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Russian FSB-linked Hackers Exploit Cisco Smart Install Vulnerability for Cyber Espionage

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3 unique sources, 4 articles

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Static Tundra, a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group linked to the FSB's Center 16 unit, has been actively exploiting a seven-year-old vulnerability in Cisco IOS and IOS XE software (CVE-2018-0171) to gain persistent access to target networks. The group has been targeting organizations in telecommunications, higher education, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure sectors across multiple continents. The attacks involve collecting configuration files, deploying custom tools like SYNful Knock, and modifying TACACS+ configurations to achieve long-term access and information gathering. The FBI and Cisco Talos have issued advisories warning about the ongoing campaign, which has been active for over a year and has targeted critical infrastructure sectors in the US and abroad. The group has also increased attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or trigger DoS conditions. Cisco has advised customers to apply the patch for CVE-2018-0171 or disable Smart Install to mitigate the risk. The group has also targeted networks of US state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) government organizations and aviation entities over the last decade. The threat extends beyond Russia's operations—other state-sponsored actors are likely conducting similar network device compromise campaigns. Additionally, the INC ransomware operation has been targeting healthcare organizations in Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand, and Tonga. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), CERT Tonga, and New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued a joint advisory on March 6, 2026, about INC's targeting of critical networks in the region. INC initially focused on the US and the UK but expanded to Australia in the summer of 2024, targeting professional services and healthcare industries. The ACSC responded to 11 INC ransomware attacks in Australia between July 2024 and December 2025, predominantly affecting healthcare or professional services companies.

Timeline

  1. 12.03.2026 00:00 1 articles · 23h ago

    INC Ransomware Targets Healthcare Organizations in Oceania

    The INC ransomware operation has been targeting healthcare organizations in Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand, and Tonga. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), CERT Tonga, and New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued a joint advisory on March 6, 2026, about INC's targeting of critical networks in the region. INC initially focused on the US and the UK but expanded to Australia in the summer of 2024, targeting professional services and healthcare industries. The ACSC responded to 11 INC ransomware attacks in Australia between July 2024 and December 2025, predominantly affecting healthcare or professional services companies.

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  2. 20.08.2025 18:59 4 articles · 6mo ago

    FSB-linked Hackers Exploit Cisco Smart Install Vulnerability for Cyber Espionage

    The group has been using custom SNMP tooling to gain persistence on compromised devices and evade detection for years. The threat extends beyond Russia's operations—other state-sponsored actors are likely conducting similar network device compromise campaigns. The group has also targeted networks of US state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) government organizations and aviation entities over the last decade.

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Information Snippets

Similar Happenings

CISA Mandates Replacement of End-of-Life Edge Devices in Federal Networks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in collaboration with the FBI and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has issued a joint alert warning about the risks posed by discontinued edge devices. These devices, which include firewalls, IoT devices, load balancers, network security appliances, routers, switches, wireless access points, and other software and hardware appliances, are often targeted by state-sponsored threat actors for network access, persistence, and data theft. CISA has issued Binding Operational Directive 26-02, mandating federal agencies to decommission and replace end-of-life (EOL) edge devices within 12 to 18 months. Agencies must also establish continuous discovery processes to identify and manage devices approaching end-of-support status within 24 months. CISA has developed an end-of-support edge device list to assist agencies in this effort. On February 5, 2026, CISA issued BOD 26-02, emphasizing the immediate actions required by federal agencies, including updating supported edge devices running EOS software within three months and decommissioning identified EOS edge devices within 18 months. CISA Acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala and CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Nick Andersen have underscored the critical need for proactive lifecycle management and the removal of end-of-support technology to enhance cyber resilience.

