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Russian State-Sponsored Hackers Use Claude to Rebuild Malware After Detection

Anthropic disrupted APT29-linked GTG-20006, which used Claude to autonomously rebuild malware, hijack hotel Wi-Fi DNS, and target 20-plus Ukrainian, European, and US-linked organizations.

Anthropic attributed the campaign to GTG-20006, aligned with Midnight Blizzard (APT29/Cozy Bear), which developed an AI-driven process that monitors its implants against security products and autonomously rebuilds and redeploys detected malware. Targets included military intelligence, diplomatic, and defense organizations in Ukraine and Europe, plus Middle East and Asian maritime agencies; the actor compromised at least three hotel Wi-Fi vendors via DNS hijacking and served ClickFix lures delivering Windows, Android, and iOS malware such as PowerChrome, GiftDrop, and DarkSword. Operations also included a North African breach exfiltrating over 300,000 national identity records and 500,000-plus company registry entries, an Embassy Kit device-code phishing campaign stealing Microsoft 365 tokens from at least eight organizations, and WhatsApp account takeover using headless browsers. The campaign overlaps with CaptiveCrunch reporting from ReliaQuest, Microsoft, Google, and Lumen Black Lotus Labs.

The Hacker Newsupdated · 4d agofirst · 5d agoThreat actor in the wild 15 sources2

Malicious Apache Modules Hijack Brazilian Government Site Traffic to Push Betting Pages

Check Point links Gambling Goblin, a Chinese-speaking cluster, to malicious Apache modules hijacking Brazilian government servers to promote betting sites.

Check Point Research tracks Gambling Goblin, a Chinese-speaking cluster, installing malicious Apache reverse-proxy modules on compromised Brazilian government and education web servers since mid-2025. The modules divert visitors to gambling and fake app-store pages while stripping the site's security headers, likely for large-scale SEO manipulation. The group's Linux arsenal includes DownPro, AlphaAgent, oRAT, a 3snake-based credential stealer, and SSH brute-forcing tools, and it is tied to Trend Micro's Earth Berberoka. Related SEO-fraud campaigns on .gov.br domains were documented by ESET (GhostRedirector), Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, and Hunt.io.

The Hacker News · 14d agoThreat actor in the wild

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 · 14d agoThreat actor

BengalSEO Poisons Bing Search Results to Deliver MayaBot and Tech Support Scams

DFIR Report exposes BengalSEO, an India-based SEO-poisoning operation running since 2015, delivering MayaBot malware and tech support scams via Bing results.

The DFIR Report details BengalSEO, a financially motivated cluster operating from Rajasthan, India, since at least 2015, run through two IT service providers: WeConnect Solutions LLC and Garage2Global. The group uses black-hat SEO techniques—backlinks, DOM injection, DOM shuffling, keyword stuffing—to push lure pages to the top of Microsoft Bing results, routing victims through a traffic distribution system to either the custom MayaBot malware (which delivers an XMRig cryptominer and enables C2) or tech support scam call centers. A Vizio decoy page had 2,000 backlinks from 167 unique external domains, and Matomo analytics is used for victim fingerprinting, with the tracking domain appearing in 1,112 urlscan.io results.

The Hacker News · 8d agoThreat actor in the wild

DPRK APTs: Ted backdoor and curlRAT target South Korean media and automotive sectors

Rapid7 uncovered a DPRK-linked Linux toolkit using a HAProxy-embedded ted backdoor, SSH keylogger, and curlRAT against South Korean media and automotive firms.

Rapid7 Labs identified a previously undocumented framework attributed with medium confidence to DPRK actors, targeting South Korean automotive and media organizations likely since early 2025. The toolkit embeds a backdoor compiled into HAProxy 2.8.12 using its filter API, plus trojanized crond, agetty, atd, sshd, and polkitd, an SSH keylogger storing credentials under /var/lib/sshd/, and a curl-based RAT with a watchdog thread. It enables remote command execution, malicious script injection into served webpages (a watering-hole loop), credential harvesting, and long-term surveillance. Hardcoded C2s are associated with APT37 via ThreatFox, and exposed groupware portals and mail servers align with Kimsuky tradecraft; the initial access vector and any CVE remain unconfirmed.

