Cyber Defense Advisors

Year: 2025

Patch Tuesday, April 2025 Edition

Microsoft today released updates to plug at least 121 security holes in its Windows operating systems and software, including one vulnerability that is already being exploited in the wild. Eleven of those flaws earned Microsoft’s most-dire “critical” rating, meaning malware or malcontents could exploit them with little to no interaction from Windows users. The zero-day […]

Cyber News

The AI Fix #45: The Turing test falls to GPT-4.5

In episode 45 of The AI Fix, our hosts discover that ChatGPT is running the world, Mark learns that mattress companies have scientists, Gen Z has nightmares about AI, OpenAI gets a bag, Graham eats too many cheese sandwiches, and too much training makes AIs over-sensitive. Mark reveals why he’s got beef with cows, GPT-4.5 […]

Cyber News

Fortinet Urges FortiSwitch Upgrades to Patch Critical Admin Password Change Flaw

Fortinet has released security updates to address a critical security flaw impacting FortiSwitch that could permit an attacker to make unauthorized password changes. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-48887, carries a CVSS score of 9.3 out of a maximum of 10.0. “An unverified password change vulnerability [CWE-620] in FortiSwitch GUI may allow a remote unauthenticated attacker […]

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Amazon EC2 SSM Agent Flaw Patched After Privilege Escalation via Path Traversal

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched security flaw in the Amazon EC2 Simple Systems Manager (SSM) Agent that, if successfully exploited, could permit an attacker to achieve privilege escalation and code execution. The vulnerability could permit an attacker to create directories in unintended locations on the filesystem, execute arbitrary scripts with root privileges, 

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Cryptocurrency Miner and Clipper Malware Spread via SourceForge Cracked Software Listings

Threat actors have been observed distributing malicious payloads such as cryptocurrency miner and clipper malware via SourceForge, a popular software hosting service, under the guise of cracked versions of legitimate applications like Microsoft Office. “One such project, officepackage, on the main website sourceforge.net, appears harmless enough, containing Microsoft Office add-ins copied from a legitimate GitHub […]

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Arguing Against CALEA

At a Congressional hearing earlier this week, Matt Blaze made the point that CALEA, the 1994 law that forces telecoms to make phone calls wiretappable, is outdated in today’s threat environment and should be rethought: In other words, while the legally-mandated CALEA capability requirements have changed little over the last three decades, the infrastructure that […]

Cyber News

Agentic AI in the SOC – Dawn of Autonomous Alert Triage

Security Operations Centers (SOCs) today face unprecedented alert volumes and increasingly sophisticated threats. Triaging and investigating these alerts are costly, cumbersome, and increases analyst fatigue, burnout, and attrition. While artificial intelligence has emerged as a go-to solution, the term “AI” often blurs crucial distinctions. Not all AI is built equal, especially in the SOC. Many […]

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UAC-0226 Deploys GIFTEDCROOK Stealer via Malicious Excel Files Targeting Ukraine

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has revealed a new set of cyber attacks targeting Ukrainian institutions with information-stealing malware. The activity is aimed at military formations, law enforcement agencies, and local self-government bodies, particularly those located near Ukraine’s eastern border, the agency said. The attacks involve distributing phishing emails containing a macro-enabled […]

Cyber News

CISA Adds CrushFTP Vulnerability to KEV Catalog Following Confirmed Active Exploitation

A recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting CrushFTP has been added by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog after reports emerged of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability is a case of authentication bypass that could permit an unauthenticated attacker to take over susceptible instances. […]

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