Talos released new SNORT® rules Thursday to protect against the exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft MSHTML that the company warns is being actively exploited in the wild. Users are encouraged to deploy SIDs 58120 – 58129, Snort 3 SID 300049 and ClamAV... This is only the...

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...

Beers with Talos ep. #91: Get the FUD out

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 91 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 Aug. 14, 2020 Let’s talk about FUD. It’s not enough ...

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. ...

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...

Ransomware incidents in Japan in the first half of 2026: Investigation of The Gentlemen’s infrastructure and evidence of Qilin's AI use

Compared with the same period last year, ransomware incidents in Japan increased slightly by approximately 4.7%, indicating that ransomware continues to pose a significant threat. In Japan, The Gentlemen was the most active ransomware group in the first half of 2026. Attackers continue to primari...

“Sorry, I can’t help with that”: How your guardrails might become the attacker’s best friend

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Hello, everyone. Long time reader, first time writer here at the Threat Source newsletter! I wanted to start out by introducing myself. My colleague and friend Mick Baccio set the bar pretty high last week, so I was planning to tell...

JavaScript obfuscation: From party trick to phishing kit

We open a JavaScript artifact hoping for code, and instead get string arrays, strangely named functions, encoded URLs, runtime decoders, and eval statements. That is the point where "reading the script" stops being enough. Obfuscated JavaScript is still code, but it is code with the useful contex...

Black Hat special: Rewind and revisit

Cybersecurity is rarely a straight line. In this special Black Hat edition of Humans of Talos, Amy looks back at the incredible journeys that brought past guests to the world of threat intelligence. From forensic labs and newsrooms to the kitchen line, we're revisiting the stories and lessons tha...

Winning 54% of the time

Welcome to this week's Threat Source newsletter. There's a fairly cliche phrase in cybersecurity that I'm sure our audience is familiar with: Attackers only need to be right once, whereas defenders need to be right 100% of the time. I guess it captures the asymmetry of this industry, but I've nev...

Bad Apples: Weaponizing native macOS primitives for movement and execution

As macOS adoption grows among developers and DevOps, it has become a high value target; however, native "living-off-the-land" LOTL techniques for the platform remain significantly under-documented compared to Windows. Adversaries can bypass security controls by repurposing native features like...

[Video] The TTP Ep. 22: The Collapse of the Patch Window

!\Video\ The TTP Ep. 22: The Collapse of the Patch Windowhttps://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/04/YiR2025cover2x1-3.jpg One of the clearest trends in the 2025 Talos Year in Review is just how quickly vulnerabilities are now being turned into...

Axios NPM supply chain incident

Cisco Talos is actively investigating the March 31, 2026 supply chain attack on the official Axios node package manager npm package during which two malicious versions v1.14.1 and v0.30.4 were deployed. Axios is one of the more popular JavaScript libraries with as many as 100 million downloads pe...

The democratisation of business email compromise fraud

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Last weekend, I witnessed a crime. Not a notable crime that you might read about in the press, but an unremarkable fraud attempt that nevertheless illustrates how new threat actor capabilities are emerging. I imagine that most people...

You have to invite them in

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I found myself watching the Oscars ceremony in its entirety for the first time in a few years. I'm in the U.K., so I watched it the following day. With next week's Year in Review launch looming and several pieces of content still to...

New threat actor, UAT-9921, leverages VoidLink framework in campaigns

Cisco Talos recently discovered a new threat actor, UAT-9921, leveraging VoidLink in campaigns. Their activities may go as far back as 2019, even without VoidLink. The VoidLink compile-on-demand feature lays down the foundations for AI-enabled attack frameworks, which can create tools on-demand f...

I scan, you scan, we all scan for... knowledge?

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. " Upon us all a little rain must fall" -- Led Zeppelin, via Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I recently bumped into a colleague with whom I spent several years working in an MSSP environment. We had very different roles within the...

How Cisco Talos powers the solutions protecting your organization

Cisco Talos is Cisco's threat intelligence and security research organization that powers Cisco's product portfolio with that intelligence. While we are well known for the security research in our blog, vulnerability discoveries, and our open-source software, you may not be aware of exactly how o...

Libbiosig, Grassroot DiCoM, Smallstep step-ca vulnerabilities

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed vulnerabilities in Biosig Project Libbiosig, Grassroot DiCoM, and Smallstep step-ca. The vulnerabilities mentioned in this blog post have been patched by their respective vendors, all in adherence to Cisco 's third-party...

