The Likely Exploited Vulnerabilities (LEV) equations can help augment KEV- and EPSS-based remediation prioritization.
Researchers from CISA and NIST have proposed a new cybersecurity metric designed to calculate the likelihood that a vulnerability has been exploited in the wild.
Peter Mell of NIST and Jonathan Spring of CISA have published a paper describing equations for what they call Likely Exploited Vulnerabilities, or LEV.
Thousands of vulnerabilities are discovered every year in software and hardware, but only a small percentage are ever exploited in the wild.
Knowing which vulnerabilities have been exploited or predicting which flaws are likely to be exploited is important for organizations when trying to prioritize patching.
Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) lists such as the one maintained by CISA and the Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), which relies on data to estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited, can be very useful. However, KEV lists may be incomplete and EPSS may be inaccurate.
LEV aims to enhance — not replace — KEV lists and EPSS. This is done through equations that take into account variables such as the first date when an EPSS score is available for a specified vulnerability, the date of the most recent KEV list update, inclusion in KEV, and the EPSS score for a given day (measured across multiple days).
LEV probabilities can be useful for measuring the expected number and proportion of vulnerabilities that threat actors have exploited.
It can also be useful for estimating the comprehensiveness of KEV lists. “Previously, KEV maintainers had no metric to demonstrate how close their list was to including all relevant vulnerabilities,” the researchers explained.
In addition, LEV probabilities can help augment KEV- and EPSS-based vulnerability remediation prioritization — in the case of KEV by identifying higher-probability vulnerabilities that may be missing, and in the case of EPSS by finding vulnerabilities that may be underscored.
While in theory LEV could turn out to be a very useful tool for vulnerability prioritization, the researchers pointed out that collaboration is necessary, and NIST is looking for industry partners “with relevant datasets to empirically measure the performance of LEV probabilities”.
Malicious npm packages targeting React, Vue, Vite, Node.js, and Quill remained undetected for two years while deploying destructive payloads.
Socket's Threat Research Team discovered a collection of malicious npm packages that deploy attacks against widely-used JavaScript frameworks including React, Vue.js, Vite, Node.js, and the open source Quill Editor. These malicious packages have remained undetected in the npm ecosystem for more than two years, accumulating over 6,200 downloads. Masquerading as legitimate plugins and utilities while secretly containing destructive payloads designed to corrupt data, delete critical files, and crash systems, these packages remained undetected.
The threat actor behind this campaign, using the npm alias xuxingfeng with a registration email 1634389031@qq[.]com, has published eight packages designed to cause widespread damage across the JavaScript ecosystem. As of this writing, these packages remain live on the npm registry. We have formally petitioned for their removal.
Notably, the same account has also published several legitimate, non-malicious packages that function as advertised. This dual approach of releasing both harmful and helpful packages creates a facade of legitimacy that makes malicious packages more likely to be trusted and installed.
Dramatic revelations shed fresh light on investigation into whether Chinese tech firm tried to buy influence in EU politics.
Belgian security agents bugged a corporate box at the RSC Anderlecht football stadium that was being used by Chinese tech giant Huawei to schmooze members of the European Parliament.
They also listened into other conversations involving one of Huawei’s leading lobbyists, including in his car. The surveillance operations, confirmed by three people with close knowledge of the investigation, formed part of a wide-ranging probe into allegations of corruption that was first revealed in March. They contributed to the Belgian prosecutor’s decision, reported by POLITICO on Monday, to request that a group of MEPs have their immunities lifted so they can be investigated.
The extraordinary revelations are the latest chapter in a saga that combines concerns about the reach of China in European politics and how susceptible EU lawmakers are to bribery and shady lobbying practices, even after a string of similar scandals.
The Council today decided to impose additional restrictive measures against 21 individuals and 6 entities responsible for Russia’s destabilising actions abroad.
The Council has also broadened the scope to allow the EU to target tangible assets linked to Russia’s destabilising activities, such as vessels, aircraft, real estate, and physical elements of digital and communication networks, as well as transactions of credit institutions, financial institutions and entities providing crypto-assets services that directly or indirectly facilitate Russia’s destabilising activities.