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Critical React Server Components (RSC) Bugs Enable Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution

A critical security vulnerability (CVE-2025-55182, CVSS 10.0) in React Server Components (RSC) allows unauthenticated remote code execution due to unsafe deserialization of payloads. The flaw affects multiple versions of React and Next.js, potentially impacting any application using RSC. The issue has been patched, but 39% of cloud environments remain vulnerable. Cloudflare experienced a widespread outage due to an emergency patch for this vulnerability, and multiple China-linked hacking groups have begun exploiting it. NHS England National CSOC has warned of the likelihood of continued exploitation in the wild. Major companies such as Google Cloud, AWS, and Cloudflare immediately responded to the vulnerability. The security researcher Lachlan Davidson disclosed the vulnerability on November 29, 2025, to the Meta team. The flaw has been dubbed React2Shell, a nod to the Log4Shell vulnerability discovered in 2021. The US National Vulnerability Database (NVD) rejected CVE-2025-66478 as a duplicate of CVE-2025-55182. Exploitation success rate is reported to be nearly 100% in default configurations. React servers that use React Server Function endpoints are known to be vulnerable. The Next.js web application is also vulnerable in its default configuration. At the time of writing, it is unknown if active exploitation has occurred, but there have been some reports of observed exploitation activity as of December 5, 2026. OX Security warned that the flaw is now actively exploitable on December 5, around 10am GMT. Hacker maple3142 published a working PoC, and OX Security successfully verified it. JFrog identified fake proof-of-concepts (PoC) on GitHub, warning security teams to verify sources before testing. Cloudflare started investigating issues on December 5 at 08:56 UTC, and a fix was rolled out within half an hour, but by that time outages had been reported by several major internet services, including Zoom, LinkedIn, Coinbase, DoorDash, and Canva. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on December 6, 2025, following confirmed active exploitation. The vulnerability is tracked as React2Shell and is related to a remote code execution flaw in React Server Components (RSC). The flaw is due to insecure deserialization in the Flight protocol used by React to communicate between a server and client. The vulnerability affects versions 19.0, 19.1.0, 19.1.1, and 19.2.0 of react-server-dom-webpack, react-server-dom-parcel, and react-server-dom-turbopack. Patched versions of React are 19.0.1, 19.1.2, and 19.2.1. Downstream frameworks impacted include Next.js, React Router, Waku, Parcel, Vite, and RedwoodSDK. Amazon reported attack attempts from Chinese hacking groups like Earth Lamia and Jackpot Panda within hours of public disclosure. Coalition, Fastly, GreyNoise, VulnCheck, and Wiz reported seeing exploitation efforts targeting the flaw. Some attacks involved the deployment of cryptocurrency miners and the execution of "cheap math" PowerShell commands. Censys identified about 2.15 million instances of internet-facing services potentially affected by the vulnerability. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 confirmed over 30 affected organizations across numerous sectors, with activity consistent with Chinese hacking group UNC5174. Security researcher Lachlan Davidson released multiple proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits for the vulnerability. Another working PoC was published by a Taiwanese researcher with the GitHub handle maple3142. Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies have until December 26, 2025, to apply the necessary updates to secure their networks. Over 77,000 Internet-exposed IP addresses are vulnerable to the critical React2Shell remote code execution flaw (CVE-2025-55182). Researchers have confirmed that attackers have already compromised over 30 organizations across multiple sectors using the React2Shell flaw. Shadowserver detected 77,664 IP addresses vulnerable to the React2Shell flaw, with approximately 23,700 in the United States. GreyNoise recorded 181 distinct IP addresses attempting to exploit the flaw over the past 24 hours, with most of the traffic appearing automated. Attackers frequently begin with PowerShell commands that perform a basic math function to confirm the device is vulnerable to the remote code execution flaw. Once remote code execution was confirmed, attackers were seen executing base64-encoded PowerShell commands that download additional scripts directly into memory. One observed command executes a second-stage PowerShell script from the external site (23[.]235[.]188[.]3), which is used