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13 stories in the last 30d

Detect and disrupt AI-themed attacks with Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Threat Intelligence reports criminal campaigns impersonating ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and DeepSeek in phishing, AiTM, and malvertising attacks reaching 100,000 emails daily.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed a growing set of campaigns that abuse trust in popular AI brands: a ChatGPT-themed phishing campaign sent up to 100,000 emails in one day to steal payment card data, and a Claude-themed campaign used adversary-in-the-middle techniques to harvest credentials and access tokens. Other campaigns included malvertising for a fake AI Windows plugin delivering the Vidar stealer and fraudulent DeepSeek installers distributed via GitHub. Initial access broker Storm-3075 used AI-themed malvertising to distribute payloads for multiple downstream actors, and Microsoft notes the AI services themselves were not compromised. Microsoft also details Defender protections such as Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and attack disruption against these multi-stage lures.

Microsoft Security Blog · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

JSCeal Malware Can Bypass Google Authentication Using Stolen Session Cookies

Check Point details JSCeal, a V8-compiled JavaScript stealer that replays stolen cookies to bypass Google authentication, spread via crypto malvertising.

Check Point Research's new report analyzes JSCeal, a compiled V8 JavaScript malware obfuscated with javascript-obfuscator using RC4-protected strings, control-flow flattening, and proxy functions. Delivered through fake TradingView installers on malvertising sites overlapping the WEEVILPROXY/MeadowLocust and SourTrade campaigns, it harvests cookies, passwords and OAuth tokens from Chromium browsers, records keystrokes and screenshots, and can replay stolen Google session cookies to bypass authentication. It also installs a local proxy with service-specific handlers for Binance, Bybit, and Ledger to intercept and modify cryptocurrency-related traffic.

The Hacker News · 9d agoMalware in the wild1

HBO Max Reddit Account Hijacked to Spread PasteSwitch ClickFix Malware

Hijacked HBO Max verified Reddit account ran 108 ClickFix malvertising ads delivering AMOS and Amatera stealers plus crypto clippers to macOS and Windows users.

Threat actors hijacked HBO Max's verified Reddit account (u/hbomax) to run 108 malicious ClickFix ads over 48 hours in a campaign tracked as PasteSwitch, researched by Hudson Rock and ADAMnetworks. macOS victims were served curl | zsh chains deploying MacSync and Atomic macOS Stealer (AMOS), which harvest browser credentials, Telegram data, Apple Notes, and macOS passwords, while fake Ledger, Trezor, and Exodus apps targeted BIP39 seed phrases. Windows users received an InstallFix chain using an MP3/HTA polyglot with mshta and PowerShell, scheduled-task persistence, AMSI disabling, and in-memory Amatera Stealer that hid C2 traffic (77.91.65.13:443) behind a facebook.com TLS SNI. AnimateClipper and ZigClipper components swapped copied crypto wallet addresses and used Binance Smart Chain contracts as mutable C2 dead drops; Reddit paused the ads and the initial access path remains undisclosed.

GBHackersupdated · 1d agofirst · 1d agoMalware 7 sources

Hackers Use ClickFix Lures to Deploy MacSync Stealer and Bypass macOS Security.

ClickFix malvertising campaigns deliver MacSync, a macOS infostealer sold as MaaS that bypasses Gatekeeper via Terminal commands and steals credentials.

Threat actors use ClickFix social-engineering lures, SEO poisoning, and malvertising impersonating brands like Claude, ChatGPT, Zoom, and Docker to trick users into pasting curl-to-zsh commands into Terminal, evading Gatekeeper and notarization checks. The MacSync Stealer (formerly Mac.c, emerged April 2025, linked to developer 'Mentalpositive') is a 64-bit Mach-O stager with single-byte XOR string obfuscation that daemonizes, polls C2 with custom API-key headers, streams AppleScript payloads into osascript, and persists via fake LaunchAgents. It steals browser credentials, Keychain data, SSH keys, session tokens, and crypto wallets, exfiltrating archives in 10MB HTTP PUT chunks. Microsoft documented more than 30 related MacSync domains.

