Radar · 2025-07
July 2025
Mass exploitation of on-premises SharePoint runs through the month, a phishing attack compromises eslint-config-prettier and related packages with tens of millions of weekly downloads, the Toptal GitHub organisation is breached, the DTA releases a whole-of-government AI technical standard and PSPF Release 2025 lands with two new security standards.
What's on our radar this month: releases, advisories and standards across the stack we run and the platforms we integrate with.
AI platform and models
Sections- critical AI security
Unauthorised code reached Amazon Q Developer 1.84.0 and failed to run — aws.amazon.com
AWS security bulletin AWS-2025-015, published 23 July 2025, says version 1.84.0 of the Amazon Q Developer extension for VS Code included malicious code committed through an inappropriately scoped GitHub token in its CodeBuild configuration (CVE-2025-8217). AWS says the code did not execute because of a syntax error. Version 1.85.0 is the clean replacement; 1.84.0 was removed from distribution. BleepingComputer reports the injected prompt told the agent to clear a system to a near-factory state and delete file-system and cloud resources.
Treat AI agent instruction files and extensions as part of the supply chain: pin and update coding-assistant extensions, and audit the scope of every token in CI that can touch what agents execute.
- fyi OWASP
OWASP publishes its Securing Agentic Applications Guide 1.0 — genai.owasp.org
Released 27 July 2025, the guide is OWASP GenAI's practical companion to its earlier threat catalogues: how to design, build and deploy agentic applications so that tool access, identity, memory and human-approval gates are decided up front rather than retrofitted. It lands the same month as the Amazon Q Developer incident, which is what an over-scoped agent token looks like in practice.
Use it as the design checklist before an agent gets write access to anything, and as the basis for what you ask a vendor whose product embeds one.
- fyi WordPress
WordPress AI team proposes its core building blocks — make.wordpress.org
On 17 July 2025 the WordPress AI team published its AI building blocks proposal, including an Abilities API to expose plugin, theme and core capabilities to AI agents in a machine-readable registry, and a provider-agnostic PHP AI client SDK. The work is planned to roll out as feature plugins ahead of any core merge.
Plugin and theme developers should follow the proposals now, as the Abilities API is likely to shape how AI tooling integrates with WordPress sites.
Security and edge
Sections- critical Incident
ToolShell mass exploitation of on-premises SharePoint — cyber.gov.au
On 20 July 2025 ASD's ACSC alerted Australian organisations to CVE-2025-53770, an unauthorised remote-code-execution flaw in on-premises SharePoint Server, with an exploit already in the wild and a comprehensive Microsoft update still being prepared. CISA added CVE-2025-53770 to its exploited catalogue the same day and published ToolPane.aspx hunting guidance for the chain reported as ToolShell. Microsoft's customer guidance states SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365 is not impacted.
Hybrid estates with on-premises SharePoint needed emergency patching, AMSI enablement and machine-key rotation — and the incident is a standing argument for keeping public web presence on static, edge-served architectures instead of exposed application servers.
- notable Apache httpd
Apache HTTP Server 2.4.64 patches eight vulnerabilities — apache.org
Apache HTTP Server 2.4.64, released 10 July 2025, fixes eight CVEs. Among them are HTTP response splitting in core (CVE-2024-42516, affecting 2.4.0 through 2.4.63), an access-control bypass via TLS 1.3 session resumption on virtual hosts (CVE-2025-23048), a denial-of-service in mod_proxy_http2 (CVE-2025-49630), SSRF on Windows via UNC paths (CVE-2024-43394), and removal of support for TLS upgrade from cleartext HTTP (CVE-2025-49812).
Patch origin servers running httpd in your July cycle, prioritising hosts that serve multiple virtual hosts with client certificate access controls; check for any legacy configs relying on TLS upgrade before rolling out.
- fyi TLS
Let's Encrypt issues its first IP address certificate — letsencrypt.org
On 1 July 2025 Let's Encrypt issued its first certificate for an IP address, a capability requested since the service launched in 2015. IP address certificates are short-lived (around six days), can only be validated via http-01 or tls-alpn-01 challenges, and are available in staging ahead of general availability alongside short-lived certificates later in 2025.
Nothing to adopt: the six-day validity and the http-01 or tls-alpn-01 restriction rule this out for most site work. It is worth knowing for the narrow case it does solve — a service reached by address rather than name, where a self-signed certificate has been the fallback — and as one more step towards short-lived certificates becoming ordinary.
Standards and compliance
Sections- notable DTA
DTA releases the Australian Government AI technical standard — dta.gov.au
On 31 July 2025 the Digital Transformation Agency released the Australian Government's AI technical standard, setting requirements and recommendations across the full AI system lifecycle under three phases: discover, operate and retire. It applies to in-house systems, vendor solutions, pre-trained models and managed services.
Agencies and suppliers delivering AI features into government digital services should map their design, evaluation, monitoring and decommissioning practices against the standard now, before it becomes a procurement expectation.
- notable PSPF
PSPF Release 2025 lands with two new security standards — protectivesecurity.gov.au
Home Affairs issued PSPF Release 2025 as part of tranche 2 of the Commonwealth Uplift Reforms. The release covers innovative technologies including AI and gives authority to two new Australian Government Security Standards — Gateway Security and Systems of Government Significance.
Commonwealth entities and their suppliers should read the PSPF Release 2025 Summary of Changes and the two new standards now.
