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Scam Attacks Taking Advantage of the Popularity of the Generative AI Wave

Unit 42 finds about 225 generative AI-themed domains registered daily since ChatGPT's launch, with nearly 29 percent suspicious, fueling scams and PUP delivery.

Palo Alto Networks analyzed new domain registrations containing generative AI keywords such as chatgpt, prompt, and sora since ChatGPT's November 2022 launch, observing around 225 GenAI-related registrations per day. About 28.75 percent of these domains are suspicious, a rate 22 times higher than for general new domains, with registration spikes aligning with milestones like Bing ChatGPT integration, the GPT-4 release, new GPTs, and OpenAI's Sora announcement. Over 72 percent of the domains use gpt or chatgpt keywords, and gpt domains show a 76 percent suspicious rate. Case studies cover PUP delivery, spam distribution, and monetized domain parking, with 35 percent of traffic to these domains directed at suspicious ones.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · 29d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

The Fraud Ecosystem: A Transition From Known Marketplaces to a Fragmented Environment

Rapid7 analyzes how fraud marketplaces are fragmenting into specialized shops after larger marketplaces were dismantled, aided by new MITRE F3 framework

Rapid7 reports a shift from large known fraud marketplaces to a fragmented environment of smaller specialized storefronts such as Xleet, Blackpass, Infodig, and Styx, operating across dark web channels, Telegram, and P2P options. These Fraud-as-a-Service shops sell stolen accounts, PII, synthetic identity generation, infrastructure, and money laundering support, supporting schemes like business email compromise. MITRE's Fraud Fighting Framework (F3), introduced in early 2026, aims to help security teams prioritize monitoring of fraud TTPs, particularly account takeover techniques. Fraud damages are anticipated to approach hundreds of billions of USD.

Rapid7 Blog · 4d agoPhishing & fraud

Have it both ways: stay discoverable in search while disallowing AI training

Cloudflare launches Disallow AI Training setting letting sites block AI training via robots.txt while staying indexed in search; Apple, Google, and Microsoft honor it.

Cloudflare announced a 'Disallow AI Training' setting that publishes a no-training preference in robots.txt so sites can block AI training (including by mixed-use crawlers) without losing search indexing. Apple, Google, and Microsoft meet Cloudflare's new 'Accountable' designation, which requires training/summary opt-out mechanisms, URL-level training visibility, and assurance that opt-outs don't affect search rankings. Cloudflare cites that under 1% of its sites block search bots while 17% block AI training, and its Block settings now apply to mixed-use crawlers as well. Granular controls over how much content appears in AI summaries are planned for early next year.

Cloudflare Blog · 20h agoTools

BraZetsu Malware Turns Compromised Windows Hosts Into Criminal Marketplace Inventory

Group-IB details BraZetsu, a modular Python Windows malware that monetizes compromised-host access through the Infected Marketplace for initial access brokers.

Group-IB attributes BraZetsu to the Exilware threat actor, believed to be native Portuguese speakers targeting Iberian and Latin American e-commerce, financial, industrial, and law enforcement victims. The framework, first observed in early May 2026, uses generative AI for data triage and target prioritization, steals browser histories and digital certificates, and hunts Brazilian CNAB financial remittance files. Access to compromised hosts is sold on the Infected Marketplace from roughly $5.80, letting buyers remotely deploy secondary payloads over WebSocket-linked infrastructure. Some samples evaded detection on VirusTotal; delivery likely uses VBS loaders from a domain also used to distribute the Ousaban banking trojan.

The Hacker News · 12d agoMalware in the wild

The GTA VI leaks are breaking the internet. Security researchers have seen this before.

A hacker or insider leaked GTA VI gameplay footage before launch, triggering Take-Two DMCA subpoenas against Discord, Google, Microsoft and X.

The persona "CyberLeek" published stolen Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay footage and a manifesto, in what experts call a familiar data extortion playbook with monetization via watermarks, crypto wallets and a memecoin. Take-Two Interactive obtained DMCA subpoenas against Discord, Microsoft and X, and sent copyright notices to Google, treating the case like an insider threat investigation. GTA VI is projected to earn $3.3–5.2 billion in launch-week sales, raising financial and reputational stakes. Related leak websites went offline after the subpoenas.

