Canvas on DanSec Daily

Cybersecurity Brief – 2026-05-12

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Major Incidents or Breaches

Instructure (Canvas): Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, confirmed a significant breach involving the theft of 3.65TB of data by the ShinyHunters extortion group. The breach exploited a vulnerability in Canvas, which allowed attackers to deface login portals and leave extortion messages. Instructure reached a ransom agreement with the attackers to prevent further data leaks, and claims the stolen data was “returned.”
TanStack, Mistral AI, Guardrails AI, UiPath, OpenSearch: Multiple popular npm and PyPI packages were compromised in a supply chain attack orchestrated by the threat actor TeamPCP. The attack also included a rogue version of the Checkmarx Jenkins AST plugin, which contained an infostealer.
Skoda: Hackers exploited a portal vulnerability to access customer data from Skoda’s online shop, including names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
SailPoint: SailPoint disclosed a GitHub repository breach on 20 April. No customer data in production or staging environments was affected.
cPanel: A threat actor known as Mr_Rot13 is actively exploiting CVE-2026-41940, a critical cPanel vulnerability, to deploy the Filemanager backdoor on compromised systems.

Newly Discovered Vulnerabilities

cPanel CVE-2026-41940: This critical flaw is under active exploitation to install persistent backdoors.
Canvas LMS: A vulnerability in Instructure’s Canvas platform allowed attackers to modify login portals and deliver extortion messages.
Yarbo Garden Robots: Multiple vulnerabilities in Yarbo garden robots could allow attackers to expose Wi-Fi credentials, hijack cameras, and physically control the devices.
“Dirty Frag” Linux Privilege Escalation: A new privilege escalation vulnerability, similar to Copy Fail and Dirty Pipe, is affecting enterprise Linux distributions and may already be under limited exploitation.

Notable Threat Actor Activity

TeamPCP: Conducted a series of supply chain attacks compromising npm and PyPI packages associated with TanStack, UiPath, Mistral AI, OpenSearch, Guardrails AI, and the Checkmarx Jenkins AST plugin.
ShinyHunters: Responsible for the Instructure (Canvas) breach, extorting the company and negotiating a ransom to prevent data leaks.
Mr_Rot13: Attributed to the exploitation of the cPanel CVE-2026-41940 vulnerability.
Unnamed Cyber Espionage Group: Targeted aviation and drone firms to exfiltrate GIS files, terrain models, and GPS data.

Trends, Tools, or Tactics of Interest

Ransomware Evolution: Kaspersky reports a shift in ransomware tactics for 2026, including increased use of EDR killers and a move from data encryption to data leak extortion.
AI in Exploit Development: Google and other sources confirm the first known use of AI to develop a zero-day exploit capable of mass 2FA bypass and targeting a popular open-source web admin tool. Attack automation and exploit orchestration via large language models are increasing.
Supply Chain Attacks: Continued targeting of software supply chains, including poisoning trusted packages and plugins.
GhostLock Tool: A new proof-of-concept tool demonstrates how Windows file APIs can be abused to block access to local or network files.
Application Build Firewalls: New security solutions are emerging to monitor runtime behaviour within build pipelines to prevent supply chain attacks.
Insider Threats: Research indicates that 1 in 8 employees have sold or know someone who has sold company logins.
Purple Teaming: Observations highlight ongoing operational challenges in integrating red and blue team functions in practice.

Regulatory or Policy Developments Affecting the Security Industry

GM California Settlement: General Motors agreed to a $12.75 million settlement with California authorities for alleged violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act related to the sale of drivers’ data.
FCC Router Ban: The US Federal Communications Commission has eased some restrictions and extended deadlines for foreign-made routers, though the ban remains in effect.
iOS 26.5 Release: Apple released iOS 26.5, introducing default end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging between iPhone and Android devices in beta, as part of a cross-industry initiative to replace SMS/MMS.

Cybersecurity Brief – 2026-05-11

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Major Incidents or Breaches

The Canvas online learning system experienced a cyberattack that disrupted access for tens of thousands of students globally, particularly impacting those studying for final exams. Service has since been restored.
Over 500 organizations across sectors including aviation, critical infrastructure, energy, logistics, public administration, and technology have been targeted in a years-long phishing campaign.
German authorities have shut down the rebooted Crimenetwork criminal marketplace, which had over 22,000 users and more than 100 sellers, and arrested its administrator.

Newly Discovered Vulnerabilities

A critical out-of-bounds read vulnerability has been disclosed in Ollama, allowing remote, unauthenticated attackers to leak the application’s entire process memory.
A new Linux vulnerability, referred to as “Dirty Frag” (also known as Copy Fail 2, CVE-2026-43284 and CVE-2026-43500), was disclosed prior to a patch being available and may already be under exploitation in the wild.

Notable Threat Actor Activity

A malicious repository impersonating OpenAI’s Privacy Filter model reached the top spot on Hugging Face, delivering a Rust-based information stealer to Windows users and amassing 244,000 downloads.
The TrickMo Android banking malware, in campaigns targeting users across Europe, has adopted The Open Network (TON) blockchain for covert command-and-control communications and introduced new functionality.
Attackers are leveraging Google Ads and shared Claude.ai chat links in an active malvertising campaign to distribute Mac malware to users searching for “Claude mac download.”
The Checkmarx Jenkins AST Plugin was compromised in a supply chain attack, with a malicious version published to the Jenkins Marketplace.