GBHackersupdated · 6d agofirst · 6d agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

Meta Ads Push StreamRat Android Trojan That Can Gain Near-Complete Device Control

ThreatFabric details StreamRat, a new Android banking trojan spread via Meta malvertising in Spain that reached about 571,000 EU accounts.

ThreatFabric reported that a fake TV-streaming malvertising campaign on Meta promoted StreamRat, a technically sophisticated Android banking trojan, targeting Spanish-speaking users; the ads reached an estimated 570,950 Meta accounts in the EU between June 11 and July 3, 2026. Once installed via sideloaded APKs, the trojan abuses Accessibility to log keystrokes, show credential-stealing overlays, capture screens, and remotely control devices, and was also promoted through TikTok. Its dropper requests default Home app and VPN permissions and was hosted via GitHub releases, closely resembling one used in the earlier Mirax campaign. C2 infrastructure includes IPs 45.147.28.59 and 193.32.2.245, and no named threat actor was attributed.

The Hacker News · 14d agoMalware in the wild

6 Months on Alert: Get H1 2026 Cyber Risk Report for SOCs and MSSPs

ANY.RUN's H1 2026 report details 15 threat trends including 437% growth in fake CAPTCHA phishing and 90.7% rise in Adobe infrastructure abuse.

The report draws on interactive sandbox submissions from over 700,000 analysts and 16,000 SOC teams between January and June 2026. Attacks abusing Adobe infrastructure grew 90.7% versus H2 2025 while RMM-related attacks rose 26.5%, and custom fake CAPTCHA phishing grew 437% from Q1 to Q2 2026. ANY.RUN argues static IOCs are losing effectiveness as dead drop resolvers hide the final C2 until execution.

ANY.RUN · 1d agoResearch

How Threat Actors Are Turning Trusted AI Platforms Into an Attack Surface

Huntress details campaigns abusing Claude Artifacts, claude.ai/share links, and ChatGPT/Grok conversations to deliver SectopRAT, MacSync, and AMOS stealers.

Huntress SOC documented nine months of campaigns in which attackers weaponized trusted AI platform features—Claude Artifacts, public claude.ai/share links, and indexable ChatGPT/Grok conversations—to deliver malware. The July FakeAgent campaign hit more than 29 organizations via a malicious Claude Artifact posing as a Claude Desktop download page that redirected to SectopRAT. A claude.ai/share link disguised as an Apple Support guide tricked a victim into running a curl command that deployed the MacSync stealer, harvesting cookies, credentials, keychain secrets, Telegram sessions, and SSH/cloud keys, while SEO-poisoned ChatGPT and Grok conversations delivered the AMOS stealer via ClickFix-style instructions.

BleepingComputer · 5d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

ClickFix attacks infecting PCs and Macs are going viral

ClickFix social engineering attacks are spreading widely, delivering malware to Windows and macOS users by tricking them into running malicious terminal commands that bypass Gatekeeper.

BlueVoyant reports the Lorem Ipsum malware operation pivoted to ClickFix in late May 2026, dropping code-signing infrastructure and broadening its victim pool from Microsoft Teams searchers to anyone browsing a compromised website. Jamf and independent researchers documented macOS ClickFix variants that bypass Gatekeeper protections. Cisco Talos observed attackers abusing published Google Sheets for control traffic, while Netskope counted 5,400 sites beaconing to one campaign; Sandworm has separately hosted control infrastructure in blockchain smart contracts.

Ars Technica · Security · 5d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

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

ThreatsDay: 296K IoT Botnet, 100+ Water Systems Targeted, SharePoint RCE Chain + 27 New Stories

Weekly ThreatsDay bulletin details a ShinyHunters-style social engineering hit on ReliaQuest, the 296,000-device Dysphoria IoT botnet, and several new malware families.