CyberScoop · 21d agoData breach

Subtlefakes: Slightly Altered Nonconsensual AI Images Are Taking Over X

404 Media documents 'subtlefakes' — near-realistic AI-edited nonconsensual celebrity images on X spread by engagement-farming accounts, including images of actor Xochitl Gomez.

The article describes a rising trend of 'subtlefakes': AI-generated or lightly edited images of celebrities made more revealing or provocative without nudity, posted by verified engagement-farming accounts that earn revenue from X's impressions-based payouts. Actor Xochitl Gomez shared side-by-side comparisons showing real parking-lot and red-carpet photos altered into suggestive poses. The author argues these images are hard to detect and moderate because they avoid nudity, bypassing guardrails in mainstream generators, and notes some were made with X's own Grok.

404 Media · 26d agoAI safety & security1

ApateWeb: An Evasive Large-Scale Scareware and PUP Delivery Campaign

Unit 42 uncovers ApateWeb, a campaign using over 130,000 domains and multilayered redirects to deliver scareware, adware and PUPs to millions of users.

Unit 42 discovered ApateWeb, a large-scale campaign using a network of more than 130,000 domains to deliver scareware, potentially unwanted programs, adware including a rogue browser and browser extensions, and scam pages. The campaign uses a three-layer structure with deceptive emails as the entry point, centralized victim tracking via UUIDs, intermediate adware or anti-bot redirections, and evasion tactics such as cloaking, bot detection error pages, and wildcard DNS abuse. Activity spiked since August 2022, with several hundred attacker-controlled sites remaining in Tranco's top 1 million rankings and millions of monthly hits; Unit 42 blocked an estimated 3.5 million sessions across 74,711 devices in November 2023.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · 29d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

12 Best CIEM Tools Compared (2026): Features & Pricing

Buyer's guide compares twelve CIEM tools; Microsoft discontinued Entra Permissions Management, while Tenable (Ermetic), CyberArk, and Wiz lead the 2026 scorecard.

The scorecard evaluates twelve cloud infrastructure entitlement management vendors on permission analytics depth, JIT enforcement, non-human identity coverage, pricing predictability, and bundle leverage. Tenable (Ermetic) leads at 4.70, followed by CyberArk and Wiz, while Microsoft's retirement of Entra Permissions Management (CloudKnox) forces existing customers into migration cycles. Pricing structures span per-identity, per-resource, per-workload, credit-based, and quote-based models.

GBHackers · 1h agoIndustry 10 sources

Driver’s License Data for Sale

Schneier on Security highlights that driver's license data is being sold, underscoring concerns over monetization of driver records and surveillance.

A post on Bruce Schneier's blog is titled 'Driver's License Data for Sale.' The available excerpt contains no article body, so the specifics of the reported data sales are not detailed. The topic concerns the commercial availability of driver's license records, a recurring data-privacy and surveillance theme on the blog.

Schneier on Security · 6d agoData breach

CISA Adds Seven Exploited Flaws as Attackers Deploy Reverse Shells and Crypto Miners

CISA added seven actively exploited vulnerabilities to its KEV catalog, including SonicWall SMA 1000 SSRF CVE-2026-83548, amid campaigns deploying reverse shells and crypto miners.

CISA's KEV additions cover flaws in SonicWall SMA 1000 (CVE-2026-83548, CVE-2026-83549), Sangoma Switchvox (CVE-2026-9586), JFrog Artifactory (CVE-2026-82329), Kludex Starlette (CVE-2026-48710), Kestra OSS (CVE-2026-49869) and Berri LiteLLM's MCP endpoint (CVE-2026-59822). SonicWall confirmed active exploitation of the SMA 1000 flaws, while Microsoft and Wiz reported attackers chaining LiteLLM flaws CVE-2026-42271 and CVE-2026-48710 to fingerprint hosts, steal provider API keys and deploy XMRig miners on AI infrastructure. Wiz linked exploitation of the LiteLLM chain to the Qilin ransomware group, and Microsoft detailed a Kestra compromise chain ending in cryptocurrency mining and data harvesting via exposed RAGFlow flaws.