to disable AMSI to bypass endpoint security and deploy additional payloads. The PowerShell script observed by GreyNoise installs a Cobalt Strike beacon on the targeted device, giving threat actors a foothold on the network. Amazon AWS threat intelligence teams saw rapid exploitation hours after the disclosure of the React CVE-2025-55182 flaw, with infrastructure associated with China-linked APT hacking groups known as Earth Lamia and Jackpot Panda. Palo Alto Networks observed similar exploitation, attributing some of it to UNC5174, a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor believed to be tied to the Chinese Ministry of State Security. The deployed malware in these attacks includes Snowlight and Vshell, both commonly used by Chinese hacking groups for remote access, post-exploitation activity, and to move laterally through a compromised network. Earth Lamia is known for exploiting web application vulnerabilities to target organizations across Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Earth Lamia has historically targeted sectors across financial services, logistics, retail, IT companies, universities, and government organizations. Jackpot Panda primarily targets entities in East and Southeast Asia. The Shadowserver Foundation has identified over 77,000 vulnerable IPs following a scan of exposed HTTP services across a wide variety of exposed edge devices and other applications. Censys observed just over 2.15 million instances of internet-facing services that may be affected by this vulnerability, including exposed web services using React Server Components and exposed instances of frameworks such as Next.js, Waku, React Router, and RedwoodSDK. The bug is a pre-authentication remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability which exists in React Server Components versions 19.0.0, 19.1.0, 19.1.1, and 19.2.0. React issued a security advisory with the relevant patches and updates on December 3. Any internet-accessible server running the affected React Server Components code should be assumed vulnerable until updated as a precaution. AWS observed that many threat actors are attempting to use public PoCs that don’t work in real-world scenarios. AWS noted that the use of these PoCs shows that threat actors prioritize rapid operationalization over thorough testing, attempting to exploit targets with any available tool. Using multiple PoCs to scan for vulnerable environments also gives threat actors a higher chance of identifying vulnerable configurations, even if the PoCs are non-functional. The availability of the PoCs also allows less sophisticated actors to participate in exploitation campaigns. Finally, AWS noted that even failed exploitation attempts create significant noise in logs, potentially masking more sophisticated attacks. The invalid PoCs can give developers a false sense of security when testing for React2Shell. The Shadowserver Foundation detected 28,964 IP addresses vulnerable to the React2Shell flaw as of December 7, 2025, down from 77,664 on December 5, with approximately 10,100 located in the U.S., 3,200 in Germany, and 1,690 in China. Huntress observed attackers targeting numerous organizations via CVE-2025-55182, with a focus on the construction and entertainment industries. The first recorded exploitation attempt on a Windows endpoint by Huntress dates back to December 4, 2025, when an unknown threat actor exploited a vulnerable instance of Next.js to drop a shell script, followed by commands to drop a cryptocurrency miner and a Linux backdoor. Attackers were observed launching discovery commands and attempting to download several payloads from a command-and-control (C2) server. Huntress identified a Linux backdoor called PeerBlight, a reverse proxy tunnel named CowTunnel, and a Go-based post-exploitation implant referred to as ZinFoq. PeerBlight shares code overlaps with two malware families RotaJakiro and Pink that came to light in 2021, installs a systemd service to ensure persistence, and masquerades as a "ksoftirqd" daemon process to evade detection. CowTunnel initiates an outbound connection to attacker-controlled Fast Reverse Proxy (FRP) servers, effectively bypassing firewalls that are configured to only monitor inbound connections. ZinFoq implements a post-exploitation framework with interactive shell, file operations, network pivoting, and timestomping capabilities. Huntress assessed that the threat actor is likely leveraging automated exploitation tooling, supported by the attempts to deploy Linux-specific payloads on Windows endpoints, indicating the automation does not differentiate between target operating systems. PeerBlight supports capabilities to establish communications with a hard-coded C2 server ("185.247.224[.]41:8443"), allowing it to upload/download/delete