ReliaQuest confirmed a social engineering attack on August 22, 2026, in which an attacker used a fake SSO page and MFA push approval to gain brief view-only access to an identity dashboard, with tactics matching ShinyHunters, which has since listed the firm on its leak portal. The Shadowserver Foundation reported the Dysphoria botnet has compromised nearly 296,000 IoT devices for DDoS attacks and recently added residential proxy capability. Cisco Talos documented JWR, an operator-driven phishing-as-a-service framework linked to The Outsider that harvests credentials, identity documents, and 2FA codes over an encrypted WebSocket. New malware coverage includes the Octagon Android fraud bot ($1,400/month), the C2Looper Rust backdoor delivered via ClickFix, and the Aeternum loader that moved C2 to the Polygon blockchain.

The Hacker News · 15d agoMalware in the wild

⚡ Weekly Recap: AI-Powered PLC Attacks, GitLab Attacks, Stripe Key Leaks and More

US agencies warn of AI-assisted attacks on exposed Siemens PLCs; the week also saw GitLab CVE-2026-19478 exploited and trojanized npm packages found.

The weekly recap leads with a US government warning that threat actors use AI-generated scripts and Censys/ZoomEye scanning to attack internet-exposed Siemens S7 PLCs in water, energy and manufacturing, calling it an active threat. Other stories include active exploitation of GitLab CVE-2026-19478 (CVSS 9.4, unauthenticated project rewriting), 14 trojanized npm packages delivering the RedC2 4.0 Linux backdoor, and the Zombie Card attack that revives expired Visa cards for contactless payment fraud. It also covers suspected Russian clusters UNC6293, UNC7005 and UNC5976 phishing campaigns, a faster Cloudflare Workers Spectre JWT leak, and a bespoke Cl0p JSP web shell deployed after exploiting PTC Windchill flaws.

The Hacker News · 19d agoThreat actor in the wildCVE-2026-194781

DragonForce Hackers Abuse Microsoft Teams Relays to Hide Backdoor.Turn C2 Traffic

Symantec and Carbon Black found DragonForce-linked hackers using Backdoor.Turn, a Go RAT tunneling C2 through Microsoft Teams TURN relays via QUIC.

Broadcom's Symantec and Carbon Black documented Backdoor.Turn, a Go-based RAT associated with the DragonForce ransomware group, deployed at a major U.S. services firm where attackers remained on the network for one to two months. The backdoor obtains an anonymous Teams visitor token from Microsoft's Skype-backed identity services, uses a legitimate Microsoft TURN relay for connection setup, and runs a QUIC session to the attacker's C2 server, so defenders see only outbound traffic to legitimate Teams servers. Initial access is suspected to involve exploiting a SQL/MS-SQL vulnerability or an access broker, followed by a PowerShell-dropped ZIP, DLL side-loading, and BYOVD evasion using a Huawei driver; the RAT is injected into DbgView64.exe after DragonForce ransomware deployment for continued access. First publicly documented TURN abuse by the group, it leverages Praetorian's Ghost Calls technique and supports command execution, network scanning, LDAP/AD search, lateral movement, and browser credential theft.

U.S. CISA adds a Ray-Project Ray flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

CISA added actively exploited Ray RCE flaw CVE-2025-62593 (CVSS 9.4) to its KEV catalog, ordering federal agencies to patch by August 20, 2026.

CISA added CVE-2025-62593 (CVSS 9.4), a critical remote code execution flaw in the Ray AI compute engine, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog with a due date of August 20, 2026. Versions before 2.52.0 relied on a User-Agent header check to guard the dashboard/API, which combined with DNS rebinding allows arbitrary code execution on developers' machines via malicious websites or ads. Aviatrix's analysis describes privilege escalation, lateral movement, command and control, and data exfiltration following exploitation. Federal civilian agencies must remediate under BOD 22-01; the flaw affects Firefox and Safari.

Security Affairs · 29d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2025-62593