The Hacker News · 13d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-83548CVE-2026-83549CVE-2026-9586+10 CVEs1

[AINews] OpenAI shuts off Cursor

OpenAI cut off API access to coding tool Cursor after its SpaceX acquisition, citing contract violations by Elon Musk's companies.

OpenAI disabled Cursor's access following the closing of Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX, citing its experience with Elon Musk's companies violating contracts; Cursor responded that OpenAI accounts for only 5% of its traffic. The weekly digest also covers major open-weight releases: Z.ai's GLM-5.3 (744B total/40B active, 1M context) and Tencent's Hy4-preview (770B/49B, ~#5 on Code Arena WebDev), plus Alibaba's Qwen3.8-Flash (125B/6B). vLLM published benchmarks showing no universal winner among speculative decoding methods across model families.

Latent Space · 18d agoAI industry

The Tragedy and Ecstasy of AI Companions (with Bridget Todd)

Interview with journalist Bridget Todd explores how people use AI chatbots for intimacy and how tech companies monetize emotional dependence.

404 Media interviewed Bridget Todd, creator of the podcast There Are No Girls on the Internet, about her new audiobook 'Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy.' Todd describes turning to ChatGPT for emotional support while caring for her dying parents and interviews people who form romantic and erotic relationships with chatbots. The discussion critiques tech companies' inconsistent companion policies, citing Sam Altman's reversed stance on erotic roleplay, and their incentives to monetize intimate user relationships.

404 Media · 19d agoAI industry

Weekly Update 517: Cyber Ransoms

Troy Hunt's weekly commentary argues much ransomware is simple extortion by young actors who struggle to monetize ransoms.

In Weekly Update 517, Troy Hunt comments on the current ransomware landscape, noting many attacks involve pure extortion rather than actual malware. He observes that many actors are young and earn large sums but face practical difficulties spending ransom proceeds. The piece is opinion commentary rather than a new incident disclosure.

Troy Hunt · 29d agoIndustry

Beneath the Surface: Detecting and Blocking Hidden Malicious Traffic Distribution Systems

Unit 42 built an ML-based detector for malicious traffic distribution systems, finding malicious TDS chains average longer redirections and more URLs than legitimate ones.

Traffic distribution systems redirect victims through chains of intermediate domains to hide final destinations, serving phishing, malvertising, and online gambling operations. Unit 42's topological analysis of redirection graphs found malicious TDS traffic uses longer chains (about 25% exceed four hops vs 10% benign), more URLs (median 126 vs 80), and fewer isolated subgraphs with higher connectivity. These features power an ML detector integrated into Advanced DNS Security and Advanced URL Filtering to identify and block malicious TDS infrastructure in customer traffic.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · 29d agoResearch

Meta expands subscription push with new AI-focused plans

Meta launched Meta One subscriptions ($7.99–$499/month) bundling expanded Muse AI image and video generation across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Meta introduced Meta One with consumer Core ($7.99/mo) and Premium ($19.99/mo) tiers plus business plans ranging from Essential ($14.99/mo) to Max ($499/mo). Subscriptions unlock expanded Muse Image, Muse Video, Restyle editing, and Meta Business Agent usage, following Meta's $14.3B investment in Scale AI. Appfigures data shows Instagram's daily subscription revenue averaging $1.2M and Facebook's $528K after the March Plus-tier launches, up 475% and 143% respectively. BNP Paribas forecasts $13.5B added revenue by 2028; Truist estimates $20B by 2030.

TechCrunch · AI · 15h agoAI industry

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 · 1d agoIndustry1

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 · 21h agofirst · 1d agoMalware 7 sources

New York Seizes a Dozen Celebrity Deepfake Websites

Manhattan DA seized 12 domains hosting nonconsensual celebrity deepfake videos depicting about 1,200 victims, the largest such takedown to date.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office seized 12 domains used for sharing and selling nonconsensual deepfake sexual videos, depicting around 1,200 people, mostly women, including influencers, politicians, and celebrities. The seizures under New York criminal procedure law represent the largest takedown of explicit deepfake websites to date, aided by the US Take It Down Act. Much of the content appeared to be reposts from the MrDeepFakes platform, and investigations into operators and uploaders are ongoing.