files, spawn a reverse shell, modify file permissions, run arbitrary binaries, and update itself. ZinFoq beacons out to its C2 server and is equipped to parse incoming instructions to run commands using "/bin/bash," enumerate directories, read or delete files, download more payloads from a specified URL, exfiltrate files and system information, start/stop SOCKS5 proxy, enable/disable TCP port forwarding, alter file access and modification times, and establish a reverse pseudo terminal (PTY) shell connection. ZinFoq takes steps to clear bash history and disguises itself as one of 44 legitimate Linux system services to conceal its presence. CISA has urged federal agencies to patch the React2Shell vulnerability by December 12, 2025, amid reports of widespread exploitation. The vulnerability has been exploited by multiple threat actors in various campaigns to engage in reconnaissance efforts and deliver a wide range of malware families. Wiz observed a "rapid wave of opportunistic exploitation" of the flaw, with a vast majority of the attacks targeting internet-facing Next.js applications and other containerized workloads running in Kubernetes and managed cloud services. Cloudflare reported that threat actors have conducted searches using internet-wide scanning and asset discovery platforms to find exposed systems running React and Next.js applications. Some of the reconnaissance efforts have excluded Chinese IP address spaces from their searches. The observed activity targeted government (.gov) websites, academic research institutions, and critical-infrastructure operators. Early scanning and exploitation attempts originated from IP addresses previously associated with Asia-affiliated threat clusters. Kaspersky recorded over 35,000 exploitation attempts on a single day on December 10, 2025, with the attackers first probing the system by running commands like whoami, before dropping cryptocurrency miners or botnet malware families like Mirai/Gafgyt variants and RondoDox. Security researcher Rakesh Krishnan discovered an open directory hosted on "154.61.77[.]105:8082" that includes a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit script for CVE-2025–55182 along with two other files: "domains.txt," which contains a list of 35,423 domains, and "next_target.txt," which contains a list of 596 URLs, including companies like Dia Browser, Starbucks, Porsche, and Lululemon. The Shadowserver Foundation reported more than 137,200 internet-exposed IP addresses running vulnerable code as of December 11, 2025, with over 88,900 instances located in the U.S., followed by Germany (10,900), France (5,500), and India (3,600). Google's threat intelligence team linked five more Chinese hacking groups to attacks exploiting the React2Shell vulnerability. The list of state-linked threat groups exploiting the flaw now also includes UNC6600, UNC6586, UNC6588, UNC6603, and UNC6595. GTIG researchers observed numerous discussions regarding CVE-2025-55182 in underground forums, including threads where threat actors shared links to scanning tools, proof-of-concept (PoC) code, and their experiences using these tools. GTIG also spotted Iranian threat actors targeting the flaw and financially motivated attackers deploying XMRig cryptocurrency mining software on unpatched systems. Shadowserver Internet watchdog group is currently tracking over 116,000 IP addresses vulnerable to React2Shell attacks, with over 80,000 in the United States. GreyNoise has observed over 670 IP addresses attempting to exploit the React2Shell remote code execution flaw over the past 24 hours, primarily originating from the United States, India, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Russia, Australia, the United Kingdom, and China. Threat actors are exploiting the React2Shell vulnerability to deliver malware families like KSwapDoor and ZnDoor. KSwapDoor is a professionally engineered remote access tool designed with stealth in mind, building an internal mesh network and using military-grade encryption. KSwapDoor impersonates a legitimate Linux kernel swap daemon to evade detection. ZnDoor is a remote access trojan that contacts threat actor-controlled infrastructure to receive and execute commands. ZnDoor supports commands such as shell, interactive_shell, explorer, explorer_cat, explorer_delete, explorer_upload, explorer_download, system, change_timefile, socket_quick_startstreams, start_in_port_forward, and stop_in_port. Google identified five China-nexus groups exploiting React2Shell to deliver various payloads, including MINOCAT, SNOWLIGHT, COMPOOD, HISONIC, and ANGRYREBEL. Microsoft reported that threat actors have used the flaw to run arbitrary commands, set up reverse shells, drop RMM tools, and modify authorized_keys files. Payloads delivered in these attacks include