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GuardBreaker: Derailing AI-assisted malware analysis with a code comment

ESET names 'GuardBreaker': UAC-0099 embeds a nuclear-weapon question in VBScript comments to trip LLM scanner guardrails during analysis of its MATCHBOIL loader.

ESET researchers observed the Russia-aligned group UAC-0099 inserting a decoy prompt injection into a VBScript used to install its MATCHBOIL loader in an attack against a Ukrainian target, aiming to make LLM-based code scanners refuse and stop inspecting the file. The comment triggers safety guardrails with a request about building a nuclear weapons but has no runtime effect. Similar LLM-thwarting tricks have appeared in malicious PyPI and npm packages reported by Socket and StepSecurity. ESET recommends multi-model cross-validation of AI-assisted analysis and treating missing LLM output as requiring further checks.

ESET WeLiveSecurityupdated · 5d agofirst · 6d agoAI safety & security 3 sources1

Russian APT BlueDelta Uses HOOKEDGE to Target Defense and Diplomatic Organizations

Russian GRU-linked BlueDelta (APT28) deployed HOOKEDGE backdoor via macro Word lures against European governments using webhook.site and Microsoft Edge for stealthy C2.

Recorded Future's Insikt Group documented a BlueDelta (APT28/Fancy Bear/Forest Blizzard) espionage campaign from late September 2025 through early April 2026 targeting government and diplomatic organizations in Romania, Spain and Türkiye. The group delivered HOOKEDGE, a lightweight Windows batch-script backdoor, via macro-enabled Word documents with diplomatic lures, including one impersonating Spain's Ministry of the Presidency after a Spanish-Moldovan meeting. HOOKEDGE uses webhook.site as C2, a scheduled task every 30 minutes that downloads commands through Microsoft Edge, and canary pixels like docopened.jpg to track phishing funnel progress. A second tier with 5-minute check-ins served high-value victims, and beaconing intervals were stretched to 61 minutes to evade sandboxes; code overlap ties HOOKEDGE to BlueDelta's earlier HEADLACE backdoor.

Security Affairs · 19d agoThreat actor in the wild1

APT28-Linked HOOKEDGE Backdoor Targets European Government and Diplomatic Organizations

Recorded Future links new HOOKEDGE batch-script backdoor campaigns against Romanian, Spanish and Turkish government targets to Russia's APT28 (BlueDelta).

Recorded Future's Insikt Group identified campaigns deploying the previously undocumented HOOKEDGE backdoor against government and diplomatic organizations in Romania, Spain and Türkiye from late September 2025 to early April 2026. The lightweight Windows batch backdoor is delivered via macro-enabled Word documents and attributed with moderate confidence to APT28 (Fancy Bear, tracked as BlueDelta), described as the evolutionary successor to HEADLACE, using webhook.site for C2, payload staging and exfiltration. HOOKEDGE fetches .cmd payloads and returns output through headless Microsoft Edge HTTP requests, maintains a 30-minute scheduled task, and a second-stage implant gives high-value targets five-minute beaconing for interactive operator tasking.

The Hacker News · 19d agoThreat actor in the wild

BlueDelta Targets Defense and Diplomacy with HOOKEDGE

Recorded Future reports Russian state-sponsored group BlueDelta deploying the HOOKEDGE backdoor against European defense and diplomatic organizations.

Recorded Future research reports that BlueDelta, a Russian state-sponsored threat group, is using the HOOKEDGE backdoor in campaigns targeting defense and diplomatic organizations across Europe. The disclosure details the group's use of the backdoor in espionage-focused operations against high-value government and military targets.

Recorded Future · 20d agoThreat actor in the wild

Axoflow Launches AxoDetect, Bringing Detection Into the Pipeline and Making the SIEM Optional

Axoflow's AxoDetect enters early access, executing Sigma rules in-stream so only alerts reach the SIEM while full-fidelity logs land in the AxoLake data lake.

