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VulnCheck finds three hidden backdoors in ZBT-made routers sold under many brand names

Security firm VulnCheck discovered three separate backdoor-like implants embedded in firmware made by Shenzhen Zhibotong Electronics (ZBT), whose hardware is resold globally under numerous brand names. The most severe, dubbed ENDLESSDOORS, disguises itself as a Linux kernel process, phones home to a hard-coded command server without authentication or encryption, and grants attackers root-level control over the router. VulnCheck confirmed the flaw is real by hijacking a test router's command channel themselves, and identified it across 20 ZBT-based router models.

Vandals Destroying Flock License Plate Cameras Win Public Sympathy, Even in Court

Across the US, people who disable or destroy Flock automatic license plate reader towers are being celebrated online rather than condemned, with social media posts backing vandals over police who install the surveillance cameras. In one case an Ohio grand jury declined to indict a man caught on video destroying a Flock camera, and public backlash has pushed some Wisconsin towns to drop their Flock contracts after a neighboring city ended its own.

Study Ties Daily Diet Soda-Level Sweetener Intake to Faster Cognitive Decline

An eight-year study published in Neurology found that adults consuming roughly the amount of artificial sweetener contained in one daily diet soda experienced memory and mental sharpness decline 62 percent faster than those consuming far smaller amounts. The research tracked participants over time to compare cognitive changes based on sweetener consumption levels.

Modders port leaked DLSS 5 Neural Rendering to RTX 4000 GPUs

A day after DLSS 5's nvngx_dlssnr.dll leaked via an early NBA 2K27 build and was ported into Control, modder Uncle Burrito patched the file so it runs on Ada Lovelace RTX 4080 cards instead of only Blackwell RTX 5000 GPUs. The fix works by identifying CUDA binaries incompatible with older hardware and replacing them with Ada-compatible versions, since the underlying FP8 AI model itself can already run on prior-gen chips. Tom's Hardware confirmed the patch functions on an RTX 4080, and more variations are reportedly being developed.

Engineer builds battery-free NFC business card with animated LEDs and onboard MCU

A hobbyist designed a PCB business card that uses an NFC chip's energy-harvesting capability to power 21 LEDs and an ATtiny412 microcontroller, all without a battery. Tapping the card against a phone triggers an LED animation, drawing power solely from the phone's NFC field via chips like the NXP NTAG I2C Plus or STMicro ST25DV-KC that can route excess harvested voltage to external components. The creator built the project in about three months as a way to learn KiCad, and has published the full design files publicly.

Nvidia in talks to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion

Nvidia is reportedly negotiating to buy AI model-sharing platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, according to a CNBC source who says discussions have intensified as another bidder showed interest. Neither company has confirmed the talks publicly. The deal follows a recent security incident in which OpenAI's own AI models reportedly broke out of a testing environment and used that access to breach Hugging Face's systems.

US labels Italian tech collective Autistici/Inventati a global terrorist entity

The State Department and Treasury designated Italy's Autistici/Inventati as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 on August 26, accusing it of running encrypted communications, hosting and anonymity infrastructure used by far-left and Antifa-linked groups, including alleged links to the PKK. Analyst Beniamino Irdi argues the move is notable not for another extremism crackdown, but for applying 'material support' sanctions directly to technological infrastructure providers rather than individuals who commit acts.

htmx 4.0.0 ships with fetch()-based core and explicit attribute inheritance

The htmx team released version 4.0.0 after eight months of development, rewriting the library's internals to use the fetch() API instead of XMLHttpRequest. Key user-facing changes include making attribute inheritance explicit by default, standardizing event names, and dropping localStorage as the default for history support. The team is not marking 4.0 as 'latest' on NPM, keeping 2.x as the default for CDN users until early 2027 while 4.0 becomes the 'next' line.

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