Daily CISO Briefing Note | December 11, 2025

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Summary

The past 48 hours included disclosures across malware-as-a-service infrastructure expansion, enterprise content management platforms, file archival utilities, regulatory framework development for security research, and government agency enforcement actions against educational technology providers. These signals arose from unrelated sectors and appeared within the same reporting window through vendor patch cycles, security vendor research publication schedules, national regulatory gazette filings, and federal enforcement announcements.

Theme 1: Security vendor research documents expansion of malware-as-a-service loader infrastructure across four distinct operational clusters

Recorded Future published analysis documenting that the threat actor designated GrayBravo has significantly expanded its user base, evidenced by the growing number of threat actors and operational clusters leveraging its CastleLoader malware. Four clusters have been identified using the loader, including TAG-160 targeting the logistics sector using phishing and ClickFix techniques, and TAG-161 using Booking.com-themed campaigns to deliver CastleLoader and Matanbuchus. Blackpoint detailed a Python dropper-based attack chain that uses ClickFix techniques to distribute the CastleLoader, shifting from earlier campaigns that used ZIP archives containing AutoIt scripts. Source category: security vendor research.

Theme 2: Enterprise software vendor releases monthly security update addressing 117 vulnerabilities in content management platform

Adobe released patches for 138 vulnerabilities in ColdFusion, Experience Manager, DNG SDK, Acrobat and Reader, and Creative Cloud Desktop. Experience Manager received fixes for 117 vulnerabilities, 116 of which are cross-site scripting flaws, including two critical-severity bugs tracked as CVE-2025-64537 and CVE-2025-64539 with CVSS scores of 9.3. Adobe sets the deployment priority for the ColdFusion fix as 1. Source category: vendor security bulletin.

Theme 3: Government vulnerability catalog adds file archival utility path traversal flaw following nation-state exploitation

CISA added CVE-2025-6218, a path traversal bug in RARLAB WinRAR, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability was patched by RARLAB with WinRAR 7.12 in June 2025 and only affects Windows-based builds. Russian cybersecurity vendor BI.ZONE reported indications that GOFFEE may have exploited CVE-2025-6218 along with CVE-2025-8088 in attacks targeting organizations in Russia in July 2025 via phishing emails. The South Asia-focused Bitter APT has also weaponized the vulnerability. Federal agencies are required to apply fixes by December 30, 2025. Source category: government advisory.

Theme 4: European nation publishes statutory framework establishing legal protection for good-faith security research

Portugal updated its cybercrime law to exempt cybersecurity researchers and ethical hackers from prosecution. The change was made public in the Portuguese Official Journal on December 4. The amendment titled "Acts not punishable due to public interest in cybersecurity" creates a legal exception for actions that would have been considered illegal under prior law, on the condition that these actions help identify vulnerabilities or contribute to cybersecurity. To fall under this exemption regime, security researchers must not act with the purpose of obtaining economic advantage, must not violate personal data protection laws, and must not use denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, phishing, or data theft to achieve their research goals. Source category: government regulatory gazette.

Theme 5: Federal agency announces enforcement action against educational technology provider following breach affecting 10 million student records

The FTC will require education technology provider Illuminate Education to implement a data security program and delete unnecessary data to settle allegations that the company's data security failures led to a major data breach affecting more than 10 million students. In late December 2021, a hacker used the credentials of a former employee who had departed Illuminate three and a half years prior to breach databases stored on a third-party cloud provider. The hacker gained access to personal data including email and mailing addresses, dates of birth, student records, and health-related information. Source category: federal enforcement announcement.

Synthesis

Multiple unrelated sectors appeared within the same reporting window through vendor patch coordination cycles, government vulnerability catalog updates, security vendor research publication schedules, national regulatory gazette filings, and federal enforcement timelines. (12 themes excluded—covered in prior 48-hour briefings.)

Author
Daniel Michan is the founder of CybersecurityHQ, a CISO-grade intelligence platform read weekly across the Fortune 100. He analyzes identity-centric risk, machine identity failures, SaaS integration breakdowns, and emerging AI-speed threats, producing executive briefings and deep-dive research used by enterprise security leaders for decision support.