How CVSS 4.0 changes (or doesn’t) the way we see vulnerability severity

Finding, managing and patching security vulnerabilities on any network, no matter the size, is a tall task. In the first week of 2024 alone, there were 621 new common IT security vulnerabilities and exposures CVEs disclosed worldwide, covering a range of applications, software and hardware that...

Now’s not the time to take our foot off the gas when it comes to fighting disinformation online

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. In the wake of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, it seemed like big tech companies were taking the fight against disinformation seriously. Social media outlets set up new fact-checking procedures and got more aggressive about...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Hard-coded password vulnerability could allow attacker to completely take over Lenovo Smart Clock

Kelly Leuschner and Thorsten Rosendahl discovered this vulnerability. Cisco Talos researchers recently discovered a vulnerability in the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential that could allow an attacker to completely take over the device if they have access to the network the clock is connected to...

Threat Source newsletter (July 15, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. The value of cryptocurrency is all over the place. Elon Musk's tweets can send Dogecoin rising and falling. And Monero, the most popular currency for cryptominers, has gone all over the place this year. So does that have... This is...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Apple Safari SVG marker element baseVal remote code execution vulnerability

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Apple’s Safari web browser is open to a remote code execution vulnerability via its SVG marker element feature inside the Safari WebKit. Safari uses the WebCore DOM rendering system in WebKit. Rendering engine allo...

Threat Source newsletter (June 27, 2019)

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. You never want to fall behind on Beers with Talos. So make sure to listen to the latest episode on your commute home today. This...

Emotet re-emerges after the holidays

While Emotet has been around for many years and is one of the most well-known pieces of malware in the wild, that doesn't mean attackers don't try to freshen it up. Cisco Talos recently discovered several new campaigns distributing the infamous banking trojan via email. These new campaigns have...

Large-scale brute-force activity targeting VPNs, SSH services with commonly used login credentials

Cisco Talos would like to acknowledge Anna Bennett and Brandon White of Cisco Talos and Phillip Schafer, Mike Moran, and Becca Lynch of the Duo Security Research team for their research that led to the identification of these attacks. Cisco Talos is actively monitoring a global increase in...

Vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Excel could lead to arbitrary code execution

Cisco Talos Vulnerability Research team recently worked with Adobe and Microsoft to patch multiple vulnerabilities in the Acrobat and Excel software, respectively, that could lead to arbitrary code execution. Talos also disclosed six vulnerabilities in the Weston Embedded µC-HTTP HTTP server...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in some AMD graphics cards

Piotr Bania of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Multiple vulnerabilities exist in a driver associated with the AMD Radeon line of graphics cards. An attacker can exploit these bugs by providing a specially crafted shader file to the user while using VMware...

Incident Response lessons from recent Maze ransomware attacks

By JJ Cummings and Dave Liebenberg This year, we have been flooded with reports of targeted ransomware attacks. Whether it's a city, hospital, large- or medium-sized enterprise — they are all being targeted. These attacks can result in significant damage, cost, and have many different initial...

Qakbot levels up with new obfuscation techniques

Ashlee Benge of Cisco Talos and Nick Randolph of the Threat Grid Research and Efficacy team authored this blog post. Executive summary Qakbot, also known as Qbot, is a well-documented banking trojan that has been around since 2008. Recent Qakbot campaigns, however, are utilizing an updated...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple Issues in Foxit PDF Reader

Overview Talos is disclosing five vulnerabilities in Foxit PDF Reader. Foxit PDF Reader is a popular free program for viewing, creating, and editing PDF documents. It is commonly used as an alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader and has a widely used browser plugin available. Update to the current...

Spoofed SEC Emails Distribute Evolved DNSMessenger

This post was authored by Edmund Brumaghin, Colin Grady, with contributions from Dave Maynor and @Simpo13.Executive SummaryCisco Talos previously published research into a targeted attack that leveraged an interesting infection process using DNS TXT records to create a bidirectional command and...

Threat Source newsletter (Nov. 19, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. In case you hadn’t already realized, Snort somehow became a meme this week, so that was fun. As 2020 finally...or already...I can’t decide which comes to an end, we’re going to start doing a look back at the year that was in...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Two vulnerabilities in RDP for Windows 7, XP

A Cisco Talos researcher discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two issues in two implementations of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services: a denial-of-service vulnerability that affects Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 when RDP 8.0 is enabled, Windows 8/Serv...

