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Today we are joined by Subhajeet Singha, Senior Security Researcher at Acronis Threat Research Unit, discussing their work on "Red Heron exploits Gitea n-day flaw in multinational campaign, exposing new Linux rootkit." A Chinese-speaking threat actor tracked as Red Heron exploited a critical Gitea remote code execution vulnerability, CVE-2026-60004, within days of its public disclosure, compromising organizations across five countries and stealing source code, credentials, and sensitive infrastructure data.
Summary
The campaign involved deploying persistent backdoors and a newly identified Linux implant called JITTERLY, which contains an undocumented rootkit, SIXZUT, capable of hiding files, processes, and network connections while protecting the malware from removal. Acronis assesses with moderate confidence that Red Heron operates within a PRC-linked context, highlighting how quickly attackers can weaponize newly disclosed vulnerabilities and turn exposed development platforms into gateways for broader network compromise.
This is a brief wire summary, the full story (linked below) has the complete details.
KazaSec's take
Incidents like this rarely start with the headline event itself, they usually trace back to an exposed remote-access endpoint, an unpatched perimeter system, or a credential phished weeks earlier. The organizations that recover fastest are the ones that tested their defenses and their incident response plan before they needed them.
Coverage details
We've archived 16 other articles touching the same topic (research) , see the full security news archive.
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