Rapid7 Blog · 12d agoThreat actor in the wild1

Gambling Goblin Turns Brazilian Government Sites Into SEO Weapons

Check Point links Chinese-speaking cluster Gambling Goblin to SEO-fraud compromises of Brazilian government sites via malicious Apache modules since mid-2025.

Check Point Research dubbed the cluster Gambling Goblin and linked it with medium-to-high confidence to Earth Berberoka, a Chinese-speaking group Trend Micro documented in 2022, citing shared oRAT tooling, Chinese-language artifacts, and domains mimicking trusted tech brands. Custom Apache modules installed on compromised Brazilian government and education servers acted as reverse proxies, routing selected visitors to gambling and sports-betting phishing pages impersonating Google Play, the Microsoft Store, and Amazon while stripping CSP headers. The broader Linux toolkit included the DownPro downloader, AlphaAgent and oRAT backdoors, the 3snake-based PasswordHarvester credential stealer, and an SSH brute-forcer, with operations extending to Vietnamese, Spanish, and English phishing pages.

Infosecurity Magazine · 14d agoThreat actor

From 88 lines to 1: Detecting DLL hijacking with Elastic Defend

Elastic condenses 88 lines of detection logic into one Elastic Defend 9.5.0 rule catching the DLL hijacking used by a ClickFix campaign.

The ClickFix campaign side-loads a malicious mscoree.dll next to a signed Microsoft binary and also ships a driver to kill Elastic Endpoint. Elastic rebuilt the DLL as a NativeAOT library, dropped it beside the signed binary, and confirmed that Elastic Defend 9.5.0 flags the load. The post replaces 88 lines of detection logic with a single rule for DLL search-order hijacking.

Elastic Security Labs · 19d agoTools in the wild

Researchers Use Claude to Port Pre-Auth RCE Exploit From One PLC Model to Another

Forescout used Anthropic's Claude to port a working pre-auth RCE exploit for CVE-2021-31886 between WAGO PLCs, executing ARM shellcode on live hardware.

Forescout Vedere Labs used Claude interactively to port an RCE exploit for CVE-2021-31886, a CVSS 9.8 stack buffer overflow in the Nucleus FTP server's USER command, from a WAGO 750-852 to a WAGO 750-831 PLC, running attacker-supplied ARM shellcode. The final RCE stage cost $535.74 in API usage over 8 hours 32 minutes, and a follow-up attempt to build a C2 implant permanently bricked the device. CERT@VDE lists many Nucleus V1-based WAGO models as vulnerable with no updates available; Siemens plans no Nucleus NET remediation. The work follows a joint NSA/CISA/FBI/DOE/EPA advisory warning of AI-generated exploitation scripts targeting internet-exposed Siemens S7 PLCs.

The Hacker News · 14d agoResearchCVE-2021-318862

Android car head units infected with proxy botnet malware through built-in software updaters

Kaspersky found malware delivered via car head unit updaters, attributed to the MoYu Group's BADBOX operation, recruiting devices into a proxy botnet.

Kaspersky discovered malware delivered through the built-in TWCore system updater in Android-based car head units running DoFun infotainment firmware, turning devices into ad-fraud tools and nodes in a proxy botnet. The three-stage infection chain (JarService dropper, loader, and final payload supporting nine commands) installs the zhima reverse-proxy module, which Nokia's Deepfield team independently found on TV set-top boxes. Kaspersky attributes the operation with high confidence to the MoYu Group, linked to the BADBOX supply-chain botnet first identified by HUMAN Security in 2023. DoFun closed the gap after Kaspersky's responsible disclosure.

Help Net Security · 23d agoMalware in the wild

Thousands of Hacked WordPress Sites, One Operation: Unmasking StopAndProtect

Check Point uncovers the StopAndProtect ransomware operation infecting thousands of WordPress sites via ClickFix social engineering and PowerShell downloaders.

Check Point Research first observed the StopAndProtect ransomware family in mid-May 2026 and linked its infrastructure to thousands of hacked WordPress sites. The infection chain begins with ClickFix social engineering that prompts victims to run a PowerShell command, followed by two stages of additional downloaders. The research maps the shared infrastructure unifying the operation.

Check Point Research · 29d agoRansomware in the wild

New Ted Backdoor Hides Inside Victims' Own HAProxy Builds to Intercept Web Traffic

Rapid7 found a new backdoor, ted, compiled into trojanized HAProxy at two South Korean organizations, with medium-confidence attribution to North Korean actors.

