China's Cyber Tricks & Treats: VMware, Telco Hacks Spook US Tech on Halloween 2025

This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.Hey listeners, I’m Ting, your go-to for the juiciest cyber scoops, especially when China’s in the mix. Today’s Halloween, October 31, 2025, but trust me: the real scares are in cyber, not haunted houses. Let’s jump right into the latest hacks, malware frights, and official CISA alerts hitting US tech and defense over the past 24 hours—no spooky stories, just hard-hitting reality.First, the showstopper: the just-uncovered VMware Tools and VMware Aria Operations vulnerability—CVE-2025-41244—has been in active exploitation by Chinese state hackers, specifically the group known as UNC5174, for nearly a year. This flaw lets any user with basic access to a virtual machine break out and seize root control. Think of it as someone sneaking into your locked guest room and suddenly having the keys to your whole house. CISA rushed out an emergency directive yesterday and put this flaw at the top of its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. If you’re running affected VMware, patch now or disconnect from the network—seriously, don’t wait to become the next headline. The deadline for federal agencies is November 20, but private orgs: you are not immune. The group behind these attacks, UNC5174, works as a contractor for China’s Ministry of State Security and is also linked to breaches at US defense and telecom giants earlier this year. Maxime Thiebaut from NVISO first found the bug, confirming it’s not just theoretical—full proof of concept code is floating around, and attacks are ongoing according to both CISA and the Google Mandiant team.But wait—it's not just virtualization platforms dripping in risk. Auburn University’s McCrary Institute and Microsoft both confirm that China’s “Typhoon” hacking umbrella—think Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, Linen Typhoon, and more—is probing and, in many cases, deeply embedded within critical US infrastructure. That means energy, water, telecom, transportation, and healthcare. The Salt Typhoon crew, for instance, breached Verizon, AT&T, and Charter, snarfing up metadata for a million US users, including government officials, and even getting views into lawful intercept data that law enforcement uses. It’s almost a Netflix show: code names, sector-hopping, and a relentless drive for disruption.Telecommunications are in the crosshairs, with Ribbon Communications reporting a likely China-backed breach—customer files on laptops were accessed. They’re tight-lipped on technical specifics, but say the snooping may have started way back in December 2024. Response involved federal law enforcement and third-party cyber firepower, but it’s a sober reminder: attackers are patient, persistent, and sometimes invisible until it’s too late.On the wider stage, Chinese-linked group UNC6384—closely related to Mustang Panda—has been busy in Europe, targeting diplomatic networks with spear phishing and the classic PlugX rat. While not a US direct hit, their methodology and tooling often cross the pond, so defenders should take note: social engineering and Linked malware campaigns are evergreen.Your defense plan for today, according to CISA: patch all VMware Aria and Tools installs now, verify your segmentation on critical infrastructure networks, audit logs for unusual authentication, and educate staff against social engineering—especially in sectors at highest risk. The US is fighting back with indictments, advisories, and sanctions, but the game is endurance.So that’s your cyber threat rundown for this Halloween. Don’t forget to subscribe, stay patched, and stay paranoid—in a good way! Thanks for tuning in, and this has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.For more http://www.quietplease.aiGet the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOtaThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.