The Hacker News

"ThreatsDay Bulletin:  Edge plaintext passwords, ICS-0-Days, Patch-or-Die Alterts."

Views expressed in this cybersecurity, cyber crime update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 07 May 2026, 1331 UTC.

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Russ Roberts (https://www.hawaiicybersecurityjournal.net).

 

ThreatsDay Bulletin: Edge Plaintext Passwords, ICS 0-Days, Patch-or-Die Alerts and 25+ New Stories

May 07, 2026Hacking News / Cybersecurity News

Bad week. Turns out the easiest way to get hacked in 2026 is still the same old garbage: shady packages, fake apps, forgotten DNS junk, scam ads, and stolen logins getting dumped into Discord channels like it’s normal. Some of these attack chains don’t even feel sophisticated anymore. More like some tired guy with a Telegram account and too much free time. The worst part is how often this stuff still works. Meanwhile, AI tools are speeding up exploit hunting, browsers are keeping passwords sitting in memory for “performance reasons,” and even ransomware crews are pushing broken builds into the wild. Everybody’s scrambling to patch faster because attackers are automating faster. Anyway. ThreatsDay’s rough this week. Let’s get into it. Credential theft campaign New MicroStealer Spotted A new stealer called MicroStealer has been observed targeting education and telecom sectors to steal sensitive data. It was first observed in the wild in...

From Prompts to Production: The Technical Guide to Secure Vibe Coding

WizAI Security / Vibe Coding

Strengthen security across your AI development workflows and secure AI-generated applications with Vibe Coding best practices.

Day Zero Readiness: The Operational Gaps That Break Incident Response

May 07, 2026Incident Response / Identity Management

Having an incident response retainer, or even a pre-approved external incident response firm, is not the same as being ready for an incident. A retainer means someone will answer the phone. Operational readiness determines whether that team can do meaningful work the moment they do.  That distinction matters far more than many organizations realize. In the first hours of a security incident, attackers are not waiting for your identity team to provision emergency accounts, for legal to decide whether an outside firm can access sensitive systems, or for someone to figure out who owns the EDR console. Every delay gives the attacker more uninterrupted time in your environment. Every hour lost to logistics increases the likelihood of deeper compromise, broader impact, and more expensive recovery.  The same is true internally. An organization may have an incident response plan, a capable security team, and a list of escalation contacts, yet still be unprepared to respond under p...

PyPI Packages Deliver ZiChatBot Malware via Zulip APIs on Windows and Linux

May 07, 2026Malware / Threat Intelligence

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered three packages on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that are designed to stealthily deliver a previously unknown malware family called  ZiChatBot on Windows and Linux systems. "While these wheel packages do implement the features described on their PyPI web pages, their true purpose is to covertly deliver malicious files," Kaspersky  said . "Unlike traditional malware, ZiChatBot does not communicate with a dedicated command-and-control (C2) server, but instead uses a series of REST APIs from the public team chat app Zulip as its C2 infrastructure." The activity has been described as a "carefully planned and executed PyPI supply chain attack" by the Russian cybersecurity company. The names of the packages, which have since been taken down, are listed below - uuid32-utils (1,479 downloads) colorinal (614 downloads) termncolor (387 downloads) All three packages were uploaded to PyPI during a short wi...

vm2 Node.js Library Vulnerabilities Enable Sandbox Escape and Arbitrary Code Execution

May 07, 2026Vulnerability / Software Security

A dozen critical security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the vm2 Node.js library that could be exploited by bad actors to break out of the sandbox and execute arbitrary code on susceptible systems. vm2 is an open-source library used to run untrusted JavaScript code inside a secure sandbox by intercepting and proxying JavaScript objects to prevent sandboxed code from accessing the host environment. The security flaws are listed below - CVE-2026-24118 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A vulnerability that allows sandbox escape via "__lookupGetter__" and permits an attacker to run arbitrary code on the underlying host. (Affects versions <= 3.10.4, patches in 3.11.0) CVE-2026-24120 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A patch bypass for CVE-2023-37466 (CVSS score: 9.8) that could allow attackers to escape the sandbox through the species property of promise objects and execute arbitrary commands on the underlying host. (Affects versions <= 3.10.3, patched in 3.10.5) CVE-2026-24781 (CVSS ...