WIRED · Securityupdated · 1d agofirst · 1d agoPolicy & legal 2 sources

Anthropic: AI Misuse Is Entering a New Phase: From Cybercrime to Surveillance, Propaganda and Weapons

Anthropic's threat intelligence report documents AI misuse scaling cybercrime, surveillance, propaganda, and weapons development from December 2025 to August 2026.

Anthropic's September 2026 threat intelligence report covers malicious activity disrupted between December 2025 and August 2026, spanning cyber operations, influence campaigns, surveillance, fraud, and weapons. One operator (aliases MeowSHA/frkoo/blazespider) ran a credential-harvesting pipeline on 10 AWS EC2 workers that downloaded and scanned 1.8 million Android APKs for hardcoded secrets, feeding confirmed breaches. Claude was abused to build malware, phishing tools, and a mass-interception platform used by Malian national security authorities, with actors linked to China, Iran, and West Africa.

Security Affairs · 3d agoAI safety & security1

Researchers Uncover 10,000+ Malware Loaders Behind YouTube and SEO Poisoning Campaign

Unit 42 uncovers CL-CRI-1171, a two-year pay-per-install campaign distributing 10,000+ OfferLoader samples via YouTube and SEO poisoning.

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 tracked a campaign as CL-CRI-1171, an infection-as-a-service platform operating for at least two years. It used 11 YouTube gaming channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and SEO-poisoned download pages for trojanized WinDirStat and Bluetooth driver installers to distribute OfferLoader, a disposable loader embedded in Inno Setup installers. Payloads delivered included Insomnia RAT (Node.js and Python backdoors), ARKTunnel (a WebSocket-based RAT using LSB steganography), and Docro Hijacker (Chrome browser hijacker), with later infections delivering GCleaner and Socks5Systemz. Over 200 rotating domains across .xyz, .cfd, .space, and .info TLDs were used, with gating filters that served broken links or decoy pages to scanners and researchers.

GBHackers · 4d agoMalware in the wild 2 sources2

Cybersecurity M&A Roundup: 33 Deals Announced in August 2026

SecurityWeek tallied 33 cybersecurity M&A deals announced in August 2026, headlined by Visa's $2.4B BioCatch buy and Munich Re's $575M At-Bay acquisition.

Thirty-three cybersecurity M&A deals were announced in August 2026. The largest include Visa acquiring fraud-detection firm BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash and Munich Re buying cyber insurtech At-Bay for $575 million through its HSB unit. Fortinet acquired AI security company Virtue AI, Palo Alto Networks bought agentic workflow platform Console, Cribl acquired AI-native SOC startup Radiant Security, and Deel bought deepfake-detection firm Clarity for a reported $40-50 million. Brinqa, Datavault AI, Echo, and Kiteworks also announced acquisitions.

SecurityWeek · 5d agoIndustry

Infostealer Logs Expose Replayable AI Tokens That Can Bypass MFA

Okta finds infostealer logs contain thousands of replayable AI session tokens and API keys, letting criminals bypass MFA and access services from Google, Anthropic and OpenAI.

Okta analyzed a 7 GB infostealer dump from August 2, 2026 covering 5,871 infected machines in 162 countries and found 555 of 44,791 JWTs related to AI services, plus 1,843 unexpired JWTs and JWEs (largely set by OpenAI via NextAuth.js) and 24 still-valid API keys for Google Gemini, OpenAI, Groq and OpenRouter. Valid session tokens and API keys can be replayed with anti-detect browsers like Camoufox to bypass credential and MFA checks, fueling an underground market for AI account access known as LLMjacking, where attackers rack up victims' AI compute bills. Some 17.7% of the JWTs contained plaintext PII usable for social engineering. Google's GTIG reported growing buyer demand for Claude, Gemini, Cursor and Devin credentials, and Mandiant handled an incident where an actor used an exposed GitHub PAT to deploy unauthorized AI infrastructure and scale high-performance compute.