Axoflow released AxoDetect in early access, announced at Splunk .conf26, which runs customer Sigma detection rules in-stream on normalized security data before SIEM ingestion. Alerts travel to the SIEM while full-fidelity logs land in AxoLake, the company's low-cost security data lake that also runs on-premises. Vendor-cited outcomes include 50% lower SIEM spend and 85% faster resolution at an industrial company, and 80% data volume reduction at a government agency.

Cyber Security News · 6h agoTools 2 sources

Risky Bulletin: Two TeamPCP members arrested in Australia

Australian Federal Police arrested two alleged TeamPCP members behind supply-chain worm attacks that stole over 500,000 credentials from compromised open-source libraries.

The AFP arrested alleged TeamPCP leader Ruben Thomson, 21, and Louis Gaebler, 23, near Perth; both were charged and remain in custody. The group inserted a self-spreading credential-stealing worm into open-source projects including Trivy, KICS, LiteLLM, and Telnyx, harvesting more than 500,000 credentials used for network access, ransomware, extortion, and sales. About 78,000 tokens and secrets from nearly 2,200 organizations leaked online last month, and the FBI supported the investigation that began in April.

Risky Business News · 19d agoPolicy & legal in the wild1

Next-Gen Phishing Tactics Users Aren’t Ready For | Huntress

Huntress details modern phishing tactics including ClickFix, browser-in-the-browser, and OAuth consent phishing beyond basic credential harvesting.

Huntress describes a shift in phishing attacks beyond basic credential harvesting toward advanced tactics. Covered techniques include ClickFix social engineering, browser-in-the-browser (BitB) attacks, and OAuth consent phishing. The post recommends training users on these patterns through Huntress SAT simulations.

Huntress · 19d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

I tested 10 model/harness combinations on the same Three.js task

A developer benchmarked 10 model/harness combinations on a Three.js task; Qwen 3.8 27B on OpenCode scored 95.64% fastest at 8m48s.

The author ran an identical Three.js sci-fi hangar build prompt across 10 model/harness combinations and recorded score, tokens, durations, and tool errors. Qwen 3.8 27B x-high on OpenCode achieved 95.64% in 8m48s, the best fast result, while GLM 5.3 Flash Max on OpenCode scored highest at 96.89% in 20m28s. Other runs included GLM 5.3 Flash, Luna 5.6, SOL 5.6, and Astra 6.0 across Codex Open, OMP Open, OpenCode, DSH, and PTC harnesses, with scores ranging from 78.54% to 96.89%.

Hacker News · AI · 8d agoAI researchHN 104↑ · 61 comments

Operational Resilience: IT Security Risks with Reduced Staffing | Huntress

Huntress blog advises security teams on managing change, risk, and incident response during reduced-staffing holiday periods.

The article discusses how holiday-period staffing reductions change organizational risk profiles around change management, monitoring, and incident response capability. It argues against blanket change freezes when critical vulnerabilities with high exploitation probability demand patching, and stresses retaining decision-making authority, escalation paths, and recovery knowledge. It concludes by promoting Huntress Managed Response, which lets the Huntress SOC take predefined containment actions on confirmed threats without customer intervention.

Huntress · 1d agoIndustry

What Good Identity Hardening Looks Like

Huntress guidance defines mature identity hardening beyond baseline MFA, covering exception cleanup and detecting identity configuration drift before attackers do.

Huntress argues MFA is only a starting point and outlines what mature identity hardening actually looks like in practice. The guidance covers closing MFA exceptions and coverage gaps that create unauthenticated attack paths. It also stresses catching identity configuration drift before attackers can exploit it.

Huntress · 22d agoResearch

DavidAU/Qwen3.8-27B-TURBO-Fable-Cold-Fusion-735-882-Heretic-Uncensored-NEO-CODER-MAX-MTP-GGUF — new model trending #8 on Hugging Face

A new Qwen3.8-27B GGUF fine-tune claims ARC-C 735 at 8-bit with thinking tokens cut 2x-10x versus the base model.

