GreyNoise researchers have observed a spike in attempts to exploit Hikvision surveillance devices in Ukraine between September 23 and October 1, 2026. The activity followed preliminary network probing on September 21 and coincided with Russian missile and drone strikes. However, investigators have not established a direct link between the cyber incidents and the military operations. The campaign targeted CVE-2021-36260, a critical command injection vulnerability affecting certain Hikvision products. With a CVSS rating of 9.8, the flaw enables remote command execution without authentication, potentially exposing vulnerable surveillance equipment to unauthorized access. GreyNoise observed that four IP addresses generated nearly all the recorded exploitation attempts. The attackers reportedly used a publicly available Nuclei template designed to identify and test command execution weaknesses in Hikvision cameras and network video recorders. The repeated requests carried an identical test command, but researchers found no evidence of attempts to install software on the targeted devices.The final activity was recorded on October 1, and Three IP addresses—195.238.124.178, 195.238.124.181, and 195.238.124.188—were linked to PureVPN infrastructure located in Lithuania.The fourth address originated from a Ukrainian network, although its exact IP address was not disclosed. Researchers linked the three VPN-associated addresses to a single entity but expressed low confidence in connecting them to the Ukrainian address. Since commercial VPN infrastructure may be shared by unrelated users, these findings do not establish common ownership or government involvement.While compromised surveillance devices could provide valuable visual intelligence for military operations, researchers have not confirmed any successful breaches, malware deployment, or Russian involvement in the activity. CVE-2021-36260 is included in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Organizations operating affected Hikvision devices should install vendor-recommended firmware updates, monitor suspicious connections, and investigate possible unauthorized access. The absence of further observed attack attempts does not mean unpatched devices are safe from future exploitation.
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