- Mycomputerspot Security Newsletter
- Posts
- Wednesday War Room – 09/17/2025
Wednesday War Room – 09/17/2025
This Wednesday's threat landscape is a stark reminder that foundational infrastructure—from open-source registries to core enterprise software—remains the primary battleground.
J.W. Croley
September 17, 2025
In partnership with
Bank Boldly. Climb Higher.
Peak Bank offers an all-digital banking experience, providing all the tools and tips you need to make your way to the top. Take advantage of competitive rates on our high-yield savings account and get access to a suite of smart money management tools. Apply online and start your journey today.
Member FDIC
We've witnessed a sophisticated supply chain attack targeting developers directly, multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in essential services, and the continued commoditization of ransomware. The persistence of these threats highlights the critical need for proactive defense, supply chain vigilance, and rapid, decisive patching.
Risk Level: Critical
Business Impact: Developer credential theft, cloud infrastructure compromise, CI/CD pipeline infiltration
What You Need to Know: A sophisticated supply chain attack has compromised over 40 popular NPM packages, including one with 2.2 million weekly downloads. Researchers at Socket uncovered the attack that first targeted the @ctrl/tinycolor package. The attackers injected malicious code that uses a legitimate security tool, TruffleHog, to scan for and exfiltrate developer credentials, including GitHub tokens, NPM tokens, and AWS keys. The attack also creates persistent backdoors in compromised projects.
Why This Matters:
Your software supply chain is a primary target for sophisticated attacks.
Legitimate tools are being weaponized to make attacks harder to detect.
A single compromised package can lead to a full-scale breach of your development environment.
Executive Actions:
🔍 Instruct your development teams to immediately audit all NPM packages and identify any compromised dependencies.
🔐 Mandate the rotation of all developer credentials, including NPM tokens, GitHub tokens, and cloud access keys.
🧱 Scrutinize your CI/CD pipelines for any unauthorized modifications or suspicious workflows.
4📊 Request a Q3 briefing on your organization's software supply chain security posture and the tools in place to mitigate these risks.
Risk Level: Critical
Business Impact: System compromise, privilege escalation, remote code execution
What You Need to Know: Microsoft's latest Patch Tuesday addresses 84 vulnerabilities, including two zero-days that are publicly known. One of the zero-days (CVE-2025-55234) allows for privilege escalation via the Windows SMB protocol, while the other (CVE-2025-54918) is a critical NTLM vulnerability. The update also patches a critical remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Office that can be triggered via the Preview Pane.
Why This Matters:
Your core Windows infrastructure is at risk from publicly known, unpatched vulnerabilities.
The ability to exploit these flaws can give attackers full control of your systems.
The Office vulnerability can be exploited without any user interaction, making it particularly dangerous.
Executive Actions:
📦 Prioritize the deployment of the September Patch Tuesday updates, especially on domain controllers and Exchange servers.
🔐 Review and enforce SMB signing to mitigate the risk of relay attacks.
🚫 Consider disabling the Preview Pane in Microsoft Office as a temporary mitigating control.
📜 Ensure your vulnerability management program is equipped to handle zero-day threats and can accelerate patching when necessary.
Risk Level: Critical
Business Impact: Mobile device compromise, arbitrary code execution, data theft
What You Need to Know: Samsung has released an emergency security update to fix a critical zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-21043) that is being actively exploited in the wild. The flaw, which exists in an image parsing library, allows for remote code execution on affected devices. The vulnerability impacts multiple recent versions of Android, putting a large number of Samsung users at risk.
Why This Matters:
Your employees' mobile devices are a gateway to your corporate network and data.
An actively exploited zero-day in a major mobile platform is a significant and immediate threat.
The ability to execute code remotely gives attackers full control over a compromised device.
Executive Actions:
🔍 Ensure all company-issued and BYOD Samsung devices are updated with the latest security patches immediately.
🔐 Review and update your mobile device security policies to address the risk of zero-day vulnerabilities.
🧱 Consider implementing a mobile threat defense (MTD) solution to detect and block advanced mobile threats.
📊 Request a briefing on your organization's mobile security posture and its ability to respond to mobile zero-day threats.
