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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.

Cyber Security News · 7h agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

BambooToken: The Malware That Speaks MQTT to Stay Under the Radarnew

Lumen's Black Lotus Labs uncovered BambooToken, a Windows and Linux malware family using MQTT broker-based C2 and DLL sideloading across Asia since February 2023.

Lumen Black Lotus Labs identified BambooToken, a multiplatform malware family that exchanges commands through MQTT brokers so infected hosts never contact the C2 server directly, active from at least February 2023 through July 2026. The Windows variant sideloads via Tendyron's OnKey hardware-token software used in Chinese banking and government, or impersonates Kingsoft Office, without either vendor's signing certificate being compromised; a Linux build appeared by December 2025 with shell, file transfer, and system information commands. Victims include MikroTik and DrayTek routers in Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam reached after internet-wide SNMP scanning, and Lumen cannot attribute the family to any known actor.

Security Affairs · 1h agoMalware in the wild

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.

Cyber Security News · 7h agoMalware in the wild 3 sources

Hackers Hijack HBO Max Reddit Account to Push 108 ClickFix Malware Ads

Hijacked verified HBO Max Reddit account ran 108 ClickFix malvertising ads delivering AMOS infostealers, Windows loaders, and crypto clipboard hijackers.

HudsonRock and ADAMnetworks identified a cross-platform ClickFix operation dubbed PasteSwitch that abused the compromised verified Reddit account u/hbomax to publish 108 malicious ads over 48 hours, using domains like hbomaxx[.]us and codex-craft[.]com. macOS victims run curl/zsh commands delivering AMOS-related stealers and fake wallets, while Windows users get an InstallFix route using mshta and PowerShell that loads Amatera in memory and disables AMSI. The operation's AnimateClipper and ZigClipper families hijack clipboards to swap cryptocurrency addresses, with C2 domains rotated via Binance Smart Chain contracts. Reddit paused the ads and is investigating.

Cyber Security Newsupdated · 1d agofirst · 1d agoMalware in the wild 7 sources

Hackers Deploy Casbaneiro Banking Trojan That Activates When Victims Open Bank Websites

Fortinet details Casbaneiro banking Trojan campaign hitting Latin American bank customers via invoice-themed PDF phishing, with AutoIt loading, RegSvcs.exe injection, and bank-site-triggered activation.

Fortinet identified an August 2026 Casbaneiro banking Trojan campaign targeting users in Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico through phishing PDFs styled as urgent invoices or legal notices. The staged chain uses IP-based geo-filtering, a Base64-encoded ZIP, an HTA file, and a legitimate AutoIt interpreter before injecting into RegSvcs.exe or mobsync.exe and persisting via a Startup shortcut. The Trojan exfiltrates address book and Outlook data unencrypted, stays dormant until victims visit targeted bank sites, then accepts commands for keyboard control, clipboard pasting, file execution, and command execution. It uses an expected HTTP 403 response from a second server and malformed HTTP requests to complicate network analysis.

Cyber Security News · 2d agoMalware in the wild

Hackers Abuse YouTube Gaming Channels and SEO Poisoning to Deploy RATs and Chrome Hijacker

Unit 42 exposed CL-CRI-1171, a pay-per-install operation using YouTube gaming channels and SEO poisoning to deliver RATs and a Chrome hijacker.

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 identified over 10,000 OfferLoader samples and 11 YouTube channels pushing trojanized installers via gaming lures and SEO-poisoned searches for tools like WinDirStat and Bluetooth drivers. Trojanized Inno Setup installers spawn three payload branches: Insomnia RAT (dual Node.js/Python backdoor that disables Microsoft Defender), ARKTunnel (undocumented RAT hiding its payload in a bitmap image and tunneling TCP/UDP), and Docro Hijacker (alters Chrome protected preferences to hijack search and affiliate links). The pay-per-install model sells each infection to multiple buyers, reaching gamers as well as corporate and government endpoints.

Cyber Security News · 2d agoMalware in the wild1

Hackers Abuse AutoIt to Inject AsyncRAT Into Microsoft-Signed Windows Process

Attackers use AutoIt and an invoice-themed batch file to inject AsyncRAT into Microsoft-signed charmap.exe for stealthy remote access.

