Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Mandiant: 68% of Targets Were Higher Ed Institutions Running PeopleSoftShinyHunters exploited a critical zero-day in Oracle PeopleSoft to breach more than 100 organizations globally, researchers at Mandiant and Google's Threat Intelligence Group said, with universities and colleges accounting for the majority of confirmed targets in the active extortion campaign.

Google Says Criminals Used AI to Discover and Code ExploitA cybercriminal group came close to launching a mass attack earlier this year, armed with a software exploit that an AI model had built from scratch, said Google researchers. Google said it worked with the affected vendor to patch the flaw before an attack could be launched.

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.

Google Cloud's Hultquist on How State Hackers Exploit Code and Corporate HiringJohn Hultquist, chief analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, Google Cloud, discussed how China and North Korea are transforming cyberattacks into organized, factory-like operations. Alongside zero-day exploits, North Korean IT operatives are quietly infiltrating Fortune 500 companies under false identities.

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.

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.

Project Zero Framework Aims to Boost AI Bug Detection SkillsGoogle's team of zero-day hunters say artificial intelligence can lead to improved automated threat identification and analysis. Researchers say that a framework allows LLMs to mimic the iterative, hypothesis-driven approach of human security experts.

Also: Turla Targets European Missions and Google Patches Chrome Zero-DaysThis week, hackers used a Linus backdoor and a Microsoft client management tool; Santander Bank, the Helsinki Education Division, an Australian energy provider and auction house Christie's were breached; hackers targeted European missions in the Middle East; and Google patched a zero-day 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.

Google Fixes Out-of-Bounds Memory Access Flaw, Microsoft Edge Browser Also AffectedGoogle released an urgent fix for the first zero-day vulnerability of the year in its Chrome web browser, warning the bug is under active exploitation. Google blamed an out-of-bounds memory access flaw in its V8 JavaScript rendering engine. It also affects Microsoft Edge browser.

Zimbra Patched the Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability on July 25A zero-day flaw in the Zimbra Collaboration email server proved to be a bonanza for hackers as four distinct threat actors exploited the bug to steal email data and user credentials, says Google. Most of the exploit activity occurred after Zimbra had posted a hotfix on July 5.