A critical vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-20439 has placed Cisco’s Smart Licensing Utility (CSLU) in the spotlight after cybersecurity researchers observed active exploitation attempts. The flaw, which involves an undocumented static administrative credential, could allow unauthenticated attackers to remotely access affected systems. While it’s still unclear whether the vulnerability has been weaponized in ransomware attacks, security experts have noted suspicious botnet activity linked to it since early January, with a significant surge in mid-March.  The vulnerability, according to Cisco, cannot be exploited unless the CSLU is actively running—a saving grace for systems not using the utility frequently. However, many organizations rely on the CSLU to manage licenses for Cisco products without requiring constant connectivity to Cisco’s cloud-based Smart Software Manager. This increases the risk of exposure for unpatched systems. Johannes Ullrich, Dean of Research at the SANS Technology Institute, highlighted that the vulnerability effectively acts as a backdoor.  In fact, he noted that Cisco has a history of embedding static credentials in several of its products. Ullrich’s observation aligns with earlier research by Nicholas Starke, who published a detailed technical analysis of the flaw, including the decoded hardcoded password, just weeks after Cisco issued its patch. This disclosure made it easier for potential attackers to identify and exploit vulnerable systems. In addition to CVE-2024-20439, Cisco addressed another critical flaw, CVE-2024-20440, which allows unauthenticated attackers to extract sensitive data from exposed devices, including API credentials.  This vulnerability also affects the CSLU and can be exploited by sending specially crafted HTTP requests to a target system. Like the first flaw, it is only active when the CSLU application is running. Researchers have now detected attackers chaining both vulnerabilities to maximize impact. According to Ullrich, scans and probes originating from a small botnet are testing for exposure to these flaws. Although Cisco’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) maintains that there’s no confirmed evidence of these flaws being exploited in the wild, the published credentials and recent scan activity suggest otherwise.  These types of vulnerabilities raise larger concerns about the use of hardcoded credentials in critical infrastructure. Cisco has faced similar issues in the past with other software products, including IOS XE, DNA Center, and Emergency Responder.  As always, the best defense is prompt patching. Cisco released security updates in September to address both flaws, and organizations running CSLU should immediately apply them. Additionally, any instance of the CSLU running unnecessarily should be disabled to reduce the attack surface. With exploit attempts on the rise and technical details now public, delaying mitigation could have serious consequences.

 China-linked hackers took advantage of a vulnerability within Sogou Input Method, a widely used typing utility for Chinese characters on Windows, and managed to implant a backdoor onto their victims' computers, security company Gen Digital stated in research published Thursday.  An initial crafted link would kick off the chain of events, giving the attackers end-to-end access to perform anything the logged in user would have access to. Tencent, which both owns and is developing Sogou, has alreadypatched the vulnerability in April 2026. The vulnerability was uncovered by Gen as they tracked a live ongoing breach by a group known as UNC3569, a China based hacker-for-hire. The group has been tracked since 2021 by Google Threat Intelligence to government, academic, technology, and financial targets, predominantly in Eastern and Southeast Asia.  The planted backdoor (GRAYRABBIT), is a small program the group has been using for many years. As the first stage of gaining access to a machine, it is used to create a command shell remotely from the attacker, allowing for the uploading and downloading of files. More modules from the attacker's server could also be added into a system at any point via this command-line interface. Research produced in 2023 by Citizen Lab suggests that Sogou Input Method boasts over 455,000,000 monthly users on Windows, Android, and iOS respectively, and has captured approximately 70% of the Chinese input-method market.  On Windows, this application functions by having several components send messages between one another utilizing its own custom link type, sgbiz:. Gen discovered that the program intended to process these links had an error. It failed to correctly screen command-line arguments from the user, meaning attackers can order Sogou's settings program to instead launch its skin store functionality, but directing it towards the attacker controlled website instead- the only functioning part of the application that opens the browsing window without checking which site you are visiting.  This browser is already outdated; embedded within the Sogou package is version 80 of Chromium from March 2020. Neither the sandbox protection, nor the same-origin policy in this Chromium build were disabled in the codebase. This allowed a vulnerability released within the Java Script Engine in October 2021 (CVE-2021-38003, fixed in Chrome 95 October that year) to be taken advantage of once more by Chinese hackers. The exploit sends a downloader which can then fetch a few files from an Alibaba Cloud server situated in Hong Kong.  One file was a DLL designed to spoof and hide inside a pirated copy of 7-Zip. Running processes would be scrutinized for analysis methods in a sandboxed environment prior to deployment of the GRAYRABBIT, which sends out requests for and receives information from a command server, encrypted by RC4 over port 443. Gen alerted Tencent on April 9 th 2026 (the vulnerability has been noted under the designation CVE-2026-51990), and Tencent provided a fix within twelve days in version 16.3.0.3498 (released April 21 st).  It should be noted that the vulnerability present with the old Chromium build and compromised securities does not appear to have been amended. Users are instructed to update their version of Sogou Input Method without delay, and maintain an eye on the indicators of compromise on publication, which includes the malicious DLL, backdoor files, and applicable command and control websites.