How adversaries use politics for compromise

By Nick Biasini and Edmund Brumaghin. Executive Summary With the U.S. presidential primaries just around the corner, even malware authors can't help but get behind the frenzy. Cisco Talos recently discovered several malware distribution campaigns where the adversaries were utilizing the names and...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Information disclosure vulnerability in Blynk-Library

Lilith Wyatt of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Cisco Talos recently discovered an information disclosure vulnerability in Blynk-Library. Blynk-Library is a small library for connecting more than 400 different embedded device models into a private or enterprise Blynk-Server instance...

New BYOVD loader behind DeadLock ransomware attack

While tracking ransomware activities, Cisco Talos uncovered new tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs linked to a financially motivated threat actor targeting victims with DeadLock ransomware. The actor used the Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver BYOVD technique with a previously unknown loader ...

New partnership brings together Talos’ visibility with IR’s unmatched response capabilities

By Jon Munshaw. The threat landscape has evolved into a complex, challenging environment for organizations everywhere. A talent shortage, combined with an increase in incidents, has led to a generally weak security posture among most organizations. Defenders’ backs are up against the wall...

Beers with Talos Ep. #55: Live from San Diego!

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast Ep. 55 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded June 12, 2019 — God knows why, but we bring you another live episode from the Talos Threat Research Summit at Cisco Live...

UAT-10147: Chinese-speaking adversary integrates agentic AI into post-compromise operations

Cisco Talos identified UAT-10147 targeting Windows and Linux web servers globally, impacting organizations in government, education, media, technology, and gaming sectors. The actor leveraged publicly disclosed vulnerabilities to gain initial access at scale. UAT-10147 integrated AI-driven toolin...

IR Trends Q2 2026: Phishing and weaponized remote management tools drive attack chains

Phishing was the primary means of gaining initial access this quarter, appearing in over half of all Cisco Talos Incident Response Talos IR engagements - an increase from approximately a third of engagements last quarter. Attackers continued to innovate their delivery methods to evade defenses,...

Quarterly Report: Incident Response Trends in Q3 2022

Ransomware and pre-ransomware engagements make up 40 percent of threats seen this quarter By Caitlin Huey. For the first time since compiling these reports, Cisco Talos Incident Response saw an equal number of ransomware and pre-ransomware engagements, making up nearly 40 percent of threats this...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Three vulnerabilities in HDF5 file format could lead to remote code execution

Dave McDaniel of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered three vulnerabilities in a library that works with the HDF5 file format that could allow an attacker to execute remote code on a targeted device. These issues arise in the libhdf5...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple issues in Robustel R1510 cellular router could lead to code execution, denial of service

Francesco Benvenuto of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered nine vulnerabilities in the Robustel R1510 industrial cellular router, several of which could allow an adversary to inject operating system code remotely. The Robustel R1510...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Remote code execution, privilege escalation bugs in Microsoft Azure Sphere

Claudio Bozzato, Lilith and Dave McDaniel 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...

PoetRAT: Python RAT uses COVID-19 lures to target Azerbaijan public and private sectors

By Warren Mercer, Paul Rascagneres and Vitor Ventura. News summaryAzerbaijan government and energy sector likely targeted by an unknown actor.From the energy sector, the actor demonstrates interest in SCADA systems related to wind turbines.The actor uses Word documents to drop malware that allows...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Multiple vulnerabilities in Wacom Update Helper

Tyler Bohan of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Executive summary There are two privilege escalation vulnerabilities in the Wacom update helper. The update helper is a utility installed alongside the macOS application for Wacom tablets. The application interacts with the tablet and...

Cisco Talos' new reputation dispute system

We know users have been waiting for this feature for a while, and we are here to say: It’s ready. Cisco Talos’ new reputation system rolled out Jan. 14 on TalosIntelligence.com. We have been working on this change since the rollout was initially announced this past summer. Starting today, all use...

UAT-9244 targets South American telecommunication providers with three new malware implants

Cisco Talos is disclosing UAT-9244, who we assess with high confidence is a China-nexus advanced persistent threat APT actor closely associated with Famous Sparrow. Since 2024, UAT-9244 has targeted critical telecommunications infrastructure, including Windows and Linux-based endpoints and edge...

Vulnerability in Tencent WeChat custom browser could lead to remote code execution

Certain versions of WeChat, a popular messaging app created by tech giant Tencent, contain a type confusion vulnerability that could allow an adversary to execute remote code. While this issue, CVE-2023-3420, was disclosed and patched in the V8 engine in June 2023, the WeChat Webview component wa...

Threat Source newsletter (Feb. 4, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. We are excited to finally share this LockBit research paper with you all after months of work. Some of our researchers spoke to a ransomware operator, which provided us insight into a threat actor’s day-to-day goals and tactics. T...

