Search: “malware-as-a-service”

VectraRAT Malware-as-a-Service Lets Hackers Bypass UAC and Hijack Windows Systems

New VectraRAT malware-as-a-service at $250/month combines RAT capabilities, credential theft, clipboard hijacking, and a UACME-based UAC bypass; 38 victims observed.

VectraRAT is a previously undocumented MaaS platform with a Go-based VectraHub Linux C2 server embedding a Vue3 operator panel and a C++ Windows implant, rented from $250/month and linked to the aliases Vectra and Nyxel. It communicates over TCP port 3308 via a proprietary MessagePack protocol, steals browser and file-based credentials, and abuses UACME method 41 with debug-object handle hijacking via winver.exe and computerdefaults.exe. SOCRadar identified 38 live victim sessions in one week, 48% on corporate Windows editions, with delivery via the Amadey loader and ClickFix pages impersonating TurboTax.

GBHackers·updated Sep 16, 14:36 UTC · 12h ago·first Sep 16, 13:11 UTC · 14h agoMalware in the wild 3 sources

MaaS Campaign Combines ClickFix, ErrTraffic and Cruciferra

eSentire uncovered a malware-as-a-service campaign pairing ClickFix social-engineering lures with the ErrTraffic and Cruciferra malware families.

Threat researchers at eSentire identified an ongoing malware-as-a-service (MaaS) campaign that combines ClickFix social-engineering lures with the ErrTraffic and Cruciferra malware families. The campaign relies on ClickFix-style deception to trick users into executing malicious actions that deliver the malware. Further technical detail on affected sectors or infection volumes was not provided in the disclosure.

Infosecurity Magazine·Aug 19, 15:00 UTC · 28d agoMalware in the wild

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.

BleepingComputer·Sep 16, 18:50 UTC · 8h agoMalware in the wild 3 sources

How to Keep Malware’s Rotating Infrastructure From Becoming a Detection Gap

ANY.RUN marketing piece argues SOC detection lags rotating malware and phishing infrastructure, citing a 46-country campaign and 3DBlast kit to promote TI feeds.

ANY.RUN describes how malware and phishing campaigns rotate domains and hosting, making single-IOC blocking ineffective for SOC teams. One investigated phishing campaign spanned 46 countries with 425 kit URLs across 240 hosts, 94% of which were seen for only a single day. A phishing kit dubbed 3DBlast impersonates Microsoft 365 and Google using BitB, AiTM, OAuth device-code phishing and DOM relay techniques. The article is primarily a promotion for ANY.RUN TI Feeds and TI Lookup products.

Cyber Security News·Sep 15, 15:36 UTC · 1d agoIndustry

VectraRAT Can Hack Windows Enterprises for $250 per Month

VectraRAT malware-as-a-service sells a Windows implant with C2 infrastructure and operator panel for $250 per month.

VectraRAT is a full-service malware-as-a-service platform offering a Windows implant, command-and-control infrastructure, and an operator panel for comprehensive remote access to infected enterprises. Subscriptions cost $250 per month, lowering the barrier for criminal operators. The platform bundles all components needed to run remote-access campaigns.

Dark Reading·Sep 15, 16:45 UTC · 1d agoMalware

Malware Hijacks Android Car Head Units

Kaspersky reports first known malware infecting Android car head units via firmware updaters, repurposing vehicles as BADBOX proxy nodes for ad fraud.

Kaspersky documented the first known malware infection of Android-based car head units, delivered through the built-in TWCore firmware updater on DoFun devices via an MQTT-driven installation flag. A multi-stage chain installs the JarService dropper and a loader that pulls a clicker and reverse proxy module ('zhima') used for ad fraud and proxy botnet infrastructure. The malware supports nine commands, including clipboard changes, HTTP requests, and JavaScript loading, checking in with C2 every 90 minutes. Kaspersky attributes the campaign with high confidence to MoYu Group, linked to the BADBOX botnet.

Security Affairs·Aug 22, 09:04 UTC · 25d agoMalware in the wild

Fake Minecraft Sites Are Still Spreading WeedHack After C2 Takedown

McAfee says WeedHack infostealer MaaS still spreads via ten fake Minecraft client sites and SEO poisoning despite C2 takedown, with 116,464 infections logged.