- fyi HCF
Home Affairs opens the Hosting Certification Framework reform consultation — homeaffairs.gov.au
In July 2025 Home Affairs issued an invitation to consultation on reforming the Hosting Certification Framework, with submissions due 31 July. Eight reform focus areas span purpose, governance, certification requirements, application processes, monitoring, recertification, enforcement and guidance — with goals of simplifying certification, recognising complementary security programs, and clear consequences for non-compliance.
Providers and agencies in the certified-hosting ecosystem should track this: the July 2025 paper is Phase 1 of a three-phase reform, followed by an amended Deed of Certification and then a transition program for existing providers.
CMS and platforms
Sections- fyi WordPress
WordPress publishes its roadmap to 6.9 — make.wordpress.org
The WordPress project published its roadmap to version 6.9 on 28 July 2025, confirming a second major release for the year targeted at 2 December 2025. Planned work includes a simplified site editor mode, improved template management, block-level commenting, an expanded command palette and a new Abilities API for developers.
Agencies and site owners should pencil in a pre-Christmas testing window, since a December major release lands close to change freezes for many government and enterprise sites.
Supply chain, CI/CD and IaC
Sections- critical npm
eslint-config-prettier and related packages compromised via phishing — bleepingcomputer.com
On 18 July 2025 attackers published malicious versions of eslint-config-prettier, eslint-plugin-prettier, synckit, @pkgr/core and napi-postinstall after the maintainer was phished by an email impersonating npm support from the look-alike domain npnjs.com. The affected packages account for tens of millions of weekly downloads, and the payload (tracked as CVE-2025-54313) executed a trojan DLL on Windows machines at install time.
Audit lockfiles and CI caches for the malicious versions and rebuild any Windows environments that installed them during the exposure window. Pin dependencies and treat unexpected "verify your account" emails to package maintainers as hostile.
- critical GitHub
Toptal GitHub organisation breached, malicious npm packages published — bleepingcomputer.com
Attackers hijacked Toptal's GitHub organisation around 20 July 2025, exposed 73 repositories and published ten trojanised npm packages under the company's name, including its Picasso design system. The packages used preinstall scripts to exfiltrate CLI tokens and postinstall scripts capable of destroying files before being deprecated on 23 July.
This is a reminder that organisation accounts are supply chain infrastructure. Enforce two-factor authentication on GitHub and npm organisations, rotate long-lived credentials, and monitor for unexpected package publishes under your namespaces.
Languages, runtimes and frameworks
Sections- notable PHP
PHP security releases across all supported branches — php.net
PHP released 8.4.10, 8.3.23, 8.2.29 and 8.1.33 on 3 July 2025, each announced as a security release. The 8.3.23 announcement names CVE-2025-1735, CVE-2025-6491 and CVE-2025-1220.
Update PHP on Drupal and WordPress hosts as part of your July patch cycle. PHP 8.1 security support ends on 31 December 2025, so sites still on 8.1 should be planning a move to 8.2 or later now.
- notable Node.js
Windows device names bypass path normalisation in Node.js — nodejs.org
Node.js shipped a coordinated security release on 15 July 2025 including CVE-2025-27210, rated High, where reserved Windows device names such as
CON,PRNandAUXbypass path-traversal protection inpath.normalize(), affecting Windows users ofpath.join. It is an incomplete fix for CVE-2025-23084.Patch, and treat path normalisation as insufficient on its own for Windows build agents or Windows-hosted services. A denylist of reserved device names belongs above the normaliser, not inside it.
- notable Symfony
Symfony 7.2 reaches end of support — symfony.com
Symfony 7.2 reached end of support in July 2025, eight months after its November 2024 release. Under Symfony's release process, each standard release gets eight months of bug fixes and eight months of security fixes, while LTS releases keep the longer tail.
Check which Symfony line each project tracks and move the unattended ones to LTS.
Static site and web tooling
Sections- notable Nuxt
Nuxt 4.0 released with a new project structure — nuxt.com
Nuxt 4.0 shipped on 15 July 2025 after more than a year of testing behind a compatibility flag. The major release moves application code into a new app/ directory, reworks data fetching with smarter caching and cleanup, and improves type safety with separated type environments for app and server code. Breaking changes are deliberate and modest, and most can be smoothed over with the provided codemods.
Nuxt 3 users should read the upgrade guide and run the migration codemods in a branch before committing — and confirm modules you depend on declare Nuxt 4 compatibility first.
- notable Nuxt
Nuxt 4 moves application code into an app directory — nuxt.com
Released with the v4.0.0 tag on 15 July 2025, Nuxt 4.0 makes
app/the default location for application code and removes Nuxt 2 compatibility from@nuxt/kit. The announcement said Nuxt 3 would be maintained through the end of January 2026.Take the directory change as a deliberate migration rather than an in-place upgrade, and plan it before Nuxt 3 maintenance ends.
Update, January 2026: The Nuxt 4.3 release moved Nuxt 3's end of life from 31 January 2026 to 31 July 2026.
- fyi Astro
Astro 5.11 and 5.12 refine CSP and add TOML content support — astro.build
Astro shipped 5.11 and 5.12 during July 2025. The releases add new Content Security Policy features, TOML support for content loaders, the ability to opt out of HTML streaming with the Node.js adapter, and experimental raw environment values. Starlight 0.35 also landed with new documentation customisation options.
Routine minor upgrades; review the CSP changes if you enabled the experimental flag in 5.9 or later.
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