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Counterfeit installers to system compromise: Tracking a deceptive software download campaign
Microsoft tracks a counterfeit software-installer campaign compromising multinationals' China operations, moderately linked to the Silver Fox (Yinhu) actor.
Microsoft Defender Experts is tracking an active campaign using spoofed software download sites for brands such as Razer, Kaspersky, Microsoft Edge, Calibre, and Baidu Netdisk on .com.cn and .hl.cn domains, delivering installer archives whose hashes change per download, indicating server-side payload generation. The implants establish persistence, weaken security protections, and communicate with attacker-controlled infrastructure, with confirmed compromises across healthcare, manufacturing, gaming, technology, logistics, government, and education. Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that the activity matches the publicly reported Silver Fox (Yinhu) fake software campaign; it has not attributed it to a nation-state actor.
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Google TAG argues that Italian surveillance firm RCS Labs was helped by ISPs to infect mobile users
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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.
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KREMLIN Banking Malware Bypasses Chrome Security to Steal Banking Sessions
Elastic Security Labs details KREMLIN, a Brazilian banking malware that implants malicious Chrome and Edge extensions by forging Chromium integrity values to steal banking sessions.
Elastic Security Labs tracks the KREMLIN banking malware operation as REF9334, active since at least May 2025 across seven campaigns primarily targeting 12 Brazilian banks. The malware is installed by a victim-run JavaScript loader, achieves scheduled-task persistence, and side-loads a malicious DLL via SentinelOne's SentinelMemoryScanner.exe. It modifies Chrome and Edge Secure Preferences files, enables developer mode, and regenerates Chromium MAC values to silently install extensions, while extracting browser encryption material including the newer App-Bound OSCrypt key. An Ethereum smart contract serves as a dead-drop resolver for C2 config; Elastic disrupted over 1,500 infections via a canary domain.
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Attackers Use Passkey Phishing to Hijack Microsoft Cloud Accounts and Exfiltrate Data
Microsoft details two campaigns: million-email CEO impersonation ACH fraud and passkey-themed vishing that hijacks Microsoft cloud accounts for data theft and extortion.
Microsoft disclosed a campaign that sent over one million CEO-impersonation scam emails between August 3-5, 2026, targeting U.S. accounts payable departments with fake ServiceNow subscription invoices to induce ACH transfers, using generative AI to tailor templates. A second campaign detected since May 2026 uses passkey/MFA-themed voice phishing posing as the IT help desk, redirecting victims via SMS to counterfeit Microsoft sign-in pages and adversary-in-the-middle or device-code flows to hijack accounts. Post-compromise activity includes adding attacker-controlled authentication methods, high-volume Microsoft Graph activity, SharePoint and OneDrive downloads, and mailbox collection via REST APIs. Microsoft attributes initial access to Storm-3121 (linked to ShinyHunters and Falcon extortion) and Storm-3032 (UNC6671, a BlackFile splinter operating the Helix extortion brand).
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PEEP Turns Chrome and Edge Into Post-Compromise Backdoors for Host Command Execution
SOCRadar disclosed PEEP, a post-exploitation Chromium extension toolkit that turns Chrome and Edge into host-level backdoors via native messaging and C2 polling.
SOCRadar researchers detailed PEEP, a Chromium-based post-exploitation toolkit masquerading as a 'Smart Bookmarks' extension injected directly into Chrome and Edge profiles by forging Secure Preferences integrity values, bypassing Web Store checks. A native-messaging host binary (nm_host.exe) extends the browser agent to host-level command execution, file management, credential theft, and session hijacking, while the extension polls C2 endpoints at 206.237.30.232 or xfjcc.fun every 30 seconds over plaintext HTTP and exfiltrates browsing history, cookies, and tab metadata. PEEP is derived from the open-source RedExt red teaming framework, adds PowerShell persistence scripts, and includes a Linux-targeting Python script, suggesting cross-platform intent. The activity is unattributed but contains Chinese-language artifacts; a C2 /health endpoint showed 34 agent entries and 10 active sessions.
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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.
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⚡ 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.
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The Smishing Deluge: China-Based Campaign Flooding Global Text Messages
Unit 42 attributes a global smishing campaign with 194,000+ phishing domains impersonating tolls, banks, and couriers to the Smishing Triad.
Palo Alto Unit 42 attributes ongoing smishing texts about toll violations and package misdelivery to the Smishing Triad, targeting U.S. residents since April 2024. Researchers identified 194,345 FQDNs across 136,933 root domains registered since January 2024, mostly via Hong Kong registrar Dominet (HK) Limited with Chinese nameservers and hosting concentrated on U.S. cloud services. The decentralized campaign impersonates banking, cryptocurrency, e-commerce, healthcare, law enforcement, and social media services, and its scale points to a large phishing-as-a-service operation. Phishing pages harvest national ID numbers such as Social Security numbers, home addresses, payment details, and login credentials.