Independent creator DavidAU released a GGUF fine-tune of Qwen3.8-27B built with Unsloth, claiming ARC-C of 735 at 8-bit and 719 at 4-bit, trending #8 on Hugging Face. The 'TURBO' variant cuts thinking tokens by one half to as much as one tenth while retaining output quality and detail. The repo ships both regular and MTP quants and claims gains over the base model across seven benchmarks, using 'Cold Fusion (GAIN + Unsloth)' and 'Fable Fusion 711' training methods.

Hugging Face trending models · 15d agoModel release

What Is Account Takeover Fraud? A Comprehensive Guide | Huntress

Huntress published an educational guide explaining account takeover (ATO) fraud, how attackers steal credentials, and steps to detect and prevent it.

Huntress released a comprehensive guide on account takeover fraud, which occurs when attackers steal login credentials to gain access to victim accounts. The article is educational rather than incident reporting, covering detection signals and prevention measures such as credential protection. No specific breach, actor, or vulnerability is described.

Huntress · 26d agoPhishing & fraud

Best Practices for Good Endpoint Hardening | Huntress

Huntress outlines endpoint hardening best practices, citing exposed RDP, RMM tool abuse, and ClickFix social engineering as common SMB intrusion paths.

Huntress published defensive guidance on endpoint hardening for small and mid-sized businesses, drawing on observations from its SOC. The post describes common intrusion vectors: internet-exposed RDP brute-forced by automated scanners, phishing emails delivering attacker-controlled remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools, with Huntress reporting a 277% spike in RMM abuse in 2025, and ClickFix attacks using fake CAPTCHA pages that trick users into running malicious commands. Recommended controls include scanning for exposed RDP, SSH, and VPN interfaces, removing unneeded local admin rights, enabling Windows Defender tamper protection, disabling SMBv1, and standardizing on one approved remote access tool, guided by CIS and NIST frameworks.

Huntress · 6d agoAdvisory

Retail Cybersecurity in ANZ: Five Decisions That Keep Trading

Huntress outlines five key cybersecurity decisions for ANZ retail businesses to secure identities and maintain trading continuity against ransomware.

Huntress published guidance aimed at retailers in Australia and New Zealand, describing five decisions that help retail businesses stay trading through cyber incidents. The piece covers identity security, dependency management, and ransomware resilience. It is guidance content rather than a report of a specific incident.

Huntress · 20d agoIndustry

XHToken/Spark-X2.5-4B-GGUF — new model trending #30 on Hugging Face

XHToken released GGUF weights of Spark-X2.5-4B, a compact model with 1M-token context and 200+ language support, under Apache 2.0.

The Hugging Face repository provides BF16 GGUF conversions of Spark-X2.5-4B, a compact general-purpose language model for conversation, writing, translation, reasoning, coding, tool use, and agentic workflows. The model uses a hybrid attention architecture, supports a native context length up to 1M tokens, and covers more than 200 languages. Local inference is supported through Ollama and LM Studio via an XHToken llama.cpp fork, with a --think=false flag to disable thinking mode for faster responses. Released under Apache License 2.0; it was trending #30 on Hugging Face at publication.

Hugging Face trending models · 19d agoModel release

Interpol's Jackal IV Disrupts West African Crime Infrastructure

Interpol's Operation Jackal IV disrupted crime-as-a-service infrastructure in West Africa used by networks such as Black Axe.

Interpol coordinated Operation Jackal IV, an international law enforcement action targeting cybercrime infrastructure in West Africa. The operation focused on disrupting crime-as-a-service networks, including infrastructure supporting groups like Black Axe. Dark Reading's threat intelligence desk reported on the disruption of the criminal networks' operational capability.

Dark Reading · 21d agoPolicy & legal

EITest Campaign Evolution: From Angler EK to Neutrino and Rig

Unit 42 details the EITest campaign's shift from Angler to Neutrino and Rig exploit kits while distributing ransomware, downloaders, and banking trojans.

