Welcome to Issue #7
February 2026 continues to deliver. This week alone we saw generative AI used to automate credential-based attacks against 600+ FortiGate devices, a supply chain attack on a popular AI coding assistant, and two Roundcube webmail flaws added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The threat landscape is moving faster than ever, and defenders need every edge they can get.
This issue covers four new pieces of content published on CosmicBytez Labs — including checklists and detection guides you can deploy today — plus the latest threat intelligence you need to act on right now.
What's New on CosmicBytez Labs
New Checklists
IT Employee Offboarding Checklist — A complete access revocation template covering account deactivation, device recovery, data management, and compliance verification. If you're still handling offboarding from memory, this one's for you.
View the IT Offboarding Checklist →
Endpoint Security Baseline: Windows 11 + Intune — A comprehensive endpoint hardening template aligned with CIS benchmarks. Covers BitLocker encryption, Defender ASR rules, AppLocker policies, and Intune compliance baselines. Use it as a starting point for your fleet or as an audit checklist for existing deployments.
View the Endpoint Security Baseline →
New How-To Guides
How to Set Up BGP Monitoring and Route Alerts — After the February 16 Cloudflare BGP outage took down half the internet, we wrote the guide we wish everyone had deployed before it happened. Covers BGPalerter, RIPE RIS Live, and Cloudflare Radar for real-time route anomaly detection.
Read the BGP Monitoring Guide →
How to Detect and Block ClickFix Attacks — The ClickFix social engineering technique has evolved to use DNS nslookup commands for payload delivery, bypassing traditional web filters entirely. This guide provides detection rules for Microsoft Defender, SentinelOne, YARA, and Suricata — ready to deploy today.
Read the ClickFix Detection Guide →
Site Improvements
- Breadcrumb navigation — All content detail pages now include breadcrumb navigation for easier wayfinding.
- Inline newsletter subscribe — The
/newsletterpage now features an inline subscribe form so you can sign up without leaving the archive.
The Big Stories
1. AI-Powered FortiGate Compromise — 600+ Devices Across 55 Countries
A Russian threat actor used generative AI to automate reconnaissance, attack planning, and tool development — compromising over 600 FortiGate devices across 55 countries via exposed management ports and weak credentials. No zero-days were used. This marks one of the first confirmed campaigns where AI enabled a single actor to operate at a scale previously requiring a much larger team.
Action: Audit FortiGate firmware versions, apply latest patches, and review firewall logs for indicators of compromise.
2. Cline CLI Supply Chain Attack — OpenClaw Agent on 4,000 Developer Systems
The popular AI coding assistant Cline CLI was compromised via a stolen npm publish token, silently installing the OpenClaw autonomous agent on approximately 4,000 developer systems during an 8-hour window. While OpenClaw is not inherently malicious and does not auto-start, the unauthorized installation highlights serious risks in AI-assisted CI/CD pipelines. The VS Code extension was not affected — only the npm CLI package.
Action: Run npm uninstall -g openclaw if affected, audit global npm packages with npm list -g --depth=0, and rotate any npm tokens used in CI/CD.
3. CISA Adds Roundcube Webmail Flaws to KEV Catalog
CISA added two Roundcube webmail vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: CVE-2025-49113 (CVSS 9.9, pre-auth RCE) and CVE-2025-68461 (CVSS 7.2, stored XSS leading to account takeover). Both are under active exploitation in the wild, primarily targeting government and academic institutions.
Action: Patch Roundcube immediately. If you can't patch, restrict access to trusted networks.
Read the full advisory
4. Ascom HellCat Ransomware Breach — 44GB Exfiltrated
The HellCat ransomware group breached Ascom's Jira ticketing infrastructure and exfiltrated 44GB of data including source code, contracts, invoices, and project documentation. The attack used Jira credentials harvested via infostealer malware — the same repeatable attack chain HellCat has used against Schneider Electric, Telefonica, and Orange.
Action: Enforce MFA on all Jira instances, restrict Jira access to VPN/internal networks, and monitor for credential leaks on dark web marketplaces.
Critical Patch Priorities
Here's what to patch first if you haven't already:
| Priority | CVE(s) | Product | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CVE-2025-49113 | Roundcube Webmail | 9.9 Critical |
| 2 | CVE-2026-1281/1340 | Ivanti EPMM | 9.8 Critical |
| 3 | CVE-2026-1731 | BeyondTrust RS/PRA | 9.9 Critical |
| 4 | CVE-2025-68461 | Roundcube Webmail | 7.2 High |
| 5 | CVE-2026-2441 | Google Chrome | 8.8 High |
| 6 | CVE-2026-21643 | Fortinet FortiClientEMS | 9.1 Critical |
| 7 | 6 zero-days | Microsoft Feb Patch Tuesday | 7.5-8.8 |
Threat Intelligence Highlights
AI-Assisted Attack Automation Is No Longer Theoretical
The FortiGate campaign confirms what researchers have warned about: threat actors are now using generative AI to automate reconnaissance, tool development, and attack planning at scale. A single actor compromised 600+ devices across 55 countries — work that would have previously required a much larger team.
Supply Chain Attacks Targeting AI Developer Tools
The Cline CLI compromise follows a growing trend of attackers specifically targeting AI-powered development tools. These tools often run with elevated privileges and have broad access to source code and credentials, making them high-value targets.
Roundcube Remains a Favorite Target
Roundcube webmail continues to appear in CISA's KEV catalog. Organizations still running self-hosted Roundcube instances should seriously evaluate migrating to managed email services or implementing strict network segmentation around their webmail infrastructure.
Quick Tips
-
Deploy our IT Offboarding Checklist — If you're handling employee departures ad hoc, use our new checklist to ensure no access is left behind. Orphaned accounts are one of the most common initial access vectors.
-
Set up BGPalerter per our new guide — The BGP monitoring how-to walks you through deploying real-time route anomaly detection. Even if you don't own an ASN, monitoring your upstream providers can give you early warning of outages.
-
Block nslookup from explorer.exe — The ClickFix DNS variant relies on nslookup spawned from the Windows Run dialog. Use AppLocker or WDAC to restrict nslookup execution to IT accounts only. Our detection guide has the rules ready to go.
-
Audit global npm packages — After the Cline supply chain attack, run
npm list -g --depth=0to check for unexpected packages like OpenClaw. The VS Code extension was not affected — only the npm CLI package was compromised.
Coming Soon
- Incident Response Playbook Template — Step-by-step runbooks for common incident types
- Cloud Security Posture Checklist — AWS/Azure/GCP baseline security configuration
- SentinelOne Advanced Threat Hunting Guide — Deep dive into custom detection rules and threat hunting queries
- Weekly Vulnerability Digest Automation — Automated CVE tracking and prioritization pipeline
Stay Connected
- Visit CosmicBytez Labs for the latest content
- Browse all Security Advisories
- Check Service Status for current incidents
- Use our Security Tools for quick calculations and lookups
See you in Issue #8!
— Dylan H., CosmicBytez Labs