Microsoft fixes a record 1,411 flaws in one month, and attackers were already using one of them

The rest of the day

24 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Attackers broke into fully updated Ivanti VPNs

   Ivanti told customers on Tuesday to update its Connect Secure boxes at once. These boxes are VPNs, which let staff log in to a work network from home. [9] Volexity, the security firm that found the attack, says attackers chained three flaws to take full control of boxes that were fully updated. [11] Ivanti has fixed two, and the third is still open. [11] Ivanti says it found part of the flaw itself in June, but held the fix for its normal release because nobody was using it yet. [10]

   Why it matters — CISA says Ivanti's own checking tool may miss this attack, because the commands run in memory and leave no files behind. [12] It tells anyone who suspects a break-in to reset the box and change every password on the network. [12]

2. 03

   OpenAI engineer charged over a hidden recorder

   The US Justice Department has charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, an engineer at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Prosecutors say he hid a recording device in an executive meeting room at its San Francisco office. [13] OpenAI staff found the device on 30 September, wrapped in toilet paper and plugged in behind a television. [13] Prosecutors say a chatbot account linked to his wife asked how to build and hide a recorder. [13] He was arrested on 9 October, and OpenAI fired him. [13][14]

   Why it matters — OpenAI says it has no sign that he took its AI models, code or customer data. [14] Neither prosecutors nor OpenAI have given a motive. [15] The FBI director, Kash Patel, says the aim was to capture talk about OpenAI's AI work. [16]

3. 04

   US charges 14 over North Korea's hidden IT workers

   The US Justice Department charged 14 people on Tuesday over a scheme that put North Korean workers in remote IT jobs at US companies. [18] In September police searched more than 40 Texas homes thought to be laptop farms. [17][18] Helpers there keep company laptops switched on so the workers seem to be in the US. [18] They seized 187 laptops and other devices. [17] One group alone earned about $3 million from about 70 companies in 17 states. [17]

   Why it matters — The US government says the wages pay for North Korea's weapons programmes. [17] The FBI says the workers now pay Americans to sit job interviews for them, and it wants checks to continue throughout a job, not only at hiring. [18]

4. 05

   France counts 700 supermarkets hit in the fridge attack

   France's finance minister, Roland Lescure, told parliament on Tuesday that about 700 of the country's 10,000 supermarkets were hit by the attack on their fridges. [23] BFM-TV, a French news channel, reports that hackers set the fridges as warm as 50C. [23] Les Mousquetaires, which runs Intermarche, says 300 of its shops were hit, and Cooperative U, another French grocery chain, says 80. [23] France's cyber agency says control boxes made by Copeland, a US firm, were broken into, as well as those of Danfoss, a Danish company. [23]

   Why it matters — Danfoss says most of the boxes hit were older models that no longer get security updates. [23] The minister says France's food supply is not at risk, while the Paris prosecutor investigates the spoiled food and reported fires. [23]

5. 06

   Ahold Delhaize starts bringing systems back

   Ahold Delhaize, one of the world's biggest supermarket groups, said on Tuesday it had begun restarting systems it switched off after a security problem. [24] It owns Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, Delhaize in Belgium, and Stop & Shop, Food Lion and Giant in the US. [23] Its shops stayed open, but the websites of those chains were still offline on Tuesday. [23] Local media reported that deliveries and online orders were hit in Belgium and the Netherlands. [24]

   Why it matters — Ahold Delhaize says it has no sign that customer or staff data was stolen. [23] Nobody has said whether its problem is linked to the attack on French supermarket fridges. [24]

6. 07

   Owner of Hobbs and Whistles hit by hackers

   TFG London, the UK arm of South Africa's Foschini Group, owns the fashion chains Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles, and it found a cyber attack on 11 October. [26] Several of its IT systems were still down two days later, though its shops stayed open. [26][27] It says payments are handled by another company and it has no reason to think card details are at risk. [27] It is still checking whether customer records were taken, and has told the UK's data watchdog. [27]

   Why it matters — No gang has claimed the attack yet. [26] H&M, the Swedish clothing group, is separately checking a claim online that hackers broke into it. [28][25]

7. 08

   Police raid scam centres in Ghana and Nigeria

   Police in Ghana and Nigeria arrested or held 28 people in raids on scam centres, US and British officials said on Tuesday. [19] In one compound near Accra, Ghana's capital, police found 117 people believed to have been trafficked, people brought there by force or by tricks, and made to run scams. [19] Fifteen police agencies and the same number of tech companies, including Meta and Google, took part. [19] Meta says it removed more than 3.7 million accounts linked to the centres. [20]

   Why it matters — The scams included fake police calls and fake crypto investments aimed at people around the world. [19] Officials found more than $11 million that could be frozen, but did not say how much they actually froze. [19]

