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What Zero-Day Response Should Be in the Post-Mythos Era
Picus Security outlines a zero-day response playbook where defenders simulate exploit technique chains before public PoCs exist.
The article uses PaperCut NG/MF's August incident — exploitation in the wild before any patch, with the first emergency fix bypassed the same day and a third landing September 1 — as the template for AI-accelerated vulnerability response. It walks through a hypothetical CVE-2026-1001 (explicitly made up) to argue defenders should map CVEs to ATT&CK technique chains and simulate them against NGFW, WAF, EDR, endpoint hardening, and SIEM controls within minutes of disclosure. It notes disclosure-to-exploitation time has fallen from 21.5 days to hours.
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Mapping out your unknown: A threat hunter’s guide to GitHub
Datadog Security Labs publishes a threat-hunting guide with audit-log queries to detect GitHub token theft, device code phishing, and source code exfiltration.
Datadog's threat-hunting guide covers GitHub audit log queries for detecting compromised accounts, stolen personal access tokens, and malicious OAuth app authorizations. Attackers typically obtain credentials through phishing, credential stuffing, leaked secrets, or device code phishing, then map private repositories, exfiltrate source code, and pivot into connected cloud and CI/CD environments. The guide maps detections to MITRE techniques like T1078 and T1528 and documents GitHub logging quirks affecting attribution, token metadata, and visibility fields.
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SolarWinds Web Help Desk Exploited for RCE in Multi
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⚡ Weekly Recap: Instagram Account Hacks, Android Zero
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Week in review: Microsoft fixes exploited zero-day, Mirai botnets target unpatched Wazuh servers
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Threat Brief: CVE-2022-41040 and CVE-2022-41082: Microsoft Exchange Server (ProxyNotShell)
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Hackers Turn Telegram Into a Command Center for HEAVYGRAM Surveillance Malwarenew
Group-IB links HEAVYGRAM, a Telegram-based Windows surveillance backdoor targeting Iranian dissidents and journalists since 2023, to the Handala Hack group with moderate confidence.
Group-IB identified 29 additional HEAVYGRAM samples, loaders, and payloads and linked the operation to Handala Hack with moderate confidence, expanding on US government disclosures. The backdoor has targeted journalists, Iranian dissidents, and government opponents since fall 2023, including a journalist at a UK-based Farsi-language outlet and a US-based victim. It collects screenshots and audio, steals Telegram Desktop data, executes commands, and persists via Windows registry entries, with associated CRUDEEXCLUDE samples adding security exclusions before delivery.
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SilkParasite-Linked Malware Infrastructure Traced Back Four Years Across Central Asia
Hunt.io links SpiceRAT C2 servers to China-nexus SilkParasite espionage targeting Central Asian governments, with related infrastructure active since 2022.
Hunt.io and researcher Guy Yasur traced a cluster of SpiceRAT command-and-control servers active from late 2025 to August 2026 to infrastructure linked to the China-nexus SilkParasite espionage operation. Shared parent domains, a certificate resembling an Uzbek railway entity, and a cloned RTX Corporation homepage appearing on 13 servers connect SpiceRAT systems to NodeEdgeRAT and NomadRAT infrastructure. Passive DNS records show related subdomains as early as mid-2022, suggesting the infrastructure has existed for at least four years. Hostnames impersonate government, energy and telecom targets across Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
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FamousSparrow Exploits Public-Facing Exchange Servers to Deploy SparroWocky Backdoor
ESET attributes a new SparroWocky backdoor to espionage group FamousSparrow, deployed via exploited internet-facing Exchange servers across Latin American governments.
