Tag Archives: IPSec

October "In the Trend of VM" (#32): Windows and Check Point vulnerabilities

October In the Trend of VM (#32): Windows and Check Point vulnerabilities

October "In the Trend of VM" (#32): Windows and Check Point vulnerabilities. Here is the latest edition of Positive Technologies' traditional monthly roundup of trending vulnerabilities. The previous September edition featured six vulnerabilities. This time, there are just two.

🗞 Post on Habr (rus)
🗒 Digest on the PT website (rus)

🔻 EoP - Windows ALPC (CVE-2026-85880). A vulnerability in Windows' interprocess communication mechanism that is exploited in the wild to escalate privileges to SYSTEM. The exploit is included in the BlueMoon exploit kit.

🔻 RCE - Check Point Quantum Security Gateway (CVE-2026-85102). A vulnerability in Check Point's enterprise security gateways that allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code. The vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild, and public exploits are available.

🟥 The full list of trending vulnerabilities is available on the portal

About Remote Code Execution - Check Point Quantum Security Gateway (CVE-2026-85102) vulnerability

About Remote Code Execution - Check Point Quantum Security Gateway (CVE-2026-85102) vulnerability

About Remote Code Execution - Check Point Quantum Security Gateway (CVE-2026-85102) vulnerability. Check Point Quantum Security Gateway is an enterprise security gateway and next-generation firewall (NGFW) designed to protect network infrastructure from cyberattacks and unauthorized access. It provides network traffic filtering, intrusion prevention (IPS), application control, and secure VPN connectivity. Improper validation of trust in an X.509 certificate during VPN negotiation on Check Point Quantum Security Gateway may allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the gateway with the privileges of a system process.

An attacker may use the compromised gateway to perform internal network reconnaissance (including port and service scanning), intercept VPN traffic, steal credentials and configuration files, including certificates, IPsec/VPN keys, and administrator credentials, and compromise VPN tunnels connecting the organization's network to branch offices and partner networks.

The vulnerability also affects Spark Firewall devices, a family of firewalls developed by Check Point primarily to protect the networks of small and medium-sized businesses, branch offices, and remote locations.

⚙️ Security updates and mitigation measures have been available on the vendor's website since September 9.

👾 Check Point experts began observing exploitation attempts on September 12. On September 22, the vulnerability was added to the CISA KEV catalog.

🛠 A public exploit has been available on GitHub since October 7.

🌐 As of October 12, Shodan had identified 11,849 potentially vulnerable Check Point gateways exposed to the Internet, 143 of them in Russia.

April Microsoft Patch Tuesday

April Microsoft Patch Tuesday

April Microsoft Patch Tuesday. A total of 167 vulnerabilities, about twice as many as in March. There is one vulnerability already being exploited in the wild:

🔻 Spoofing - Microsoft SharePoint Server (CVE-2026-32201). ZDI experts say "Spoofing bugs in SharePoint often manifest as cross-site scripting (XSS) bugs". "An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could view some sensitive information (Confidentiality), make changes to disclosed information (Integrity), but cannot limit access to the resource (Availability)". There is no info yet about how widely it is being used in attacks, but you should not delay patching, especially if SharePoint is exposed to the Internet.

Formally, there are no public exploits yet. However, there are strong indications that a public exploit may already exist for one vulnerability.

🔸 EoP - Microsoft Defender (CVE-2026-33825). "Insufficient granularity of access control" in Microsoft Defender allows a logged-in attacker to gain higher privileges on a local system. Tenable and ZDI say the bug looks similar to the BlueHammer zero-day, for which a public exploit was released on GitHub on April 3. The researcher who published it, Chaotic Eclipse, criticized Microsoft’s disclosure process. ZDI says the exploit is real, but exploitation is unstable and not always reliable.

Other important issues:

🔹 RCE - Windows Active Directory (CVE-2026-33826). To exploit this, the attacker must have an account. The attacker sends a specially crafted RPC request to a vulnerable server, which can lead to code execution. Microsoft says the attacker must be in the same restricted Active Directory domain as the target system.

🔹 RCE - Windows Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Service Extensions (CVE-2026-33824). ZDI says this vulnerability is wormable, meaning it could allow malware to spread automatically between systems. It affects systems with IKE enabled, which creates a large attack surface. Microsoft recommends blocking UDP ports 500 and 4500 at the network edge. However, attackers inside the network can still use it for lateral movement. Patch quickly if you use IKE.

🔹 RCE - Windows TCP/IP (CVE-2026-33827). ZDI also says this may be wormable, especially on systems using IPv6 and IPSec. A race condition makes it harder to exploit, but similar bugs are often exploited at Pwn2Own, so you should not rely on that difficulty. If you use IPv6, test and deploy the patch quickly before exploits appear.

🔹 EoP - Windows Push Notifications (CVE-2026-26167). This Patch Tuesday includes several sandbox escape vulnerabilities, including in Push Notifications, AFD for Winsock, Windows Management Services, and User Interface Core. CVE-2026-26167 (Push Notifications) is the most important because it is the only one with low attack complexity. The others require winning a race condition (AC:H).

🔹 Spoofing - Remote Desktop (CVE-2026-26151). Weak warnings in the Remote Desktop interface allow a network attacker to trick a user into opening a specially crafted file, leading to spoofing. The issue was found by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

🗒 Full Vulristics report