Consumer Devices in Hybrid Work Environments Pose Enterprise Security Risks

A zero-day vulnerability in WhatsApp (CVE-2025-55177) was exploited in targeted attacks against fewer than 200 users. The flaw allowed unauthorized users to process content from arbitrary URLs on targeted devices. The attacks were sophisticated and involved chaining with a separate Apple vulnerability (CVE-2025-43300) affecting iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The vulnerability was patched in WhatsApp's messaging apps for Apple iOS and macOS. The exploit could have allowed attackers to trigger the processing of content from arbitrary URLs on a target's device, potentially leading to spyware deployment. The attacks were part of a targeted spyware campaign, with WhatsApp sending in-app threat notifications to affected users. Apple has also sent multiple threat notifications since 2021, alerting users in over 150 countries about these sophisticated attacks. Apple has introduced Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) in the latest iPhone models to combat memory corruption vulnerabilities. The spyware market has seen an increase in U.S. investors and new entities in various countries.

Chinese state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors, specifically the group known as Salt Typhoon, have been conducting a sustained campaign to gain long-term access to critical infrastructure networks worldwide. This campaign targets telecommunications, transportation, lodging, and military networks, exploiting vulnerabilities in routers and taking steps to evade detection and maintain persistent access. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in coordination with the National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and international partners, released a joint advisory detailing this ongoing malicious activity. The advisory provides actionable guidance and intelligence to help organizations defend against these sophisticated cyber threats. The advisory builds on previous reporting and incorporates updated threat intelligence from investigations conducted through August 2025, reflecting overlapping indicators with industry reporting on various Chinese state-sponsored threat groups. Salt Typhoon has been active since at least 2019, targeting at least 600 organizations, including 200 in the U.S., and 80 countries. The Czech Republic's National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NUKIB) issued a warning about data transfers to China, highlighting concerns over the transfer of system and user data to the PRC and the remote administration of technical assets. The Czech government previously accused China of targeting its critical infrastructure through APT 31, which began in 2022. China's offensive cyber activities include large-scale telco attacks by Salt Typhoon and positioning for potential destructive cyberattacks. The advisory tracks this cluster of activity to multiple advanced persistent threats (APTs), though it partially overlaps with Salt Typhoon. The advisory details how state-backed threat actors, including Salt Typhoon, penetrate networks around the world, as well as how defenders can protect their own environments. The Czech Republic's National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NUKIB) has assessed the risk of significant disruptions caused by China at a 'High' level, indicating a high probability of occurrence. NUKIB confirmed malicious activities of Chinese cyber-actors targeting the Czech Republic, including a recent APT31 campaign targeting the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese government has access to data stored by private cloud service providers within the Czech Republic, ensuring that sensitive data is always within its reach. NUKIB warns about consumer devices, such as smartphones, IP cameras, electric cars, large language models, and even medical devices and photovoltaic converters manufactured by Chinese firms, as risky devices that can transfer potentially sensitive data to Chinese infrastructure. 45 previously unreported domains associated with Salt Typhoon and UNC4841 have been discovered, with the oldest domain registration activity dating back to May 2020.

A threat actor, UNC6395, exploited OAuth tokens associated with the Drift AI chat agent to breach Salesloft and access customer data across multiple integrations, including Salesforce, Google Workspace, and others. The breach occurred between August 8 and 18, 2025, affecting over 700 organizations, including Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, Cloudflare, Google Workspace, PagerDuty, Proofpoint, SpyCloud, and Tanium. The attackers targeted Salesforce instances and accessed email from a small number of Google Workspace accounts, exporting large volumes of data, including credentials and access tokens. Salesloft and Salesforce have taken steps to mitigate the breach and are advising affected customers to revoke API keys and rotate credentials. Salesloft will temporarily take Drift offline to enhance security. UNC6395 demonstrated operational security awareness by deleting query jobs, indicating a sophisticated approach. The breach highlights the risks of third-party integrations and the potential for supply chain attacks. The breach is unrelated to previous vishing attacks attributed to ShinyHunters. UNC6395 systematically exported large volumes of data from numerous corporate Salesforce instances, searching for secrets that could be used to compromise victim environments. The campaign is not limited to Salesforce customers who integrate their own solutions with the Salesforce service; it impacts all integrations using Salesloft Drift. There is no evidence that the breaches directly impacted Google Cloud customers. Organizations are urged to review all third-party integrations connected to their Drift instance, revoke and rotate credentials for those applications, and investigate all connected systems for signs of unauthorized access. The blast radius of the Salesloft Drift attacks remains uncertain, with the ultimate scope and severity still unclear. Numerous companies have disclosed downstream breaches resulting from this campaign, including Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, Cloudflare, and Tenable. Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks warned of potential social engineering attacks resulting from the campaign. Cloudflare confirmed that some customer support interactions may reveal information about a customer's configuration and could contain sensitive information like access tokens. Okta successfully prevented a breach of its Salesforce instance by enforcing inbound IP restrictions, securing tokens with DPoP, and using the IPSIE framework. Okta recommends that organizations demand IPSIE integration from application vendors and implement an identity security fabric unified across applications. Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 recommends conducting an immediate log review for signs of compromise and rotating exposed credentials. The breach started with the compromise of Salesloft's GitHub account between March and June 2025. UNC6395 accessed the Salesloft GitHub account and downloaded content from multiple repositories, added a guest user, and established workflows. Reconnaissance activities occurred between March 2025 and June 2025 in the Salesloft and Drift application environments. Salesloft isolated the Drift infrastructure, application, and code, and took the application offline on September 5, 2025. Salesloft rotated credentials in the Salesloft environment and hardened the environment with improved segmentation controls between Salesloft and Drift applications. Salesforce restored the integration with the Salesloft platform on September 7, 2025, but Drift remains disabled. 22 companies have confirmed they were impacted by the supply chain breach. ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider were also involved in the Salesloft Drift attacks.

