Malware

BASHNATCH

3 mentions in 7 days · 3 in 30 days · 3 total · first seen Sep 16, 2026 · last 2h ago

Timeline3 articles

APT36 Uses USB-Spreading Malware to Reach Air-Gapped Government Networks

Zscaler attributes the RapidRust campaign by Pakistan-linked APT36 to USB-propagating Rust malware targeting air-gapped government networks in India and Afghanistan.

Zscaler identified in August 2026 a campaign tracked as RapidRust in which APT36 uses infected removable drives to reach air-gapped government environments in India and Afghanistan. RUSTYMOVE, a Rust USB-spreading utility, copies a fake-PDF shortcut and the RUSTYSHADE backdoor to removable media; RUSTYSHADE uses attacker-controlled private GitHub repositories for C2, running shell commands, capturing screenshots and webcam images, while PSNATCH and BASHNATCH steal files. Operators enumerated users, shares, and remote administrative shares to expand beyond initial victims, with payloads staged on lookalike domains mimicking Indian media outlets and Backblaze B2 storage.

Cyber Security News10:17 UTC · 2h agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sources

APT36 Targets Indian Government and Defense Organizations With New Rust Malware Arsenal

Pakistan-linked APT36 deployed a Rust malware suite, including RUSTYSHADE and USB-spreading RUSTYMOVE, against Indian and Afghan government and defense targets.

Zscaler ThreatLabz tracks the August 2026 activity as Operation RapidRust, introducing the Rust-based RUSTYSHADE backdoor, the RUSTYMOVE removable-media propagation utility, and PSNATCH and BASHNATCH file stealers for Windows and Linux. RUSTYSHADE uses private GitHub repositories as C2 with AES-256-GCM-encrypted traffic, supporting shell commands, screenshots, webcam capture, and encrypted exfiltration, while PSNATCH collects Office documents, archives, images, and databases from user folders and drives D: through H:. Typosquat domains spoofing ThePrint and India Today staged payloads with Backblaze storage, and persistence used scheduled tasks impersonating OneDrive and Microsoft Edge updates.

GBHackersupdated 10:17 UTC · 2h agofirst 09:42 UTC · 2h agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sources

Operation RapidRust: APT36 Deploys RUSTYSHADE, RUSTYMOVE, PSNATCH, and BASHNATCH

Zscaler details Operation RapidRust: APT36 deploys four new tools including RUSTYSHADE, a Rust backdoor using private GitHub repos for encrypted C2.

Zscaler ThreatLabz documents Operation RapidRust, a campaign by Pakistan-aligned APT36 deploying four new tools: RUSTYSHADE, a 64-bit Rust Windows backdoor that uses attacker-controlled private GitHub repositories with a hardcoded PAT and AES-256-GCM-encrypted messages for C2; RUSTYMOVE; PSNATCH, a PowerShell file stealer that scans Office documents, archives, media, and databases modified in the last 120 days and exfiltrates up to 5 GB per run to per-machine GitHub repositories; and BASHNATCH. The backdoor was dropped via PowerShell from attacker-controlled Backblaze B2 storage and supports screenshots, webcam capture, file listing, downloads, and shell command execution.

Zscaler ThreatLabzupdated 10:17 UTC · 2h agofirst Sep 16, 15:13 UTC · 21h agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sources

Appears with

vendor Zscaler 3 threat actor APT36 3 malware PSNATCH 3 malware RUSTYMOVE 3 malware RUSTYSHADE 3 victim Indian government 2 organization GitHub 2 victim Afghan government 2 organization ThePrint 1 organization Zscaler 1 organization Zscaler ThreatLabz 1 product BASHNATCH 1 product PSNATCH 1 product RUSTYMOVE 1 product RUSTYSHADE 1 organization Backblaze 1

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