Trends, Tools, or Tactics of Interest

Ransomware activity in Q1 2026 shows continued consolidation, with over 2,100 new victims listed across more than 70 active data leak sites.
YARA-X version 1.16.0 has been released, providing four improvements and four bug fixes to the malware identification tool.
Threat actors are increasingly abusing trusted platforms (e.g., Hugging Face, Google Ads, Claude.ai, Jenkins Marketplace) for malware delivery and supply chain attacks.

Regulatory or Policy Developments Affecting the Security Industry

German law enforcement action against the Crimenetwork marketplace demonstrates ongoing international efforts to disrupt cybercriminal infrastructure and prosecute operators.

Cybersecurity Brief – 2026-05-07

Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Major Incidents or Breaches

Instructure (Canvas) Breach: ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a breach impacting Instructure, the provider of the Canvas learning management system. The incident exposed personal data of up to 275 million students across educational institutions, highlighting significant vendor risk for schools.
DAEMON Tools Supply Chain Attack: Disc Soft Limited confirmed a supply chain compromise in DAEMON Tools Lite, with trojanized versions distributed globally. A sophisticated backdoor was selectively deployed on a dozen systems, including government and scientific entities. A clean version has since been released.
Claude AI Used in Water Utility Intrusion: Dragos reported that threat actors leveraged Claude AI to facilitate access to operational technology (OT) assets during an intrusion at a Mexican water and drainage utility.
ManageWP Phishing via Google Ads: Attackers used Google-sponsored ads to deliver phishing pages targeting credentials for GoDaddy’s ManageWP platform, affecting WordPress management operations.
Windows Phone Link Exploited: Multiple reports detail hackers abusing Microsoft’s Windows Phone Link feature with the CloudZ RAT and a plugin called Pheno to steal credentials, text messages, and one-time passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication bypass.
Google Chrome AI Model Download Issue: Google Chrome was found to silently download and reinstall a 4GB AI model on users’ devices without explicit consent.

Newly Discovered Vulnerabilities

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Zero-Day: A critical, actively exploited, unpatched vulnerability in the PAN-OS User-ID Authentication Portal allows remote code execution on firewalls. The vendor has issued a warning and is working on a fix.
vm2 Node.js Library: A dozen critical vulnerabilities in the vm2 sandboxing library for Node.js were disclosed, enabling sandbox escape and arbitrary code execution. Exploitation could compromise hosts running affected applications.
Cisco DoS Vulnerability: Cisco patched a denial-of-service flaw in Crosswork Network Controller and Network Services Orchestrator products. Exploited systems require a manual reboot to restore operations.

Notable Threat Actor Activity

OceanLotus (APT32): Kaspersky attributed a campaign to OceanLotus involving malicious Python wheel packages uploaded to PyPI, targeting both Windows and Linux users with the ZiChatBot malware.
MuddyWater (Iranian APT): MuddyWater was linked to a campaign masquerading as a Chaos ransomware attack. The group used Microsoft Teams for social engineering, credential harvesting, persistence, and data theft, deploying ransomware as a decoy.
Mirai-Based xlabs_v1 Botnet: Researchers identified a new Mirai variant, xlabs_v1, exploiting Android Debug Bridge (ADB) on exposed devices to conscript them into a DDoS botnet.
NWHStealer via Bun Runtime: Attackers are leveraging the Bun JavaScript runtime to distribute the NWHStealer infostealer, utilizing legitimate developer tools to evade detection.
Quasar Linux RAT Campaign: A sophisticated Quasar Linux RAT campaign is targeting software developers, offering remote access, surveillance, and credential exfiltration capabilities.

Trends, Tools, or Tactics of Interest

Social Engineering via Help Desk Impersonation: Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) is tracking a new threat actor impersonating help desks to trick users into installing malware, indicating continued reliance on social engineering.
Supply Chain and Developer Platform Abuse: Multiple incidents (DAEMON Tools, PyPI, Bun runtime, Google Ads phishing) illustrate ongoing abuse of software supply chains and developer ecosystems for malware distribution.
Infostealer Evasion Techniques: VoidStealer authors have found new methods to bypass Google Chrome’s App-Bound Encryption, facilitating the theft of sensitive data.
AI Governance and Security: Reports highlight the rapid deployment of AI agents within enterprise environments, often outpacing governance and oversight. Additionally, cybercriminal forums are reporting issues with low-quality AI-generated content (“AI slop”).
Ransomware Targeting Backups: Analysis shows ransomware groups increasingly target and destroy backup systems prior to encryption, negating recovery options even when backups exist.

Regulatory or Policy Developments

CISA ‘CI Fortify’ Initiative: The US CISA launched new guidance (“CI Fortify”) urging critical infrastructure operators to invest in resilient OT environments capable of withstanding extended isolation and cyber compromise.
Google Android Binary Transparency: Google announced expanded Binary Transparency for Android apps, introducing a public ledger to verify app authenticity and mitigate supply chain risks.