8. 09

   Firm charged $60 million for fake help with blackmail

   The FTC, the US consumer watchdog, says Digital Forensics Corporation, an Ohio firm, took at least $60 million from people being blackmailed online with intimate photos. [21] Victims paid $1,499 to $20,000 for help tracking the blackmailer and calling the police. [21] The FTC says the firm did none of it, and faked chat logs and locations to look busy. [21] A court has ordered it to stop trading while the case goes on. [21]

   Why it matters — The FBI tells such victims to ignore and block the blackmailer, but the firm told them that was the last thing to do, the complaint says. [21] Its sites were advertised on Google, YouTube and X to people searching for help. [22]

9. 10

   Docker Hub flaw let one user act as another

   Docker has fixed a critical flaw in Docker Hub, an online library where programmers share ready-made software packages called images. [29] An attacker could make an account, turn it into an organisation and name a victim as its owner. [29] Docker Hub then handed over a login key that let the attacker publish images under the victim's real name. [29] The flaw was there from August 2024, and Docker fixed it within four hours of a report on 30 September. [29]

   Why it matters — Anyone downloading an image trusts the name on it, which is why Docker rated the flaw critical. [29] It says it checked 304,000 uploads made with the handed-over keys and found no sign of misuse. [29]

10. 11

    Hackers took Meta code using a stolen login

    Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is writing to about 1,500 people, mostly its own US staff. [36] Hackers got into some of its code stores on GitHub, a site where programmers keep their code. [36] They got in with one employee's stolen login. [36] Meta says 99% of what they took was code, and 1% was personal data that should never have been stored there. [36] Some of that data was made-up test data, so the hackers may not know which records are real. [36]

    Why it matters — Meta says no Meta product had a flaw and its internal systems were not breached. [36] It is adding scans to catch personal data put on GitHub by mistake. [36]

11. 12

    SAP fixes a critical flaw in AI app tools

    SAP, the German company whose software runs many firms' accounts and stock, fixed 20 flaws on Tuesday. [30] The worst, in a toolkit for building AI agents and apps on SAP's cloud, gets the maximum danger rating. [30] An attacker with no login could redirect the app's sign-in requests to their own server and steal its secret keys. [30] SAP also fixed two critical flaws in other products. [30]

    Why it matters — Companies that cannot update straight away can block the attack by only accepting a list of known customer names. [30] An SAP flaw fixed in August was used by attackers days after its fix. [30]

12. 13

    A booby-trapped PDF could take over web servers

    Wordfence, a company that protects WordPress websites, found a serious flaw in Ghostscript, free software that turns PDFs into pictures for previews. [31] A specially made PDF could let an attacker run their own code on the server that makes the preview. [31] Ten common versions of Linux carried the faulty code. [31] Artifex, which looks after Ghostscript, released a fix on 8 September, and Wordfence has not seen anyone use the flaw. [31]

    Why it matters — Any website that previews PDFs people upload can be at risk, not only WordPress. [31] Site owners are told to check with their host that Ghostscript is version 10.08.0 or later. [31]

13. 14

    Anthropic warns AI could soon spread across gadgets

    Anthropic, the company that makes Claude, says small AI programs may be months from copying themselves across cheap internet-connected gadgets, like TV boxes and smart ovens. [32] Its researchers split one AI model across 15 TV boxes bought for about $55 each. [33] In a test network of eight pretend Android devices, one model spread to all eight in four of five tries. [33] They did not show a working self-spreading AI on real devices. [32]

    Why it matters — Anthropic says the skills that make AI good at writing code also carry over to hacking. [35] Such a program would have no central point to switch off, it says. [32] The Register calls it fear about a threat that does not exist yet. [34] Anthropic says the big data transfers it needs would make it easier to spot. [33]

14. 15

    Adobe fixes 176 flaws found partly by AI

    Adobe, which makes Photoshop and other design software, published fixes on Tuesday for about 176 flaws across 11 products. [38] Photoshop alone got 18 fixes, nearly all for flaws that could let an attacker run code. [38] Adobe says it has been using advanced AI models to hunt for flaws in its own code. [38] People still check every AI-written fix before it ships, it says. [38]

    Why it matters — Adobe says nobody is known to be using any of these flaws. [38] The rise in discoveries has led Adobe to stop publishing its security notices on a monthly schedule. [38]

15. 16

    VMware sells a tool to cope with its own fixes

    VMware, whose software lets one computer run many virtual ones, says AI found so many flaws in its products that it now ships updates every month. [46] A VMware manager told The Register that customers struggled to keep up, because each fix takes time to test. [46] Its answer is HyperArmor, a paid add-on. [46] It blocks attacks on a known flaw before the fix is installed, and adds a second login check. [46]

    Why it matters — VMware is betting customers will pay extra for it, including for a second login check. [46] Brian Krebs reports that huge monthly fix lists are also straining the teams that test and install Microsoft's updates. [2]

