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Multiple Chinese hacking groups seen using identical Chrome zero-day exploit
Four China-linked espionage groups share identical BlueMoon Chrome zero-day exploit kit targeting US defense contractors and Asian government agencies.
Proofpoint identified at least four Chinese-aligned espionage groups (TA412/RedBravo, UNK_LateNight, UNK_DoubleCheck, UNK_QuietRacket) using an identical Chrome zero-day exploit kit dubbed BlueMoon in late August through this week. Targets include US defense contractors, NGOs, mining companies, and Southeast Asian government agencies. The exploit chains a Chromium patch-gap vulnerability with a Windows flaw, delivering malware such as ShadowPad and a fake Gemini browser extension backdoor, with possible AI-assisted exploit development.
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Hackers Chain Chrome and Windows Zero-Days in New BlueMoon Exploit Kit Attacks
Multiple espionage actors, mostly China-nexus, are chaining Chrome V8 and Windows kernel zero-days (CVE-2026-85046, CVE-2026-85880) via the BlueMoon exploit kit against government and defense targets.
Proofpoint identified a new exploit kit dubbed BlueMoon chaining a Chromium V8 type-confusion RCE (CVE-2026-85046), a V8 sandbox escape, and a Windows kernel LPE (CVE-2026-85880). At least four distinct threat clusters, most with suspected China nexus, adopted the kit within days starting with TA412 (Violet Typhoon/APT31) on August 28, 2026. Both Chrome-side flaws were patch-gap zero-days with roughly a four-week exploitation window; the Windows LPE only works on Windows 10 and Server 2019/2022. TA412 used spearphishing posing as university interns to deliver the GemStone browser backdoor disguised as a Google Gemini extension; other clusters delivered ShadowPad via DLL sideloading and a Rust loader against targets in aerospace, government, and finance.
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BlueMoon Exploit Kit Chains Recent Chrome, Windows Zero-Days
Proofpoint reports multiple espionage groups rapidly adopting BlueMoon, a new exploit kit chaining Chrome and Windows zero-days.
Proofpoint identified a new exploit kit, BlueMoon, chaining two Chrome V8 zero-days (CVE-2026-85046, CVE-2026-87491) with a Windows ALPC privilege escalation zero-day (CVE-2026-85880), all patched between September 3 and September 2026 Patch Tuesday. China-linked Violet Typhoon (APT31) first used it on August 28 against US NGOs and mining/commodity trading firms; UNK_LateNight, UNK_DoubleCheck, and UNK_QuietRacket adopted it within days against targets in the US, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore. The kit exploits the V8 defects for sandbox escape, fingerprints the host, and injects a CreateProcess stub into the Chrome broker process to download and execute a payload via curl. Development artifacts suggest the kit's creators may have used AI to build it, potentially lowering the barrier to exploit development.
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