CISA issued an emergency directive after F5 source code and undisclosed vulnerabilities were stolen by a nation-state hacker.

Officials warned that attackers could exploit the vulnerabilities to steal credentials, move laterally through networks, and potentially take full control of targeted systems.

Partnering with an EDR vendor after a nation-state has already stolen your source code isn’t innovation — it’s a gamble. You don’t build a fire extinguisher while the house is burning. You find every spark before it becomes the next inferno.

More information has come to light on the cyberattack disclosed on Wednesday by security and application delivery solutions provider F5.

The network equipment supplier suspects state-sponsored attackers and has released dozens of security patches. Authorities warn of further attacks.

Code scanning tools analyze memory handling operations to spot insecure practices, such as unchecked array indices, unsafe copying functions, or insufficient buffer allocation. Preventing buffer overflows involves enforcing bounds checks, using memory-safe functions, and adopting programming languages and libraries designed to prevent such errors.