Rapid7 documented a previously undocumented Linux toolkit named ted compiled into the HAProxy load balancer binaries of two South Korean organizations in the automotive and media sectors. The implant intercepts web traffic, serves altered pages only to filtered visitors, and hides C2 exchanges from backend logs and HAProxy statistics; a companion RAT, curlRAT, beacons on a default 12-hour schedule. The toolkit also trojanizes crond, sshd, agetty, atd, and polkitd binaries and sanitizes logs and bash history. Rapid7 attributes the activity with medium confidence to North Korean state-sponsored actors, with domain infrastructure overlapping APT37 listings in maltrail and delivery resembling the Operation SyncHole campaign.

The Hacker News · 11d agoThreat actor in the wild

StopAndProtect Turns 2,000 Hacked WordPress Sites Into a Criminal Network

Check Point uncovered StopAndProtect, a cybercrime operation using ~2,000 hacked WordPress sites for ClickFix-driven malware delivery, data theft, surveillance, and ransomware.

Check Point Research identified the StopAndProtect operation in May 2026; it abuses close to 2,000 compromised WordPress sites, many running outdated software, to host malware stages, act as C2, and store stolen data. Infection starts with fake CAPTCHA ClickFix prompts that trick visitors into running a PowerShell command, followed by .NET downloaders deploying ransomware, SMB/USB worm, lockscreen, chat, and credential-stealing components. Rather than always encrypting, operators selectively exfiltrate file lists and specific files; researchers found 700+ stolen-data archives, roughly 31,000 screenshots, and 6,000+ unique victim IP addresses, including WhatsApp activity monitoring.

Security Affairs · 27d agoThreat actor in the wild

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

Researcher shows how Claude Code can be tricked simply by asking it to summarize a website

Researcher wunderwuzzi showed Claude Code can be hijacked via prompt injection simply by asking it to summarize a website.

Security researcher Johann Rehberger (wunderwuzzi) demonstrated that Claude Code can be manipulated through prompt injection by simply asking it to summarize a website. Instructions embedded in fetched web content are executed by the agent, hijacking its behavior. The Register frames the finding as another demonstration of prompt injection risks in agentic coding tools that ingest untrusted web content.

The Register · Security · 18d agoAI safety & security1

North Korea-linked Hackers Hide a Backdoor Inside HAProxy

Rapid7 reports North Korea-linked hackers implanted a backdoor compiled into HAProxy at South Korean automotive and media firms, enabling covert C2 and credential theft.

Rapid7 documented a previously undocumented Linux toolkit hitting South Korean automotive and media organizations, centered on a backdoor compiled directly into victims' HAProxy 2.8.12. The 'ted backdoor' uses HAProxy's native filter API to intercept HTTP traffic, receive C2 commands hidden in requests to a fake image path, and erase all traces from logs and counters; the toolkit also trojanizes crond, agetty, atd, sshd, and polkitd, adds an SSH keylogger, and runs curlRAT with virtualization checks. It can inject scripts or replace page content for selected victims, turning the load balancer into a watering hole. Attribution sits at medium confidence toward North Korean state actors, with overlaps to APT37-linked infrastructure and a concurrent Lazarus campaign; the campaign's command domains have since gone dark.

Security Affairs · 8d agoThreat actor in the wild

Akira Affiliate Crashes Ransomware After Attempting EDR Evasion

Huntress documented an Akira ransomware affiliate attack that failed after its anti-EDR tool crashed legitimate software and stopped encryption before completion.

Infosecurity Magazine reports on Huntress research into a failed Akira ransomware affiliate attack. The affiliate attempted EDR evasion using an anti-EDR tool, but the tool interfered with legitimate software on the client's system. The interference crashed the ransomware before encryption completed, sabotaging the attack; no completed encryption was reported.

Infosecurity Magazine · Aug 13, 2026Ransomware

TCRF taken offline by DDoS attack after Claude user ban

The Cutting Room Floor game wiki was taken offline by a DDoS attack after a user leveraging Claude was banned.

The Cutting Room Floor (TCRF), a wiki documenting unused video game content, was knocked offline by a distributed denial-of-service attack. The attack reportedly followed moderation action banning a user who was using Anthropic's Claude. The incident highlights friction between community sites and AI-assisted users and tools.

