AQSh Kiberxavfsizlik va infratuzilma xavfsizligi agentligi (CISA) chorshanba kuni Broadcom VMware ESX'ga ta'sir qiluvchi xavfsizlik zaifligini o'zining Ma'lum ekspluatatsiya qilingan zaifliklar (KEV) katalogiga qo'shdi, CrowdStrike Warp Panda nomi bilan tanilgan Xitoy bilan bog'liq tahdid aktori AQSh huquqiy sektoriga qaratilgan hujumlarda uni qurol sifatida ishlatganini oshkor qilganidan so'ng.
Ko'rib chiqilayotgan zaiflik CVE-2026-41709 (CVSS balli: 2.7) bo'lib, bu yetarli darajada loglash zaifligi bo'lib, admin huquqiga ega zararli aktorga ma'lum operatsiyalarni loglanmasdan bajarishga imkon berishi mumkin.
2026-yil iyul oyida e'lon qilingan maslahatda Broadcom muammoni quyidagi versiyalarda hal qilinganini ma'lum qildi:
- VMware Cloud Foundation SXi-9.1.0.0-25370933 va ESXi-9.0.2.0100-25595025
- VMware vSphere Foundation SXi-9.1.0.0-25370933 va ESXi-9.0.2.0100-25595025
- VMware ESX ESXi80U3j-25429389
- VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.4
- VMware Telco Cloud Platform ESXi80U3j-25429389
Bu rivojlanish CrowdStrike'ning 2026-yilgi Huquqiy tahdid landshafti hisobotiga javoban yuz berdi, unda Warp Panda CVE-2026-41709 ni 2026-yil boshida zero-day sifatida ekspluatatsiya qilganligi, audit izining ko'rinishini kamaytirish maqsadida ishlatilganligi oshkor qilingan.
"Warp Panda internetga ochiq chekka qurilmalarni zero-day zaifliklari va maxsus zararli dastur yordamida ekspluatatsiya qiladi, yashirin, doimiy kirishni saqlab qolish uchun," deb aytilgan The Hacker News bilan baham ko'rilgan hisobotda, va "dushman audit loglashni chetlab o'tish, bulut sessiya tokenlarini yig'ish va noqonuniy ko'p faktorli autentifikatsiya (MFA) qurilmalarini ro'yxatdan o'tkazish orqali aniqlashni faol ravishda chetlab o'tadi."
Shuningdek, Armory Castle (avval UNC5221), Clay Typhoon va VerdantBamboo nomlari bilan kuzatiladigan tahdid aktori Citrix NetScaler va Ivanti Connect Secure qurilmalaridagi zero-day zaifliklarini qurol sifatida ishlatish bo'yicha boy tarixga ega.
Shu oy boshida Google'ga tegishli Mandiant ham xaker guruhini BeyondTrust Remote Support'dagi muhim noto'g'ri manba tekshiruvi (CVE-2026-102764, CVSS balli: 9.3) zero-day ekspluatatsiyasiga bog'ladi, SAWFLY va BARECLAW kabi zararli dastur oilalarini yetkazish maqsadida.
Warp Panda tomonidan amalga oshirilgan hujumlar internetga ochiq chekka qurilmalarni ekspluatatsiya qilish orqali dastlabki kirishni olishni o'z ichiga oladi, shundan so'ng tahdid aktori VMware vCenter muhitlariga o'tib, BRICKSTORM va SharpStorm kabi maxsus zararli dasturlarni joylashtiradi, e'tiborni jalb qilmasdan doimiy kirishni saqlab qolish uchun.
Tanlangan kirishlar shuningdek, bulut xizmatlarini nishonga olishni o'z ichiga olgan, foydalanuvchi sessiya tokenlarini olish maqsadida, Microsoft 365 muhitlariga hech qanday hisob ma'lumotlariga asoslangan ogohlantirishni keltirmasdan kirish uchun. Kamida bitta holatda Warp Panda buzilgan hisobda yangi MFA qurilmasini ro'yxatdan o'tkazgan, hatto parol o'zgartirilsa ham doimiy kirishni o'rnatish usuli sifatida.
