This week on the InfoSec.Watch Podcast, we break down a series of high-impact threats targeting the systems organizations rely on most—email gateways, Windows endpoints, and operational infrastructure that does not fail gracefully.

The episode opens with an urgent look at Cisco AsyncOS (CVE-2025-20393), an actively exploited, unauthenticated remote-code-execution flaw affecting Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Secure Email and Web Manager deployments. The hosts explain why email gateways must be treated as Tier-Zero assets, outline post-patch hunting requirements, and discuss the real-world risk of persistence on perimeter infrastructure.

Next, the conversation turns to Microsoft’s January Patch Tuesday, including CVE-2026-20805, an actively exploited Windows zero-day now listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. While the vulnerability appears low-severity on paper, Grant and Sloane explain how information-disclosure bugs are routinely chained into full compromise—especially on jump hosts, VDI, and privileged systems.

The episode also examines a ransomware attack on the AZ Monica hospital network in Belgium, highlighting the operational and patient-safety consequences when healthcare infrastructure goes offline. The discussion focuses on availability planning, segmentation, paper-mode readiness, and the importance of rehearsed downtime procedures.

In the Vulnerability Spotlight, the hosts cover active exploitation of a high-severity flaw in Gogs, a self-hosted Git service, and an unauthenticated denial-of-service condition impacting Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect. Both cases reinforce a central theme: development and remote-access infrastructure must be treated as production-critical systems.

The Trend to Watch explores a growing supply-chain risk in workflow automation platforms like n8n, where compromised community plugins can expose stored credentials and API tokens—effectively turning automation tools into high-value credential vaults.

The episode closes with a practical Actionable Defense Move of the Week, urging teams to focus on one high-impact service class and validate patching, exposure, logging, and rapid containment capabilities—before the next advisory drops.

Key themes this week:

• Email gateways as Tier-Zero infrastructure
• Active exploitation outweighs CVSS scores
• Availability is a primary security concern
• Control planes and automation platforms are high-leverage targets

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Welcome back to the InfoSec.Watch Podcast, your weekly briefing on the security threats that matter.

In Episode 120, we break down a clear and recurring theme across this week’s incidents: control planes have become prime attack planes.

We start with active exploitation of a critical flaw in HPE OneView, underscoring why management-plane software must be treated as Tier Zero infrastructure. From there, we examine unpatchable risk posed by actively exploited, end-of-life D-Link DSL gateways, and a critical unauthenticated RCE (CVSS 9.8) in Trend Micro Apex Central, where compromise could allow attackers to disable security controls at scale.

In the Vulnerability Spotlight, we cover:

• A jsPDF path traversal flaw highlighting real-world software supply chain risk
• Multiple Veeam Backup & Replication fixes, reinforcing why backup platforms remain high-value ransomware targets

Our Trend to Watch looks at a growing enterprise data-loss vector: prompt-poaching via malicious browser extensions, where entire GenAI conversations — including sensitive code and data — are being exfiltrated from tools like ChatGPT.

We also discuss:

• CISA’s move to formally retire early Emergency Directives in favor of a mature KEV-driven vulnerability process
• Why organizations should adopt their own “KEV-style” prioritization model
• Chainsaw, a high-performance open-source tool for rapid Windows EVTX triage

In this week’s Actionable Defense Move, we walk through a 30-minute management-plane exposure sweep — a fast, high-impact exercise to identify publicly exposed admin interfaces before attackers do.

Final takeaway: attackers will always gravitate toward systems where privileges are concentrated. If a control plane must exist, it must be tightly restricted, aggressively patched, and continuously monitored.

For a full written breakdown of these stories and more, subscribe to the InfoSec.Watch newsletter at infosec.watch, and follow us on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn for updates throughout the week.

In this week’s episode of the InfoSec.Watch Podcast, hosts Grant Lawson and Sloane Parker break down the security stories that defenders can’t afford to ignore.

The episode opens with urgent patching guidance for an actively exploited WatchGuard IKEv2 VPN remote code execution flaw, followed by analysis of “MongoBleed” (CVE-2025-14847)—a memory disclosure vulnerability in MongoDB now seeing real-world exploitation. Grant and Sloane walk through not just why these issues matter, but what defenders should be doing after patching, including log review, threat hunting, and hardening exposed services.

The discussion then turns to a growing threat targeting security teams themselves: malicious GitHub proof-of-concept repositories that masquerade as exploit code but actually deploy WebRAT malware. The hosts explain how researchers and blue teams can safely handle PoCs without becoming the next breach.

Other highlights include:

• A breakdown of the Aflac breach notification affecting 22.65 million individuals and why incident response doesn’t end at containment
• Ongoing DDoS disruptions impacting French postal and banking services, with a focus on operational resilience and customer communication
• A Vulnerability Spotlight on a critical SmarterMail flaw enabling arbitrary file upload and likely RCE
• Tool of the Week: Praetorian’s Gato, which maps attack paths in CI/CD environments using GitHub Actions and self-hosted runners
• A Deep Dive into the accelerating weaponization of AI-driven phishing campaigns

The episode wraps with an Actionable Defense Move of the Week, outlining a formal, repeatable process for safely handling exploit code, and a Final Word on why fundamentals—patching, exposure management, and disciplined workflows—still define the fastest path to compromise.

For full analysis, links, and takeaways, subscribe to the newsletter at infosec.watch and follow along on X, LinkedIn, and Facebook.