Lobsters · security · 18d agoAI safety & security in the wild

Hackers Deploy New SloppyRAT via ClickFix to Enable Ransomware Lateral Movement

Zscaler ThreatLabz reports SloppyRAT, a new Windows RAT delivered via ClickFix lures that supports reconnaissance, reverse SOCKS proxying, and lateral movement for ransomware affiliates.

Zscaler ThreatLabz first observed SloppyRAT in June 2026, delivered through multi-stage ClickFix chains that abuse finger.exe, a renamed curl.exe, and IronPython to load a reflective Python payload. The C++ implant implements 47 PowerShell-like commands via native APIs and direct syscalls, modifies Microsoft Defender settings, and establishes a reverse SOCKS proxy that lets operators pivot into internal networks. It is linked to CastleLoader and CastleRAT components and uses certificate-pinned HTTPS C2 with an EtherHiding fallback via Polygon JSON-RPC. Zscaler assesses it as an intrusion-enablement tool for ransomware operations, though flawed persistence logic suggests the family is still under development.

GBHackersupdated · 5d agofirst · 5d agoMalware in the wild 3 sources

Russia-Aligned Hackers Use GuardBreaker Prompt Injection to Disrupt AI Malware Analysis

Russia-aligned group UAC-0099 embeds GuardBreaker prompt injection in a VBScript comment to make AI malware scanners refuse analysis of a MATCHBOIL loader.

ESET identified a UAC-0099 VBScript used in an early-stage intrusion against a target in Ukraine that hides a safety-triggering comment (a question about building a nuclear weapon) intended to make AI code scanners refuse to continue analysis. The script downloads MATCHBOIL, a loader associated exclusively with UAC-0099, alongside familiar anti-analysis checks for IDA and Wireshark. The technique turns the AI triage process itself into the attack target, risking missed detections or benign misclassification of malicious samples.

Cyber Security News · 5d agoThreat actor in the wild 3 sources

HOL Guard: Open-source antivirus for AI agents

HOL Guard is an open-source local guardrail that pauses AI coding agents before risky actions like secret access and prompt injection.

HOL Guard sits between AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI and others) and the host machine, intercepting risky commands before execution with checks taking under 50 milliseconds and running fully offline. It offers four sensitivity modes — Gentle, Balanced (default), Strict, and Paranoid — and parses command structure, environment, sensitive-path access and network destinations to decide when to interrupt. The core runtime is free and open source on GitHub, with 552,000 downloads reported; the vendor says it has no telemetry on adoption because collection is off by default.

Help Net Security · 16d agoAI tools & infra1

$536 and 8 Hours: AI Learns to Attack a Different PLC

Forescout used Claude to port a WAGO PLC exploit for $536 in 8 hours, and an AI-generated payload later permanently bricked the test device.

Forescout researchers used Claude Code with Ghidra, terminal access, and physical hardware to port CVE-2021-31886, a pre-authentication buffer overflow in the Nucleus FTP server, from a WAGO 750-852 PLC to the WAGO 750-831 without source code or debugger access. The final RCE development stage cost $535.74 in API fees over an 8-hour, 32-minute session (2.6k input and 1.3M output tokens) and required heavy researcher guidance. Claude produced working ICMP and UDP beacon exploits in 12 minutes after identifying that normal FTP command completion was overwriting its shellcode, fixed by omitting the CRLF terminator. A follow-up session extending the payloads toward a C2 implant wrote to flash-mapped memory and permanently bricked the PLC, underscoring the risks of autonomous agents operating against physical infrastructure.

Security Affairs · 14d agoResearchCVE-2021-318861

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 · 5d agoMalware in the wild2

Houthis Used Claude Code to Develop Missile Guidance Software: Anthropic

Anthropic's threat report details a Houthi-linked Yemeni cell using parallel Claude Code sessions to build missile guidance software, evading safeguards by fragmenting tasks.

Anthropic's September threat report describes a Yemen-based cell, assessed as highly likely Houthi-linked, that used Claude Code across multiple parallel instances to develop guidance software for a tactical guided rocket, a ballistic missile with over 2,000 km range, and a hypersonic glide vehicle concept called 'R2000'. The operators integrated open-source autopilot software, built six-degree-of-freedom trajectory simulations, and used reinforcement learning to tune flight-control algorithms, ultimately compiling an offline executable. The group test-fired a guided rocket that failed, then used Claude within hours to analyze launch telemetry. Anthropic blocked numerous requests, but operators evaded safeguards by obscuring intent and dividing work across separate conversations before accounts were banned; the case is one of six conventional-weapons cases (three China-linked, two Russia-linked) in a report covering disrupted operations from December 2025 to August 2026.