VShell, EtherRAT, SNOWLIGHT, ShadowPad, and XMRig. Threat actors used Cloudflare Tunnel endpoints to evade security defenses and conducted reconnaissance for lateral movement and credential theft. Credential harvesting targeted Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) endpoints for Azure, AWS, GCP, and Tencent Cloud. Threat actors deployed secret discovery tools such as TruffleHog and Gitleaks, along with custom scripts to extract various secrets. Beelzebub detailed a campaign exploiting Next.js flaws to extract credentials and sensitive data, including environment files, SSH keys, cloud credentials, and system files. The malware creates persistence, installs a SOCKS5 proxy, establishes a reverse shell, and installs a React scanner for further propagation. Operation PCPcat has breached an estimated 59,128 servers. The Shadowserver Foundation is tracking over 111,000 IP addresses vulnerable to React2Shell attacks, with over 77,800 instances in the U.S. GreyNoise observed 547 malicious IP addresses from the U.S., India, the U.K., Singapore, and the Netherlands partaking in exploitation efforts over the past 24 hours. The RondoDox botnet has been observed exploiting the critical React2Shell flaw (CVE-2025-55182) to infect vulnerable Next.js servers with malware and cryptominers. First documented by Fortinet in July 2025, RondoDox is a large-scale botnet that targets multiple n-day flaws in global attacks. In November, VulnCheck spotted new RondoDox variants that featured exploits for CVE-2025-24893, a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the XWiki Platform. A new report from cybersecurity company CloudSEK notes that RondoDox started scanning for vulnerable Next.js servers on December 8 and began deploying botnet clients three days later. React2Shell is an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability that can be exploited via a single HTTP request and affects all frameworks that implement the React Server Components (RSC) 'Flight' protocol, including Next.js. The flaw has been leveraged by several threat actors to breach multiple organizations. North Korean hackers exploited React2Shell to deploy a new malware family named EtherRAT. As of December 30, the Shadowserver Foundation reports detecting over 94,000 internet-exposed assets vulnerable to React2Shell. CloudSEK says that RondoDox has passed through three distinct operational phases this year: Reconnaissance and vulnerability testing from March to April 2025, Automated web app exploitation from April to June 2025, Large-scale IoT botnet deployment from July to today. Regarding React2Shell, the researchers report that RondoDox has focused its exploitation around the flaw significantly lately, launching over 40 exploit attempts within six days in December. During this operational phase, the botnet conducts hourly IoT exploitation waves targeting Linksys, Wavlink, and other consumer and enterprise routers to enroll new bots. After probing potentially vulnerable servers, CloudSEK says that RoundDox started to deploy payloads that included a coinminer (/nuts/poop), a botnet loader and health checker (/nuts/bolts), and a variant of Mirai (/nuts/x86). The 'bolts' component removes competing botnet malware from the host, enforces persistence via /etc/crontab, and kills non-whitelisted processes every 45 seconds, the researchers say. CloudSEK provides a set of recommendations for companies to protect against this RondoDox activity, among them auditing and patching Next.js Server Actions, isolating IoT devices into dedicated virtual LANs, and monitoring for suspicious processes being executed. Threat actors targeting cloud environments now favor campaigns which gain initial access by exploiting software vulnerabilities over credential-based attacks. Third-party software-based entry accounted for 44.5% of primary entry vectors during the second half of 2025, up from 2.9% in the first half. Abuse of weak or absent credentials as an entry point dropped from 47.1% in the first half of 2025 to 27.2% in the second half. React2Shell (CVE-2025-55182) was one of the most commonly exploited vulnerabilities to target cloud services. Google Cloud noted that within 48 hours of the public disclosure of React2Shell, multiple threat actors had already exploited the vulnerability to infect victims with cryptocurrency mining malware. The window between vulnerability disclosure and mass exploitation collapsed from weeks to just days. Google Cloud recommended using centralized visibility tools to secure data and automated posture enforcement to mitigate risks. Google Cloud advised organizations to pivot from manual patching to automated defenses, such as patching the Web Application Firewall (WAF), to neutralize exploits at the network edge before software updates can be applied.

