⚡ Weekly Recap: Helpdesk 0-Days, Rogue Certs, ShinyHunters Arrest, AI-Fooling Malware and More
Some meetings last longer than it took attackers to jump on a newly disclosed security flaw this week.

SonicWall fixes pre-auth SSRF flaw in SMA 1000 appliances (CVE-2026-102255) SonicWall has patched four vulnerabilities in its popular Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 series of appliances, including one (CVE-2026-102255) that could allow remote unauthenticated attackers “to direct the appliance to issue requests on their behalf and reach internal functionality and perform unauthorized operations.” Exploitation attempts against critical Atlassian flaw have begun (CVE-2026-21589) One day after Atlassian released patches fixing a critical arbitrary file access vulnerability (CVE-2026-21589) in its self-managed Data Center products, and a few hours after watchTowr researchers published a technical rundown of the flaw, attackers have been spotted attempting to exploit it.
Attackers are now exploiting a CVSS 10.0 server-side request forgery (SSRF) flaw in SonicWall’s SMA1000 Appliance Work Place.
A maximum-severity security flaw impacting the Bricksforge plugin for WordPress has come under active exploitation in the wild, according to Patchstack.
Some meetings last longer than it took attackers to jump on a newly disclosed security flaw this week.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-102255 (CVSS score: 10.0), is a case of pre-authenticated server-side request forgery (SSRF) that could allow a remote attacker "to direct the appliance to issue requests on their behalf and reach internal functionality and perform unauthorized operations." Patches for the flaw were released by SonicWall on October 6, 2026, with versions 12.4.3-03670 (platform-hotfix) and 12.5.0-03082 (platform-hotfix).
The critical vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-85097 (CVSS score: 10.0), which allows unauthenticated attackers to upload and execute arbitrary PHP code on vulnerable WordPress websites, resulting in remote code execution (RCE).
Threat actors have been observed exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw in SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 appliances within days of public disclosure.
Out-of-band Exchange Server update fixes high-severity mailbox access bug (CVE-2026-96940) Microsoft has pushed out an out-of-band security update for Exchange Server that fixes a high-severity vulnerability (CVE-2026-96940) that may allow authenticated attackers to read emails and attachments of other users in the same organization, but “does not allow access across tenant boundaries.” CISA flags new exploited NetScaler flaw as attackers crash appliances (CVE-2026-88779) CISA has added another Citrix NetScaler vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Sunday: CVE-2026-88779, a memory overflow bug that may cripple vulnerable NetScaler ADCs and Gateways.
Atlassian Flaw Exploited in the Wild — Threat actors have begun to exploit a newly disclosed critical security flaw impacting Atlassian Data Center products that could allow access to sensitive files under certain conditions.
CVE-2026-102255 is the latest vulnerability impacting SonicWall SMA 1000 appliances to come under active exploitation.
What happened
SonicWall fixes pre-auth SSRF flaw in SMA 1000 appliances (CVE-2026-102255) SonicWall has patched four vulnerabilities in its popular Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 series of appliances, including one (CVE-2026-102255) that could allow remote unauthenticated attackers “to direct the appliance to issue requests on their behalf and reach internal functionality and perform unauthorized operations.” Exploitation attempts against critical Atlassian flaw have begun (CVE-2026-21589) One day after Atlassian released patches fixing a critical arbitrary file access vulnerability (CVE-2026-21589) in its self-managed Data Center products, and a few hours after watchTowr researchers published a technical rundown of the flaw, attackers have been spotted attempting to exploit it.
Attackers are now exploiting a CVSS 10.0 server-side request forgery (SSRF) flaw in SonicWall’s SMA1000 Appliance Work Place.
What changed
A maximum-severity security flaw impacting the Bricksforge plugin for WordPress has come under active exploitation in the wild, according to Patchstack.
Some meetings last longer than it took attackers to jump on a newly disclosed security flaw this week.
Who is affected
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-102255 (CVSS score: 10.0), is a case of pre-authenticated server-side request forgery (SSRF) that could allow a remote attacker "to direct the appliance to issue requests on their behalf and reach internal functionality and perform unauthorized operations." Patches for the flaw were released by SonicWall on October 6, 2026, with versions 12.4.3-03670 (platform-hotfix) and 12.5.0-03082 (platform-hotfix).
The critical vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-85097 (CVSS score: 10.0), which allows unauthenticated attackers to upload and execute arbitrary PHP code on vulnerable WordPress websites, resulting in remote code execution (RCE).
Why it matters
Threat actors have been observed exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw in SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 appliances within days of public disclosure.
Out-of-band Exchange Server update fixes high-severity mailbox access bug (CVE-2026-96940) Microsoft has pushed out an out-of-band security update for Exchange Server that fixes a high-severity vulnerability (CVE-2026-96940) that may allow authenticated attackers to read emails and attachments of other users in the same organization, but “does not allow access across tenant boundaries.” CISA flags new exploited NetScaler flaw as attackers crash appliances (CVE-2026-88779) CISA has added another Citrix NetScaler vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Sunday: CVE-2026-88779, a memory overflow bug that may cripple vulnerable NetScaler ADCs and Gateways.
Technical details
Atlassian Flaw Exploited in the Wild — Threat actors have begun to exploit a newly disclosed critical security flaw impacting Atlassian Data Center products that could allow access to sensitive files under certain conditions.
CVE-2026-102255 is the latest vulnerability impacting SonicWall SMA 1000 appliances to come under active exploitation.
In June 2026, two other flaws in the same product (CVE-2026-15409, CVSS score: 10.0, and CVE-2026-15410, CVSS score: 7.2) were weaponized as zero-days by a threat actor dubbed UTA0533 to deploy Java web shells and a malware called KNUCKLEBALL.
Response
October 2026 Patch Tuesday forecast: Time for an Office cleanup September 2026 Patch Tuesday set an all-time record with 973 CVEs addressed across the Microsoft portfolio.
Reuters reports that Jordanian authorities detained Saif al-Din Khader, alias Rey, last week, with two of its three sources placing the arrest on Tuesday.
What security teams should do
SonicWall has not published indicators of compromise for this vulnerability, and unlike the July advisory where they gave defenders specific log patterns to hunt for, the October advisory is just ‘patch.’ That’s not enough when exploitation attempts are already in the wild three days post-disclosure.”.
SonicWall has yet to update the advisory to reflect active exploitation of the flaw.
What remains unknown
In its advisory on Tuesday, SonicWall did not say if the bug was actively exploited, but security researchers at Previdian said that the company’s honeypots had detected exploitation.
Attribution
The Hacker News: Some meetings last longer than it took attackers to jump on a newly disclosed security flaw this week.
The Hacker News: Threat actors have been observed exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw in SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 appliances within days of public disclosure.
The Hacker News: A maximum-severity security flaw impacting the Bricksforge plugin for WordPress has come under active exploitation in the wild, according to Patchstack.
Help Net Security: Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, interviews and videos: Three questions a hospital CISO should ask a healthcare fintech vendor In this Help Net Security interview, Drew McCombs, CTO and CISO at Cylerity, explains how he balances both roles.
What to watch next
Watch for new exploitation reports and updated indicators of compromise.
Watch for updated vendor guidance and fixed-version details.