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31 items in the last 24h

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 ThreatLabz · 14h agoThreat actor in the wild

SEEK: Secure and Efficient Encrypted Keyword Search For Privacy-Preserving Messaging Protocols

Researchers propose SEEK, a homomorphic-encryption plus 2PC protocol for encrypted keyword search that hides keywords while detecting matches.

SEEK partitions messages into ciphertext fragments with minimum sufficient overlap and homomorphically correlates them using encrypted keyword trapdoors, combined with 2PC-based selected decoding, blinded zero testing, and secure aggregation. It reduces sender-side encryption and upload overhead by up to two orders of magnitude over state-of-the-art baselines and computes correlations up to 5.47x faster, revealing only the keyword presence bit while hiding contents, counts, and locations. A prototype achieves 1.92 seconds online computation per search on a weekly messaging history and is realized as a web and cross-platform mobile application.

arXiv cs.CR · 19h agoResearch

Witness Encryption via Prime-Order Generic Groups

Unconditional witness encryption construction for NP in the generic-group model, plus first superconstant NP-hardness result for homogeneous MinRank.

A cryptography paper unconditionally constructs witness encryption for NP in the classical generic-group model using an ordinary cyclic group of prime order. For SAT instances of size n, encryption and decryption run in poly(n) time with correctness error 2^-n^Ω(1), while generic adversaries making n^Θ(log n) queries achieve at most n^-Θ(log n) distinguishing advantage. It also proves the first superconstant-factor NP-hardness of approximation for homogeneous MinRank under randomized reductions.

arXiv cs.CR · 22h agoResearch

Hackers Stole Flock’s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People

Hackers who removed a Flock Safety license plate camera dumped its data, revealing person-detection capabilities and an encryption key stored unencrypted on the device.

A hacker collective calling itself stegan0gram physically removed a Flock Safety automatic license plate reader camera from a roadway, copied its storage, and shared the files with 404 Media, WIRED, and Distributed Denial of Secrets. Analysis found an encryption key in an unencrypted 'media' partition that unlocked videos of thousands of vehicle detections, with logs showing more than a million images generated in weeks. The software explicitly detects people, bicycles, and even bumper stickers, and records from one Georgia city were searchable by more than 2,000 agencies nationwide. The findings follow 2025 research by Jon Gaines documenting flaws enabling root-level access to Flock cameras.

404 Mediaupdated · 7h agofirst · 19h agoResearch in the wild 3 sources

Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera. Its Data Shows How the System Really Works

Hackers stole a Flock Safety camera, copied its storage, and recovered an encryption key exposing vehicle surveillance data and system internals.

Hackers from the collective stegan0gram removed a Flock Safety license plate reader from a roadway, copied its storage, and recovered an encryption key stored in an unencrypted partition, unlocking videos of thousands of vehicle detections. The data, shared with 404 Media, WIRED, and Distributed Denial of Secrets, shows the camera generated roughly 1.6 million images of about 50,200 vehicles over 21 days and detects people, bicycles, and bumper stickers in addition to license plates. The dump follows 2025 research by Jon 'GainSec' Gaines documenting flaws enabling root access, which Flock downplayed. Flock's national network makes camera records searchable by more than 2,000 agencies, fueling controversy over police and immigration lookups.

WIRED · Securityupdated · 7h agofirst · 19h agoData breach in the wild 3 sources

Three Threat Groups Target Russian Enterprises With Backdoors, Ransomware, and Wipers

Kaspersky details NightEagle, Hacking Cat, and Toy Ghouls targeting Russian enterprises with Exchange backdoors, Gorilla RAT, and destructive Monkey ransomware.

Kaspersky reports three threat clusters targeting Russian enterprises: NightEagle (APT-Q-95), the pro-Ukrainian hacktivist group Hacking Cat, and Toy Ghouls. NightEagle uses compromised VPN credentials and the GhostContainer modular backdoor to fully compromise Microsoft Exchange servers, chaining CVE-2020-0688 exploitation, BlueKeep (CVE-2019-0708), Active Directory vulnerabilities, and DCSync to seize domain controllers. Hacking Cat exploits Exchange flaws including CVE-2021-26855 and CVE-2026-42897 to deliver the Gorilla RAT and multiple Monkey ransomware variants written in Rust, .NET, C++, and Golang targeting Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi, with some variants acting as wipers that never store the encryption key.