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INC Ransom Gang Disrupts OnSolve CodeRED Emergency Alert Platform

The INC Ransom gang has disrupted the OnSolve CodeRED emergency alert platform, stealing sensitive user data and forcing Crisis24 to decommission the legacy environment. The attack affected emergency notification systems used by state and local governments, police departments, and fire agencies across the United States. Data stolen includes names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and passwords. The gang claims to have breached the system on November 1, 2025, and encrypted files on November 10, 2025. Crisis24 is rebuilding the service using backups from March 31, 2025, which may result in missing accounts. The incident highlights the critical impact of cyberattacks on emergency services and the importance of robust cybersecurity measures. The INC Ransom group has published screenshots of stolen data and is selling samples of the stolen data, escalating concerns among affected agencies. An operational security failure by the INC ransomware gang allowed researchers to recover data stolen from a dozen U.S. organizations. The investigation, conducted by Cyber Centaurs, revealed artifacts from the legitimate backup tool Restic, which exposed attacker infrastructure. The researchers developed a controlled enumeration process that confirmed the presence of encrypted data stolen from 12 unrelated organizations.

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Landfall Android Spyware Exploits Samsung Zero-Day via WhatsApp

The Landfall Android spyware targeted Samsung devices through a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-21042) in a Samsung image processing library. The exploit was delivered via a malicious DNG image sent through WhatsApp, affecting Samsung Galaxy S22, S23, S24, Z Fold4, and Z Flip4 phones. The spyware enables microphone recording, location tracking, and data exfiltration. The attacks have been ongoing since at least July 2024, and the vulnerability was patched by Samsung in April. The threat actor, tracked as CL-UNK-1054, remains unidentified, with potential links to the Stealth Falcon group and other surveillance vendors. The attacks primarily targeted individuals in the Middle East and North Africa. The exploit involved a zero-click approach, and the malicious DNG files contained an embedded ZIP file with a shared object library to run the spyware. The spyware manipulated the device's SELinux policy to gain elevated permissions and facilitate persistence, and communicated with a command-and-control (C2) server over HTTPS for beaconing and receiving next-stage payloads. The spyware can fingerprint devices based on hardware and SIM IDs and targets a broad range of Samsung’s latest flagship models, excluding the latest S25 series devices. Unit 42 identified six C2 servers linked to the LandFall campaign, with some flagged by Turkey’s CERT. C2 domain registration and infrastructure patterns share similarities with those seen in Stealth Falcon operations, originating from the United Arab Emirates. CISA has added CVE-2025-21042 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, ordering federal agencies to patch within three weeks.

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SesameOp malware leverages OpenAI Assistants API for command-and-control

A new backdoor malware, SesameOp, uses the OpenAI Assistants API as a covert command-and-control channel. The malware was discovered during an investigation into a July 2025 cyberattack. It allowed attackers to gain persistent access to compromised environments and remotely manage backdoored devices for several months. The attackers leveraged legitimate cloud services, avoiding detection and traditional incident response measures. The malware employs a combination of symmetric and asymmetric encryption to secure communications. It uses a heavily obfuscated loader and a .NET-based backdoor deployed through .NET AppDomainManager injection into Microsoft Visual Studio utilities. The attack chain includes internal web shells and malicious processes designed for long-term espionage. The malware uses a loader component named "Netapi64.dll" and a .NET-based backdoor named "OpenAIAgent.Netapi64". The malware supports three types of values in the description field of the Assistants list retrieved from OpenAI: SLEEP, Payload, and Result. Microsoft and OpenAI collaborated to investigate the abuse of the API, leading to the disabling of the account and API key used in the attacks. The malware does not exploit a vulnerability in OpenAI's platform but misuses built-in capabilities of the Assistants API. The OpenAI Assistants API is scheduled for deprecation in August 2026 and will be replaced by a new Responses API.

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