{"id":20479,"date":"2025-09-01T09:07:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T07:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/?p=20479"},"modified":"2025-09-01T09:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T07:08:11","slug":"8-cybersecurity-news-worth-your-attention-this-week-summarised-2025-09-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/8-cybersecurity-news-worth-your-attention-this-week-summarised-2025-09-01\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Cybersecurity News Worth Your Attention this Week Summarised &#8211; 2025-09-01"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>This is the week of autonomous AI, <\/strong>kind of. We have two reports of <strong>AI autonomously hacking, and extorting based on what it has found <\/strong>from the victims systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>On the APT groups it&#8217;s a week of China, <\/strong>they seem to be focusing on networking devices, so if you are lucky enough to have physical routing devices you might want to triple check they are all patched up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And advise your friends and family that <strong>not e-mails that come from Google Classroom are pure gold<\/strong>, some might actually be scams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>P.S. You can also get this summary on your e-mail every Monday.<strong> Scroll down to subscribe \u2b07\ufe0f<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Anthropic\u2019s Claude AI Abused to &#8220;Vibe Hack&#8221; 17 Organisations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">Anthropic\u2019s August threat report reveals a <strong>\u201cvibe hacking\u201d campaign<\/strong> in which a criminal group  <strong>leveraged its Claude Code LLM to fully automate reconnaissance, network intrusion, data theft,  and customized extortion demands against 17 international organizations. <\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Operator GTG-2002 used Claude Code to <strong>scan thousands of VPN endpoints and build API-driven reconnaissance frameworks.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>AI generated obfuscated Chisel tunneling tools and new TCP proxy code to evade Windows Defender<\/strong> and improved anti-debugging.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stolen data included personal records, healthcare files, financial information, and government credentials; <strong>ransom demands exceeded $500,000.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Claude Code calculated ransom amounts by analyzing exfiltrated financial data <\/strong>and produced HTML ransom notes embedded in the boot process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/cyberattacks-data-breaches\/anthropic-ai-automate-data-extortion-campaign\">Dark Reading<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anthropic.com\/news\/detecting-countering-misuse-aug-2025\">Anthropic<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csoonline.com\/article\/4047148\/anthropic-detects-the-inevitable-genai-only-attacks-no-humans-involved.html\">CSO Online<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. ESET Warns of First AI-Powered Ransomware \u201cPromptLock\u201d Using Local OpenAI Model<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>ESET researchers have identified PromptLock, a proof-of-concept ransomware that uses OpenAI\u2019s open-weight gpt-oss:20b model via the Ollama API to generate and run malicious Lua scripts on victim machines in real time<\/strong>.  By shifting script generation into a local AI model, PromptLock can vary its indicators of compromise and evade traditional signature-based defenses.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Written in Go<\/strong>, with Windows and Linux variants uploaded to VirusTotal from the U.S.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Uses hard-coded prompts to instruct the LLM <\/strong>to enumerate files, exfiltrate data, and encrypt with SPECK 128-bit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Data-destruction feature is defined but not yet active;<strong> ransom note is dynamically tailored by AI.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Encryption key and payment address are embedded in AI-generated scripts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Monitor for local Ollama API endpoints and unusual LLM traffic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/vulnerabilities-threats\/ai-powered-ransomware-promptlock\">Dark Reading<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Google Warns of Widespread Salesforce Data Theft via Compromised Salesloft Drift OAuth Tokens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>Google\u2019s Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant report<\/strong> that a financially motivated actor tracked as <strong>UNC6395 stole OAuth access and refresh tokens from the Salesloft Drift third-party app to exfiltrate large volumes of data from over 700 Salesforce customer instances<\/strong>. UNC6395 systematically queried Salesforce objects for secrets\u2014like AWS keys and Snowflake tokens\u2014then deleted query jobs to cover their tracks. <strong>Salesloft and Salesforce have revoked all Drift tokens and removed the app from AppExchange,<\/strong> urging customers to treat their Salesforce data as compromised.