ESET's Welivesecurity team reports FamousSparrow gained initial access by exploiting publicly reachable Microsoft Exchange servers, with roughly 90 percent of targets since mid-2025 in Latin America, including governments in Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The group's new modular C-language backdoor SparroWocky replaces SparrowDoor and uses a three-part loader: a legitimate executable, a malicious DLL side-loaded in memory, and an encrypted payload. It persists via Windows services or Registry Run keys, supports screenshots, file operations, TCP proxying, Beacon Object Files, TLS/RC4-encrypted C2, and anti-forensics such as call-stack spoofing. IOCs including loader SHA-1 hashes and C2 IP addresses were published.
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FamousSparrow Deploys New SparroWocky Backdoor Against Latin American Governments
China-aligned APT FamousSparrow deployed a new modular backdoor, SparroWocky, against government entities across eight Latin American countries since August 2025, ESET reports.
ESET reports that China-aligned threat actor FamousSparrow replaced its SparrowDoor implant with SparroWocky, a distinct modular C++ backdoor active against governments in Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Around 90% of the group's targets from mid-2025 into 2026 were in Latin America, which ESET links to regional competition over US influence. The backdoor arrives via a three-component DLL side-loading chain, persists through a Windows service (ProcAuditManager) or Run keys (SnapCart), captures screenshots, and exfiltrates RC4-encrypted data over TLS C2 on ports 443 and 8080. It supports in-memory Beacon Object File execution, API hashing, and SilentMoonwalk-style call-stack spoofing; IOCs for three C2 servers were released.
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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.
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BlackHatSect0r Uses DeepSeek-Powered AI Agent to Automate Attacks and Harvest 16,834 Credentials
SOCRadar linked the BlackHatSect0r crew to a DeepSeek-powered AI agent that automated scanning and harvested 16,834 credentials from exposed systems.
SOCRadar researchers found an exposed operation server with 4.9 GB across 9,299 files, including the DXSCAN scanning platform, phishing tools, extortion material and a vault holding 16,834 credentials such as AWS keys, GitHub tokens and Stripe keys. The French-speaking crew ran a Nous Research Hermes agent against a DeepSeek model with safety features removed, queuing 2,759,860 domains and reaching 726,989 hosts. Access came from misconfigurations like public cloud buckets and exposed .env files, not new vulnerabilities.
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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.
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New Android Malware Steals Banking PINs and Reinstalls Itself After Users Delete It
Zimperium identified RatHat, an Android banking trojan capturing PINs via overlays and abusing Wireless Debugging to reinstall itself after removal.
Zimperium zLabs identified RatHat, an Android banking trojan delivered via smishing, malvertising, and third-party forums, linked to actors apparently operating in China. After abusing Accessibility permissions to enable Wireless Debugging and pair with local ADB for shell access, it installs a Go-based local agent and a Fast Reverse Proxy client in system directories. It uses fake overlays to steal banking, crypto, and payment credentials, intercepts SMS one-time codes, sends screen maps to a generative AI assistant for adaptive automation, and reinstalls itself via /data/local/tmp/app.apk after uninstall.
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NightEagle Hackers Abuse Microsoft Dev Tunnels and GhostContainer to Breach Russian Companies
NightEagle (APT-Q-95) breached Russian firms using stolen VPN credentials, a GhostContainer Exchange backdoor, Dev Tunnels abuse, and DCSync.
Kaspersky's Securelink analysts, via Securelist, documented NightEagle (APT-Q-95) attacks on Russian companies that begin with VPN logins using stolen valid credentials from Cloudflare WARP and European infrastructure. On Exchange servers the group deployed GhostContainer, a .NET backdoor built from public components including Neo-reGeorg tunneling, CVE-2020-0688 logic, and the GhostWebShell class, controlled through Exchange web headers. The operators exposed RDP through Microsoft Dev Tunnels paired with rdp2tcp, staged tools in GitHub repositories, and exploited BlueKeep (CVE-2019-0708) to create admin accounts before running DCSync against Active Directory.
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Hackers Turn AI Agent Into a Cyber Weapon After Deleting Its Safety Refusals
Researchers exposed BlackHatSect0r && DXQRTXX infrastructure showing a safety-disabled Hermes AI agent used to automate scanning, credential harvesting, and vishing against French telecom subscribers.
