Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

CRM-Obsessed ShinyHunters Gang Exploits Misconfigured Customer Experience PortalsA prolific and noisy cybercrime gang with a penchant for stealing Salesforce customers' data and holding it ransom is taking advantage of misconfigured guest accounts meant to provide public access to services meant to remain private, using a Google scanning tool to identify vulnerable accounts.

Zero-Click Vulnerability Let Attackers Weaponize Enterprise AI AssistantGoogle patched a vulnerability in Gemini Enterprise that allowed attackers to steal corporate data through a shared document, calendar invitation or email without any user action or security alerts. No malware was executed, no credentials were phished and no data left through approved channels.

Also, North Korean Hackers Remotely Wipe Android DevicesThis week, the U.K. government probed Chinese electric buses for a kill switch, APT37 abused Google's Find Hub in South Korea, Conduent said its January hack will cost it more, Hyundai disclosed a breach and Patch Tuesday. OWASP added two new categories to its Top 10 web application vulnerabilities.

Google Warns of Cyber Trends Gaining TractionThe virtualized layer of technology underpinning modern IT deployments is transforming from a strength to a cybersecurity vulnerability, warns Google in a report extrapolating current trends. A confluence of factors are converting virtualized environments into a "critical blind spot."

Signs Point to Multiple Exploit Chains, One Including a Zero-Day, Being EmployedData-stealing attacks targeting Oracle E-Business Suite, for which an affiliate of Russian-speaking Clop ransomware group is claiming credit, appear to have begun by August and involved multiple attack chains, of which one targeted a zero-day vulnerability, report Google threat researchers.

Security Experts Laud Project Zero's Push for Greater Transparency, Faster PatchesGoogle is trying out a new approach to publicizing flaws found by its in-house bug hunters meant to get patches more rapidly into end users' hands. Under a trial policy effective immediately, Google's Project Zero team will publish a general alert to the public within seven days.

Google’s Mandiant Warns About Remote Attacks Disrupting Grid StabilityVulnerabilities in networked devices programmed to instantaneously trip power grid substation circuit breakers could be the means hackers use to cause the next blackout, warn researchers. There are "systemic patterns across substations, utilities and industrial sites worldwide," Mandiant warned.

Attacker With Project Access Could Have Retrieved Private Images, Researchers SaidGoogle has fixed Google Cloud Platform vulnerability attackers could have exploited to gain unauthorized access to private container images, due to access restriction shortcomings. Researchers said the flaw highlights how services built atop other services can pose unexpected security risks.

Also: Google Fixes YouTube Vulnerabilities That Could Have Exposed User EmailsThis week: Microsoft, Ivanti and Google release fixes for critical vulnerabilities and urge priority patching; Lee Enterprises confirms a cyberattack disrupted newspaper operations; and thousands of KerioControl Firewalls exposed to critical remote code execution flaws.

SysTrack LsiAgent Installer Flaw Escalates Privileges LocallyA flawed Microsoft software installer application developed by Lakeside Software could enable attackers with lower privileges to gain full system access. The local privilege escalation vulnerability uncovered by Google Mandiant has since been patched.

Google Says Iranian and Chinese Threat Group the Most ActiveIranian and Chinese threat actors are using Google's artificial intelligence application Gemini for vulnerability scanning and reconnaissance activities, with some attempting to bypass security guardrails of the application, the computing giant disclosed.

One Vulnerability Had Been Undiscovered for Two Decades, Researchers SaidGoogle researchers used an AI-powered fuzzing tool to identify 26 vulnerabilities in open-source code repositories, some of which had been lurking undiscovered for several decades. Each was found with AI, using AI-generated and enhanced fuzz targets, Google said.

UK Government Agencies, Google Join Group that PromotesTwo British government agencies and computing giant Google joined the CHERI Alliance, a group dedicated to promoting a hardware architecture that prevents buffer overflows and heap use-after-free vulnerabilities. Adoption of the architecture is miniscule.

Also: Potential Government Policy Changes; AI-Driven Zero-Day DiscoveriesIn the latest weekly update, ISMG editors discussed how the recent election results may reshape U.S. cybersecurity policy and healthcare privacy under HIPAA and the groundbreaking role of artificial intelligence in Google’s recent discovery of a critical zero-day vulnerability.

Now-Fixed Flaw Is Big Sleep's First Real-World Bug Find, Say ResearchersGoogle's "highly experimental" artificial intelligence agent Big Sleep has autonomously discovered an exploitable memory flaw in popular open-source database engine SQLite. The researchers detail how the AI agent discovered the now-patched vulnerability.

Google Says Rust Language Initiative Eliminates Cross-Site Scripting, Other FlawsGoogle says switching to a memory-safe language such as Rust under its Safe Coding program has helped significantly reduce the number of vulnerabilities in Android systems. The number of vulnerabilities uncovered in Android devices has fallen from over 200 in 2019 to fewer than 50 by 2024.

Attackers Could Exploit Flaw to Run Malicious Code on Google' s, Customers' ServersGoogle patched a critical remote execution vulnerability in its cloud platform Cloud Composer service, "CloudImposer," which could have allowed attackers to compromise millions of servers, say researchers from Tenable. The CloudImposer vulnerability could lead to the Jenga Tower effect.

Cryptocurrency Users Targeted in Latest Campaign Involving FudModule RootkitA hacking group tied to North Korea exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the open source Google Chromium web browser to try and steal cryptocurrency, Microsoft said. The attack campaign is the latest to involve a sophisticated North Korean rootkit called FudModule. Google has fixed the flaw.

Bugs Allowed Device Unlocking and Memory AccessGoogle addressed two zero-day vulnerabilities in Pixel mobile phones that forensic firms exploited to bypass PINs and access stored data on the device. The bugs allowed attackers to unlock and access Pixel's device memory with physical access.

Espionage Groups and Commercial Surveillance Vendors Tied to Many Zero-Day ExploitsFresh zero-day vulnerabilities continue to be getting actively exploited in the wild by attackers, often for surveillance and espionage purposes, according to the latest annual review of in-the-wild exploits published by Google. In 2023, 97 new zero-days came to light, up from 62 in 2022.