"Warp Panda AQShning turli sohalardagi, jumladan huquqiy sektoridagi tashkilotlariga nisbatan doimiy va strategik yo'naltirilgan Xitoy bilan bog'liq kiberjosuslik tahdidini ifodalaydi," deb aytdi CrowdStrike.
"Huquqiy sektorning mijoz aloqalari, birlashish va sotib olish materiallari, faol sud strategiyasi va mijozlararo kirish konsentratsiyasi uni operatsion foydalilikka ega razvedka izlayotgan davlat yo'naltirilgan dushman uchun yuqori qiymatli yig'ish nishoniga aylantiradi."
CVE-2026-41709 ning faol ekspluatatsiyasi munosabati bilan Federal Fuqarolik Ijroiya Tarmog'i (FCEB) agentliklariga tuzatishlarni 2026-yil 11-noyabrgacha qo'llash tavsiya etiladi.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added a security flaw impacting Broadcom VMware ESX to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, after CrowdStrike revealed that it had been weaponized by a China-nexus threat actor known as Warp Panda in attacks targeting the U.S. legal sector.
The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-41709 (CVSS score: 2.7), an insufficient logging vulnerability that could permit a malicious actor with admin access to perform certain operations without being logged.
In an advisory released in July 2026, Broadcom revealed that the issue was addressed in the following versions -
- VMware Cloud Foundation SXi-9.1.0.0-25370933 and ESXi-9.0.2.0100-25595025
- VMware vSphere Foundation SXi-9.1.0.0-25370933 and ESXi-9.0.2.0100-25595025
- VMware ESX ESXi80U3j-25429389
- VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.4
- VMware Telco Cloud Platform ESXi80U3j-25429389
The development comes in response to CrowdStrike's 2026 Legal Threat Landscape Report, which revealed that Warp Panda had exploited CVE-2026-41709 as a zero-day in early 2026 with an aim to reduce audit trail visibility.
Warp Panda "exploits internet-facing edge devices using zero-day vulnerabilities and custom malware to maintain covert, persistent access," it said in the report shared with The Hacker News, adding the adversary "actively circumvents detection by bypassing audit logging, harvesting cloud session tokens, and registering rogue multi-factor authentication (MFA) devices."
The threat actor, also tracked as Armory Castle (formerly UNC5221), Clay Typhoon, and VerdantBamboo, has a storied history of weaponizing zero-day vulnerabilities in Citrix NetScaler and Ivanti Connect Secure devices.
Earlier this month, Google-owned Mandiant also attributed the hacking crew to the zero-day exploitation of a critical improper origin validation in BeyondTrust Remote Support (CVE-2026-102764, CVSS score: 9.3) to deliver malware families like SAWFLY and BARECLAW.
Attacks mounted by Warp Panda involve the exploitation of internet-facing edge devices to obtain initial access, after which the threat actor pivots to VMware vCenter environments to deploy custom malware like BRICKSTORM and SharpStorm to maintain persistent access without attracting attention.
Select intrusions have also involved the targeting of cloud services with an aim to extract user session tokens to access Microsoft 365 environments sans raising any credential-based alerts. In at least one case, Warp Panda is said to have registered a new MFA device on a compromised account as a way to set up persistent access even if the password is changed.
"Warp Panda represents a sustained and strategically focused China-nexus cyber espionage threat to U.S. entities across multiple sectors, including the legal sector," CrowdStrike said.
"The legal sector's concentration of client communications, merger and acquisition materials, active litigation strategy, and cross-client access makes it a high-value collection target for a state-directed adversary seeking intelligence with downstream operational utility."
In light of active exploitation of CVE-2026-41709, Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies are recommended to apply the fixes by November 11, 2026.
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