Attackers have now launched working shells through the PHP2Shell flaws on research honeypots, the clearest public proof yet that the exploits work. The Brotli compression flaw has triggered emergency fixes from Microsoft for .NET and rebuilt PHP packages for Windows, and a campaign called Gheist is using stolen GitHub tokens to dump repository secrets through GitHub Actions logs. We also cover the ACSC's annual cyber threat report, Microsoft 365 token replay, Teams help desk scams and Anthropic's account of Mythos 5 attacking real people during an evaluation.
Australia
- ASD's ACSC Annual Cyber Threat Report 2025-26. More than 1,500 incidents handled (up over 20 per cent) and more than 4,400 notifications of potential malicious activity (up almost 80 per cent); AI and faster patching are the key themes. ASD's ACSC; Media release
- ACSC blog on AI-enabled supply chain and cloud attacks. Lessons from the ConnectWise app identity campaign: restrict OAuth consent, enforce least privilege for application identities, protect service principals. ASD's ACSC
Global threats
- PHP2Shell: working shells confirmed. 35 shells across three Apache mod_php honeypots from two IP addresses on 24 October, using a chain matching the public proof of concept; favourable test setup, no second-stage payload; still not in CISA KEV. SecurityWeek; BleepingComputer
- PHP rebuilds Windows packages for the Brotli flaw. New builds 8.5.12-1, 8.4.27-1, 8.3.36-1 and 8.2.35-1; reachable through cURL automatic decompression, which Guzzle enables by default; php -v shows no change, so check the file name or hash. The Hacker News
- Brotli CVE-2026-111497 (HTTP2Shell, Node2Shell): emergency patches including .NET. .NET is affected only where apps opt in to Brotli decompression (fixed in 8.0.33, 9.0.22, 10.0.14). Fixed in Brotli 1.0.10, 1.1.1, 1.2.1, Node.js 22.23.4, 24.22.1, 26.12.1, Python Brotli 1.2.1 and brotlicffi 1.2.1.0; public proofs of concept, no exploitation reported; restart processes and rebuild images. BleepingComputer; BleepingComputer, .NET
- Gheist steals GitHub secrets through Actions logs. More than 13,500 planted ci-sync branches from more than 850 compromised accounts; succeeds in private repositories and GitHub Enterprise Server. Indicators: user agent gheist, branch pattern ci-sync- plus six characters, file .github/workflows/sync-check.yml, commit message "ci: sync config", files .gdmp_pat, .gdmp_patg, .gdmp_sweep. The Hacker News
- Microsoft 365 token spraying hits 79 organisations. 97 accounts and 48 rogue Entra devices; attacker range 193.26.115[.]0/24. The Hacker News
- Teams "IT Support" scams lead to remote access and ransomware. Mail bombing, throwaway tenants and remote tools such as Quick Assist. The Hacker News
- Two critical Wasmtime sandbox escapes. CVE-2026-115889 and CVE-2026-115893 (ARM64); fixed in 36.0.19, 48.0.7, 49.0.4 and 50.0.0. The Hacker News
- Genesys contains breach of internal systems. Business contact data likely taken; customer platforms unaffected; ScarlettGroup claim unverified. SecurityWeek
- CERT-UA warns of Dahua camera takeovers via the Easy4IP cloud feature. The Record
AI security
- Mythos 5 attacked real people during a July AISI evaluation. 17 rogue actions including fake identities and malicious pull requests; newer models start such attacks far less often and stop more readily. SecurityWeek
- Compaction smuggling leaked OpenAI reasoning traces. Fixed by OpenAI with a US$6,000 bounty; relevant to model distillation. SecurityWeek
Industry
- Mave raises US$34 million for agentic security operations. SecurityWeek
Outlook and patch priorities
- Critical: PHP 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 or 8.2.35 (Windows -1 builds) plus session.upload_progress.enabled=0 and a compromise check on hosts exposed last week; Brotli fixes across Node.js, .NET, Python and PHP on Windows.
- High: Wasmtime updates; sweep GitHub organisations for ci-sync branches and replace long-lived tokens; restrict external Teams chats.
- Hygiene: audit Entra devices and MFA methods; restrict the device-code flow with Conditional Access.