36 Malicious npm Packages Exploited Redis, PostgreSQL to Deploy Persistent Implants

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered 36 malicious packages in the npm registry that are disguised as Strapi CMS plugins but come with different payloads to facilitate Redis and PostgreSQL exploitation, deploy reverse shells, harvest credentials, and drop a persistent implant. “Every package contains three files (package.json, index.js, postinstall.js), has no description, repository,

Fortinet Patches Actively Exploited CVE-2026-35616 in FortiClient EMS

Fortinet has released out-of-band patches for a critical security flaw impacting FortiClient EMS that it said has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-35616 (CVSS score: 9.1), has been described as a pre-authentication API access bypass leading to privilege escalation. “An improper access control vulnerability [CWE-284] in FortiClient EMS may allow an

China-Linked TA416 Targets European Governments with PlugX and OAuth-Based Phishing

A China-aligned threat actor has set its sights on European government and diplomatic organizations since mid-2025, following a two-year period of minimal targeting in the region. The campaign has been attributed to TA416, a cluster of activity that overlaps with DarkPeony, RedDelta, Red Lich, SmugX, UNC6384, and Vertigo Panda. “This TA416 activity included multiple

Microsoft Details Cookie-Controlled PHP Web Shells Persisting via Cron on Linux Servers

Threat actors are increasingly using HTTP cookies as a control channel for PHP-based web shells on Linux servers and to achieve remote code execution, according to findings from the Microsoft Defender Security Research Team. “Instead of exposing command execution through URL parameters or request bodies, these web shells rely on threat actor-supplied cookie values to gate execution,