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Week in review: High severity WordPress vulnerabilities, fake OAuth IDs bypass sign-in logs
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ThreatsDay Bulletin: Claude Security Plugin, Azure Priv-Esc, Kali365 MFA Bypass, FIFA Scams +15 More
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⚡ Weekly Recap: AI-Powered Phishing, Android Spying Tool, Linux Exploit, GitHub RCE & More
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⚡ Weekly Recap: WSUS Exploited, LockBit 5.0 Returns, Telegram Backdoor, F5 Breach Widens
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IT threat evolution Q2 2022
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RatHat Abuses Android Wireless Debugging to Gain Shell Access and Steal Banking PINs
New Android banking trojan RatHat abuses Wireless Debugging to gain shell access and steals banking PINs and OTPs via raw touch capture.
Zimperium and zLabs analyzed RatHat, an Android banking malware linked to China-based actors that chains Accessibility abuse and Wireless Debugging to obtain a local ADB shell without a host computer. Masqueraded Go binaries in /data/local/tmp provide persistence and an FRP reverse tunnel, while a getevent-based collector maps touch coordinates to PIN pads and pattern locks using locateValues.json layouts. It targets banking, crypto, WeChat and Alipay apps through smishing, malicious ads, and HTML overlays, and serializes the accessibility tree for a generative AI assistant to automate on-screen actions. Layered anti-analysis includes malformed DEX, a padded manifest, and debugger, Frida, and emulator checks.
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Malware bypasses browser checks to force install Chrome, Edge extensions
Elastic Security Labs detailed KREMLIN, a Brazilian banking malware that silently installs malicious Chrome and Edge extensions, with 1,515 confirmed infections.
Elastic Security Labs analyzed KREMLIN, a toolkit used by a Brazilian operation in at least seven campaigns since May 2025 that impersonates 12 banks to trick users into opening a JavaScript file disguised as a bank receipt or invoice. After anti-sandbox checks, it downloads Node.js, persists via a scheduled task, and fetches payload locations from an Ethereum smart contract, hiding payloads in JPEG images on Internet Archive. The toolkit bypasses Chromium integrity mechanisms to install unapproved Chrome/Edge extensions masquerading as AVSync that steal cookies, keylog form input, capture screenshots, and intercept HTTP traffic, while recent campaigns deployed the REMCOS RAT and earlier ones Pulsar RAT. Elastic confirmed 1,515 infected systems, almost all in Brazil, and disrupted the campaign by registering an anti-sandbox canary domain; the linked wallet handled roughly 20,800 USDT incoming and 19,000 USDT outgoing.
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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.
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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.
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Iranian Hackers Use Fake MRI Results to Infect Victims With CHOSEN BRICK Spyware
Iranian state-linked hackers deliver CHOSEN BRICK Windows spyware via fake MRI results to surveil dissidents, activists, and journalists in the UK, US, and Netherlands.
A joint advisory from the UK NCSC, FBI, and the Netherlands' AIVD links Iranian state-linked actors to CHOSEN BRICK, a Windows spyware family used for long-term surveillance since at least 2025. Targets are approached on WhatsApp or Telegram with tailored lures such as fake MRI scan results or application files, and operators often redirect victims to personal devices to bypass corporate controls. The malware persists via Run registry keys, adds antivirus exclusions, uses a per-victim Telegram bot for command and control, and exfiltrates data through cloud storage and proxy services. Capabilities include screenshots, audio recording, email and messaging theft, command execution, file deletion, data wiping, and some victims' details have appeared on pro-Iranian leak sites for harassment.
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One Exploit Chain, Two Espionage Campaigns: Chrome and Windows Under Fire
Two China-linked APT groups reused identical Chrome/Windows zero-day chain against NGOs, deploying GRIMWIDGE backdoor and LONGTALE credential-stealing extension.
Volexity reports that China-linked actors UTA0560 and JungleBamboo (APT31/TA412) ran byte-identical Chrome/Windows exploit chains against NGOs starting September 1, 2026, combining Chrome type confusion CVE-2026-85046, WebAssembly sandbox escape CVE-2026-87491, and Windows kernel flaw CVE-2026-85880. The Chrome bug was fixed in Chromium source but not yet shipped to Chrome users, making it an effective zero-day with an unusual patch gap. UTA0560 delivered the in-memory GRIMWEDGE JScript backdoor, while JungleBamboo deployed the SUPERSTOMP loader installing LONGTALE, a malicious Chrome extension disguised as Google Gemini that steals cookies, session tokens, and keystrokes. Volexity assesses with low confidence the exploit chain was sold or shared among different Chinese end-users.