Furthermore, in light of the systematic, international Russian campaign of media manipulation and distortion of facts aimed at destabilising neighbouring countries and the EU, the Council will now have the possibility to suspend the broadcasting licences of Russian media outlets under the control of the Russian leadership, and to prohibit them from broadcasting their content in the EU.
In line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the measures agreed today will not prevent the targeted media outlets and their staff from carrying out activities in the EU other than broadcasting, e.g. research and interviews.
Today’s listings include Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian politician and businessman who, through his associates Artem Marchevskyi and Oleg Voloshin also listed today, controlled Ukrainian media outlets and used them to disseminate pro-Russian propaganda in Ukraine and beyond. Through secret financing of the “Voice of Europe” media channel - also listed today - and his political platform “Another Ukraine”, Medvedchuk has promoted policies and actions intended to erode the legitimacy and credibility of the government of Ukraine, in direct support of the foreign policy interests of the Russian Federation and disseminating pro-Russian propaganda.
Enterprise management solutions provider Serviceaide has informed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that a data leak impacts the personal and medical information of nearly half a million Catholic Health patients.
California-based Serviceaide, whose solutions are used by organizations worldwide, discovered in November 2024 that an Elasticsearch database maintained for one of its customers, Buffalo, New York-based non-profit healthcare system Catholic Health, had been inadvertently made publicly available.
An investigation showed that the database had been exposed between September 19 and November 5, 2024.
While Serviceaide did not find any evidence that the information was exfiltrated, the company said it cannot definitively rule it out.
According to a data breach notice posted on the Serviceaide website, the exposed information varies for each individual, but it can include name, SSN, date of birth, medical record number, patient account number, medical information, health insurance information, prescription and treatment information, clinical information, healthcare provider details, email or username, and password.
Impacted individuals are being notified and offered 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.
Serviceaide informed the HHS, according to the government organization’s incident tracker, that just over 483,000 individuals are impacted by the data breach.
It’s not uncommon for healthcare data breaches to impact hundreds of thousands of individuals, and some incidents affect millions and even tens of millions.
Arla Foods has confirmed to BleepingComputer that it was targeted by a cyberattack that has disrupted its production operations.
The Danish food giant clarified that the attack only affected its production unit in Upahl, Germany, though it expects this will result in product delivery delays or even cancellations.
"We can confirm that we have identified suspicious activity at our dairy site in Upahl that impacted the local IT network," stated an Arla spokesperson.
"Due to the safety measures initiated as a result of the incident, production was temporarily affected."
Arla Foods is an international dairy producer and a farmer-owned cooperative with 7,600 members. It employs 23,000 people in 39 countries.
The firm has an annual revenue of €13.8 billion ($15.5 billion), and its products, including the brands Arla, Lurpak, Puck, Castello, and Starbucks, are sold in 140 countries worldwide.
The company told BleepingComputer that it is currently working to resume operations at the impacted facility, which should bring results before the end of the week.
"Since then, we've been working diligently to restore full operations. We expect to return to normal operations at the site in the next few days. Production at other Arla sites is not affected."
Considering that the first reports about a disruption at Arla's production operations surfaced on Friday, it is bound to cause shortages in some cases.
"We have informed our affected customers about possible delivery delays and cancellations," explained Arla's spokesperson.
BleepingComputer has asked the firm if the attack involved data theft or encryption, both staples of a ransomware attack, but Arla declined to share any additional information at this time.
Meanwhile, there have been no announcements about Arla on ransomware extortion portals, so the type of attack and the perpetrators remain unknown.
Dear Friends, Neighbors, and Valued Cellcom/Nsight Customers,
Over the past five days, many of you have been impacted by a service disruption — and I want to begin by saying something simple, and deeply meant: I’m here.
While I’ve been closely involved from the very beginning, this is the first time I’m writing to you directly. That wasn’t because I didn’t want to — it was because I truly believed we’d be past this quickly. I stayed focused on the fix, confident that we’d be able to restore service fast.
