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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 · 3h agofirst · 19h agoThreat actor in the wild 5 sourcesCVE-2020-0688CVE-2019-0708CVE-2021-26855+1 CVEs1

Pro-Ukraine Hacking Cat group deploying new malware against Russian targets

Kaspersky links pro-Ukraine hacktivist group Hacking Cat to Gorilla RAT and Monkey Ransomware in destructive attacks on Russian targets.

Kaspersky reports that pro-Ukraine group Hacking Cat, active since February 2024, has shifted from defacements to destructive encryption attacks, using a previously undocumented Gorilla RAT remote-access tool and Monkey Ransomware, which appends the .monkey extension to files. Initial access in some attacks came from exploited Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities, and rapid multi-language malware variants suggest possible generative AI assistance. Shared tools like Nemo Wiper across groups including Ukrainian Cyber Alliance complicate attribution, and targets include Rosatom contractor and heating provider Donbassteploenergo.

The Record · 2d agoThreat actor in the wild

Hackers Turn Windows Shadow Copies Into a Tool for Credential Theft and Ransomware

Attackers abuse Windows VSS shadow copies to delete recovery points before ransomware and to extract NTDS.dit/SAM credentials, demanding context-aware detection.

Threat actors are weaponizing the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for two purposes: destroying local recovery points via vssadmin.exe, wmic.exe, diskshadow.exe, wbadmin.exe, and bcdedit.exe before encryption, and accessing static copies of locked files such as NTDS.dit and SAM for credential theft. Ransomware families tied to shadow-copy removal include Akira, Black Basta, BlackCat, Conti, LockBit, Qilin, RansomHub, REvil, Ryuk, and WannaCry. Huntress's analysis of the Nightmare-Eclipse tool showed the BlueHammer technique chaining a Windows Defender timing issue with a VSS snapshot to dump the SAM database and decrypt NT hashes. Defenders should correlate VSS operations with parent process, hive access, and subsequent encryption activity, and maintain immutable off-host backups.

GBHackers · 2d agoResearch in the wild1

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

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 · 15h agoMalware in the wild1

12 Best CNAPP Platforms Compared (2026): Features & Pricing

Independent comparison of 12 CNAPP platforms finds identical estates draw quotes 2-3x apart; Microsoft Defender for Cloud is the only fully published per-resource option.

A vendor-independent buyer's guide compares twelve CNAPP platforms including Prisma Cloud, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Wiz, Uptycs, Aqua, Zscaler, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud on pricing mechanics, procurement leverage, and capability-per-dollar. It finds quotes swing 2-3x on identical estates because vendors define 'workload' differently. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is highlighted as the only major with fully published per-resource rates.

GBHackers · 2d agoIndustry1

New DDRop Attack Breaks Intel TDX and AMD SEV-SNP Confidential Computing

DDRop uses a sub-$200 DDR5 interposer to drop memory writes, breaking Intel TDX and AMD SEV-SNP confidentiality guarantees.

Researchers at KU Leuven, ETH Zurich, Durham University, and Google will present DDRop at ACM CCS 2026, a first active interposer attack on DDR5 that silently drops memory writes so processors keep reading stale encrypted data, exploiting the missing freshness guarantee in Intel TDX, Intel Scalable SGX, and AMD SEV-SNP. On Intel TDX's default logical integrity mode it enabled reading victim VM memory, toggling debug mode, and forging remote attestation; AMD SEV-SNP was limited to copying pages between VMs. TDX's stronger cryptographic integrity blocks cross-VM attacks but likely not attestation forgery. The team will release board designs, firmware, and attack code on GitHub; no evidence of real-world use exists and no simple patch is available.

The Hacker Newsupdated · 2d agofirst · 2d agoResearch 2 sources

NIST Issues New Guidance to Protect SSO and API Tokens From Theft and Forgery

NIST released IR 8587 giving agencies and cloud providers recommendations to prevent identity token forgery, theft, and misuse in SSO and API environments.