Unit 42 updated its tracking of the EITest campaign, first identified in October 2014, which compromises websites with injected scripts that redirect victims through a gate to exploit kits. After Angler EK disappeared in June 2016, EITest switched to Neutrino and then primarily used Rig EK by August 2016. In September 2016 the campaign began using hex-obfuscated JavaScript and simplified gate URLs, while continuing to distribute payloads including Gootkit, Cerber, Bart, CryptFile2, Vawtrak, Ursnif, and Tinba. Gate infrastructure consistently reused IP blocks such as 85.93.0.0/24 even as domain names changed.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Threat actor in the wild

Insights into Suspected DPRK Workers

Huntress details incidents involving suspected DPRK remote workers (Famous Chollima) in partner environments and shares detection indicators.

Huntress analyzed several incidents involving suspected North Korean remote workers, associated with the activity cluster known as Famous Chollima. The report describes indicators defenders can use to detect and prevent DPRK worker infiltration in customer environments. The scheme centers on operatives obtaining remote jobs at Western companies under assumed identities.

Huntress · 21d agoThreat actor in the wild

Interpol targets Black Axe’s illicit financial web in latest international sting

Interpol's Operation Jackal IV made 58 arrests across four continents, disrupting Black Axe money-laundering, BEC, and sextortion networks and seizing millions.

Interpol-coordinated Operation Jackal IV produced 58 arrests and identified 263 suspects across Africa, Europe and South America, targeting Black Axe and other West African organized crime financial networks. Romanian authorities dismantled a call-center investment scam valued at roughly 143 million euros, while South African police made 39 arrests, seized $2.67 million and blocked 257 bank accounts tied to romance and investment scams targeting retirees. Argentine investigators identified 196 people in a Crime-as-a-Service network supplying website domains and laundering support, and Interpol noted the groups' growing focus on sextortion of victims as young as 14.

CyberScoop · 22d agoThreat actor

OpenClaw 2.0 pours glitter on slow-burning security dumpster fire

The Register critiques OpenClaw 2.0 for easing installation and revamping the interface while leaving most agent security decisions to users.

The Register reports that OpenClaw 2.0, a popular agent harness, makes installation easier and adds a new interface wrapper. However, the release leaves most security decisions to users, which the outlet argues could worsen the risk posture of a widely deployed tool. The piece frames the update as cosmetic improvement over a slow-burning security problem.

The Register · Security · 15d agoAI tools & infra

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 · 13d agoMalware in the wild

The Evolution of the Agent Harness

Latent Space essay argues late-2025 agent gains came from models and harnesses maturing together, with harness logic absorbed into model weights.

The piece defines the agent harness as everything beyond model weights—tools, context, memory, guardrails—and charts its evolution from ReAct prompting (October 2022) through AutoGPT's premature autonomy, Cursor/Copilot's human-in-the-loop retreat, and Devin's roughly 15% success rate, to o1's capability overhang and Claude Code's February 2025 terminal agent with permission rules. It argues the Christmas 2025 jump cited by Transformer co-inventor Lukasz Kaiser reflected model and harness curves crossing, and that remaining harnesses will serve human attention rather than the model.

Latent Space · 25d agoAI tools & infra

Show-Harness: Just a VLM Agent Can Play Robots

Show-Harness lets VLM agents control robots via discrete semantic action units, outperforming VLA baselines zero-shot and after light fine-tuning.

Show-Harness is an embodied agent harness that exposes discrete semantic action units a VLM reasons over, with embodiment-specific interpreters grounding them into local robot actions. It enables zero-shot robot control with closed-source frontier VLMs and low-cost adaptation of small open-source VLMs using only a few GPU-hours of fine-tuning. The companion GUMI (GUI Manipulation Interface) extends the same semantic action space to GUI-based demonstration collection without specialized teleoperation hardware. Experiments show robust generalization across tasks, embodiments, and environments, beating representative agentic and VLA paradigms.

arXiv cs.AI / cs.LG / cs.CL · 7d agoAI research

Jackrong/Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-GGUF — new model trending #26 on Hugging Face

Community fine-tune Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash, built on Qwen3.8-27B, cuts agent reasoning latency with 12.8% faster decoding and 80.7% MTP acceptance.