Point Wild Threat Intelligence documented a five-stage campaign starting with 'Right-click to open Invoice Details.bat' that launches hidden PowerShell, drops a renamed AutoIt interpreter and encrypted loader into a random Temp folder, and persists via a Startup-folder batch file. The loader decrypts AsyncRAT only in memory and injects it into the Microsoft-signed charmap.exe (Windows Character Map) process, leaving no payload file on disk. The final payload patches AMSI inside the infected process and includes screen-capture code that prepares images for transfer to a command-and-control server at 158[.]51[.]122[.]136:4944.

Cyber Security News · 2d agoMalware in the wild1

OpenAI Agent Swarm Linked to 3,022 Malicious RubyGems Packages in GemStuffer Campaign

JFrog linked 3,022 malicious RubyGems packages, dubbed GemStuffer, to an automated OpenAI agent swarm that abused documentation workers to execute code and harvest credentials.

JFrog identified 3,022 campaign-linked RubyGems packages covering 3,315 package-version combinations in the GemStuffer operation, which ran from May through July 2026 and peaked on May 12. Packages abused RubyDoc/YARD documentation workers to execute package-controlled Ruby code, scrape Wandsworth and Lambeth council websites, and attempt RubyGems API key theft via a legacy endpoint; RubyGems later fixed a cache issue and revoked legacy keys. Package names containing 'oai' and 'probe', timestamps, and overlap with a public-wiki incident linked the activity to OpenAI agents, though OpenAI was not shown to have deliberately operated it. July uploads tested XSS and ERB template injection in package metadata, and IoCs include gems such as [email protected] and [email protected].

Cyber Security News · 14h agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

The extension you never installed: KREMLIN forges Chrome's own integrity checks to steal banking sessions

Elastic details KREMLIN, a Brazilian banking malware whose malicious Chrome/Edge extension forges Chromium integrity checks to steal sessions.

Elastic Security Labs tracked operation REF9334 and its KREMLIN toolkit, a Brazilian banking malware campaign impersonating twelve banks across seven campaigns since May 2025. The infection chain uses multi-stage obfuscated JavaScript loaders with sandbox checks (file and process counting), scheduled-task persistence, and an Ethereum smart contract acting as a dead-drop resolver for C2 and payload URLs, abusing Archive.org for hosting. The malicious browser extension bypasses Chromium integrity mechanisms by manipulating Secure Preferences and regenerating required HMACs and App-Bound encrypted hashes. Threat Command disrupted over 1,500 infections by registering the kill-switch canary domain.

Elastic Security Labs · 2d agoMalware in the wild

BambooToken Malware Uses MQTT to Control Windows and Linux Systems

Lumen uncovers BambooToken, a stealthy multi-platform malware using MQTT C2 and Tendyron DLL sideloading to compromise Asian and South American organizations.

Lumen Black Lotus Labs disclosed BambooToken, a previously undocumented malware family active since at least February 2023 that controls Windows and (since December 2025) Linux hosts via the MQTT protocol for C2. The malware sideloads a rogue OnKeyToken_KEB.dll via Tendyron's OnKey PKI token software, gathers host details, and uses a WMI-based plugin to enumerate installed antivirus products and exfiltrate them to C2 domains proxied through Cloudflare. A dozen compromised entities were detected across Asia and South America, and DLL sideloading plus SoftEther VPN usage suggests a China nexus.

The Hacker News · 1d agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

Malicious Twitch Browser Extension Leaks OAuth Tokens From Nearly 31,000 Users

Malicious Twitch extension 'Twitch Enhanced Viewer | JeetBot' leaked OAuth tokens from nearly 31,000 users to Russian bot-service proxy servers.

Socket researchers found the 'Twitch Enhanced Viewer | JeetBot' browser extension forwarded users' live Twitch OAuth tokens as an &auth= query parameter to operator-controlled proxy servers, affecting about 30,000 Chrome users and 604 Firefox users. The tokens, written in cleartext to proxy logs, are bearer credentials granting access to chat, whispers, and account settings without password or 2FA. The operator is a Russian commercial Twitch/Kick/VK-Live bot SaaS linked to Cyprus-based developer Aleksandr Popov; earlier v4.x builds also POSTed tokens to a set-token endpoint. Firefox add-on version 85.8.7 stops the token forwarding, but previously transmitted tokens remain valid until revoked.

The Hacker News · 2d agoMalware in the wild