The Hacker News · 6d agoThreat actor in the wild 2 sources1

Massive Redis Cryptojacking Campaign Hijacks Thousands of Linux Servers

RedisRaider cryptojacking campaign compromises thousands of exposed, unauthenticated Linux Redis servers using cron persistence to deploy XMRig Monero miners.

Hunt.io researchers track a large-scale cryptojacking operation named RedisRaider that scans IPv4 ranges for Redis services exposed on TCP port 6379 and targets instances accepting unauthenticated connections. From a master list of 12,966 candidate hosts, 2,342 were confirmed to accept commands without authentication. Attackers abuse Redis commands (CONFIG SET dir/dbfilename, SET, BGSAVE) to write malicious cron entries into /etc/cron.d or /var/spool/cron, launching XMRig-based Monero miners, with branches including SSH authorized-key injection, Lua probing, and WordPress spraying. The article also references CVE-2026-81934, a Redis TLS use-after-free allowing unauthenticated command execution, fixed in releases including 8.2.9, 8.4.6, 8.6.6, 8.8.2, and 8.10.1.

GBHackers · 7d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-81934

GTIG AI Threat Tracker: From Prompting to Autonomy – The Evolution of Adversarial AI

GTIG's Q2 2026 tracker shows adversaries adopting agentic AI workflows, including credential harvesting in under six hours and supply chain attacks by UNC6780.

Google Threat Intelligence Group's Q2 2026 report documents adversaries moving from basic prompting to agentic AI workflows and automation, including a cloud compromise followed by agent-enabled mass credential harvesting executed in under six hours. It tracks financially motivated actor UNC6780 (TeamPCP) conducting large-scale open source supply chain compromises across PyPI, npm, and Docker Hub since March 2026, deploying credential stealers. The report also highlights growing targeting of proprietary AI models, source code, prompts, and API credentials, plus LLMJacking practices where adversaries steal developer credentials or hijack cloud infrastructure to run unauthorized AI workloads.

Google Threat Intelligence · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild

Autonomous AI Agents Compromise Thousands of Credentials in Under Six Hours

Google's GTIG reports threat actors using autonomous AI agents, credential stealers, and LLMs to steal AI models, API credentials, and harvest thousands of credentials.

Google Threat Intelligence Group says attackers are targeting proprietary AI models across healthcare, government, and media, exfiltrating API credentials, and co-opting victim cloud environments to run unauthorized AI workloads. TeamPCP (Altered Spider/UNC6780) is conducting supply chain compromises of PyPI, npm, and Docker Hub, deploying the SANDCLOCK and DUSTMAKER credential stealers, with DUSTMAKER using AI workspace poisoning and prompt injection for defense evasion. One financially motivated actor used an autonomous multi-agent framework to compromise thousands of third-party credentials in under six hours without human intervention. China-nexus groups UNC6508 and Basin Castle (Mustang Panda) used local open-weight LLMs and commercial LLMs like Gemini, Claude, and Codex for espionage tasks and evading provider monitoring.

The Hacker News · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild 2 sources1

Breeze Comet Executes Hundreds of Fraudulent Transactions via Brazilian Payment Systems

Google/Mandiant profile Breeze Comet, a Brazil-based e-crime group executing fraudulent Pix and STR payment transactions at banks, retailers, and fintechs.

Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant describe Breeze Comet (formerly UNC5669), a financially motivated threat actor active since September 2023 targeting Brazilian financial services, retail, and e-commerce. The group gains access via password spraying, vishing impersonating IT support to install RMM tools like AnyDesk, WhatsApp social engineering, and exploitation of vulnerable JBoss AS servers for web shell deployment. It uses compromised government websites as C2, deploys the Rust-based COBALTSPIN tunneler and multiple custom backdoors (LIGHTPAINT, MILDFROST, KICKPLATE, BOATBEAM), then clears logs after executing hundreds of fraudulent transactions through Pix, STR, and Boleto payment systems. At least one heist yielded tens of thousands of dollars, with infrastructure suggesting expansion toward Latin America and Africa.

