If you need help patching any of these or any other products, please get in touch with us.

The PHP2Shell vulnerabilities dominated the week. CISA confirmed active exploitation, attackers chained them with a Linux kernel privilege-escalation bug to root firewalls, and vendors from Docker to Synology to Netgate pushed fixes. CISA also added actively exploited flaws in GitLab, Ivanti Connect Secure, Cisco firewalls, and VMware ESX to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. Meanwhile, ransomware disrupted a US hospital system and a Japanese cloud provider, and researchers documented threat actors using AI agents to run intrusions at scale.

Products to watch

These updates affect widely deployed infrastructure and endpoint software. If you run any of these, check them first.

  • PHP (PHP2Shell, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619): CISA added both unauthenticated remote code execution flaws to the KEV catalog on October 26. They are fixed in PHP 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36, and 8.2.35, and end-of-life branches back to 5.4 are affected with no fix. (BleepingComputer, The Hacker News)
  • Docker: Docker Official Images and Docker Hardened Images for PHP were rebuilt with the patched releases, so rebuild or re-pull any PHP-based images. (Docker) Separately, Docker Desktop 4.97.0 (October 26) fixes CVE-2026-114409, which wrote third-party API keys and OAuth tokens in cleartext to local logs and diagnostics bundles, and CVE-2026-99999, which let a container corrupt the VM’s network stack. Delete or sanitize any old logs or diagnostics bundles you’ve kept or shared. (Docker security announcements)
  • Ubuntu and AlmaLinux (Linux kernel “Fragnesia”, CVE-2026-46300): CISA added this local root privilege-escalation flaw to the KEV catalog on October 28 after attackers chained it with PHP2Shell. Ubuntu has fixed kernels for 22.04, 24.04, 25.10, and 26.04, and AlmaLinux 8 received another kernel update (ALSA-2026:19666) on October 26. Install the update and reboot. (CISA, Ubuntu, AlmaLinux)
  • pfSense: Netgate published patched PHP packages for pfSense Plus 26.07 and 26.03.1 and CE 2.9.0 and 2.8.1. They must be installed from the command line, and systems with the web GUI or Captive Portal exposed to untrusted networks should update immediately. (Netgate)
  • Synology: Synology released PHP updates for DSM 7.4 and 7.3 and, unusually, for end-of-life DSM 7.2 through 6.2, covering PHP-dependent packages such as Web Station, WordPress, and phpMyAdmin. It also warned that attackers are exploiting a December 2024 flaw to encrypt data on NAS devices running end-of-life DSM versions. (Synology)
  • Apple: iOS/iPadOS 27.2 and macOS Golden Gate 27.2 (October 26) patch 286 vulnerabilities in total, including a remotely exploitable Remote Management code execution bug in macOS. iOS 18.7.11 backports the fix for CoreGraphics zero-day CVE-2026-86950, which was exploited in an “extremely sophisticated attack.” (SecurityWeek)
  • TeamViewer: Bulletin TV-2026-1011 (October 27) fixes three high-severity client flaws, including a remote code execution bug in the Linux and macOS screen-image decoder and a macOS privilege escalation to root. Update clients and hosts to 15.83; TeamViewer is not aware of exploitation. (TeamViewer)
  • Microsoft Entra / Microsoft 365: Sophos detailed how an attacker used a compromised ConnectWise Cloud Backup (formerly SkyKick) application credential to request app-only Microsoft Graph tokens from every tenant that had consented to the app, with no password or MFA needed. Organizations that ever used the product should remove its consent and review service principal sign-ins from October 15 to 17. (Sophos)
  • Claude and AI tooling: Anthropic disputed a security startup’s claim that its AI agents reached sensitive internal data, saying only limited sales, HR, and IT systems were reached and that Claude conversations, source code, and model weights were not affected. Researchers also reported a grey-market relay service that installs genuine Claude Code and Codex CLIs but routes all requests through third-party servers with sandboxing disabled. (SecurityWeek)