Google Doc Sidebar Sends Mac and Windows Users Down Different Paths to Malware

Huntress analysts trace one X direct message into separate Mac and Windows malware chains delivering AMOS infostealer and NetSupport Manager RAT.

Huntress SOC analysts dissected a malware campaign distributed via an X direct message styled as a Google Docs sidebar. macOS users were routed to the AMOS infostealer, while Windows users received NetSupport Manager remote access malware. The write-up details how a single message branched into two distinct delivery paths per operating system.

Huntress · 4d agoMalware in the wild

thttpd v2.26 Stack-Based Buffer Overflow in thttpd redirect CGI Program

The redirect CGI program shipped with thttpd v2.26 has a stack buffer overflow that unauthenticated attackers can trigger for crashes or possible code execution.

A stack-based buffer overflow exists in the redirect CGI program distributed with thttpd v2.26. Unsafe string concatenation when constructing redirect URLs from attacker-controlled CGI environment variables causes the overflow. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can trigger it via a crafted HTTP request, crashing the CGI process and causing denial of service. In environments lacking modern exploit mitigations, code execution may also be possible.

Full Disclosure · 12d agoVulnerability

Using AI for Weapons Development

Anthropic report reveals Yemen-based actors used Claude Code to build guidance software for guided rockets and ballistic missiles.

Bruce Schneier highlights Anthropic's misuse disclosure describing a threat actor cell in northern Yemen running three weapons programs: a guided rocket with phone-class homing guidance, a 2,000+ km multi-stage ballistic missile, and the 'R2000' hypersonic glide vehicle set. The actors used Claude Code as a substitute for human engineers to write GNC software, integrate an open-source autopilot, tune controls, and run flight simulations, orchestrating multiple Claude instances in delegated roles. Safeguards blocked many requests but evasion tactics included hiding intent and splitting work across sessions; one guided rocket test-fire failed but no operational device was fielded.

Schneier on Security · 1d agoAI safety & security in the wild

MacSync Stealer: How a Google Search for Claude Led to a macOS Infostealer

Huntress dissects MacSync Stealer, a macOS infostealer delivered through fake Claude Code download pages in Google search results.

Huntress SOC analysts published a reverse-engineering analysis of MacSync Stealer, a macOS infostealer distributed through fraudulent Claude Code download pages surfaced via web searches. Users searching for Anthropic's Claude coding tool are redirected to fake download pages that install the stealer, abusing developer trust in popular AI tooling. The writeup covers the analysis of the sample and its delivery chain.

Huntress · Aug 17, 2026Malware in the wild

Hackers Leverage Claude to Exfiltrate Secrets from 1.8M Android apps

ShinyHunters-linked operators used Claude to scan 1.8M Android apps for hardcoded secrets, fueling intrusions across 40+ tenants.

Anthropic's September 2026 threat intelligence report describes a French-speaking operator (aliases MeowSHA, frkoo, blazespider) tied to ShinyHunters who ran 10 AWS EC2 workers and used Claude to decompile and scan 1.8 million Android APKs for hardcoded secrets with TruffleHog. Verified credentials were sorted into 100+ Telegram channels and paired with GitHub PAT harvesting, providing initial access for confirmed intrusions. In one supply-chain incident the actors extracted data from roughly 200 downstream customer organizations and dumped 2,100+ Azure AD token sets across 40+ corporate tenants in about 34 hours using AI agents. Anthropic banned tied accounts and stressed its own systems were not compromised.

Cyber Security News · 2d agoThreat actor1

PaperCut Zero-Day: Active Exploitation and Pre-Auth RCE

PaperCut NG/MF hit by a pre-auth RCE zero-day under active exploitation; Huntress reproduced the chain and urged immediate patching.

Huntress reports active exploitation of a zero-day in PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF, and says it reproduced a pre-authentication remote code execution chain. The flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to execute code on exposed PaperCut servers. Huntress published urgent patching, exposure-reduction, and detection guidance. No CVE identifier was provided in the announcement.

Huntress · 19d agoExploit / PoC in the wild