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Earthquake Faults Can Suddenly Become Almost As Fluid as Water, Study Finds

Scientists have uncovered evidence of an unexpected process that may allow earthquake faults to slip enormous distances.

Rocks along Japan’s Boso Peninsula have preserved evidence of an extraordinary process that may occur during powerful earthquakes. Researchers discovered ancient fault structures suggesting that clay trapped between moving rock surfaces became nearly as fluid as water, potentially allowing the fault to slip enormous distances with little resistance.

The findings, from a research team led by Professor Tetsuro Hirono of Osaka Metropolitan University, could help explain how some earthquakes produce the massive seafloor movements capable of triggering devastating tsunamis.

Scientists Reveal How a Mysterious Brain Structure Keeps Memories From Fading

Memories that last only seconds shape everyday thinking, and research in mice is revealing how a small brain structure supports an ability impaired in ADHD and schizophrenia.

To understand a sentence, the brain has to keep earlier words in mind as new ones arrive. Working memory makes that possible, holding information for a few seconds so we can compare it with new information, manipulate it, and use it to guide our behavior.

We rely on it to follow conversations, solve problems, and decide what to do next. Yet sensory information fades within moments once a stimulus ends, leaving the brain with the demanding task of maintaining a usable representation of something that is no longer there.

Installing the Fix for an Exploited WordPress Flaw Can Expose Some Sites One Last Time

Some WordPress sites can still be attacked while they install the fix for an actively exploited flaw, according to Umut Bayram, the Picus Security researcher who found it.

The update that installs the fix still unpacks its files using the site’s old, unpatched code, so an attacker who strikes at the right moment can run code on the server. The researcher advises blocking web access to the site’s wp-content/upgrade folder before updating.

The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026–119977, affects WordPress 4.7 through 7.1.3. During a core update that uses a complete package, WordPress unpacks a copy of the new version into a temporary folder inside wp-content/upgrade. That copy includes the WordPress installer, and the web server can usually reach it.

Hackers Target OpenSSH SSHole Flaw Within Hours of Disclosure, Gain Root on Honeypot

“The observed source IP, 89.116.89[.]18, used oversized passwords to bypass authentication and ran reconnaissance commands including id, uname and hostname through non-interactive SSH sessions,” Ryan Dewhurst, founder and CEO of Previdian, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News.

Affected users are advised to install OpenSSH 10.6p2 or their distribution’s patched package, and then restart sshd. Alpine is also recommending that users investigate “Accepted password for” log entries involving accounts that should not accept password logins.

“Look in /var/log/messages for sshd lines reading Accepted password for an account that has no password (alpine, root, or any key-only user),” Alpine said. “Review doas use and recently created users, files and authorized keys on exposed machines. If you cannot rule out a login, treat the machine as compromised.”

OpenAI’s new GPT-6 Cyber AI finds 81 Firefox flaws, 948 Linux bugs

OpenAI has revealed GPT-6 Cyber, a new artificial intelligence model that has discovered 81 previously unknown high-severity Firefox vulnerabilities and developed working exploits for 948 distinct Linux kernel flaws.

The company announced the model on Thursday, saying it significantly improves on earlier AI models in finding software vulnerabilities, validating their impact, and helping developers create fixes.

During security testing, GPT-6 Cyber discovered 81 previously unknown high-severity vulnerabilities in Firefox and helped develop patches, many of which Mozilla has already released.

SonicWall warns of new SSL-VPN MFA bypass flaw exploited in attacks

SonicWall has released security updates to fix seven vulnerabilities in SonicOS firewalls, including an SSL-VPN authentication bypass flaw exploited in attacks.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026–19868, allows attackers with valid credentials for an alternate authentication method to bypass SAML authentication controls, potentially including SAML-enforced multi-factor authentication (MFA).

The flaw has a CVSS severity score of 7.1 and only affects SonicOS SSL-VPN services configured to use SAML authentication.

Runaway AI hacking agent behind WorkOS breach after escaping sandbox

WorkOS says an AI-powered hacking agent that breached its internal sales application and accessed customer information was operated by a security researcher who claims the tool escaped its testing environment and unintentionally attacked the company.

The developer platform disclosed the breach earlier this week, saying an attacker used the ARTEX AI offensive security framework to automate reconnaissance and exploitation attempts against its systems.

However, in a new security update published Friday, WorkOS founder Michael Grinich revealed that the person responsible had come forward and claimed the incident was accidental.

New UC research identifies biological differences in pancreatic cancer

Nina Steele, PhD. Photo/University of Cincinnati.

Led by Nina Steele, PhD, assistant professor in UC’s College of Medicine, in collaboration with Howard Crawford, PhD, scientific director of the Henry Ford + Michigan State University Pancreatic Cancer Center, the research was recently published in the journal Cancer Research.

Incidence and survival rates of pancreatic cancer vary between different populations of Americans, but sufficient data did not previously exist to determine specific genomic differences between populations.

MIT Scientists Break a 20-Year Rule And Unlock Never-Before-Seen Crystal Structures

One of the key methods through which scientists develop and enhance new materials is by getting more control over their structure at the smallest scales, and microscopic nanoparticles can be incredibly useful for this kind of detail.

Now researchers led by a team from MIT have overturned the conventional thinking of the last couple of decades when it comes to how these nanoparticles are connected together.

Previously, the connectors – or ligands – between the nanoparticles have mostly been designed as rigid and fixed.