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Attack window: August 8\u201318, 2025;<\/strong> over 700 Salesforce orgs potentially impacted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Data stolen: AWS access keys (AKIA), passwords, Snowflake tokens, and other credentials.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tradecraft: Automated SOQL queries, deletion of query jobs, use of Tor and cloud hosting IPs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Remediation: All active OAuth tokens revoked; Drift removed from Salesforce AppExchange.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Rotate all Salesforce-stored credentials and API keys immediately.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Restrict Connected App scopes and enforce IP\/login ranges for OAuth apps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.google.com\/blog\/topics\/threat-intelligence\/data-theft-salesforce-instances-via-salesloft-drift\">Google Cloud Blog<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/trust.salesloft.com\/?uid=Drift%2FSalesforce+Security+Notification\">Salesloft Trust Center<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Attackers Weaponize Velociraptor Forensic Tool to Tunnel C2 via VS Code<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>Researchers at Sophos uncovered threat actors using the open-source Velociraptor forensic tool to download and run Visual Studio Code with a built-in tunnel option for command-and-control access. <\/strong><br>By leveraging Windows msiexec and Cloudflare Workers as a staging ground, attackers minimized custom malware and embraced living-off-the-land tactics. This pattern signals a shift toward weaponizing legitimate incident-response software to establish stealthy footholds prior to ransomware or further compromise.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>msiexec pulled a Velociraptor MSI<\/strong> from files.qaubctgg.workers.dev<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Velociraptor beaconed to C2<\/strong> at velo.qaubctgg.workers.dev<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Obfuscated PowerShell fetched code.exe<\/strong> and ran its tunnel feature<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Attackers also staged <strong>Radmin<\/strong> and a<strong> Cloudflare tunneling tool<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Monitor msiexec downloads <\/strong>from unapproved domains<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Block unauthorized Velociraptor and code.exe installations<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Audit for unexpected SSH-tunnel processes<\/strong> on endpoints<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sophos.com\/en-us\/2025\/08\/26\/velociraptor-incident-response-tool-abused-for-remote-access\/\">Sophos CTU Research<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehackernews.com\/2025\/08\/attackers-abuse-velociraptor-forensic.html\">The Hacker News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sophos.com\/en-us\/2025\/08\/26\/velociraptor-incident-response-tool-abused-for-remote-access\/\">Sophos Counter Threat Unit<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. CISA and Allies Release Guide to Thwart Chinese APT Campaigns in Critical Networks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">CISA, NSA, FBI and 13 international partners published a 37-page advisory outlining <br>how PRC-linked APT groups like Salt Typhoon<strong> exploit unpatched routers and firewalls <br>to persist in telecom, government, transportation and military networks<\/strong>. The guide <br>prioritizes patching known CVEs in<strong> Cisco, Palo Alto Networks and Ivanti products, <\/strong><br>hardening management planes, and coordinating threat-hunting to detect covert tunnels <br>and on-box containers.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Actors \u201clive off the land,\u201d using native ACL changes, packet captures and Cisco Guest Shell.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Major CVEs to remediate: <\/strong>CVE-2024-21887 (Ivanti), CVE-2024-3400 (PAN-OS), CVE-2023-20273\/20198 and CVE-2018-0171 (Cisco IOS XE).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Co-authors include agencies from Australia, Canada, U.K., Germany, Japan, Italy, Poland and more.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Provides IOCs, YARA rules and MITRE ATT&amp;CK\/D3FEND mappings for proactive hunting.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Rapidly patch the five high-priority CVEs<\/strong> on edge devices.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Isolate device management plane<\/strong> and disable unused services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Audit on-box containers for unauthorized artifacts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2025\/Aug\/22\/2003786665\/-1\/-1\/0\/CSA_COUNTERING_CHINA_STATE_ACTORS_COMPROMISE_OF_NETWORKS.PDF\">CISA Advisory<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/cybersecuritynews.com\/cisa-publish-hunting-and-mitigation-guide\/\">Cybersecurity News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. Supply Chain Attack on Nx Build System Leaks 2,349 Developer Credentials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>On August 26, attackers published malicious versions of core Nx npm packages <\/strong>that embedded postinstall <strong>scripts to scan for and harvest 2,349 GitHub tokens<\/strong>, cloud credentials, and AI API keys.  <strong>The breach exploited a misconfigured GitHub Actions pull_request_target workflow to gain elevated permissions and exfiltrate secrets<\/strong> into \u201cs1ngularity-repository\u201d repos under victim accounts. <\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Affected Nx packages (versions 20.9.0\u201321.8.0, @nx\/devkit, @nx\/js, @nx\/node, etc.) <\/strong>have been removed from npm.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Attackers abused a pull_request_target trigger allowing bash code injection via a crafted PR title on an outdated branch.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Postinstall scripts double-Base64 encoded stolen data and <strong>pushed it to public GitHub repos named \u201cs1ngularity-repository*.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wiz and GitGuardian found 1,346 repos and 2,349 distinct secrets \u2014 90% of GitHub tokens remained valid at discovery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Revoke and rotate all GitHub, npm, cloud, and AI-tool credentials immediately.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Audit and lock down GitHub Actions workflows;<\/strong> replace pull_request_target with pull_request.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inspect and clean up shell startup files (.bashrc, .zshrc) for unauthorized shutdown commands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thehackernews.com\/2025\/08\/malicious-nx-packages-in-s1ngularity.html\">The Hacker News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7. Google Classroom Abused for 115,000 Phishing Emails Targeting 13,500 Organizations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>Check Point uncovered a global phishing campaign that weaponized Google Classroom to distribute 115,000 malicious invitations over one week to 13,500 organizations<\/strong> across multiple sectors. By sending fake \u201cvirtual classroom\u201d invites from a legitimate Google domain with irrelevant commercial offers and directing victims to contact attackers via WhatsApp, the campaign bypassed traditional email filters.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Five attack waves sent <strong>between August 6\u201312, 2025.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Emails originated<\/strong> from<strong> no-reply@classroom.google.com <\/strong>to evade filters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lures included unrelated SEO services and product-reselling offers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Recipients were instructed to<strong> move conversations to WhatsApp.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csoonline.com\/article\/4047459\/115-000-phishing-emails-in-einer-woche-versendet.html\">CSO Online<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">8. SSA Whistleblower: DOGE Placed 300M Americans\u2019 SSN Data on Unsecured AWS Test Cloud<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>A whistleblower complaint from SSA Chief Data Officer Charles Borges <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">alleges<\/span> that Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) copied the agency\u2019s full NUMIDENT Social Security database\u2014containing names, SSNs, birth data and family details for over 300 million Americans\u2014into a test AWS environment that lacked mandated security controls or oversight. <\/strong><br><br>The move bypassed FISMA authorization-to-operate (ATO) procedures and may violate federal privacy and cybersecurity laws, exposing a single high-value data store to potential compromise. Security teams and CISOs should assume this data is at elevated risk until independent audit and containment are confirmed.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>DOGE staff obtained provisional ATO in July 2025, accepting \u201cbusiness need\u201d over security risk.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>NUMIDENT live copy moved outside SSA\u2019s AWS-ACI ATO perimeter, with no independent logging or access tracking.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Risk Acceptance Request Form called the action \u201chigh risk,\u201d but access was granted by CIO-level officials.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Potential legal violations include FISMA, the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more at <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csoonline.com\/article\/4046997\/whistleblower-doge-put-social-security-database-covering-300-million-americans-on-insecure-cloud.html\">CSO Online<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fedscoop.com\/doge-social-security-database-whistleblower-cloud-environment-data-vulnerabilities\/\">FedScoop<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Subscribe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Subscribe to receive weekly cybersecurity news summary to your inbox every Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n                <div class=\"ml-embedded\" data-form=\"pKq7EM\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 Latest cybersecurity news from last week of August 2025.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20479"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20510,"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20479\/revisions\/20510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kordon.app\/et\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}