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New Sni5Gect Attack Crashes Phones and Downgrades 5G to 4G without Rogue Base Station

“As opposed to using a rogue base station, which limits the practicality of many 5G attacks, SNI5GECT acts as a third-party in the communication, silently sniffs messages, and tracks the protocol state by decoding the sniffed messages during the UE attach procedure,” the researchers said. “The state information is then used to inject a targeted attack payload in downlink communication.”

The findings build upon a prior study from ASSET in late 2023 that led to the discovery of 14 flaws in the firmware implementation of 5G mobile network modems from MediaTek and Qualcomm, collectively dubbed 5Ghoul, that could be exploited to launch attacks to drop connections, freeze the connection that involves manual reboot, or downgrade the 5G connectivity to 4G.

The Sni5Gect attacks are designed to passively sniff messages during the initial connection process, decode the message content in real-time, and then leverage the decoded message content to inject targeted attack payloads.

Google to verify all Android devs to block malware on Google Play

Google is introducing a new defense for Android called ‘Developer Verification’ to block malware installations from sideloaded apps sourced from outside the official Google Play app store.

For apps on Google Play, there was already a requirement for publishers to provide a D-U-N-S (Data Universal Numbering System) number, introduced on August 31, 2023.

Google says this has had a notable effect in reducing malware on the platform. However, the system didn’t apply to the vast developer ecosystem outside the app store.

Silk Typhoon hackers hijack network captive portals in diplomat attacks

State-sponsored hackers linked to the Silk Typhoon activity cluster targeted diplomats by hijacking web traffic to redirect to a malware-serving website.

The hackers used an advanced adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) technique to hijack the captive portal of the network and send the target to the first-stage malware.

Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) tracks the threat actor as UNC6384 and, based on tooling, targeting, and infrastructure, believes it is associated with the Chinese threat actor TEMP.Hex, also known as Mustang Panda and Silk Typhoon.

Nevada closes state offices as cyberattack disrupts IT systems

Nevada remains two days into a cyberattack that began early Sunday, disrupting government websites, phone systems, and online platforms, and forcing all state offices to close on Monday.

The impact of the attack was first felt on Sunday morning, with the Governor’s Technology Office stating that a ‘network issue’ began around 1:52 AM PT, affecting the state’s IT systems.

The Governor’s Technology Office warned that websites, online services, and phone lines could be slow or unavailable as teams worked to restore service.

Nissan confirms design studio data breach claimed by Qilin ransomware

Nissan Japan has confirmed to BleepingComputer that it suffered a data breach following unauthorized access to a server of one of its subsidiaries, Creative Box Inc. (CBI).

This came in response to the Qilin ransomware group’s claims that they had stolen four terabytes of data from CBI, including 3D vehicle design models, internal reports, financial documents, VR design workflows, and photos.

“On August 16, 2025, suspicious access was detected on the data server of Creative Box Inc. (CBI), a company contracted by Nissan for design work,” stated a Nissan spokesperson to BleepingComputer.

New AI attack hides data-theft prompts in downscaled images

Researchers have developed a novel attack that steals user data by injecting malicious prompts in images processed by AI systems before delivering them to a large language model.

The method relies on full-resolution images that carry instructions invisible to the human eye but become apparent when the image quality is lowered through resampling algorithms.

Developed by Trail of Bits researchers Kikimora Morozova and Suha Sabi Hussain, the attack builds upon a theory presented in a 2020 USENIX paper by a German university (TU Braunschweig) exploring the possibility of an image-scaling attack in machine learning.

The pharma industry from Paul Janssen to today: why drugs got harder to develop and what we can do about it

Personal site for posts about my interests: the biotech industry, medicine, molecular biology, neuroscience, biorisk, science, consciousness, AI, innovation, decision making, philosophy, games, sci-fi, probability, and forecasting (among other things). I write to learn, mostly about biotech.

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