The Hacker Newsupdated · 16m agofirst · 14h agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sourcesCVE-2020-0688CVE-2019-0708CVE-2021-26855+1 CVEs

Smishing Hackers Can Watch Every Keystroke as Victims Enter Card Details and OTPs

Group-IB details the JWR smishing kit, used by the Outsider cluster, that streams keystrokes and OTPs to fraudsters in real time via WebSocket.

Group-IB linked the JWR phishing kit to an operator cluster it tracks as Outsider within the broader Smishing Triad ecosystem. Fake toll, parcel, and delivery messages lead to live phishing pages that capture card numbers, passwords, and one-time passcodes before victims submit forms. The kit supports up to 32 guided pages, AES-256-CTR wrapped traffic with keys embedded per message, rotating short links and domains, and WordPress or Shopify integration markers, enabling account takeover and unauthorized payments.

Cyber Security News · 16h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

Flock cameras are riddled with security vulnerabilities and hardcoded creds

Leaked Flock ALPR camera firmware reveals EOL Android 8.1, a 2017 Linux kernel, and hardcoded API keys granting access to production credentials.

DDoSecrets published filesystem images from an in-use Flock ALPR camera, obtained by the hacker collective stegan0gram and investigated by 404 Media and Wired. Micah Lee's analysis shows the camera runs Android 8.1 with a security patch level of 2018-06-05 and Linux kernel 3.18.71, missing roughly eight years of Android fixes. The firmware exposes a hardcoded API key for Flock's hpnotiq backend that can retrieve Auth0 client credentials for any camera by MAC address, with credentials stored in plaintext. Likely unpatched flaws include CVE-2021-1905 (Qualcomm Adreno use-after-free) and CVE-2018-9568 (WrongZone kernel socket type confusion); Flock says it received no reports via its disclosure policy.

German Manufacturer Shrinks Security Alert Response While Protecting 10,000 Endpoints

Vendor case study: a German manufacturer's five-person SOC cut alert triage time using ANY.RUN's cloud sandbox across 10,000 endpoints.

ANY.RUN published a case study in which a five-person security team at an unnamed German manufacturer replaced an air-gapped forensic laptop with its cloud-managed interactive sandbox, protecting roughly 10,000 endpoints and 10,000 users. The vendor claims a median 15 minutes saved per alert, 20-40 daily tasks processed, a 2.5-minute alert-to-isolation target, and a 95% agreement rate between analyst and sandbox verdicts; all figures are vendor-supplied with the customer identity withheld. The writeup also describes detonating a multi-stage phishing chain from a PDF link to a password-protected ZIP to malware execution.

Cyber Security News · 14h agoIndustry 2 sources

Hackers Use Cross-Platform Noodle RAT to Secretly Control Windows and Linux Systems

Check Point identifies Noodle RAT as a distinct cross-platform Windows/Linux backdoor used by Chinese-speaking actors against Asia-Pacific organizations since 2016.

Check Point assesses Noodle RAT, also known as ANGRYREBEL, as a distinct backdoor family rather than a variant of Gh0st RAT or Rekoobe, with separate Windows (Win.NOODLERAT) and Linux (Linux.NOODLERAT) variants sharing a common command-and-control design. The Windows implant runs filelessly via shellcode with loaders like MULTIDROP and MICROLOAD, while the Linux variant provides reverse shells, file management, and SOCKS tunneling after exploitation or web-shell placement on exposed servers. Groups including Iron Tiger, Calypso APT, Rocke, and Cloud Snooper have deployed it against organizations in Thailand, India, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Check Point released sample hashes and C2 IP indicators alongside the analysis.

Cyber Security News · 15h agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

TP-Link Cameras 0-Day Vulnerabilities Allow Attackers to Spy on Users

Two zero-day flaws in TP-Link Tapo C200 cameras allowed authentication bypass and denial-of-service; fixed in firmware V5_1.4.6.

OPSWAT researchers Khoi Tran and Thai Do found CVE-2026-15315, an authentication bypass in the Tapo C200's local HTTPS interface that lets network-adjacent attackers replay an authentication value to gain administrator access, and CVE-2026-15316, an unauthenticated denial-of-service in the Wi-Fi onboarding process that crashes the camera's HTTPS service. TP-Link was notified on April 16, 2026, confirmed the flaws on July 10, and released patches on August 18, 2026 in firmware V5_1.4.6. Exploitation requires local network access but no valid account, existing session, or user interaction, exposing live feeds and stored recordings to surveillance risk.