We’ve always believed in being present, open, and accountable to the people we serve. That’s what this letter is about.
We experienced a cyber incident. While this is unfortunate, it’s not something we were unprepared for. We have protocols and plans in place for exactly this kind of situation. From the start, we’ve followed those plans — including engaging outside cybersecurity experts, notifying the FBI and Wisconsin officials, and working around the clock to bring systems safely back online.
The incident was concentrated on an area of our network separate from where we store sensitive information related to you, our Cellcom/Nsight family. We have no evidence that personal information related to you, your name, your addresses, your financial information, is impacted by this event.
Thanks to an incredible amount of hard work and tenacity, we achieved a major milestone last night. We are building on that success and expect to have the rest of service restored this week. Every part of this recovery is being handled with care and precision — we will not rush anything that compromises safety, security or trust.
For 115 years, as a company that began as a local telephone provider, we've understood that connection is everything. Generations of my family have had the privilege of serving generations of yours. We've grown and changed with the times, but our purpose has always remained the same: helping you stay connected to what matters most. We know this disruption has caused frustration and, for some, real hardship — and for that, I am truly sorry.
In the midst of it all, I’ve witnessed what makes this company special. Across the organization, people put mission ahead of role, put pride aside, and put the community first. We saw teams find creative solutions, take personal initiative, and step outside the bounds of job descriptions to make things right. That spirit — of care, urgency and accountability — has defined our response and will continue to shape our path forward.
To our employees — thank you. Your heart and grit during these trying days make me proud beyond words.
To our customers — thank you. Your patience, understanding and kindness mean the world to us. We’ve felt your support every step of the way, and we don’t take it for granted.
We know that gratitude alone isn’t enough — we’re taking responsibility. We’re covering the time you were without service, and then some.
Please know that we hear you, we appreciate you, and you have the very best team in the world on the case. I know we will be a better and stronger Cellcom/Nsight for this experience.
Warmly,
Brighid Riordan in cursive
Brighid Riordan
Microsoft’s head of security for AI, Neta Haiby, accidentally revealed confidential messages about Walmart’s use of Microsoft’s AI tools during a Build talk that was disrupted by protesters.
The Build livestream was muted and the camera pointed down, but the session resumed moments later after the protesters were escorted out. In the aftermath, Haiby then accidentally switched to Microsoft Teams while sharing her screen, revealing confidential internal messages about Walmart’s upcoming use of Microsoft’s Entra and AI gateway services.
Haiby was co-hosting a Build session on best security practices for AI, alongside Sarah Bird, Microsoft’s head of responsible AI, when two former Microsoft employees disrupted the talk to protest against the company’s cloud contracts with the Israeli government.
“Sarah, you are whitewashing the crimes of Microsoft in Palestine, how dare you talk about responsible AI when Microsoft is fueling the genocide in Palestine,” shouted Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the protest group No Azure for Apartheid, and a former Microsoft employee who was fired for holding a vigil outside Microsoft’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Walmart is one of Microsoft’s biggest corporate customers, and already uses the company’s Azure OpenAI service for some of its AI work. “Walmart is ready to rock and roll with Entra Web and AI Gateway,” says one of Microsoft’s cloud solution architects in the Teams messages. The chat session also quoted a Walmart AI engineer, saying: “Microsoft is WAY ahead of Google with AI security. We are excited to go down this path with you.”
Akamai researcher Yuval Gordon discovered a privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Server 2025 that allows attackers to compromise any user in Active Directory (AD).
The attack exploits the delegated Managed Service Account (dMSA) feature that was introduced in Windows Server 2025, works with the default configuration, and is trivial to implement.
This issue likely affects most organizations that rely on AD. In 91% of the environments we examined, we found users outside the domain admins group that had the required permissions to perform this attack.
Although Microsoft states they plan to fix this issue in the future, a patch is not currently available. Therefore, organizations need to take other proactive measures to reduce their exposure to this attack. Microsoft has reviewed our findings and approved the publication of this information.
In this blog post, we provide full details of the attack, as well as detection and mitigation strategies.