Leadership Insight:
This week's events demonstrate that the fundamentals of cybersecurity…
Patching, supply chain security, and mobile device management are more critical than ever. The threat landscape is not slowing down, and neither can our efforts to defend against it.
Proactive, risk-based security is the only way to stay ahead of the curve.
Most coverage tells you what happened. Fintech Takes is the free newsletter that tells you why it matters. Each week, I break down the trends, deals, and regulatory shifts shaping the industry — minus the spin. Clear analysis, smart context, and a little humor so you actually enjoy reading it.
Risk Level: High
Business Impact: Mobile security breach, ad fraud, device compromise, data exfiltration
What You Need to Know: Google has removed 224 malicious apps from the Play Store that were part of a massive ad fraud operation called "SlopAds." These apps, downloaded over 38 million times, used sophisticated techniques like steganography (hiding code in images) to evade detection while generating billions of fraudulent ad requests daily.
Why This Matters:
Malicious apps are still finding their way into official app stores, bypassing security checks.
The scale of this operation highlights the potential for widespread device compromise and data exfiltration.
Attackers are using advanced techniques to hide their malicious code, making detection more challenging.
Executive Actions:
🔍 Audit all installed applications on corporate and BYOD devices to identify and remove any malicious apps.
🔐 Implement application whitelisting on critical devices to restrict the installation of unauthorized software.
🧱 Educate users on the risks of downloading apps from unverified sources and the importance of scrutinizing app permissions.
📊 Request a briefing on your organization's mobile application security strategy and its effectiveness against sophisticated malware.
Risk Level: High
Business Impact: Security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, operational risk
What You Need to Know: Microsoft has issued a final reminder that Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 will reach their end of support on October 14, 2025. After this date, these products will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, or technical support. Organizations are urged to migrate to Exchange Online or upgrade to Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE).
Why This Matters:
Running unsupported software, especially a critical system like Exchange, is a significant security risk.
Unpatched Exchange servers are a prime target for attackers and can lead to widespread compromise.
Failure to migrate can result in compliance violations and operational instability.
Executive Actions:
🔍 Identify all Exchange 2016 and 2019 servers in your environment and finalize your migration plan.
🔐 Allocate the necessary budget and resources to complete the migration before the deadline.
🧱 Engage with a Microsoft partner to assist with the migration if you lack the internal expertise.
📊 Request a final status update on the migration project and any associated risks.
Risk Level: Medium-High
Business Impact: Data theft, operational disruption, double extortion
What You Need to Know: A new ransomware group, "Yurei," has been identified by Check Point Research targeting organizations in Sri Lanka, India, and Nigeria. The group uses a double-extortion model and is based on an open-source ransomware kit written in Go. While the ransomware has a flaw that allows for file recovery (it doesn't delete shadow copies), the group's use of double extortion still poses a significant threat.
Why This Matters:
The barrier to entry for ransomware is lower than ever, thanks to open-source tools.
Even unsophisticated ransomware can cause significant disruption and financial damage.
Double extortion tactics put pressure on victims to pay, even if they can recover their files.
Executive Actions:
🔍 Ensure that Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is enabled and properly configured on all Windows systems.
🔐 Regularly test your backup and recovery procedures to ensure you can restore data quickly.
🧱 Use security tools that can detect and block Go-based malware.
📊 Request a briefing on your organization's ransomware readiness and response plan.
🔄 Prioritize the patching of all Microsoft and Samsung devices to address the latest zero-day vulnerabilities.
📦 Audit your NPM packages and developer credentials to mitigate the risk of supply chain attacks.
🧠 Finalize your migration plan for Exchange 2016 and 2019 to avoid running unsupported software.
📊 Review your mobile security policies and consider implementing a mobile threat defense (MTD) solution.
📜 Ensure your ransomware response plan is up-to-date and includes procedures for dealing with double extortion.
💡 Stay vigilant, patch promptly, and remember that in cybersecurity, paranoia isn't a disorder – it's a job requirement. 💡
J.W.
(P.S. Check out our partners! It goes a long way to support this newsletter!)
Business news as it should be.
Join 4M+ professionals who start their day with Morning Brew—the free newsletter that makes business news quick, clear, and actually enjoyable.
Each morning, it breaks down the biggest stories in business, tech, and finance with a touch of wit to keep things smart and interesting.