Spy vs. spy: How GenAI is powering defenders and attackers

Generative AI GenAI is reshaping cybersecurity for both attackers and defenders, but its future capabilities are difficult to measure as techniques and models are evolving rapidly. Adversaries continue to use GenAI with varying levels of reliance. State-sponsored groups continue to take advantage...

Care that you share

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Back in April, I wrote about the risks of unintentionally leaking information while using search engines. Since then, I've been thinking: Life doesn't just happen in front of a keyboard. There's a social side, too or so I'm told. Wit...

Viasat and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. A year ago, fresh off a layoff, I never would have guessed I'd be spending Halloween weekend bouncing between conversations about space policy, satellite hacking, and wedding plans. That's exactly what happened when my space analyst...

Russian state-sponsored espionage group Static Tundra compromises unpatched end-of-life network devices

Static Tundra is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group linked to the FSB's Center 16 unit that has been operating for over a decade, specializing in compromising network devices for long-term intelligence gathering operations. The group actively exploits a seven-year-old vulnerability...

Asus and Adobe vulnerabilities

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed two vulnerabilities each in Asus Armoury Crate and Adobe Acrobat products. The vulnerabilities mentioned in this blog post have been patched by their respective vendors, all in adherence to Cisco 's third-party vulnerability...

Getting a career in cybersecurity isn’t easy, but this can help

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Happy summer, friends! I hope everyone is staying cool and/or warm. I am fresh back from an exhaustive but great time in San Diego at Cisco Live U.S. It was so good to see colleagues, meet new friends and pet many therapy dogs in the...

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow: Information security and the Baseball Hall of Fame

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time." - Shakespeare's Macbeth "But I am very poorly today and very stupid and I hate everybody and everything. One...

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...

Stop running security in passive mode

As we begin a new year, we wanted to address one of the biggest issues we consistently see in our investigations: passive security. Incident response engagements are an important part of our work and the intelligence-gathering process and their associated reports can be a treasure trove of tactic...

Video: How Talos’ open-source tools can assist anyone looking to improve their security resilience

Cisco Talos remit is not just to protect our customers from cyber attacks. We also strive to make the internet a better and safer place. Thats one of the reasons why we create and release open-source software, for free. These tools are available to anyone in the security community to enhance thei...

Legislation alone isn’t enough to stop spyware

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The use of spyware continues to make headlines across the globe. While primarily used by authoritarian regimes to track potentially sensitive subjects like political opponents or activists, governments from all over the world are guil...

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 (July 7, 2022) — Teamwork makes the dream work

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the pros and cons of the way we publicize our threat research. I had a few conversations at Cisco Live with people — who are more generally IT-focused than... This is only the...

Researcher Spotlight: Around the security world and back again with Nick Biasini

By Jon Munshaw. Nick Biasini’s seen it all. Going on a nearly 20-year security career, he’s been a part of some of Cisco Talos’ largest undertakings in the company’s history. From an attack on the global Olympic Games, to a wireless router malware that affected hundreds of... This is only the...

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 May 13 to May 20

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 13 and May 20. 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,...

Researcher Spotlight: Liz Waddell, CTIR practice lead

How this Talos team member’s love of true crime led to a life in cybersecurity By Jon Munshaw. Liz Waddell is usually there on someone’s worst day of their professional lives. Chief technology officers and chief information security officers can hope all they want that the... This is only the...

Threat Source newsletter (April 14, 2022) — It's Tax Day, and you know what that means

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The deadline to file taxes in the United States is Monday. That means a few things: everyone should probably make sure their liquor cabinet is fully stocked, your spam filters are all turned on in your email... This i...

Threat Source newsletter (March 31, 2022) — Is "Fortnite" a Metaverse?

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. By now, anyone on the internet has pondered the question: “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” My two cents: Yes, absolutely. Now as we move into the new internet age and onto Web 3.0 and NFTs instead of... This is only the...

Threat Roundup for March 11 to March 18

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

Threat Roundup for March 4 to March 11

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between March 4 and March 11. 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 February 18 to February 25

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

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...

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...

Threat Source Newsletter (Jan. 6, 2022)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. We hope everyone had some well-deserved, relaxing time off over the holidays. Unfortunately, we are all back now and Log4j is still an issue. And even though it seems like Log4j has already been in the news for a year,... This is...