Three Buddy Problem - Episode 56: China-focused researcher Dakota Cary joins the buddies to dig into China’s sprawling cyber ecosystem, from the HAFNIUM indictments and MSS tasking pipelines to the murky world of APT contractors and the ransomware hustle. We break down China’s “entrepreneurial” model of intelligence collection, why public visibility into these threat actors is so hard to get right, and how companies like Microsoft get caught in the geopolitical crossfire.
Plus: a deep dive on suspected MAPP leaks and Sharepoint zero-days, Singapore targeted by extremely sophisticated China-nexus hacking group, soft censorship in corporate threat-intel, and whether the U.S. should rethink how it fills its intelligence gaps.
Cast: Dakota Cary, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 55: A SharePoint zero-day exploit chain from Pwn2Own Berlin becomes a full-blown security crisis with Chinese nation-state actors exploiting vulnerabilities that Microsoft struggled to patch properly, leading to trivial bypasses and a cascade of new CVEs. The timeline is messy, the patches are faulty, and ransomware groups are lining up to join the party.
We also revisit the ProPublica bombshell about Microsoft's "digital escorts" and U.S. government data exposure to Chinese adversaries and the company's "oops, we will stop" response. Plus, trusting Google's Big Sleep AI claims and a cautionary tale about AI agents gone rogue that wiped out a production database.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 54: Europol busted pro‑Russian hacktivist crew NoName 057(16), the Brits announce sanctions on Russia’s GRU cyber units, Wagner‑linked “war influencers” streamed atrocities from Africa, and fresh tech worries ranged from a $500 RF flaw that can hijack U.S. train brakes.
Plus, ProPublica on Microsoft’s China‑based “digital escorts,” Google’s headline‑grabbing AI‑found SQLite zero‑day, and OpenAI’s new task‑running agents. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s hackers wiped a Russian drone maker, ransomware crippled a major vodka producer, and another Chrome zero‑day quietly underscored how routine critical exploits have become.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 53: We dig into news of the first-ever arrest of a Chinese intelligence-linked hacker in Italy, unpack the mystery behind HAFNIUM and how they somehow got their hands on the same Microsoft Exchange zero-days that researcher Orange Tsai discovered - was it coincidence, inside access, or something more sinister?
Plus, China's massive cyber capabilities pipeline, ‘theCom’ teenagers arrested in the UK after ransomware binge, and spyware attacks against Russian organizations.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 52: Fresh intelligence reports out of Europe and China: France’s ANSSI documents a string of Ivanti VPN zero-days ('Houken'), and Quanxin frames a stealth Microsoft Exchange-zero-day chain linked to a North American 'Night Eagle' threat actor. We dissect the technical bread-crumbs, questions the attribution math, and connects Houken to SentinelOne’s “Purple Haze” research.
Plus, the FBI’s claim that China’s “Salt Typhoon” has been “contained,” Iran’s Nobitex crypto-exchange breach (Predatory Sparrow torches $90 million and leaks the source code), Iranian cyber capabilities and sanctions avoidance.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 51: Former Immunity/Trail of Bits researcher Hamid Kashfi joins the buddies for a fast-moving tour of cyber activities in the Israel-Iran war. The crew unpacks who 'Predatory Sparrow' is, why Sepah Bank and the Nobitex crypto exchange were hit, and what a $90 million cryptocurrency burn really means. Plus, radar-blinding cyberattacks that paved the way for Israel’s air raid, the human cost of sudden ATM outages and unpaid salaries, and the puzzling “Code Breakers” data leak that preceded it all.
Hamid shares on-the-ground context, the buddies debate whether cyber operations can sway a shooting war, and everyone tries to gauge Iran’s true offensive muscle under sanctions.
Cast: Hamid Kashfi, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 50: This week, we dissect cyber flashpoints in the Iran-Israel war, revisit the “magnet of threats” server in Iran that attracted APTs from multiple nation-states, and react to Israel's Mossad sneaking explosive drone swarms deep into Iran to support airstrikes.
Plus, Stealth Falcon’s new WebDAV zero-day, SentinelOne’s brush with Chinese APTs, Citizen Lab’s forensic takedown of Paragon’s iPhone spyware, and the sneaky Meta/Yandex trick that links Android web browsing to app IDs.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 49: Cybersecurity veteran Mikko Hypponen joins the show to discuss the fast-changing life and times on NATO’s newest frontline, how Ukraine’s long-range “Spiderweb” drone swarms punched holes in Russian air bases, the cyber connections to the escalating drone warfare, and the coming wave of autonomous “killer robots”.
Plus, news on Ukraine’s hack of bomber-maker Tupolev, the industry’s never-ending APT naming mess, iVerify’s newly disclosed iMessage zero-click bug, fresh Qualcomm GPU exploits still unpatched on Android devices, and Cellebrite’s purchase of Corellium.
Cast: Ryan Naraine, Costin Raiu and Mikko Hypponen
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 48: We unpack a Dutch intelligence agencies report on ‘Laundry Bear’ and Microsoft’s parallel ‘Void Blizzard’ write-up, finding major gaps and bemoaning the absence of IOCs. Plus, discussion on why threat-intel naming is so messy, how initial-access brokers are powering even nation-state break-ins, and whether customers (or vendors) are to blame for the confusion.
Plus, thoughts on an academic paper on the vanishing art of Western companies exposing Western (friendly) APT operations, debate whether stealth or self-censorship is to blame, and the long-tail effects on cyber paleontology.