PAPERMILL Hackers Abuse Signed Notepad++ to Deploy VenomRAT in Tax Audit Attacks

PAPERMILL phishing campaign abuses a signed Notepad++ copy and tax-audit lures to deploy VenomRAT against targets in India.

JUMPSEC tracks PAPERMILL as an emerging cluster whose emails pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and deliver tax-audit themed disk images. The mounted image pairs a legitimately signed, renamed executable with a rogue libcurl.dll for DLL sideloading, then uses a Donut shellcode loader to run VenomRAT 6.0.3 in memory with hidden VNC, data-stealing, and file-grabbing capabilities. The loader includes anti-analysis checks and RunOnce persistence, and lures plus China-connected infrastructure overlap with the Silver Fox ecosystem, though attribution remains unconfirmed.

Cyber Security News · 17h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

Malware bypasses browser checks to force install Chrome, Edge extensions

Elastic Security Labs detailed KREMLIN, a Brazilian banking malware that silently installs malicious Chrome and Edge extensions, with 1,515 confirmed infections.

Elastic Security Labs analyzed KREMLIN, a toolkit used by a Brazilian operation in at least seven campaigns since May 2025 that impersonates 12 banks to trick users into opening a JavaScript file disguised as a bank receipt or invoice. After anti-sandbox checks, it downloads Node.js, persists via a scheduled task, and fetches payload locations from an Ethereum smart contract, hiding payloads in JPEG images on Internet Archive. The toolkit bypasses Chromium integrity mechanisms to install unapproved Chrome/Edge extensions masquerading as AVSync that steal cookies, keylog form input, capture screenshots, and intercept HTTP traffic, while recent campaigns deployed the REMCOS RAT and earlier ones Pulsar RAT. Elastic confirmed 1,515 infected systems, almost all in Brazil, and disrupted the campaign by registering an anti-sandbox canary domain; the linked wallet handled roughly 20,800 USDT incoming and 19,000 USDT outgoing.

BleepingComputer · 11h agoMalware in the wild 3 sources

GhostCode Phishing Kit Bypasses Microsoft 365 MFA to Hijack Accounts in 78 Seconds

eSentire identified GhostCode, a phishing kit abusing Microsoft 365 OAuth device-code sign-in to steal tokens and take over accounts in seconds.

eSentire analysts identified GhostCode in late August, a phishing kit that uses business contact-form messages and an NDA pretext to deliver a password-protected HTML attachment leading victims to a Microsoft device-code sign-in. Victims authenticate on legitimate Microsoft pages, letting the kit obtain a Primary Refresh Token in 32 seconds and register three devices in 78 seconds, with residential proxies matching the victim's location. The kit hides its redirect with encrypted addresses, junk data, and scanner-filtering challenges, and uses GHOSTnet-linked infrastructure during device enrolment. eSentire recommends blocking device-code authentication via Conditional Access, invalidating tokens, and reviewing newly enrolled devices.

Cyber Security News · 15h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 9 sources5

TP-Link Tapo Camera Flaw Lets Attackers Gain Admin Access Without Password

Two flaws in TP-Link Tapo C200 cameras allow network-adjacent admin access without a password (CVE-2026-15315) or DoS (CVE-2026-15316); fixed in V5_1.4.6.

OPSWAT Unit 515 researchers discovered CVE-2026-15315, an authentication bypass in the Tapo C200's local HTTPS management interface on port 443, where an alternative verification path accepts a replayed device-generated value, letting unauthenticated network-adjacent attackers establish admin sessions. CVE-2026-15316 causes a denial-of-service crash in the camera's HTTPS service via oversized encrypted Wi-Fi credential data during onboarding. TP-Link confirmed both issues after the April 16, 2026 report and released firmware V5_1.4.6 on August 18, 2026. OPSWAT says additional potentially critical findings remain under coordinated disclosure.

GBHackersupdated · 16h agofirst · 17h agoVulnerability 3 sourcesCVE-2026-15315CVE-2026-15316

Zero-Day Flaw in TP-Link Cameras Enables Eavesdropping

OPSWAT disclosed two zero-days in TP-Link Tapo C200 cameras: CVE-2026-15315 authentication replay bypass enabling surveillance and CVE-2026-15316 denial-of-service, both patched in firmware.