Socradar-analyzed infrastructure attributed to French-speaking crew BlackHatSect0r && DXQRTXX exposed 4.9 GB across 9,299 files, including the DXSCAN Go-based C2 platform, 16,834 harvested credentials, and a database of nearly 450,000 records used for a vishing campaign targeting older French telecom subscribers with Societe Generale-themed lures. The crew ran a self-hosted Nous Research Hermes agent on a DeepSeek model with refusal instructions removed and HERMES_DISABLE_SAFETY=1 set, using it for scanning, secret hunting, and Telegram reporting. DXSCAN queued 2.75 million domains and reached over 726,000 hosts; the toolkit relied on exposed secrets and misconfigurations rather than novel exploitation.
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BlackHatSect0r Hackers Disable AI Safety Controls to Automate Credential Theft and Cyberattacks
French-speaking crew BlackHatSect0r disabled AI agent safety controls to automate scanning, credential harvesting, and vishing, exposing 16,834 stolen credentials.
Socradar researchers analyzed the exposed infrastructure of a French-speaking crew called BlackHatSect0r && DXQRTXX, which ran a Nous Research Hermes agent on a DeepSeek model with safety controls removed via HERMES_DISABLE_SAFETY=1. A custom Go-based C2 platform, DXSCAN, was exposed on port 8080 with over 200 secret-detection patterns, a vault of 16,834 harvested credentials, and scanning activity queuing 2.75 million domains and reaching more than 726,000 hosts. The kit also held a database of roughly 450,000 French telecom subscriber records used to prepare vishing lures impersonating Société Générale, plus JWT-forging tooling for a cryptocurrency exchange. Most confirmed compromises relied on exposed secrets and cloud misconfiguration rather than novel exploits; the one cited vulnerability, CVE-2026-42530, is an NGINX HTTP/3 QPACK use-after-free fixed in version 1.31.2.
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NightEagle Hackers Target Russian Companies Using GhostContainer Backdoor
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.
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NightEagle Hackers Abuse Microsoft Dev Tunnels and GhostContainer to Breach Russian Companies
Kaspersky links NightEagle (APT-Q-95) intrusions in Russia to stolen VPN credentials, the GhostContainer Exchange backdoor, and Microsoft Dev Tunnels abuse.
Kaspersky's Global Emergency Response Team attributes new intrusions against Russian organizations to NightEagle (APT-Q-95), active since at least 2023 and previously focused on Asia. Initial access uses valid VPN credentials, followed by the .NET GhostContainer backdoor on Microsoft Exchange servers, which abuses ASP.NET view state injection, disables AMSI and event logging, and proxies traffic. Operators moved laterally via RDP, abused Microsoft Dev Tunnels with rdp2tcp, used Impacket atexec and netsh portproxy, and in one case exploited BlueKeep (CVE-2019-0708) to create admin accounts and attempt DCSync.
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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.
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Hackers Can Rent VectraRAT for $250 a Month to Take Control of Windows PCs
SOCRadar uncovered VectraRAT, a previously undocumented $250-per-month Windows RAT rental service delivered via Amadey and ClickFix lures.
SOCRadar's Threat Research Unit identified VectraRAT, a rental-only remote access trojan sold by a developer known as Vectra (formerly Nyxel), after an exposed online directory revealed samples, licenses, and operator logs across ten-plus servers. The toolkit includes a Linux control server, Windows implant, payload builder, and VectraHub panel, enabling hidden desktop access, keylogging, command execution, credential theft, file transfer, proxying, and silent privilege escalation. Of victims with OS data, 48 percent ran corporate Windows editions, and researchers recorded 38 genuine victim sessions in under a week, including file theft from business systems. Distribution occurs through the Amadey loader and ClickFix pages impersonating TurboTax, with custom TCP-based C2 over non-standard ports.
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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.
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