North Korean state-sponsored hackers have infiltrated companies by using fake or stolen identities to secure IT jobs. These actors have stolen virtual currency and funneled money to North Korea's weapons program. The practice has grown with the rise of remote work and AI, posing significant security risks to organizations. The Justice Department has disrupted several laptop farms enabling these activities, but the threat persists. The U.S. Treasury has imposed sanctions on individuals and entities involved in the scheme, highlighting the use of AI to create convincing professional backgrounds and technical portfolios. Organizations are advised to enhance supervision, access governance, and use AI tools to detect and mitigate these insider threats. Japan, South Korea, and the United States are cooperating to combat North Korean IT worker fraud schemes. The joint forum held on Aug. 26 in Tokyo aimed to improve collaboration among the three countries. The scheme involves thousands of operatives and facilitators with distinct roles, including setting up laptop farms, contacting recruiters, and processing stolen information. The North Korean remote-worker scheme has collected more than $88 million over six years. The number of North Korean operatives infiltrating companies by posing as remote IT workers has increased by 220% year-over-year. North Korean operatives have used AI-generated profiles, deepfakes, and real-time AI manipulation to pass interviews and vetting protocols. American accomplices have operated laptop farms to provide North Korean operatives with physical US setups, company-issued machines, and domestic addresses and identities. The threat of hiring fraud is escalating quickly, with over 320 cases of North Korean operatives infiltrating companies reported in August 2025.

Apple has patched a zero-day vulnerability in the Image I/O framework (CVE-2025-43300) exploited in targeted attacks. The flaw, an out-of-bounds write issue, could lead to memory corruption or remote code execution. The vulnerability affects multiple iOS, iPadOS, and macOS versions. Apple has released updates for iOS 18.6.2, iPadOS 18.6.2, iPadOS 17.7.10, macOS Sequoia 15.6.1, macOS Sonoma 14.7.8, and macOS Ventura 13.7.8. The flaw was exploited in sophisticated attacks against specific individuals. The vulnerability impacts a wide range of devices, including iPhone XS and later, various iPad models, and Macs running macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, and Ventura. Users are advised to update their devices immediately to mitigate the risk. The flaw was discovered internally by Apple and addressed with improved bounds checking. Apple has fixed a total of seven zero-days exploited in real-world attacks since the start of the year. The attacker's identity and specific targets remain unknown, but the vulnerability was likely weaponized as part of highly targeted attacks. The attacks have been described as 'extremely sophisticated,' suggesting nation-state involvement or spyware activity. Apple has previously disclosed other zero-day vulnerabilities this year, including CVE-2025-24200 and CVE-2025-43200, which were also exploited in targeted attacks. WhatsApp has patched a security vulnerability in its iOS and macOS messaging clients that was exploited in targeted zero-day attacks. The flaw (tracked as CVE-2025-55177) affects WhatsApp for iOS prior to version 2.25.21.73, WhatsApp Business for iOS v2.25.21.78, and WhatsApp for Mac v2.25.21.78. The vulnerability, in combination with the Apple zero-day flaw (CVE-2025-43300), may have been exploited in a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users. The flaw is an insufficient authorization of linked device synchronization messages. WhatsApp has notified an unspecified number of individuals that they believe were targeted by an advanced spyware campaign in the past 90 days using CVE-2025-55177. The attacks impacted both iPhone and Android users, including civil society individuals. WhatsApp sent in-app threat notifications to less than 200 users who may have been targeted as part of the campaign. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the WhatsApp vulnerability (CVE-2025-55177) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. The WhatsApp flaw was exploited as part of a highly-targeted spyware campaign by chaining it with the Apple zero-day flaw (CVE-2025-43300). Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies are advised to apply the necessary mitigations by September 23, 2025, for both the vulnerabilities to counter active threats.