OPSWAT found two zero-days in the TP-Link Tapo C200 camera, widely used for baby/pet monitoring and SOHO security: CVE-2026-15315, an authentication bypass via replay granting administrative access without the password, and CVE-2026-15316, an unauthenticated denial-of-service that crashes the camera's HTTPS service via oversized encrypted credentials. Both were fixed in firmware version V5_1.4.6 released August 18. A third, still-unpatched zero-day rated critical could allow full camera compromise for use as a network foothold; details await an available fix.

Infosecurity Magazineupdated · 16h agofirst · 19h agoVulnerability 3 sourcesCVE-2026-15315CVE-2026-15316

CISA Warns Hackers Exploit 17 Active Directory Techniques to Gain Control of Enterprise Networks

CISA and Five Eyes agencies issued joint guidance detailing 17 Active Directory attack techniques like Kerberoasting and DCSync, with hardening and detection advice.

CISA, the NSA, and cyber agencies from Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand released joint guidance on September 15 covering 17 techniques attackers use to compromise Active Directory, including AD CS, Certificate Services, and Federation Services attacks. Named techniques include Kerberoasting, AS-REP roasting, password spraying, DCSync, NTDS.dit dumping, Golden and Silver Tickets, Golden SAML, and Skeleton Key. Recommendations include minimizing SPN accounts, enforcing AES encryption, disabling NTLM, account lockout thresholds of five attempts, phishing-resistant MFA, and Tier 0 prioritization. The guide also lists Windows event IDs 4769, 4768, 4625, 4771, and 2889 for detecting Kerberoasting and password spraying on domain controllers.

GBHackers · 23h agoAdvisory

NightEagle Hackers Target Russian Companies Using GhostContainer Backdoornew

Kaspersky links NightEagle (APT-Q-95) intrusions in Russia to stolen VPN credentials, the GhostContainer Exchange backdoor, BlueKeep exploitation, and covert tunneling for espionage.

Kaspersky's Global Emergency Response Team attributes new intrusions against Russian companies to NightEagle (APT-Q-95), active since at least 2023 and previously focused on Asian organizations. The group uses valid VPN credentials, deploys the .NET-based GhostContainer backdoor on Microsoft Exchange servers, and tunnels RDP via Microsoft Dev Tunnels and rdp2tcp. In one incident operators exploited BlueKeep (CVE-2019-0708) to create an administrator account, and they performed DCSync replication against Active Directory to harvest domain password hashes. GhostContainer reuses code from Neo-reGeorg, ExchangeCmdPy.py (CVE-2020-0688), and ysoserial, and tampers with AMSI and Windows event logging to evade detection.

Iceland-based Treble raises $18 million for its voice simulation platformnew

Iceland-based startup Treble raised an $18 million Series A extension to expand its acoustic simulation and synthetic data platform for voice AI companies.

Treble, founded in 2020 by acoustic engineers Finnur Pind and Jesper Pedersen, raised $18 million in a Series A extension led by Paladin Capital Group, bringing total funding above $40 million. The company builds physics-based acoustic simulation for synthetic speech data generation, voice AI model evaluation, and virtual prototyping of headphones, speakers, and smart glasses. Customers include Amazon and Logitech, and it partnered with Hugging Face earlier this year on a benchmark for speech recognition models under realistic conditions.

TechCrunch · AI · 58m agoAI industry

CISA promotes a fresh way to deter cyberattackers: Lie to them

CISA issued first-time guidance advising critical infrastructure operators to deploy honeypots, honeytokens, and decoys to detect and distract intruders.

CISA published 'Using Cyber Decoys to Strengthen Detection and Response,' a 22-page guide marking the agency's first guidance on decoys such as honeypots and honeytokens. Acting executive director Chris Butera described decoys as a low-cost, high-fidelity way to detect adversaries already inside networks, complementing zero-trust and assume-compromise approaches. The guidance covers decoy principles, definitions, deployment scenarios, and is aimed especially at resource-constrained critical infrastructure sectors.

CyberScoop · 9h agoAdvisory

USN-8776-1: python-cryptography vulnerabilities

Ubuntu patches python-cryptography flaws including a PKCS#7 timing side-channel (CVE-2026-69247) that could allow key recovery.

