ZeroHour

Search: “systems”

8 stories in the last 24h

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 · 4h agofirst · 21h agoThreat actor in the wild 5 sourcesCVE-2020-0688CVE-2019-0708CVE-2021-26855+1 CVEs1

SilkParasite-Linked Malware Infrastructure Traced Back Four Years Across Central Asianew

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.

Cyber Security News · 16m agoThreat actor in the wild

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.

Cyber Security News · 2h agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sources

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.

Cyber Security News · 1h agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sources

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.

Cyber Security News · 2h agoThreat actor in the wild 4 sources1

North Korean IT Workers Use AI and Remote Desktop Tools to Fake Technical Interviewsnew

Silent Push links a Discord recruitment scheme to North Korean IT workers using AI, remote desktop tools and on-camera proxies to pass technical interviews.

Silent Push assessed with moderate-to-high confidence that a representative known as Tec Guru, recruiting on-camera proxies via a Mouse Review Discord advertisement, is a North Korean IT worker. The scheme proposed a 65/35 revenue split with the hidden worker, live coaching through Google Meet, AI tools including ChatGPT to fill knowledge gaps, and remote access tools such as AnyDesk, TeamViewer, and Chrome Remote Desktop during coding exercises. Fraudulent hires can gain insider access enabling data theft, extortion, payroll fraud, and sanctions exposure; a July 31, 2026 multinational warning urged stronger identity checks and payment scrutiny.

Cyber Security News · 46m agoThreat actor

Iranian hackers use CHOSEN BRICK Windows malware to spy on targets

Iranian state-linked hackers use CHOSEN BRICK Windows malware, spread via Telegram and WhatsApp social engineering, to spy on dissidents and journalists worldwide.

US, UK, and Dutch cyber agencies with the FBI issued a joint advisory on Iranian state-linked hackers deploying a Windows malware strain called CHOSEN BRICK against dissidents, activists, and journalists, primarily in the US, UK, and Netherlands. Attacks begin with messages on WhatsApp or Telegram impersonating trusted contacts or technical support, tricking victims into running malicious files disguised as apps such as Pictory, RunwayML, Norton Antivirus, Telegram, and KeePass. The malware persists via Registry Run keys, adds Microsoft Defender exclusions, and uses a per-victim Telegram bot for command-and-control while stealing email, Telegram and WhatsApp data, screenshots, and audio. Stolen data is exfiltrated via Telegram or cloud services like VultrObjects and StorjShare, and sometimes appears on pro-Iranian leak sites, increasing physical risk for dissidents abroad.

BleepingComputerupdated · 5h agofirst · 16h agoThreat actor in the wild 7 sources

Israeli contractor BlackCore trained Angolan officials in online influence operationsnew

Citizen Lab links Israeli firm BlackCore to training Angolan officials to run covert influence campaigns with fake personas and pro-government content.

Citizen Lab documents show Israeli influence-for-hire firm BlackCore ran a 14-week training and operations program for Angolan officials, producing more than 40 pro-government content pieces through a fictitious outlet called Agita News. Posts received roughly 20,000 likes, with some later approaching 50,000, in a country with an estimated six million active Facebook users. France's Viginum previously linked BlackCore to interference targeting France Unbowed and suspected operations in New York, Scotland and Togo, and Meta disrupted a related Israel-origin network in August.

The Record · 28m agoThreat actor