A China-affiliated threat actor has been abusing a zero-day vulnerability in multiple Cisco email appliances to gain access to the underlying system and establish persistence. Cisco confirmed the news in a blog post and a security advisory, urging users to apply provided recommendations and harden their networks.
In its announcement, Cisco said it first spotted the activity on December 10, and determined that it started at least in late November 2025. In the campaign, the threat actor tracked as UAT-9686 abused a bug in Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, to execute system-level commands and deploy a persistent Python-based backdoor called Aquashell.
Read more…
Source: TechRadar News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Unpacking a new Horabot campaign in Mexico
March 18, 2026
In this instalment of Kaspersky SOC Files series, Kaspersky researchers will walk you through a targeted campaign that our MDR team identified and hunted down a few months ago. It involves a threat known as Horabot, a bundle consisting of an infamous banking Trojan, an email spreader, and a notably complex attack chain. Although previous research ...
- Apple patches WebKit bug that could let sites access your data
March 18, 2026
WebKit vulnerabilities refer to security flaws in Apple’s web rendering engine, which powers Safari, Mail, and the App Store on iOS and macOS. What this means is that the CVE-2026-20643 vulnerability makes it possible for a malicious website to pretend to be another site, maybe one you trust, and then read or steal information that should ...
- Notorious online data leak market BreachForums taken down by whitehat heroes
March 17, 2026
BreachForums, one of the most popular underground forums for sharing malware, stolen data, and more – was taken down. Now, the admin seems to be giving up and looking for someone to pass the torch to. Over the weekend, the Cyber Counter-Intelligence Threat Investigation Consortium (CCITIC) posted on LinkedIn, saying that both the clearnet and Tor ...
- Fortinet patches FortiGate Firewall vulnerabilities that allowed hackers to steal enterprise credentials
March 16, 2026
At the start of the year, cybercriminals were exploiting three vulnerabilities in FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) to establish persistence and move laterally throughout the network. All recorded attacks were stopped before they could do any meaningful harm, and FortiGate has since issued patches to mitigate the risk. Between December 2025 and February 2026, security researchers SentinelOne ...
- EU sanctions Chinese and Iranian companies for cyber attacks
March 16, 2026
The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions against two China-based and one Iranian company for cyber attacks against EU member states. The EU listed China-based Integrity Technology Group and Anxun Information Technology, and Iranian company Emennet Pasargad. Integrity Technology is seen to have enabled hacks of over65,000 devices across six member states, according to an EUstatement. ...
- UAE: Up to 100 people arrested by police for filming drone or missile strikes
March 14, 2026
Up to 100 people have been arrested by police in the UAE for filming drone or missile strikes, it emerged this morning. Abu Dhabi Police alone have arrested 45 people of multiple nationalities for filming various locations amid current ongoing events and posting clips on social media. In neighbouring Dubai, at least 21 people, including a ...