Mirai-Based xlabs_v1 Botnet Exploits ADB to Hijack IoT Devices for DDoS Attacks

May 06, 2026IoT Security / Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have exposed a new Mirai -derived botnet that self-identifies as xlabs_v1 and targets internet-exposed devices running Android Debug Bridge ( ADB ) to enlist them in a network capable of carrying out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Hunt.io, which detailed the malware, said it made the discovery after identifying an exposed directory on a Netherlands-hosted server at the IP address "176.65.139[.]44" without requiring any authentication. The malware supports "21 flood variants across TCP, UDP, and raw protocols, including RakNet and OpenVPN-shaped UDP, capable of bypassing consumer-grade DDoS protection," Hunt.io said, adding it's offered as a DDoS-for-hire service designed for targeting game servers and Minecraft hosts. What makes xlabs_v1 notable is that it seeks out Android devices running an exposed ADB service on TCP port 5555, meaning any gear that comes with the tool enabled by default, such as Android TV boxes,...

Zscaler ThreatLabz 2026 VPN Risk Report with Cybersecurity Insiders

ZscalerAI Security / Network Security

VPN Risk Report reveals attackers using AI to move at machine speed, leaving legacy VPNs exposed.

MuddyWater Uses Microsoft Teams to Steal Credentials in False Flag Ransomware Attack

May 06, 2026Ransomware / Cybercrime

The Iranian state-sponsored hacking group known as MuddyWater (aka Mango Sandstorm, Seedworm, and Static Kitten) has been attributed to a ransomware attack in what has been described as a "false flag" operation. The attack, observed by Rapid7 in early 2026, has been found to leverage social engineering techniques via Microsoft Teams to initiate the infection sequence. Although the incident initially appeared to be consistent with a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group operating under the Chaos brand, evidence points to it being a targeted state-backed attack that masquerades as opportunistic extortion. "The campaign was characterized by a high-touch social engineering phase conducted via Microsoft Teams , where the attackers utilized interactive screen-sharing to harvest credentials and manipulate multi-factor authentication (MFA)," Rapid7 said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Once inside, the group bypassed traditional ransomware workflows, for...

The Hacker News Launches 'Cybersecurity Stars Awards 2026' — Submissions Now Open

May 06, 2026Security Leadership / Industry Recognition

For nearly 20 years, we at The Hacker News have mostly told scary stories about cyberspace — big hacks, broken systems, and new threats. But behind every headline, there’s a quieter, better story. It’s the story of leaders making tough calls under pressure, teams building smarter defenses, and security products that keep hunting threats 24/7 — even when it’s hard. Most of the time, this work is invisible. When everything goes perfectly, nothing happens. The world just stays safe, and no one notices. Today, we want the world to notice. Introducing the CyberStars Awards 2026 We are launching the  Cybersecurity Stars Awards 2026 , a global program that recognizes excellence across the cybersecurity industry and highlights outstanding work that often goes unnoticed. Submissions are now open, and companies, products, and professionals can apply via the official awards portal: https://awards.thehackernews.com/ We don’t just want to report the news anymore. We want to recognize t...

Your AI Agents Are Already Inside the Perimeter. Do You Know What They're Doing?

May 06, 2026Compliance / Data Security

Analysts recently confirmed what identity security teams have quietly feared: AI agents are being deployed faster than enterprises can govern them. In their inaugural Market Guide for Guardian Agents, Gartner states that “enterprise adoption of AI agents is accelerating, outpacing maturity of governance policy controls.” Enterprise leaders can request access to the Gartner Market Guide for Guardian Agents , available complimentary from Orchid Security. The challenge is not simply one of tooling. It is a structural gap in how identity has been managed over the past decades. Traditional identity and access management were designed for human users to log in and out of systems. AI agents operate differently — they run continuously, span multiple applications, acquire permissions opportunistically, and generate activity at machine speed. The result is yet another form of what Orchid Security calls "identity dark matter": an invisible and unmanaged layer of identity activity op...

