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12 stories in the last 30d

Rogue ScreenConnect Installations Across Unrelated Hosts Suggest Worm-Like Activity

Huntress observed rogue ScreenConnect deployments with worm-like VBScript propagation across unrelated organizations, prompting a ConnectWise advisory on file transfer behavior.

Huntress identified multiple incidents in late August 2026 where social engineering led to rogue ScreenConnect remote access clients deployed on victim machines, which then spawned wscript.exe to run four VBScript payloads (1.vbs through 4.vbs) for profiling, telemetry collection, and persistence via a WindowsServiceHost Run key. Modified ScreenConnect clients propagated the VBScript chain to connected endpoints, creating worm-like spread. ConnectWise published an advisory on September 3, 2026, confirming an issue affecting file transfer behavior in both cloud and on-premises ScreenConnect deployments, with a CVE and fix expected within the week; partners were advised to review and disable TransferFiles permissions in the interim.

Huntress · 13d agoExploit / PoC in the wild1

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 ThreatLabz · 17h agoThreat actor in the wild

Telerik UI Padding-Oracle Bug Chained to Unauthenticated RCE — Public Exploit Released

TantoSec published a working exploit chaining a Telerik UI padding oracle to unauthenticated RCE; Progress patched the flaws in July.

TantoSec's Marcio Almeida released a full exploit chain and tooling for the RadAsyncUpload control in Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX, turning a padding oracle (CVE-2026-13182) into unauthenticated RCE via an unguarded type-resolution flaw (CVE-2026-13181, CVSS 8.1). Exploitation requires a rendered RadAsyncUpload handler and an explicit non-default encryption key, and took roughly 127,000 oracle requests (about an hour) in lab testing. Versions 2010.1.309 through 2026.2.519 are affected; Progress fixed the chain in 2026.2.708 on July 8, 2026, and no in-the-wild exploitation has been confirmed. A separate RCE chain in RadPersistenceManager and RadDockLayout (CVE-2026-13185, -13186, -13190) was also patched but has no public exploit.

Smishing Triad Hackers Use JWR Phishing Kit to Steal Cards, OTPs and Bank Credentials

Group-IB attributes large-scale smishing using the JWR real-time phishing kit to the Smishing Triad's Outsider cluster, harvesting card data, OTPs, and bank credentials.

Group-IB attributes a large-scale SMS phishing campaign to Outsider, an operator sub-cluster within the Smishing Triad phishing-as-a-service ecosystem, using a kit dubbed JWR. The Vue 2-based platform maintains real-time WebSocket communication with operators, enabling them to adapt pages live and harvest roughly 70 PII fields, card data, PINs, OTPs, identity document images, and digital wallet credentials via a dedicated PayPal sub-funnel. Unit 42 previously tied 194,345 malicious domains across 136,933 root domains to the broader operation since January 2024. Defenders can hunt for /api/open/ endpoints, /webSocket/QT/ paths, JWR-prefixed storage artifacts, and a hard-coded WebSocket token.

GBHackersupdated · 18h agofirst · 20h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

ThreatsDay: CEO Phishing Kits, 5K Dropbox Account Hacks, OAuth Traps + 17 More Stories

Microsoft warns of Teams IT-impersonation intrusions deploying Node.js implants; Spring Ring vishing hit 150+ employees across 10 companies; The Gentlemen ransomware claims 683 victims.

Microsoft warned of a human-operated campaign abusing Teams external collaboration to impersonate IT help desk staff, deploy malicious MSI packages staging Node.js runtimes and obfuscated JavaScript implants, then pivot to domain controllers over WinRM. Unit 42 documented the Spring Ring vishing operation targeting over 150 employees across at least 10 companies using 26 attacker identities, including an NTLM relay variant against domain controllers. Sophos reported The Gentlemen ransomware (Gold Sherwood) reached 683 total victims by end of July 2026, adding 169 in July, with a playbook using BYOVD-based EDR killers and backup tampering. Group-IB found the Outsider phishing-as-a-service platform created 700+ new phishing pages within a month despite law enforcement takedowns.

The Hacker News · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild1

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 · 25m agofirst · 16h agoThreat actor in the wild 4 sourcesCVE-2020-0688CVE-2019-0708CVE-2021-26855+1 CVEs

GhostCode Abuses Microsoft Entra Device Enrollment to Maintain Access After Token Revocation

eSentire exposes GhostCode, a device-code phishing kit that abuses Microsoft Entra device enrollment to persist even after stolen tokens are revoked.

eSentire's Threat Response Unit observed GhostCode campaigns in late August 2026, using BEC-style social engineering that impersonated procurement staff, including BJ's Wholesale Club, via Salesforce contact forms. Victims received password-protected HTML lures disguised as a FlipBook document portal, with junk-data padding, HTML comment injection, and AES-256-GCM encrypted redirects gated by anti-bot checks. The kit exploits the OAuth 2.0 device authorization grant, prompting victims to approve real Microsoft device-code sign-ins with MFA. Within 78 seconds of approval, attackers registered three Entra devices and obtained a Primary Refresh Token, so rogue device registrations persist even after session token revocation.