The Hacker News · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild

UNC6671 Vishing Attacks Target Personal Phones to Steal SaaS Data

Google and Mandiant attribute vishing-based SaaS data extortion attacks to UNC6671, now operating under the Redact, Pink, Helix, and Falcon brands.

Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant track extortion group UNC6671, which uses vishing calls impersonating IT help desks to lure employees to adversary-in-the-middle phishing pages that capture credentials, MFA tokens, and session tokens. The group then registers adversary-controlled MFA devices, pivots through identity providers into Microsoft 365, Okta, and other SaaS applications, and runs automated Python and PowerShell exfiltration scripts. UNC6671 has rotated through extortion brands including BlackFile, Redact, Pink, Helix, and Falcon, and Google tracked over $10.6 million in Bitcoin payments between January 7 and May 12, 2026, with initial demands exceeding $3 million. The actor has hit dozens of organizations in North America, Australia, and the UK, shifting toward high-value financial and legal firms in July 2026.

The Hacker Newsupdated · 8d agofirst · 8d agoThreat actor in the wild 2 sources1

⚡ Weekly Recap: Chrome 0-Day, Router Hijacks, Coder Supply Chain Attack and More

Weekly recap: actively exploited Chrome V8 zero-day, MikroTik RouterOS zero-day chain, Magento StyleSmuggler backdoor, and critical N-able N-central flaws.

Google patched an actively exploited Chrome V8 type confusion zero-day, CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS 8.8), the sixth exploited Chrome zero-day of 2026. CERT Polska warned of the MikroTrick exploit chain (CVE-2026-67276 and CVE-2026-86060, CVSS 9.2) giving unauthenticated full control of MikroTik RouterOS devices via SSH, observed since September 2. Sansec disclosed the StyleSmuggler Magento/Adobe Commerce zero-day used since September 4 to inject a Rust backdoor into online stores, while N-able patched three critical N-central flaws (CVE-2026-86206, CVE-2026-86207, and CVE-2026-86218, CVSS 10.0) with Huntress observing likely exploitation. Elastic and Morphisec also detailed RevStealer, an information stealer spread via game cheats and a fake Claude Desktop app.

The Hacker News · 8d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2026-85046CVE-2026-86206CVE-2026-86207+7 CVEs

LG TV flaws could let attackers listen in, even in standby mode

Researchers found LG smart TVs collect network data and ACR viewing profiles, and demonstrated microphone audio capture plus undisclosed RCE vulnerabilities.

An investigation by Gamers Nexus with Level1Techs and independent researchers found LG TVs performing network discovery, collecting nearby Wi-Fi names and device identifiers, and conducting Automated Content Recognition (ACR) tracking. They demonstrated microphone audio capture even when the TV appeared off, and audio buffering while the TV was unplugged from the internet. Remote-code-execution vulnerabilities were reported to LG under ongoing responsible disclosure, with full details not yet public.

Malwarebytes Labs · 8d agoVulnerability

Free streaming boxes may be routing criminal traffic through your home

Researchers found SuperBox streaming boxes and the CyberFlix TV app enroll home connections into the Popanet residential proxy network, routing criminal traffic.

Researchers found that SuperBox devices and the CyberFlix TV app, distributed through SuperBox's custom app store, contain Popanet proxy functionality that registers the device with servers controlled by the proxy operator, enrolling household connections into residential proxy networks. The reported configuration weakens Android safeguards with exposed ADB access, root-level privileges without authentication, and removal of app-install protections. Plume's research warns these proxy networks can also function as malware-delivery platforms, and the FBI notes foreign entities use residential proxies to conceal activity such as credential stuffing and account abuse. Malwarebytes advises disconnecting and replacing affected SuperBox/CyberFlix devices rather than factory-resetting them.

Malwarebytes Labs · 11d agoMalware in the wild

H1 2026 Malware Vulnerability Trends

Recorded Future's H1 2026 report finds 215 actively exploited CVEs, RAT dominance, NFC payment fraud, and AI-augmented but not autonomous tradecraft.

