🚨 China-made ZBT routers ship with two factory implants.

One accepts unauthenticated commands over an internet-exposed UDP service to run commands as root. The other can exfiltrate PPPoE credentials, alter DNS hijack lists, and open reverse SSH tunnels.

How the implants work → https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/china-made-zbt-routers-ship-with-two.html

‼️ Three new critical ServiceNow flaws score a maximum CVSS 10.0 and require no authentication.

They can enable arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation, or arbitrary SQL against an instance. ServiceNow says it is not aware of exploitation.

Details here: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/three-cvss-100-servicenow-flaws-could.html

Identity Fabric shows what identities actually do, not just what access policy allows.

It connects activity across apps, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and identity systems to expose runtime gaps across human, machine, and AI identities.

How it closes the visibility gap: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/key-reasons-why-identity-fabric-matters.html

🚨 Two vulnerabilities in the Unitree G1 EDU humanoid robot enable root RCE.

One chain abuses path traversal. The other starts over Bluetooth and reaches a Wi-Fi provisioning buffer overflow for root execution on the Locomotion PC.

How both chains reach root → https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/two-unitree-g1-edu-humanoid-robot-flaws.html

Attackers are exploiting two PaperCut flaws to gain unauthenticated RCE.

Huntress has confirmed limited exploitation in two customer environments, where attackers executed commands and deployed a Java class file on compromised servers.

How the two flaws are chained: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/attackers-chain-two-papercut-flaws-to.html

Android 17 can hide the sites you visit from network providers.

Google is bringing ECH across the OS, obscuring destination domain names for supported sites and apps. Android 17 also adds local-network permission prompts and carrier-controlled 2G blocking.

How the new privacy protections work: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/android-17-adds-os-wide-ech-to-hide.html

An ownCloud flaw was exploited to steal 176 files from a Philippine nuclear research body.

The 372 MB haul included nuclear-material records, strategic plans, employee data, BitLocker keys, and a KeePass database. CISA has added CVE-2023-49105 to its KEV catalog.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/snowflake-github-actions-flaw-lets.html

19 Chrome and Edge extensions were turned into crypto-stealing tools.

The actor buys legitimate extensions or builds clean ones, waits for them to gain users, then pushes malicious updates capable of stealing wallet secrets, credentials, and draining crypto.

How the trusted-extension strategy works: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/19-chrome-and-edge-extensions-found.html

‼️ A patch for a fund-draining flaw in Cosmos EVM, software used by multiple blockchains, was public in May but didn’t reach a release until Aug. 19.

Cosmos Labs says six blockchains were exploited after it had already confirmed all Cosmos EVM chains were affected.

Attackers sold ~$2.87M on DEXs and an estimated $2.85M on CEXs.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/cosmos-evm-flaw-exploited-after-cosmos.html

🚨 Berlin refuses to pay hackers after data was stolen from the city’s state network.

Rhysida ransomware crew claims 5.79 TB of data and personal information on 12,076 people on its leak site, while Berlin officials say personal or other non-public data may be among what was taken.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/berlin-refuses-to-pay-hackers-who-stole.html

🚨 Five critical flaws in WordPress plugins and themes can lead to site takeover or RCE.

The bugs span auth bypass, admin password-reset exposure, privilege escalation, and server-side code execution across GiveWP, Avada, WPMU DEV, TranslatePress, and Pods.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/five-critical-wordpress-plugin-and.html

🚨 TerminalFix turns a fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA into a reverse tunnel inside the victim’s network.

Microsoft says the ClickFix variant tricks users into running PowerShell, then deploys a backdoor that can route traffic to other hosts visible from the infected machine.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/terminalfix-uses-fake-cloudflare.html

DoJ corrected its claim that several U.S. agencies were QTFY victims.

NASA, the Fed, DOE, DOJ, HHS, NIH and the U.S. Senate are now listed as targets instead. The revised statement does not establish that those agencies were compromised.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/doj-corrects-china-hacking-claim-says.html

🚨 Fire Ant turned compromised Cisco routers into covert traffic and credential collection points.

The actor captured packet data, harvested TACACS credentials, and suppressed router logs and telemetry while probing connected high-value networks.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/china-linked-fire-ant-hijacks-cisco.html

⚠️ Aurora ransomware operators gave Cursor AI credentials or an existing route into victim networks.

The agent handled exploitation tasks against 10 targets, including network scanning, privilege checks, NTLM relay attempts, and certificate attacks.

Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/aurora-ransomware-operators-use-cursor.html

Anthropic’s new Claude Code transcripts show actions, not whether access is legitimate.

They capture prompts, bash commands, file operations, and MCP calls, but miss local hooks, unused configs, and sessions using non-Anthropic models.

Where visibility breaks: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/securing-claude-code-new-compliance-api.html

⚡ Trust did the damage this week.

• AI agents breached Hugging Face
• FBI disrupted Chinese spy proxies
• Backdoors shipped in routers
• PaperCut flaws came under attack
• Fake IT support pushed ransomware
• Malware targeted 1,243+ banking apps

Full recap: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/weekly-recap-chinese-spy-proxy-ai.html

ValleyRAT runs inside a signed wallpaper app to evade security controls.

The modified QN Wallpaper installer disables Windows Defender, then sideloads the backdoor under QnWallpaper.exe. ValleyRAT can capture keystrokes, clipboard contents and screenshots.

How the disguise works: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/valleyrat-backdoor-hides-in-signed.html

⚠️ Attackers are exploiting critical Langflow and Ruby on Rails flaws.

Langflow attacks probe OpenAI and AWS credentials. The Rails bug can leak secrets and lead to RCE in apps processing untrusted uploads with libvips; observed activity established C2.

How the attacks work: https://thehackernews.com/2026/09/attackers-exploit-critical-langflow-and.html

AI coding agents can change code they do not fully understand.

HoundDog AI co-founder Amjad Afanah reports that, in one test, a one-line protobuf change affected four services, three teams, and two languages.

Why bigger context windows are not enough: https://thehackernews.com/expert-insights/2026/08/the-missing-context-layer-for-ai-agents.html