UAT-7810 continues building ORB networks using new malware

Cisco Talos is actively tracking infrastructure and malware associated with UAT-7810, an advanced persistent threat APT actor responsible for maintaining and proliferating the LapDogs Operational Relay Box ORB network, first disclosed by SecurityScorecard in 2025. UAT-7810 is most likely tasked...

Threat Roundup for June 2 to June 9

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats weve observed between June 2 and June 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 Advisory: High Severity OpenSSL Vulnerabilities

In late October two new buffer overflow vulnerabilities, CVE-2022-3602 and CVE-2022-3786, were announced in OpenSSL versions 3.0.0 to 3.0.6. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by sending an X.509 certificate with a specially crafted email address, potentially causing a buffer overflow resulti...

Gustuff return, new features for victims

By Vitor Ventura with contributions from Chris Neal. Executive summary The Gustuff banking trojan is back with new features, months after initially appearing targeting financial institutions in Australia. Cisco Talos first reported on Gustuff in April. Soon after, the actors behind Gustuff starte...

BruCON Primer: 10 Years and Cisco Talos Talks

Cisco Talos will have a significant presence at the 10th edition of BruCON, which kicks off this week. Below, you will find the presentations that Talos researchers will give, along with a brief overview of the topics they will discuss. We are fortunate to have multiple speakers presenting this...

GravityRAT - The Two-Year Evolution Of An APT Targeting India

This blog post is authored by Warren Mercer and Paul Rascagneres. Update: 4/30 Since the publication of the blog post, one of the anti-VM capability was commented a lot on Twitter: the detection of Virtual Machines by checking the temperature of the system. We decided to add more details and...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Hyland Perceptive Document Filters Multiple Vulnerabilites

Vulnerabilities discovered by Marcin 'Icewall' Noga from Talos Overview Talos has discovered multiple vulnerabilities in Hyland Perceptive Document Filters software. This software is a toolkit that allows developers to read and extract metadata from a file. It supports a large set of common file...

Microsoft releases lightest Patch Tuesday in three years, no zero-days disclosed

Microsofts monthly security update released Tuesday is the companys lightest in four years, including only 33 vulnerabilities. Perhaps more notable is that there are no zero-day vulnerabilities included in Decembers Patch Tuesday, a rarity for Microsoft this year. The companys regular set of...

Quarterly Report: Incident Response Trends in Q3 2022

Ransomware and pre-ransomware engagements make up 40 percent of threats seen this quarter For the first time since compiling these reports, Cisco Talos Incident Response saw an equal number of ransomware and pre-ransomware engagements, making up nearly 40 percent of threats this quarter. It can b...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Bitdefender BOX 2 bootstrap remote code execution vulnerabilities

Claudio Bozzato, Lilith Wyatt and Dave McDaniel of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. The Bitdefender BOX 2 contains two remote code execution vulnerabilities in its bootstrap stage. The BOX 2 is a device that protects users’ home networks from a variety of threats...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Linux kernel, W1.fi

Mitchell Frank and Mark Leonard of Cisco discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two denial-of-service vulnerabilities in the open-source program W1.fi. Both of these vulnerabilities target hostapd. One could allow an attacker to forge authentication...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Denial of service in VMWare Workstation 15

Piotr Bania of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Executive summary VMware Workstation 15 contains an exploitable denial-of-service vulnerability. Workstation allows users to run multiple operating systems on a Linux or Windows PC. An attacker could trigger this particular vulnerability...

Three vulnerabilities in NVIDIA graphics driver could cause memory corruption

Piotr Bania of Cisco Talos discovered the vulnerabilities mentioned in this post. Cisco Talos recently disclosed three vulnerabilities in the shader functionality of the NVIDIA D3D10 driver that works with NVIDIAs graphics cards. The driver is vulnerable to memory corruption if an adversary sends...

Old certificate, new signature: Open-source tools forge signature timestamps on Windows drivers

Cisco Talos has observed threat actors taking advantage of a Windows policy loophole that allows the signing and loading of cross-signed kernel mode drivers with signature timestamp prior to July 29, 2015. Actors are leveraging multiple open-source tools that alter the signing date of kernel mode...

Cybersecurity hotlines at colleges could go a long way toward filling the skills gap

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I recently stumbled upon news that the University of Texas at Austin is launching a new cybersecurity clinic run by faculty and students studying security and IT at the university. This clinic offers pro-bono cybersecurity services --...

Threat Roundup for April 14 to April 21

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats weve observed between April 14 and April 21. 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 (March 16, 2023) — A deep dive into Talos' work in Ukraine

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Were written a ton about Cisco Talos support of Ukraine and our friends and allies there. Now, we encourage you to watch and listen to the folks who have been working hands-on there. The latest episode of ThreatWise TV from Hazel Burt...