NIST Internal Report 8587, released September 15, 2026, provides implementation recommendations covering token creation, signing, validation, storage, revocation, and lifecycle management for SAML, OpenID Connect, and OAuth 2.0 environments. It builds on SP 800-53 Rev. 5.1.1 and incorporates lessons from breaches involving stolen signing keys, abused OAuth applications, and replayed federated assertions. Recommendations include strong signing algorithms, strict claim validation, short token lifetimes, token binding, leakage prevention, and monitoring for abnormal token use.

GBHackers · 1d agoAdvisory 2 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 · 1h agoThreat actor in the wild 4 sources

The sexy AI-powered dating app scams are here

Anthropic exposed a network of roughly 28 AI-driven dating apps using autonomous personas and gig workers to defraud paying users.

Anthropic threat intelligence uncovered a fraud network of around 28 dating apps after a prepaid account sent over 100,000 Claude API requests daily, with most chats run by autonomous AI personas and no human agent. Researchers Matthew Gore-Kormanik and Anthropic's Chris Cronbaugh documented apps including Dora, Romi, and Doni, which monetize conversations via coins; gig workers were hired only to pass liveness checks and select pregenerated replies. An operations manual written in Chinese was found inside the Doni app, and Anthropic published findings in its September 2026 AI misuse report.

The Verge · AI · 20h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

Operation RapidRust: APT36 Deploys RUSTYSHADE, RUSTYMOVE, PSNATCH, and BASHNATCH

Zscaler details Operation RapidRust: APT36 deploys four new tools including RUSTYSHADE, a Rust backdoor using private GitHub repos for encrypted C2.

Zscaler ThreatLabz documents Operation RapidRust, a campaign by Pakistan-aligned APT36 deploying four new tools: RUSTYSHADE, a 64-bit Rust Windows backdoor that uses attacker-controlled private GitHub repositories with a hardcoded PAT and AES-256-GCM-encrypted messages for C2; RUSTYMOVE; PSNATCH, a PowerShell file stealer that scans Office documents, archives, media, and databases modified in the last 120 days and exfiltrates up to 5 GB per run to per-machine GitHub repositories; and BASHNATCH. The backdoor was dropped via PowerShell from attacker-controlled Backblaze B2 storage and supports screenshots, webcam capture, file listing, downloads, and shell command execution.

Zscaler ThreatLabzupdated · 1h agofirst · 20h agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sources

12 Best Browser Isolation Solutions Compared (2026): Features & Pricing

2026 comparison ranks Zscaler, Cloudflare, Menlo Security, Garrison (Everfox), Authentic8 and Kasm among twelve remote browser isolation solutions.

Guide compares twelve RBI products across four architectures: pixel streaming, DOM/vector reconstruction, platform-embedded SSE isolation, and self-hosted containers. Zscaler and Cloudflare lead RBI delivered inside SSE platforms, while Menlo Security leads isolate-everything efficacy and Garrison (Everfox) provides hardware-grade isolation for government use. Most offerings price per user per month.

GBHackers · 2d agoTools

German Manufacturer Shrinks Security Alert Response While Protecting 10,000 Endpoints

Vendor case study: a German manufacturer's five-person SOC cut alert triage time using ANY.RUN's cloud sandbox across 10,000 endpoints.

ANY.RUN published a case study in which a five-person security team at an unnamed German manufacturer replaced an air-gapped forensic laptop with its cloud-managed interactive sandbox, protecting roughly 10,000 endpoints and 10,000 users. The vendor claims a median 15 minutes saved per alert, 20-40 daily tasks processed, a 2.5-minute alert-to-isolation target, and a 95% agreement rate between analyst and sandbox verdicts; all figures are vendor-supplied with the customer identity withheld. The writeup also describes detonating a multi-stage phishing chain from a PDF link to a password-protected ZIP to malware execution.

Cyber Security Newsupdated · 3h agofirst · 20h agoIndustry 3 sources

FamousSparrow Deploys New SparroWocky Backdoor Against Latin American Governmentsnew

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.

GBHackers · 19m agoThreat actor in the wild 2 sourcesCVE-2021-26855