2 Vulnerabilities With 9.8 Severity Ratings Are Under Exploit. A 3rd Looms

Malicious hackers, some believed to be state-backed, are actively exploiting two unrelated vulnerabilities — both with severity ratings of 9.8 out of a possible 10 — in hopes of infecting sensitive enterprise networks with backdoors, botnet software, and other forms of malware.

The ongoing attacks target unpatched versions of multiple product lines from VMware and of BIG-IP software from F5, security researchers said. Both vulnerabilities give attackers the ability to remotely execute malicious code or commands that run with unfettered root system privileges. The largely uncoordinated exploits appear to be malicious, as opposed to benign scans that attempt to identify vulnerable servers and quantify their number.