Recorded Future's Insikt Group identified 215 actively exploited CVEs in H1 2026, up 34% from 161 in H1 2025, with the most impactful flaws combining network reachability, no authentication, and code execution. AsyncRAT was the top malware family, with AsyncRAT, Cobalt Strike, XWorm, Stealc, and REMCOS remaining top-ten staples; Android NFC malware like NFCShare and NGate enabled payment card theft and ATM cash-outs. AI-enabled attacks remained additive to established tradecraft, concentrated in Levels 1-3 of Recorded Future's AIM3 maturity model, with AI-assisted vulnerability research (e.g., Claude Mythos fixing 271 Firefox bugs in Firefox 150) inflating NVD disclosure volumes 43% above the prior six-month average. The report urges defenders to prioritize remotely exploitable RCE flaws, behavioral detection, developer credential security, and third-party oversight.

Recorded Future · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild1

Gaming the system: how a Chinese-speaking actor turned Brazilian government sites into an SEO weapon

Check Point identifies Chinese-speaking group Gambling Goblin hijacking Brazilian government domains via malicious Apache modules for SEO-manipulated gambling phishing.

Check Point Research tracks a sustained campaign since mid-2025 against Brazilian government and educational organizations by Gambling Goblin, a Chinese-speaking cybercrime cluster linked to Earth Berberoka. Attackers compile and install malicious Apache modules that silently reverse-proxy visitors to phishing pages impersonating Google Play, Microsoft Store, and Amazon, chaining compromised high-reputation domains to inflate search rankings. The group deploys a heavily obfuscated Linux toolkit including DownPro, AlphaAgent, oRAT, a 3snake-based credential stealer, and SSH brute-forcers, with parallel phishing networks localized for Vietnamese, Spanish, and English victims.

Check Point Research · 13d agoThreat actor

Identity-as-a-Service: Uncovering Dark Web Marketplaces Trading Executive SSNs

Rapid7 research uncovered dark web marketplaces trading executive Social Security numbers, fueling synthetic identity fraud and unauthorized lines of credit.

Rapid7 threat research documents dark web marketplaces where stolen executive Social Security numbers are bought and sold, a tier of the cybercrime ecosystem more durable than stolen payment cards because SSNs cannot be deactivated. Exposed SSNs enable unauthorized credit lines, synthetic identity fraud, and long-term impersonation. The article cites FTC statistics of over 1 million identity theft reports annually, with related fraud and imposter scams causing billions in losses each year.

Rapid7 Blog · 19d agoResearch

AnonyMousKIT phishing-as-a-service uses AI voice calls to steal iPhone passcodes

SOCRadar details AnonyMousKIT, an active phishing-as-a-service platform using AI voice agents across 506 domains to steal Apple ID credentials from stolen iPhone owners.

SOCRadar analyzed AnonyMousKIT, a pay-per-action phishing-as-a-service platform built to harvest Apple ID credentials needed to remove Activation Lock from stolen iPhones. A bare-relative-paths flaw exposed a reseller supply chain of 506 domains and 168 storefront brands active since early 2024, plus 200 call logs and 55 transcripts, with 179 of 200 calls going to Brazil at a total cost of $19.24. Voice-agent personas like 'Alice Dias, Apple Support' convince victims to dictate their four- or six-digit passcode and enter an unlock code from a security link, allowing thieves to remove Activation Lock and resell devices. The platform ran five personas in English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese and remained active at the end of the investigation.

Help Net Security · 21d agoPhishing & fraud

Risks in IoT Supply Chain

Unit 42 analyzes multilayer IoT supply chain risks across hardware, firmware, and software, citing counterfeit Cisco switches and OpenWrt attacks.

Unit 42 examines weaknesses in the IoT supply chain ecosystem across hardware, firmware, operation, and vulnerability layers, noting that 89% of IT decision-makers reported IoT device growth and IDC forecast 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by 2025. Examples include counterfeit Cisco Catalyst 2960-X switches with possible backdoor access (F-Secure, July 2020), a March 2020 OpenWrt flaw enabling malicious update impersonation, and threat actor interest in TeamViewer remote support software. The report stresses that untracked third-party components and missing device inventories make it hard to assess vulnerability impact across vendors.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · 27d agoResearch

New Chaos Variant Targets Misconfigured Cloud Deployments, Adds SOCKS Proxy

Darktrace says the Chaos botnet now targets misconfigured cloud deployments like Hadoop and added a SOCKS proxy for traffic relaying.