16. 17

    Google raises some rewards for Chrome bugs

    Google said on Tuesday it is raising some of the rewards it pays outsiders for reporting flaws in Chrome, its web browser. [39] In April it cut many rewards, some to a tenth, to steer researchers toward reports it could act on. [39] The base reward for one common kind of memory flaw is now $2,000, four times April's level, but still below what it paid before. [39] The most serious flaws can earn up to $20,000. [39]

    Why it matters — AI is changing how many flaws get found and reported, SecurityWeek says. [39] Google recently closed a separate reward scheme for open-source flaws after a rise in AI-written reports. [39]

17. 18

    A way out of an AI test sandbox

    AIR, an AI security start-up, found a flaw in Vercel Sandbox, a tool companies use to run AI agents in a closed-off space. [41] Agents are AI programs that take actions on their own. [41] The sandbox only lets agents talk to approved servers. [41] AIR showed a specially made security certificate could make an approved server pass data on to an attacker's server. [41]

    Why it matters — The sandbox never talks to the attacker's server, so its own checks see nothing wrong, AIR says. [41] Vercel told the researchers it does not yet know how to fix it. [41]

18. 19

    North Korean spies target experts on Ukraine

    Kimsuky, a North Korean spying group, has been sending fake conference invitations and research requests to Ukrainian experts on security and foreign policy. [42] Genians, a South Korean security firm, found the campaign. [42] In one case they invited a Ukrainian expert to speak in Seoul and offered to pay for travel, with no harmful link at first. [42] Most of the attacks it saw failed. [42]

    Why it matters — North Korea has sent troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine since 2024. [42] Genians thinks the spies want to know about North Korean losses and captured soldiers. [42]

19. 20

    Spy tool XWorm now streams microphones

    XWorm is spying software that gives criminals full control of a Windows computer. [40] Netskope, a security firm, says its makers have added plug-ins for tracking a victim's location, listening through the microphone and watching through the webcam. [40] One plug-in takes over a browser that is already logged in, which skips the second login check. [40] Netskope counted 1,200 incidents at 100 organisations in three months. [40]

    Why it matters — Use of XWorm has grown since a cracked copy of its builder was released in June 2025 and its code leaked that August. [40] Netskope expects more upgrades. [40]

20. 21

    Some LG TVs could be taken over from home Wi-Fi

    Researchers found three flaws in some LG smart TVs that together give full control to anyone on the same home network. [45] No PIN and no action by the owner are needed. [45] The attack starts at the service the LG ThinQ phone app uses to pair with the TV. [45] LG has issued a fix, which was tested on two TV models. [45]

    Why it matters — Owners of these TVs are told to check for a firmware update, and there is no workaround for those who cannot update yet. [45] Nobody knows whether other models are affected. [45]

21. 22

    Danish hacker says the password was 123456

    Someone claiming the break-in at Denmark's population register told Politiken, a Danish newspaper, they got in through a company account protected by the password 123456. [43] The register holds the names, addresses and ID numbers of 8.8 million people taken last month. [43] TV 2, a Danish broadcaster, says the attacker ran 14 million automatic searches between 10 and 20 September. [43] Staff spotted it on 2 October from an unusually large bill. [43]

    Why it matters — The claim is not confirmed, and Denmark's government did not answer questions about the password. [43] The company whose access was used, Pays ApS, has taken its website offline. [43]

22. 23

    Ledger ties every confirmed theft to one seller

    Ledger makes small devices that hold the keys to people's crypto coins. [44] On 13 October it said every confirmed theft so far came from devices sold by one reseller in Southeast Asia. [44] It appears someone along the supply chain soldered a hidden part inside. [44] Ledger says the part reads the 24 secret recovery words off the screen and sends them out over a phone network. [44] An outside investigator says losses may top $86 million, a figure Ledger has not confirmed. [44]

    Why it matters — Ledger tells anyone who bought from that reseller in the last 90 days not to set the device up, and to move their coins to a new one. [44]

23. 24

    Housing complaints service hit by a supplier's breach

    England's Housing Ombudsman, which settles disputes between social housing tenants and their landlords, is investigating a security breach at an outside supplier. [37] The breach hit its case system on Tuesday, so tenants cannot file new complaints through it. [37] It says the problem is contained and it is checking whether personal data was taken. [37] It has told the UK's data watchdog. [37]

    Why it matters — Tenants can still complain by phone or email. [37] The service has told tenants to be wary of unexpected messages asking for personal details. [37]

24. 25

    Most security teams hold back from AI helpers

    Only a quarter of security teams use AI agents in their defences, a report by Flashpoint, a threat research company, says. [47] Another 20% are running closed trials, and 35% expect to try them within two years. [47] Those that use them mostly have them look up information and sort alerts. [47] Many will not let an agent take actions on its own. [47]

    Why it matters — One respondent said an agent that is confidently wrong is worse than a slow one. [47] Teams also worry about data leaking and being able to check what an agent did. [47]