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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.
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Four Nation-State Actors Used the Same Chrome Zero-Day Exploit Kit Within 12 Days
Proofpoint reports four nation-state actors, mostly China-nexus, adopted the BlueMoon Chrome and Windows zero-day exploit kit within 12 days, targeting US organizations.
Proofpoint tracked an exploit kit dubbed BlueMoon that chains CVE-2026-85046, a Chrome V8 type-confusion bug, with an unnamed V8 sandbox escape and CVE-2026-85880, a Windows kernel privilege escalation using ALPC and the Windows Notification Facility. The first observed use was by China-nexus TA412 (APT31, Violet Typhoon, JungleBamboo) on August 28, 2026 against US NGOs, mining companies, and commodity trading firms, followed by UNK_LateNight targeting US aerospace and defense companies on September 2. Both V8 bugs were patch-gap zero-days: the fix was committed to Chromium on August 7 but reached stable Chrome on September 3, enabling rapid weaponization from public patches. TA412's post-exploitation payload, GemStone, is a malicious browser extension posing as an AI-powered Google Gemini companion that captures keystrokes, cookies, screenshots, and browsing history via a Cloudflare Worker C2.
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Hackers Deploy Hundreds of AI Agents to Compromise 440 PaperCut Servers
AI-agent campaign exploited PaperCut CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078, compromising 440 servers at 395 organizations and reaching Domain Admin in 12.
GreyNoise tracked a likely Russian-speaking actor that used AI agents (OpenAI Codex, a DeepSeek model) to exploit an authentication bypass (CVE-2026-81578) and unsafe-reflection RCE (CVE-2026-82078) in PaperCut NG/MF starting August 31, 2026. At least 440 servers across 395 organizations in 48 countries were compromised, with one US high school going from initial access to Domain Admin in seven minutes. Escalation relied on LSASS and registry credential harvesting, pass-the-hash, the noPac technique (CVE-2021-42278/CVE-2021-42287), new Domain Admin accounts, and DCSync to steal NTDS.DIT data. Operators staged registry hives, used Ligolo tunneling and certutil Base64 encoding for exfiltration, and one attempt was blocked by Cloudflare WAF.
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China-Linked Hackers Exploit Chrome and Windows Zero-Days in BlueMoon Attacks
China-linked clusters deploy the BlueMoon kit chaining Chrome V8 CVE-2026-85046 and Windows LPE CVE-2026-85880 in espionage campaigns.
Proofpoint researchers identified BlueMoon, an exploit kit combining a V8 type-confusion RCE (CVE-2026-85046), a V8 sandbox escape, and a Windows kernel privilege-escalation flaw (CVE-2026-85880), first observed August 28, 2026. At least four clusters adopted it, led by TA412 (also tracked as APT31/Violet Typhoon) and followed by UNK_LateNight, UNK_DoubleCheck, and UNK_QuietRacket, targeting aerospace, manufacturing, government, consulting, and financial sectors. The kit exploited a nearly four-week patch gap between the public Chromium commit (August 7) and stable rollout (September 3). TA412 delivered the GemStone Chrome extension masquerading as a Gemini companion, while other clusters deployed ShadowPad via DLL sideloading, a Rust loader, and DoH-based C2.
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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.
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StyleSmuggler (CVE-2026-75650): Frequently asked questions about Adobe Commerce and Magento zero-day
Critical unauthenticated RCE zero-day CVE-2026-75650 (StyleSmuggler) in Adobe Commerce and Magento is actively exploited; Adobe shipped hotfix VULN-39341 on September 7.
CVE-2026-75650 is a CVSS 10.0 unauthenticated remote code execution flaw in Adobe Commerce 2.4.4-2.4.9, Adobe Commerce B2B 1.3.3-1.5.3, and Magento Open Source 2.4.6-2.4.9, exploited via malicious style properties that inject PHP code executed through a transactional email template. Active exploitation began September 4, 2026, three days before Adobe released Hotfix VULN-39341 (APSB26-146) on September 7, with multiple victim stores confirmed by Sansec and Disrex across at least two distinct campaigns. Attackers deploy a persistent implant at ~/.local/share/.gvfsd/gvfsd-user masquerading as kworker, fc-cache, or chronyd, sustained by a cron job, while a second operator dropped a PHP web shell in product image caches. Tenable classified it as a Vulnerability of Interest; it is not yet in CISA KEV as of September 8, and Adobe also recommends rotating encryption keys and all protected credentials.
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