Jackrong released Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash, a fine-tune of Qwen3.8-27B optimized for long-running agent workloads, reporting 12.8% faster decoding and 80.7% multi-token-prediction acceptance. Training used roughly 1.5 million teacher-scored SFT examples filtered to the top 10%, followed by reinforcement training with NVIDIA NeMo-RL and GSPO. The author notes an explicit trade-off: MMLU-Pro mixed-set scores are lower than the base model, and a known bug can produce incorrect Python indentation. Author-provided benchmarks have not been independently verified.

Hugging Face trending models · 12d agoModel release1

New AI Attack Hides Malicious Instructions in Normal-Looking Text to Evade Safety Filters

Check Point researchers show crafted prose hides policy-violating instructions that bypass all tested LLM gatekeepers, including GPT-4o mini and Llama Guard 3.

A new prompt-crafting technique embeds malicious payloads inside grammatical, natural-looking text without Base64, invisible Unicode, or obvious encodings, defeating lightweight pre-screening gatekeepers. In testing, all four evaluated gatekeeper models—gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18, gpt-oss-safeguard:20b, claude-3-haiku-20240307, and llama-guard3:8b—classified the crafted wrappers as safe at a 100% bypass rate across 23 obfuscated prompts. GPT-5 Thinking in high-reasoning mode recovered and acted on the hidden instruction in 17 of 18 tests (~94.4%), often spending over a minute and multiple Python executions. Researchers recommend paraphrasing untrusted input, hardening gatekeeper policies, and applying defense-in-depth controls for agentic deployments.

GBHackers · 5d agoAI safety & security 2 sources

Members of ‘Black Axe’ cybercriminal group extradited from South Africa

Five alleged Black Axe members extradited from South Africa face US charges over romance scams defrauding more than 100 victims.

Five alleged members of the Black Axe cybercriminal organization were extradited from South Africa and will make their first US court appearance Monday. Prosecutors unsealed a 2021 indictment accusing them of running romance scams that stole thousands of dollars from more than 100 people. Named defendants include Perry Osagiede and Franklyn Edosa Osagiede.

DataBreaches.net · 1d agoPolicy & legal 3 sources

INTERPOL crackdown on West African crime rings uncovers troubling new trend

INTERPOL's Operation Jackal IV arrested 58 suspects across 22 countries targeting Black Axe-linked West African fraud networks, flagging a rising trend of sextortion against minors.

Operation Jackal IV (November 2025 to June 2026) coordinated arrests across 22 countries against West African organized crime groups such as Black Axe, which INTERPOL links to a large share of global cyber-enabled fraud. Johannesburg raids on a romance and investment scam syndicate targeting retirees yielded $2.67 million seized, 257 bank accounts frozen and 39 arrests, while Argentina exposed a 196-member Crime-as-a-Service network with 17 arrests. Romanian police dismantled a call-center investment scam with roughly €143 million stolen and laundered, and INTERPOL warned these groups increasingly sextort minors as young as 14 and procure Crime-as-a-Service via the dark web.

Help Net Security · 22d agoThreat actor

US Sanctions Mabna Institute Hackers for Iranian Cyber-Attacks

US sanctions individuals tied to Iranian hacking-for-hire group the Mabna Institute over cyber-attacks.

The United States has imposed sanctions on individuals connected to the Mabna Institute, an Iran-based hacking-for-hire group. The move targets the actors behind Iranian cyber-attack operations. Sanctions are a government enforcement action rather than a new technical threat.

Infosecurity Magazine · 22d agoPolicy & legal