Advertise on podcast: Decipher Security Podcast

This week was a tale of two stories: the PHP2Shell vulnerabilities and the compromise of several certificates issued by CA eMudhra in India. Timestamps00:00 — A wild week in security news02:50 — PHP vulnerabilities and the disclosure drama08:07 — Why coordinating an embargo is so difficult10:02 — Preparing for the PHP patches11:29 — The PHP bugs make national headlines13:44 — Inside the researchers’ PHP vulnerability analysis15:56 — Exploit risk, patching, and the long tail18:06 — Cloudflare’s mitigation and the response so far21:44 — Compromised certificate authority keys23:37 — Revoking certificates and restoring trust25:07 — The hidden infrastructure behind internet security28:11 — “We have a problem here” — shout-out to Wayne29:22 — What’s coming next

The newly disclosed PHP2Shell vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619) are as serious as everyone feared, and Ben Harris of watchTowr joins Dennis Fisher to discuss their long-term impact.Timestamps00:00 - Introduction and why the PHP bugs are a big deal00:22 - The disclosure process starts to unravel01:04 - Why the two PHP vulnerabilities are so severe02:07 - Why the embargo mattered and why the leak was dangerous02:49 - PHP’s massive footprint across the internet04:08 - What mitigations can and cannot do05:35 - Comparing this to Log4Shell06:32 - Why sysadmins outside security are suddenly paying attention07:22 - Why old assumptions about disclosure may no longer hold08:48 - How LLMs accelerate reproduction from tiny clues09:13 - Why even partial screenshots and leaked video can be enough10:33 - A rough six to twelve months ahead for security teamsLinksPHP blog: https://thephp.foundation/blog/2026/10/21/todays-php-security-release-and-how-were-strengthening-php-security/Our story: https://decipher.sc/2026/10/20/critical-php-flaws-disclosed-patches-out-now/

Cybersecurity policy can stall when technical experts and lawmakers speak different languages. Beau Woods, CEO and founder of Stratigos Security joins Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch to explain how Hackers on the Hill brings cybersecurity researchers and policymakers together to build understanding and move ideas forward. Timestamps 0:05 Introduction to Beau Woods 1:46 The Origins of Hackers on the Hill 5:48 Bridging Cybersecurity Research and Policy 9:43 Misconceptions in Cybersecurity Legislation 13:47 Growing Technical Literacy in Government 19:46 Applying Security Across Critical Sectors 25:47 Mock Hearings and Policy Conversations 28:36 Cyber Policy Shark Tank 31:58 AI, Cybersecurity, and Public Policy 36:57 Societal Goals Over Technology 37:33 Closing Thoughts

This week, we're talking about hacked refrigerators, the FBI disrupting a North Korean laptop farm run by Famous Chollima, and a stealthy network of ads used to deliver mercenary spyware via a zero-click exploit. imestamps0:00 Intro & new video bumper2:00 Hacked supermarket refrigerators3:39 Default credentials and exposed controllers6:47 Food losses, overheating, and real-world impact9:47 The risk of “smart” connected devices15:29 Why security warnings don’t reach operators22:09 Spyware delivered through targeted ads27:17 The scale of modern mercenary spyware33:10 North Korean fake IT-worker operations37:56 Inside the laptop-farm scheme42:57 What’s coming next on DecipherLinksCitizen Lab report: https://citizenlab.ca/research/how-di...FBI advisory on Famous Chollima: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justic...

John Hammond of Huntress joins Dennis Fisher to dive into the ClickFix attack episdemic, how these attacks work, what the payloads are, and what individuals and organizations can do to protect themselves against them.

This week we talk about all the news from THREATCON1, including why the idea of just patching faster doesn't work, how analysts handle threat actor communications in ransomware incidents, and what the NSA thinks of AI threats.

Bestselling author, podcaster, and all around great guy Shea Serrano joins Dennis Fisher and Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch to explore why Catch Me If You Can is more than a con-artist story: it’s a hacker classic and master class in social engineering, confidence, and deception. We unpack Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance, Spielberg’s tension-building, and the film’s memorable cast and scenes. Along the way, the conversation connects the movie to hacker culture and cybersecurity, and asks why Frank Abagnale’s cons still fascinate us today.LinksSubscribe to Shea's Good Movie newsletter: https://substack.com/@sheaserrano

Today we have for you a buffet of zero days being exploited in edge security products, including Citrix and Fortinet, then we discuss the importance of communications from vendors when bad things happen, and finally we preview VulnCheck's THREATCON1, which takes place next week.

Ben Harris of watchTowr joins Dennis Fisher to walk through the Citrix NetScaler zero days that emerged over the weekend, from first detection of exploitation to reporting to finally some patches and why vendor communication is so vital in these cases.

Ryan Fetterman from Cisco Talos sits down with Decipher’s Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch to talk about ClosedQuorum, the first reported malware binary with an autonomous command-and-control. They talk about the wide range of ways threat actors are using AI, and useful detection strategies for AI-assisted attacks. Links Talos analysis: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/th...

This week we dig into the ShinyHunters hack of the FBI and what it means not just for the FBI personnel but for the attackers, then we discuss the disruption of the EvilTokens phishing operation by Microsoft, and finally we talk about the F5 BIG-IP zero day and some odds and ends from LabsCon.LinksFBI hack: https://x.com/FBI/status/210280781969...EvilTokens disruption: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/secur...F5 zero day: https://decipher.sc/2026/09/24/f5-cve...watchTowr Labs post: https://labs.watchtowr.com/is-this-a-...

The security and reliability of the code in AI models is a huge question mark, because the models are black boxes that aren't accessible to outsiders. Matt Fredrikson, professor at Carnegie Mellon University and founder of Gray Swan AI, joins Dennis to talk about the challenge of assessing these models and how a community of red teamers is trying to meet it.

Dennis joins from the last LabsCon conference, which featured amazing keynotes from Prof. James Mickens on AI reality and myths, Katie Moussouris on why humans are more vital than ever in security, and Dino Dai Zovi on using hardware to break attack chains,

You've heard all of the hysteria around the vulnpocalypse caused by AI-assisted bug hunting and the shrinking time to exploit window. Now Jeremiah Grossman dispels those myths and shows exactly what the data reveals about how many bugs are actually exploited and how long it takes for attackers to target them.

This week we dive into Anthropic's new threat intelligence report, how cybercriminals are using AI in their campaigns, and the profound effect that 9/11 had on the cybersecurity industry. Then, Dennis is joined by Ryan Naraine to preview LabsCon and talk about the keynotes by Katie Moussouris, Dino Dai Zovi, and James Mickens. Anthropic report: https://www.anthropic.com/threat-inte...LabsCon agenda: https://events.sentinelone.com/event/...Mickens essay: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1...