Kiteworks Resumes Operations After Federal Threat Warning and Patches Critical Flaw
Summary
Kiteworks resumed operations after a precautionary shutdown prompted by federal threat intelligence. It patched a critical Advanced Forms vulnerability and said it had found no evidence of exploitation or abnormal activity.
Key points
- Kiteworks advised customers to take production systems offline and shut down hosted environments as a precaution against a potential imminent attack.
- The company said monitoring found no abnormal activity, allowing operations to resume.
- During the shutdown, Kiteworks found and patched a previously unknown critical vulnerability in Advanced Forms, used by about 50 organizations.
- Kiteworks said it has no indication the flaw was exploited; release 9.5.1 addresses all known vulnerabilities.
- The company said its other file collaboration, transfer, email encryption and managed file transfer products were unaffected.
- Kiteworks shared threat intelligence with federal authorities and industry partners, including Mandiant, but did not identify the authorities or the hacking group behind the warning.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Precautionary shutdown of Kiteworks-hosted environments and customer production systems following credible threat intelligence from federal authorities; Kiteworks also found and patched a previously unknown critical vulnerability in Advanced Forms.
- Impact
- Customers were advised to take production systems offline over the weekend, and Kiteworks temporarily shut down hosted environments. Monitoring showed no abnormal activity, and services resumed. The Advanced Forms vulnerability affected a tool used by fewer than 1% of customers (approximately 50 organizations); Kiteworks reported no indication it had been exploited and said release 9.5.1 addresses all known vulnerabilities. Other Kiteworks products were reported unaffected.