We also dig into Sean Heelan’s proof that OpenAI’s new reasoning model can spot a Linux kernel 0-day and the implications for humans in the bug-hunting chain.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 47: We unpack a multi-agency report on Russia’s APT28/Fancy Bear hacking and spying on Ukraine war supply lines, CISA’s sloppy YARA rules riddled with false positives, the ethics of full-disclosure after Akamai dropped Windows Server “BadSuccessor” exploit details, and Sekoia’s discovery of thousands of hijacked edge devices repurposed as honeypots.
The back half veers into Microsoft’s resurrected Windows Recall, Signal’s new screenshot-blocking countermeasure, Japan’s fresh legal mandate for pre-emptive cyber strikes, and why appliance vendors like Ivanti keep landing in the headlines.
Along the way you get hot takes on techno-feudalism, Johnny Ive’s rumored AI gadget, and a lively debate over whether publishing exploit code ever helps defenders.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 46: We dig into a Coinbase breach headlined by bribes, rogue contractors and a $20 million ransom demand. Plus, (another!) batch of Ivanti and Microsoft zero-days being exploited in the wild, a new 'Intrusion Logging' feature coming to Android, Apple's iOS 18.5 patches, and the EU announcing its own vulnerability database and software vendor secure-coding pledge.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 45: (The buddies are trapped in timezone hell with cross-continent travel this week).
In the meantime, absorb this keynote presented by Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (JAG-S) at CounterThreats 2023. It's a frank discussion on the role of cyber threat intelligence (CTI) during wartime and its importance in bridging information gaps between adversaries. Includes talk on the ethical challenges in CTI, questioning the impact of intelligence-sharing and how cyber operations affect real-world conflicts. He pointed to Ukraine and Israel as examples where CTI plays a critical, yet complicated, role. His message: cybersecurity pros need to be aware of the real-world consequences of their work and the ethical responsibility that comes with it.
Acknowledgment: Credit for the audio goes to CyberThreat 2023, SANS Institute, NCSC, and SentinelOne.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 44: We unpack news that US government officials are using an obscure app to archive Signal messages, OpenAI’s new “Aardvark” code-evaluation and reasoning model and leapfrog implications, NSC cyber lead Alexei Bulazel on normalizing US offensive operations, and JP Morgan Chase CISO’s warning to software vendors.
Plus, fresh SentinelOne threat-intel notes, France’s attribution of GRU activity and a head-scratching $330 million Bitcoin heist.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 43: Director of the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies Thomas Rid joins the show for a deep-dive into the philosophical and ethical considerations surrounding AI consciousness and anthropomorphism. We dig into the multifaceted implications of AI technology, particularly focusing on data privacy, national security, and the philosophical questions surrounding AI consciousness and rights.
Plus, TP-Link under US government investigation and the broader issues of consumer trust in hardware security, the need for regulation and inspectability of technology, and the struggles with patching network devices.
Cast: Thomas Rid, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Ryan Naraine. Costin Raiu is away this week.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 42: We dig into news that China secretly fessed up to the Volt Typhoon hacks and followed up with claims that named NSA agents launched advanced cyberattacks against the Asian Winter Games. Plus, the MITRE CVE funding crisis, new Apple 0days in the wild includes PAC bypass exploit, Microsoft Patch Tuesday zero-days.
Plus, the effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, the rising costs of mobile exploits, Chris Krebs' exit from SentinelOne after a presidential executive order, and the value and effectiveness of security clearances.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 41: Costin and Juanito join the show from Black Hat Asia in Singapore. We discuss Bunnie Huang's keynote on hardware supply chains and a classification system to establish a grounded perspective on trust in hardware, Ivanti's misdiagnosis of a critical VPN applicance flaw and Mandiant reporting on a Chinese APT exploiting Ivanti devices. Plus, breaking news on the sudden firing of NSA director and head of Cyber Command Tim Haugh.
We also discuss Microsoft touting AI's value in finding open-source bootloader bugs, Silent Push report on a RUssian APT impersonating the CIA, a backdoor in a popular Chinese robot dog, and Chinese dominance of the robotics market.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 40: On the show this week, we look at the technical deficiencies and opsec concerns around the use of Signal for ultra-sensitive communications. Plus, some speculation on who's behind Kaspersky’s ‘Operation Forum Troll’ report, Chinese discussion on NSA/CIA mobile networks exploitation, and the return of ‘Lab Dookhtegan’ hack-and-leak exposures.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 39: Luta Security CEO Katie Moussouris joins the buddies to parse news around a coordinated Chinese exposure of Taiwan APT actors, CitizenLab's report on Paragon spyware and WhatsApp exploits, an “official” Russian government exploit-buying operation shopping for Telegram exploits, the fragmentation of exploit markets and the future of CISA in the face of budget cuts and layoffs.
Cast: Katie Moussouris, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 38: On the show this week, we look at a hefty batch of Microsoft zero-days exploited in the wild, iOS 18.3.2 fixing an exploited WebKit bug, a mysterious Unpatched.ai being credited with Microsoft Access RCE flaws, and OpenAI lobbying for the US to ban China's DeepSeek.
Plus, discussion on a Binarly technical paper with new approach to finding UEFI bootkits, Mandiant flagging custom backdoors on Juniper routers, and MEV 'sandwich attacks' front-running cryptocurrency transactions.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 37: This week, we revisit the public reporting on a US/Russia cyber stand down order, CISA declaring no change to its position on tracking Russian threats, and the high-level diplomatic optics at play.
Plus, a dissection of ‘The Lamberts’ APT and connections to US intelligence agencies, attribution around ‘Operation Triangulation’ and the lack of recent visibility into these actors. We also discuss a fresh batch of VMware zero-days, China’s i-Soon ‘hackers-for-hire’ indictments, the Pangu/i-Soon connection, and a new wave of Apple threat-intel warnings about mercenary spyware infections.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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