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-8776-1 fixes multiple vulnerabilities in python-cryptography. CVE-2026-69247 describes distinguishable PKCS#7 decryption outcomes with observable timing differences that a remote attacker could exploit to recover encryption keys; it affects Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. CVE-2023-23931, affecting only Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, involves incorrect handling of objects with immutable buffers during cipher operations, causing corrupted output, and a third issue reported by Jack Lloyd is also addressed.

Your AI agents can now control your Google Home devices

Google launches early-access MCP server letting MCP-capable AI agents like Claude and ChatGPT control Google Home devices.

Google rolled out early access to a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Google Home, allowing agents such as Claude, ChatGPT, Hermes, OpenClaw, and Google Antigravity to control Nest devices, review camera summaries, monitor activity, and access event history. Setup requires a Google Cloud project configured for Home MCP plus user permission grants. Access begins this week for US Google Home Premium Advanced ($20/month) subscribers, with broader rollout timing unannounced.

TechCrunch · AI · 12h agoAI industry 2 sources

Anthropic merges Claude chat and Cowork in one interface

Anthropic unified Claude chat, Cowork, and Artifacts into one auto-routing interface, adding Docs and Slides creation with PDF and PowerPoint export.

Anthropic merged the Claude chat and Cowork front-ends so one window routes requests automatically, ending customer confusion over which tab to use. The update adds Claude Docs and Slides with PDF and PowerPoint export, collaborative sections, and comments, and makes Claude Design, launched in April, available anywhere in Claude. It rolls out to Pro and Max plans on web, desktop, and mobile over coming weeks, with Free and Team tiers later, following a recent Cowork memory upgrade.

TechCrunch · AIupdated · 11h agofirst · 13h agoAI industry 5 sources

Coast Guard, FBI board US-bound foreign ships in order to probe for cyberattacks

US Coast Guard and FBI boarded two foreign tankers bound for the US after indications their vessel networks were compromised, investigating possible Iranian involvement.

The Coast Guard and FBI conducted joint offshore security boardings of two commercial ships in the Gulf of Mexico on August 21 and 24 to examine their operational and IT systems following indications both networks were compromised. The vessels reportedly carried oil and natural gas, and one was hacked in the Strait of Gibraltar and lost communications for over 30 hours. No operational disruptions, vessel instability, or environmental impacts have been reported, and authorities are investigating whether Iran or another group exploiting US-Iran tensions was behind the attacks.

CyberScoopupdated · 11h agofirst · 15h agoData breach in the wild 2 sources

GhostCode Abuses Microsoft Entra Device Enrollment to Maintain Access After Token Revocation

eSentire exposes GhostCode, a device-code phishing kit that abuses Microsoft Entra device enrollment to persist even after stolen tokens are revoked.

eSentire's Threat Response Unit observed GhostCode campaigns in late August 2026, using BEC-style social engineering that impersonated procurement staff, including BJ's Wholesale Club, via Salesforce contact forms. Victims received password-protected HTML lures disguised as a FlipBook document portal, with junk-data padding, HTML comment injection, and AES-256-GCM encrypted redirects gated by anti-bot checks. The kit exploits the OAuth 2.0 device authorization grant, prompting victims to approve real Microsoft device-code sign-ins with MFA. Within 78 seconds of approval, attackers registered three Entra devices and obtained a Primary Refresh Token, so rogue device registrations persist even after session token revocation.

GBHackers · 16h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild2

Chinese-Speaking Hackers Use Noodle RAT Backdoor to Spy on Windows and Linux Systems

Chinese-speaking actors use cross-platform Noodle RAT backdoor to maintain covert access to Windows and Linux systems across Asia-Pacific.

Noodle RAT (also ANGYREBEL/Nood RAT) has been active since at least mid-2016 and was long misidentified as Gh0st RAT or Rekoobe variants until Trend Micro and Cyberint classified it as a distinct multi-platform family. The Windows build (Win.NOODLERAT) is an in-memory modular shellcode backdoor delivered via MULTIDROP and MICROLOAD loaders, while the Linux build supports reverse shells, SOCKS tunneling, and cron persistence after web shell or public-facing service exploitation. It has appeared in intrusions in Thailand, India, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan and is linked to Iron Tiger, Calypso APT, Rocke, and Cloud Snooper campaigns spanning espionage and cybercrime. Recently discovered Linux builders 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 indicate the toolkit remains actively maintained.