GBHackers · 18h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild2

DDRop Attack Forces Intel TDX Confidential VMs Into Debug Mode and Exposes Memory

KU Leuven and ETH Zurich researchers released DDRop PoC hardware that forces Intel TDX confidential VMs into debug mode and exposes plaintext memory.

Researchers from KU Leuven, ETH Zurich, Google, and Durham University published proof-of-concept code, hardware designs, and firmware for DDRop, a DDR5 interposer that injects parity errors to drop selected cache-line writebacks. Because Intel TDX, Intel Scalable SGX, and AMD SEV-SNP lack per-line cryptographic freshness, processors decrypt and accept stale DRAM contents as current state. The PoC flips a victim's ATTRIBUTES.DEBUG flag to enable TDX debug mode, then copies victim memory in plaintext and can forge attestation reports. Affected environments include Intel 5th- and 6th-generation Xeon Scalable with TDX; Intel says the attack falls outside its cloud-computing threat model.

GBHackers · 1d agoResearch

Iran-Linked Hackers Use Fake LinkedIn Job Offers to Deploy NodeRabbit and PollCat RATs

Iran-linked Mirage Kitten targets software engineers with fake LinkedIn recruiter coding tests deploying new NodeRabbit and PollCat RATs.

Kaspersky researchers link the campaign to Mirage Kitten (also tracked as UNC1549, Smoke Sandstorm, Nimbus Manticore), with victims in aviation, aerospace and fintech in Egypt, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Trojanized npm dependencies (colorized_terminal, pretty-log) bundled in coding-challenge archives launch the Node.js implants across Windows, Linux and macOS. NodeRabbit uses AES-256-GCM-encrypted C2 via Azure, and its third variant persists through a fake GitHub Copilot Helper VS Code extension plus Git post-merge/post-checkout hooks. PollCat is an obfuscated JavaScript RAT that registers with C2 before OTP authentication and inventories tools from 24 security vendors.

GBHackers · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild1

13 Malicious Packagist Packages Target Unpatched iPhones to Steal Crypto Wallet Seeds

Trojanized Packagist themes inject JavaScript into Vietnamese streaming sites, exploiting unpatched iPhone WebKit and kernel flaws to install spyware and steal crypto wallet seeds.

Socket researchers found 13 malicious Composer theme packages across five vendor namespaces (including vsmov, vsphim, and ophimcms) that inject JavaScript into Vietnamese movie and comic streaming sites. On iPhones running iOS 18.4-18.6.x, the injected code fires a WebKit-to-kernel exploit chain using CVE-2025-31277 and CVE-2025-43529, pivoting through the GPU process and the AppleM2ScalerCSCDriver IOKit user client to gain kernel read/write. Since around August 12, 2026 the payload also steals cryptocurrency wallet seeds and mnemonics from Bitget, BitKeep, Bitpie, Phantom, Tonkeeper, Trust Wallet, and OKX, alongside keychain databases, Wi-Fi passwords, SMS, photos, cookies, and location history, uploaded via HTTPS to rotating C2 domains. The group is believed to be Vietnamese-operated, hosts exploits on Funnull infrastructure, and Apple patched the kernel escape flaw in iOS and macOS 26.1.

The Hacker News · 15d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2025-31277CVE-2025-43529CVE-2025-43398+2 CVEs

Manic: The Android Malware That Exfiltrates Data Even When the Phone Is Offline

ThreatFabric identifies Manic, an Android banking fraud and spyware platform targeting Ukraine with offline Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Direct mesh exfiltration and device takeover.

ThreatFabric's Mobile Threat Intelligence team identified Manic, an Android malware active in the wild since at least February 2026 that combines banking fraud with surveillance and device-control capabilities. It monitors 169 Android apps including Ukrainian banks, government and eID services, messaging apps, crypto exchanges, and 2FA tools, using the Accessibility service as a classified UI keylogger and WebRTC for live screen viewing and remote control. A distinctive store-and-forward relay exfiltrates AES-GCM-encrypted data through nearby infected devices over Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth RFCOMM, or BLE GATT, supporting chains of up to four hops when direct C2 is unavailable. A July update added stronger anti-analysis, in-memory DEX loading, lock-secret phishing to extract device PINs, and hiding from the app launcher.

Security Affairs · 27d agoMalware in the wild

SilkParasite Espionage Campaign Targets Central Asian Governments with Five New RATs

Bitdefender reports SilkParasite, a China-nexus espionage cluster targeting Central Asian governments with seven RATs, five newly documented, delivered via spearphished RAR archives.

Bitdefender Labs assesses with medium confidence that SilkParasite, first discovered in late 2025, is a China-nexus cluster targeting government bodies in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia. Attacks use password-protected RAR archives with malicious Office documents, macro-triggered DLL sideloading, and checks for running Kaspersky AV before execution. The arsenal spans seven RAT families in .NET, C++, Go, and JavaScript with plugin architectures and diverse C2 channels including Google Drive and HTTP cookie/ETag headers; roughly 65 DriveSilkRAT infections were observed, mostly in Asia. Ties to China include BLOODALCHEMY (a Deed RAT/ShadowPad descendant) and an improved SpiceRAT used by SneakyChef, with traces of AI-assisted development in the tooling and lures.

The Hacker News · 28d agoThreat actor in the wild