Google's Android Apps Get Public Verification to Stop Supply Chain Attacks

May 06, 2026Android / Data Security

Google has announced expanded Binary Transparency for Android as a way to safeguard the ecosystem from supply chain attacks. "This new public ledger ensures the Google apps on your device are exactly what we intended to build and distribute," Google's product and security teams said . The initiative builds upon the foundation of Pixel Binary Transparency , which Google introduced in October 2021 to bolster software integrity by ensuring that Pixel devices are only running verified operating system (OS) software by keeping a public, cryptographic log that records metadata about official factory images. The verifiable security infrastructure mirrors Certificate Transparency , an open framework that requires all issued SSL/TLS certificates to be recorded in public, append-only, and cryptographically verifiable logs to help detect mis-issued or malicious certificates. The move is aimed at countering the risks posed by binary supply chain attacks, which often deliver ...

Windows Phone Link Exploited by CloudZ RAT to Steal Credentials and OTPs

May 06, 2026Endpoint Security / Threat Intelligence

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an intrusion that involved the use of a CloudZ remote access tool (RAT) and a previous undocumented plugin dubbed Pheno with the aim of facilitating credential theft. "According to the functionalities of the CloudZ RAT and Pheno plugin, this was with the intention of stealing victims' credentials and potentially one-time passwords (OTPs)," Cisco Talos researchers Alex Karkins and Chetan Raghuprasad said in a Tuesday analysis. What makes the attack novel is that CloudZ uses the custom Pheno plugin to hijack the established PC-to-phone bridge by abusing the Microsoft Phone Link application, permitting the plugin to monitor for active Phone Link processes and potentially intercept sensitive mobile data like SMS and one-time passwords (OTPs) without the need for deploying malware on the phone.  The findings demonstrate how legitimate cross-device syncing features can expose unintended attack pathways to credential theft...

Palo Alto PAN-OS Flaw Under Active Exploitation Enables Remote Code Execution

May 06, 2026Vulnerability / Network Security

Palo Alto Networks has released an advisory warning that a critical buffer overflow vulnerability in its PAN-OS software has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-0300 , has been described as a case of unauthenticated remote code execution. It carries a CVSS score of 9.3 if the User-ID Authentication Portal is configured to enable access from the internet or any untrusted network. The severity comes down to 8.7 if access to the portal is restricted to only trusted internal IP addresses. "A buffer overflow vulnerability in the User-ID Authentication Portal (aka Captive Portal) service of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software allows an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges on the PA-Series and VM-Series firewalls by sending specially crafted packets," the company said . According to Palo Alto Networks, the vulnerability has come under "limited exploitation," specifically targeting instances where the Use...

Critical Apache HTTP/2 Flaw (CVE-2026-23918) Enables DoS and Potential RCE

May 05, 2026Vulnerability / Server Security

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has released security updates to address several security vulnerabilities in the HTTP Server, including a severe vulnerability that could potentially lead to remote code execution (RCE). The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-23918 (CVSS score: 8.8), has been described as a case of "double free and possible RCE" in the HTTP/2 protocol handling. This issue affects Apache HTTP Server 2.4.66 and has been addressed in version 2.4.67. Striga.ai co-founder Bartlomiej Dmitruk and ISEC.pl researcher Stanislaw Strzalkowski have been credited with discovering and reporting the vulnerability. When reached for comment, Dmitruk told The Hacker News via email that the severity of CVE-2026-23918 is critical, as it can be exploited to achieve denial-of-service (DoS) and RCE. Additional details of the vulnerability are below - CVE-2026-23918 is a double-free in Apache httpd 2.4.66 mod_http2 , specifically in the stream cleanup path of h2_mplx.c. T...