Daily Security Briefing #183

March 4, 2026 | Read Online

CISA warns Qualcomm chipsets vulnerability, Iran-linked Dust Specter APT deploys AI-aided malware, and Honeywell controllers exposed online…

Executive Summary

Cybersecurity threats continue to evolve with malicious actors adapting to disruptions. The recent CISA warning on a critical Qualcomm chipset vulnerability highlights the need for timely patching. Meanwhile, an Iran-linked APT group has been deploying AI-assisted custom .NET malware against Iraqi officials. Additionally, Honeywell’s Trend IQ4xx building management system controllers have been found exposed online without authentication.

Top Articles

CISA Warns Qualcomm Chipsets Memory Corruption Vulnerability Is Actively Exploited in Attacks The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a critical Qualcomm chipset vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on March 3, 2026. This flaw poses a severe memory corruption risk across multiple Qualcomm chipsets. GBHackers

Iran‑Linked “Dust Specter” APT Deploys AI‑Aided Malware Against Iraqi Officials The Iran-nexus APT group “Dust Specter” is targeting Iraqi government officials with AI-assisted custom .NET malware, using dual attack chains that blend DLL sideloading, in-memory PowerShell, and ClickFix-style lures. GBHackers

Honeywell Controllers Exposed Online Without Authentication, Thousands at Risk Cybersecurity researcher Gjoko Krstic from Zero Science Labs has uncovered a critical flaw in Honeywell’s Trend IQ4xx building management system (BMS) controllers. These devices expose a full web-based human-machine interface (HMI) without any authentication. CyberPress

149 Hacktivist DDoS Attacks Hit 110 Organizations in 16 Countries After Middle East Conflict Cybersecurity researchers have warned of a surge in retaliatory hacktivist activity following the U.S.-Israel coordinated military campaign against Iran. Two groups, Keymous+ and DieNet, are driving nearly 70% of all attack activity. The Hacker News

Coruna iOS Exploit Kit Uses 23 Exploits Across Five Chains Targeting iOS 13–17.2.1 Google said it identified a “new and powerful” exploit kit dubbed Coruna (aka CryptoWaters) targeting Apple iPhone models running iOS versions between 13.0 and 17.2.1. The Hacker News

Hacker Mass-Mails HungerRush Extortion Emails to Restaurant Patrons Customers of restaurants using the HungerRush point-of-sale (POS) platform say they received emails from a threat actor attempting to extort the company, warning that restaurant and customer data could be exposed if HungerRush fails to respond. Bleeping Computer

Windows 10 KB5075039 Update Fixes Broken Recovery Environment Microsoft has released the KB5075039 Windows Recovery Environment update for Windows 10 to fix a long-standing issue that prevented some users from accessing the Recovery environment. Bleeping Computer

Powering Cyber Resilience Across APAC: Celebrating Check Point’s APAC FY25 Partner Award Winners Check Point Software Technologies recognized the top partners across the Asia Pacific region, during the Check Point Software Technologies Sales Kickoff APAC event in Bangkok, Thailand. Checkpoint Blog

The Whitelist Illusion – When Your Trusted List Becomes a Billion Dollar Attack Path Nation-state attackers can inject malicious content into AI training data by exploiting trust mechanisms. This vulnerability highlights the need for stricter security measures in AI development and deployment. Checkpoint Blog

Rapid7 and Our Global Partners Are Elevating Security Together There is a particular kind of energy that fills the room when partners gather with a shared mission. It is part strategy session, part reunion, part blueprint for what comes next. Rapid7 Blog

AI Transparency: This newsletter uses AI to curate, rank, and summarize cybersecurity content from leading industry blogs. All articles link directly to original authors. Executive summaries are AI-generated based on article content. I curate the sources and deliver the digest—the original authors deserve the credit for their excellent work.