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Iranian Hackers Use Telegram-Controlled Malware to Spy on Dissidents and Journalists

FBI, NCSC, and AIVD detail Iran MOIS spyware CHOSEN BRICK/HEAVYGRAM, Telegram-controlled Windows malware spying on dissidents since 2023.

A September 15 joint advisory from the FBI, UK NCSC, and Dutch AIVD attributes the Windows spyware HEAVYGRAM (NCSC name CHOSEN BRICK) to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, with the campaign dating to autumn 2023 and targeting dissidents, journalists, and activists in the UK, US, Netherlands, and worldwide. Delivered via messages impersonating known contacts or tech support, the malware assigns each victim a dedicated Telegram bot for command-and-control and exfiltration, and can take screenshots, record microphone audio, steal Telegram/WhatsApp data, saved passwords, and emails, download more malware, and wipe the computer. Persistence uses a registry Run key (SMQDService or winappx) plus Microsoft Defender exclusions, with stolen data exiting via Telegram and cloud storage services like Vultr and Storj. The US Justice Department seized four pro-Iranian leak sites in March that had published stolen victim data.

The Hacker News · 1d agoMalware in the wild1

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 · 3h agoMalware in the wild 3 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 · 3h agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

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 · 5h agofirst · 8h 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 News · 9h agoMalware in the wild

Hackers hijack HBO Max Reddit account to push malware in ClickFix ads

Hackers hijacked HBO Max's verified Reddit account to run 108 ClickFix ads delivering infostealers and crypto clippers to Windows and macOS users.

Hudson Rock and ADAMnetworks linked the hijacked u/hbomax Reddit account to a campaign they call PasteSwitch, which ran 108 malicious ads over roughly 48 hours pushing sites like hbomaxx.us, codex-craft.com, and code-desktop.com. ClickFix social engineering tricks victims into pasting Base64-obfuscated shell or PowerShell commands into Terminal or Run, delivering MacSync, AMOS helper persistence, Amatera Stealer loaded in-memory, and the AnimateClipper and ZigClipper crypto clipboard hijackers. Windows chains used an MP3/HTA polyglot to create scheduled tasks, disable AMSI, and launch 32-bit PowerShell; fake Ledger, Trezor Suite, and Exodus wallet apps steal recovery phrases. Reddit admins paused the ads, and it remains unclear how the account was accessed.

BleepingComputerupdated · 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

Casbaneiro Banking Trojan Uses Distributed C2 Servers to Evade Detection and Target Bank Users

Casbaneiro banking Trojan targets Latin American bank users via phishing PDFs, geofencing, AutoIt staging, and distributed C2 servers to evade detection.

FortiGuard Labs detailed a Casbaneiro banking Trojan campaign observed in August 2026 targeting users in Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico via fake invoice and legal-notice emails. The operation uses geofenced landing pages, an HTA downloader with WMI-based sandbox checks, a legitimate AutoIt interpreter, and process injection into RegSvcs.exe (fallback mobsync.exe). C2 activation is conditional on victims visiting banking websites, enabling keyboard control, clipboard manipulation, and fake overlay windows for bank-focused fraud, while distributed exfiltration servers and unusual HTTP 403-based signaling hinder analyst correlation.

GBHackers · 2d agoMalware in the wild1

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