GBHackersupdated · 15h agofirst · 17h agoMalware in the wild 2 sources1

Smishing Triad Hackers Use JWR Phishing Kit to Steal Cards, OTPs and Bank Credentials

Group-IB attributes large-scale smishing using the JWR real-time phishing kit to the Smishing Triad's Outsider cluster, harvesting card data, OTPs, and bank credentials.

Group-IB attributes a large-scale SMS phishing campaign to Outsider, an operator sub-cluster within the Smishing Triad phishing-as-a-service ecosystem, using a kit dubbed JWR. The Vue 2-based platform maintains real-time WebSocket communication with operators, enabling them to adapt pages live and harvest roughly 70 PII fields, card data, PINs, OTPs, identity document images, and digital wallet credentials via a dedicated PayPal sub-funnel. Unit 42 previously tied 194,345 malicious domains across 136,933 root domains to the broader operation since January 2024. Defenders can hunt for /api/open/ endpoints, /webSocket/QT/ paths, JWR-prefixed storage artifacts, and a hard-coded WebSocket token.

GBHackersupdated · 16h agofirst · 18h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

Fake CAPTCHA Scams

Bruce Schneier examines fake CAPTCHA scams that abuse human-verification prompts as social engineering lures against users.

Bruce Schneier's blog post covers fake CAPTCHA scams, a social engineering technique in which attackers pose as CAPTCHA verification checks to manipulate users. The available page text is largely site navigation, and no specific campaign, victim, or malware family is named in the source.

Schneier on Security · 18h agoPhishing & fraud

Amazon launches Alexa+ in India with Hindi support

Amazon launched its generative AI Alexa+ assistant in India with Hindi support in Early Access, free for Prime customers after testing.

Amazon announced that Alexa+, its generative AI-powered conversational assistant, is now available in India in Early Access with Hindi and English support, including mid-sentence language switching and long-form context retention. The assistant handles multi-step tasks such as ordering groceries via Amazon Now and controlling smart home devices, with integrations including Swiggy, District, MakeMyTrip, EazyDiner, Amazon Music, and JioSaavn. It will be free for Prime members after the testing period and cost about $20.85 per month for non-Prime customers. Amazon is targeting India's 600 million-plus Hindi speakers, and says smart device adoption grew 20% year over year.

TechCrunch · AI · 19h agoAI industry

PAPERMILL Malware Campaign Abuses Signed Notepad++ to Deliver VenomRAT to Windows Users

JUMPSEC tracks PAPERMILL, a China-nexus phishing campaign using a signed Notepad++ binary, libcurl.dll sideloading, and Donut loaders to deploy VenomRAT against Indian tax-audit targets.

PAPERMILL delivers ISO disk images via tax-audit phishing emails that passed SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, containing a renamed Authenticode-signed Notepad++ executable and a malicious libcurl.dll that proxies curl functions while executing loader logic in DllMain. The chain uses Mark-of-the-Web bypasses, anti-sandbox sleeps, UAC elevation prompts, Registry persistence, and a Donut shellcode loader to reflectively load .NET VenomRAT v6.0.3 with HVNC and credential-stealing capability, with C2 at 154.36.188.201:4449. JUMPSEC assesses the campaign as China-nexus, financially motivated, and Silver Fox-adjacent rather than definitively Silver Fox-operated.

GBHackersupdated · 17h agofirst · 20h agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

KREMLIN Banking Malware Infects Over 1,500 Systems With Malicious Chrome Extension

Elastic tracks KREMLIN banking malware that used fake Brazilian bank JavaScript lures to deploy malicious Chrome and Edge extensions on 1,515 systems.

Elastic researchers tracked the KREMLIN banking malware operation across seven campaigns over 15 months, infecting 1,515 systems, 98.75% of them in Brazil. Portuguese-language lures posing as bank records and invoices deploy a hostile 'AVSync' extension into Chrome and Edge profiles that harvests passwords, session cookies, keystrokes and screenshots. Loaders check for sandboxes, create scheduled tasks and fetch fresh infrastructure from an Ethereum smart contract; a network canary takeover temporarily disrupted infections.

Cyber Security Newsupdated · 11h agofirst · 21h agoMalware in the wild 3 sources