Darktrace identified a new 64-bit ELF variant of the Chaos botnet targeting misconfigured cloud deployments, expanding beyond the malware's traditional focus on routers and edge devices. Captured in a deliberately misconfigured Hadoop honeypot instance, the intrusion began with an HTTP request creating an application that ran embedded shell commands to fetch the Chaos agent binary from pan.tenire[.]com, set chmod 777 permissions, execute it, and delete the artifact to reduce forensic traces. The restructured variant adds a SOCKS proxy feature letting compromised systems ferry attacker traffic, while removing SSH-based spread and router-exploit functions, suggesting monetization beyond crypto mining and DDoS-for-hire. Possible Chinese origin is suggested by language artifacts and infrastructure; the delivery domain was previously used in Silver Fox's Operation Silk Lure phishing campaign delivering ValleyRAT.

The Hacker News · 28d agoMalware1

New Mirai-Based Evooo1Bot Botnet Targets Linux Devices

FortiGuard Labs disclosed Evooo1Bot, a Mirai-based Linux botnet active since July 2026 that hijacks routers and IoT devices for DDoS, credential theft, and SOCKS5 proxying.

Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs disclosed Evooo1Bot, a previously undocumented Linux botnet active since July 2026 that reuses Mirai's DDoS engine while adding encrypted C2, SSH brute-force scanning, credential sniffing, and SOCKS5 proxy modules. The bot exploits 18 known CVEs across Alcatel, NETGEAR, Tenda, D-Link, Telesquare, and Mitsubishi devices, some dating back to 2007, and communicates exclusively over port 443 to blend with HTTPS traffic. Compromised hosts can be turned into SOCKS5 relays for anonymous traffic forwarding or monetization via proxy services. The malware uses AES-256-CTR, ChaCha20, and XOR obfuscation with a 28-command administration interface.

Security Affairs · 29d agoMalware in the wildCVE-2007-3010CVE-2016-6277CVE-2018-14558+7 CVEs

Teaching Everyone to Fish for Tokens

Analysis argues open-source AI now depends heavily on Nvidia's financing, with a reported $26 billion bet shaping the open-weights ecosystem's future.

An Interconnects essay examines whether the open-source model recipe, exemplified by Ai2's Olmo and Nvidia's Nemotron releases, can become economically self-sustaining. It reports Nvidia is spending roughly $26 billion on near-open-source models to drive demand for its chips, and argues the open ecosystem faces an existential financing window over the next few years. The author predicts open models may fork toward efficiency, specialization, and on-prem enterprise agents rather than competing head-on with closed frontier labs.

Interconnects · 29d agoAI industry

Evooo1Bot Linux Botnet Exploits Known Flaws to Turn Edge Devices Into SOCKS5 Proxies

Fortinet researchers documented Evooo1Bot, a new Mirai-derived Linux botnet active since July 2026 that exploits known edge-device flaws to build SOCKS5 proxy networks.

Fortinet FortiGuard Labs identified Evooo1Bot, a previously undocumented Linux botnet built on the leaked Mirai source code, active in the wild since July 2026 and targeting internet-facing edge devices. It exploits numerous known CVEs in routers and devices from D-Link, Tenda, Telesquare, Zyxel, Hikvision, Atlassian Confluence, WSO2, TP-Link, NETGEAR, and others, delivering a bot binary via a wget.sh loader from 91.92.40.118 that clears bash history. The bot offers encrypted C2 on port 443, SSH brute-force scanning, credential sniffing, DDoS over DNS/TCP/UDP, an HTTP exploit dispatcher, and converts infected hosts into SOCKS5 proxies for anonymizing follow-on operations.

The Hacker News · 29d agoMalware in the wildCVE-2007-3010CVE-2016-6277CVE-2018-14558+15 CVEs