Exploited vulnerabilities and patches

  • PHP2Shell roots Palo Alto firewalls: A China-linked group chained PHP2Shell with Fragnesia to gain root on PAN-OS firewalls with internet-exposed management interfaces, and Palo Alto Networks has released fixes. Mass exploitation attempts against WordPress have so far failed, but more than 22.6 million exposed PHP instances are potentially affected. (SecurityWeek)
  • GitLab CVE-2026-97229 (CVSS 10.0): CISA added this unauthenticated code execution flaw, triggered through crafted regular expressions in CI/CD configuration, to the KEV catalog on October 29, after a failed attack on Alpine Linux’s GitLab instance. Upgrade to 19.2.8, 19.3.5, or 19.4.2. (The Hacker News, Security Affairs)
  • Cisco Secure Firewall ASA/FTD CVE-2026-76418: This remotely triggerable denial-of-service flaw was added to the KEV catalog the same day after Cisco confirmed exploitation. (CISA)
  • Ivanti Connect Secure: CISA added CVE-2026-111357 and CVE-2026-118527 on October 30; both can be chained with CVE-2026-104935. (CISA)
  • Adobe Commerce/Magento and Google Brotli: CISA added a critical Magento file-upload flaw (CVE-2026-48356) and a Brotli decoder flaw (CVE-2026-111497) on October 27. Apply Adobe’s July 2026 patches and update Brotli to 1.0.10, 1.1.1, or 1.2.1, along with any products that bundle it. (CISA, SecurityOnline)
  • VMware ESX CVE-2026-41709: CISA also added an insufficient-logging flaw that lets an admin-level attacker act without being logged. (CISA)
  • Oracle PeopleSoft CVE-2026-35273: Researchers revealed that the PeopleSoft zero-day ShinyHunters exploited earlier this year is actually three chained flaws. Patch, and treat any host with a web shell as compromised. (The Hacker News)
  • Langflow: Two critical unauthenticated flaws (CVE-2026-93680 and CVE-2026-110186) affect every release from 1.0.0 to 1.12.8, and a public Metasploit module exists. Upgrade to 1.13.0. (The Hacker News)
  • UEFI network-boot flaw: A 16-year-old buffer overflow in TianoCore EDK II (CVE-2026-97631) affects most server firmware and can be triggered during PXE network boot. Ask your hardware vendors for firmware updates. (SecurityWeek)

Breaches and ransomware

  • GMO Onamae Desktop Cloud: The Japanese VPS provider told customers to shut down and unplug their PCs after the attacker who breached it threatened to trigger ransomware on customer servers. Company and customer data has since been published, and GMO refused a ¥8 billion ransom. (BleepingComputer)
  • UNM Health: A ransomware attack claimed by the new Byod group forced ambulance diversions and suspended surgeries at the University of New Mexico’s health system. The group claims to have compromised 36,000 systems, including the entire Microsoft Entra tenant. (BleepingComputer)
  • Sony Network Communications: About 2.5 million So-net and plala customer records were exposed, plus 54,401 email addresses with passwords. (BleepingComputer)
  • Japan Airlines via Amadeus: A long-running breach of Amadeus’s passenger service system exposed data on about 92,000 JAL customers, including passport numbers for about 2,000. (BleepingComputer)
  • Chainalysis: The blockchain intelligence firm disclosed that attackers using “offensive agentic techniques” accessed customer names, emails, and role labels. (BleepingComputer)
  • University of Copenhagen and ENGIE: Attackers took data on about 525,000 university community members, including national ID numbers, and ENGIE reported customer data theft through a sales-partner tool. (SecurityWeek)

Threat actors

  • Vapor Panda and ARTEX: CrowdStrike reported that this Chinese state-sponsored group used the AI-powered ARTEX penetration testing framework against more than 200 organizations since October 17, confirming post-exploitation at nine. CrowdStrike also named four new China-linked groups, including Titan Panda, which targets law firms through Intapp Time Server. (The Hacker News)
  • AI in ransomware and malware: Sophos said the Gold Ogre group behind Aur0ra ransomware used orchestrated AI agents for discovery, credential attacks, and lateral movement. Cisco Talos detailed NIK C2, a new AI-integrated command-and-control framework. (SecurityWeek)
  • Fake AI crawlers hunting secrets: One actor rotated through about 32 fake AI bot identities to scan websites for .env files, cloud credentials, and private SSH keys. Don’t trust a bot’s self-declared identity, and keep secrets out of web roots. (SecurityWeek)
  • North Korean IT workers: A US defense contractor employee pleaded guilty to helping North Korean remote IT workers, and OFAC sanctioned 10 individuals and one entity supporting the scheme. (SecurityWeek)

This week’s priorities

  1. Update PHP everywhere it runs, including containers, NAS packages, and firewalls, and restrict admin interfaces to trusted networks.
  2. Patch and reboot Linux kernels for Fragnesia.
  3. Upgrade GitLab, Ivanti Connect Secure, and Cisco ASA/FTD if you run them.
  4. Update Apple devices, TeamViewer clients, and Docker Desktop.
  5. Review Entra enterprise applications for unused third-party consents.