GlobalProtect

k0t Operators Breach Corporate Firewalls and VPNs Exposing Over 70,000 Credentials

Group-IB and NyxLab detailed a campaign by the operator k0t targeting exposed firewalls and VPN portals. The operation collected more than 70,000 credentials from network devices and LDAP directory extractions across 84 compromised appliances. Initial access relied on CVE-2025-64446 directory traversal in FortiWeb, CVE-2026-0257 authentication bypass in Palo Alto GlobalProtect, and password brute-forcing against FortiGate devices. Attackers then leveraged CVE-2019-6693 to decrypt FortiOS configuration secrets and chained the noPac technique to reach domain administrator privileges. Persistence was achieved through MeshCentral, AdaptixC2, Atera, AnyDesk, and ngrok, while Rclone handled data exfiltration to cloud storage. Victims appeared on the Qilin and The Gentlemen leak sites, suggesting the operators likely act as initial-access brokers rather than direct ransomware affiliates.

Qilin Ransomware Operators Exploit Palo Alto PAN-OS VPN Flaw CVE-2026-0257

Operators linked to the Qilin ransomware group have been actively exploiting an authentication bypass vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS to gain initial access to corporate networks. The attacks, observed in June 2026, targeted the GlobalProtect VPN service running on Palo Alto firewalls and were tracked under CVE-2026-0257. Attackers used specially crafted authentication cookies to establish unauthorized VPN sessions, after which they harvested credentials from Windows LSASS processes and Active Directory NTDS databases. Lateral movement relied heavily on PsExec and administrative shares, supplemented by tools such as AnyDesk, Ngrok, LogMeIn, and NetExec. Before deploying the ransomware binary stored as win.exe in C:\PerfLogs\, the threat actors disabled Microsoft Defender real-time protection and cleared event logs. The vulnerability affects PAN-OS versions 10.2, 11.1, 11.2, and 12.1 as well as certain Prisma Access editions, while Panorama and Cloud NGFW remain unaffected.