Lazarus hackers pair fake job offers with Windows zero-day exploit
Lazarus' Operation Dream Job targets the defense sector with fake job offers, a Windows LPE zero-day (CVE-2026-68820), and new Troy and RelayShell backdoors.
Check Point documented two parallel infection chains in Lazarus' Operation Dream Job: a digitally signed PDF viewer with DLL sideloading delivering the MISTPEN in-memory downloader, and a trojanized SecurityPDF viewer, distributed via fake Enveil websites, installing the newly documented Troy backdoor. A component exploits CVE-2026-68820, a local privilege escalation zero-day in the Windows AFD.sys driver used since at least early July, which Microsoft patched on August 11, 2026, enabling deployment of the FudModule kernel-mode rootkit. Lazarus also compromised Roundcube webmail servers vulnerable to CVE-2025-49113 to deploy the RelayShell PHP web shell and relay C2 traffic, targeting defense-sector organizations primarily in Western Europe and India. Separately, CERT-UA documented Sandworm's UAC-0145 using fake job offers against IT professionals since May 2026.
Five Years, 88,000 Backdoors, and a Pair of Handcuffs: Inside the Global Manhunt That Ended in an Arrest
Huntress and the FBI recount a five-year manhunt for Silk Typhoon, from 88,000 Exchange backdoors to an arrest.
Huntress and the FBI pursued Silk Typhoon for five years after the group left roughly 88,000 backdoors on compromised Microsoft Exchange servers. The campaign culminated in an arrest, with handcuffs closing the global manhunt. Huntress frames the case as part of a wider ongoing fight against cybercrime.
Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product
Two actively exploited SonicWall SMA 1000 zero-days chain to unauthenticated RCE; patches released and CISA added both to KEV.
SonicWall disclosed and patched two zero-days in SMA 1000 appliances: CVE-2026-83548, a maximum-severity pre-authentication SSRF, and CVE-2026-83549, a high-severity OS command injection. Rapid7 said chaining the flaws yields unauthenticated remote code execution, and CISA added both to its KEV catalog Wednesday. The vendor provided no IOCs or victim counts, urging customers to hunt for compromise, reimage or redeploy appliances, and reset all passwords and tokens. The product has faced repeated exploitation, including ransomware-linked flaws used by INC and Akira.
Apple Reference Image: A New Approach for Verified Photography
Apple introduces Reference Image, hardware-backed verifiable photography on iPhone 18 Pro using sensor signing and Private Cloud Compute to counter AI-generated fakes.
Apple announced Reference Image, an opt-in camera mode debuting on the main sensor of iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max that produces securely timestamped, verifiable photographs. The design splits into two phases: a secure digital negative created by cryptographically signing pixel data at the sensor immediately after capture (preventing injection or tampering), then developing that negative into a reference image. Private Cloud Compute handles processing without exposing image contents to anyone, including Apple, and fraudulent reference images can be revoked without revealing the photographer's identity. Apple positions the system as stronger than C2PA-based approaches, which sign metadata after capture, are vulnerable to editing-chain compromise, and can tie images to a device or individual.
Edge infrastructure under siege: what two independent datasets reveal about who's exploiting your perimeter
Joint Tenable-SentinelOne analysis of 93 CVE-actor attribution pairs shows nation-state and criminal groups independently converge on the same edge infrastructure.
Tenable and SentinelOne jointly analyzed 93 CVE-actor attribution pairs covering exploitation of perimeter devices. The data shows state-sponsored and financially motivated actors independently target the same edge products from Ivanti, Fortinet, and Palo Alto Networks. The findings challenge the narrative that edge exploitation is exclusively a China-nexus nation-state problem, showing a broader shared attack surface.
New Android malware relays bank cards to fraudsters while victims still hold them
Group-IB discovered WindRelay Android malware that streams NFC card data in real time, paired with SpyNote RAT, targeting Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Group-IB identified WindRelay, an Android malware that uses NFC to communicate with victims' payment cards and relays the exchange live to attacker-controlled terminals. Fraudsters impersonate bank staff by phone, trick victims into installing a personalized SpyNote RAT, then silently deploy WindRelay to cash out using the victim-entered PIN. Researchers traced 23 samples on VirusTotal from November 2025 to July 2026, four C2 IPs, and campaigns against Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. No affected apps were found on Google Play, and Google Play Protect detects known versions.