- CISA added four critical vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, including flaws in Apple macOS, Microsoft SharePoint, VMware vCenter, and Microsoft IKE.
- The Apple macOS vulnerability (CVE-2026-65400) is being exploited to deliver a Monero cryptocurrency miner.
- A Babuk-derived ransomware was deployed in attacks exploiting the VMware vCenter flaw, attributed to a China-nexus APT group.
- The Microsoft IKE vulnerability has been used in AI‑enabled hacking campaigns involving DeepSeek, according to Palo Alto Networks Unit 42.
On August 18, 2026, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added four critical vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, citing active exploitation in the wild. The flaws, which have since been patched, include an improper authentication issue in Apple macOS that attackers have used to deploy a Monero cryptocurrency miner.
CVE-2026-55040 in Microsoft SharePoint was exploited after a proof‑of‑concept release. Meanwhile, the Broadcom VMware vCenter path traversal flaw (CVE-2026-59310) was leveraged by a suspected China‑nexus APT to deploy a backdoor and a Babuk‑derived ransomware. This campaign compromised 361 victim IP addresses across 47 countries, with most infections in Germany, the U.S., and Turkey.
CVE-2026-33824 in Microsoft IKE Service Extensions saw exploitation by another Chinese‑speaking threat actor, who launched an AI‑enabled hacking campaign using DeepSeek. Federal agencies must update systems by August 21, 2026 to adhere to BOD 26‑04 patching guidelines.
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