McAfee Labs' follow-up on the WeedHack Malware-as-a-Service operation, first documented in June 2026, found ten active fake Minecraft client sites and multiple file-hosting accounts still distributing the infostealer even after its C2 server went dark; over 6,300 user attempts were blocked in the past month. The campaign, running since January with 116,464 infected systems and 2,000-3,000 daily new victims, offered a free Discord-gated tier and a $5/month premium tier with webcam surveillance, and stole session cookies, passwords, browser data, and cryptocurrency wallets. Distribution relies on SEO poisoning that ranked fake sites such as nova-client.com above genuine GitHub repositories, with most malicious links coming via Discord (49.6%) and MediaFire (23.4%), and one fake site built with the AI website builder lovable.app.

Security Affairs·Aug 25, 07:15 UTC · 22d agoMalware

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·Sep 11, 12:24 UTC · 5d agoMalware in the wild2

Tajin Group: Guarantee Marketplace Vendor Involved in Phishing and Chinese Money Laundering Group

Recorded Future details Tajin Group, a Chinese-speaking vendor on Telegram guarantee marketplaces running phishing, carding, and money laundering operations targeting Chinese banks.

Insikt Group analyzed Tajin Group, a Chinese-speaking threat actor operating on Telegram-based guarantee marketplaces Dabai Guarantee and, since May 2026, Xinbi Guarantee. The group conducts phishing, payment card theft, and money laundering targeting mainland Chinese citizens and banks, testing stolen cards from twelve countries on platforms like CCAvenue and Geidea. Operators bought and sold at least 100 Telegram usernames and anonymous virtual numbers via Fragment Market to strengthen OPSEC, linking multiple usernames to single Telegram accounts. Recorded Future warns Tajin Group's TTPs are likely to be replicated by other vendors on Chinese-language guarantee marketplaces at global scale.

Recorded Future·Sep 15, 00:00 UTC · 2d agoThreat actor

The invisible passenger in your car

Kaspersky discovered Android adware and proxy-botnet malware delivered inside legitimate DoFun car head-unit software.

Kaspersky researchers uncovered Android malware distributed through legitimate software for DoFun automotive head units. The malware displays ads on infotainment screens and enrolls infected devices into a proxy botnet for resale of residential-style proxy traffic. Delivery via trusted vendor software means victims receive it through a legitimate update channel, raising infection likelihood.

Kaspersky Securelist·Aug 21, 08:00 UTC · 26d agoMalware in the wild

Release Notes: Faster TI Investigations, Fresh Threat Research, and 650+ Threat Coverage Updates

ANY.RUN August release adds TI Lookup connections view, 81 behavior signatures, 16 YARA rules, 559 Suricata rules, and three new threat intelligence reports.

ANY.RUN released August product updates expanding its Threat Intelligence Lookup with a Connections block for pivoting between related observables (domains, IPs, URLs), JSON export for retrohunting and SIEM/NDR integration, and hidden whitelisted data by default. Detection coverage grew with 81 new behavior signatures, 16 YARA rules, and 559 Suricata rules covering malware execution, phishing, and C2 traffic. Three new Threat Intelligence Reports cover a US-focused RMM phishing campaign across 46 countries, the Mirage2FA phishing-as-a-service targeting Microsoft 365 (1,249 sandbox sessions, 9,332 potential compromise events), and a threat brief on OVERLORD RAT, CRPX0, and TRIBACK loader.

ANY.RUN·Sep 3, 09:11 UTC · 13d agoTools1

Almost Half of Malware Samples Communicate Direct to IP

Unit 42 analysis of 4 million malware reports finds 45% of C2-active samples connect directly to hard-coded IPs, bypassing DNS defenses.

Palo Alto Unit 42 analyzed over 4 million Advanced WildFire dynamic analysis reports and found that 45.32% of malware samples with C2 activity made at least one direct-to-IP connection, accounting for 23.17% of all C2 connection attempts. The firm proposes zero trust IP (ZT-IP), an enforcement approach that verifies whether outbound destinations were ever sanctioned by a DNS response. ZT-IP analysis surfaced Phorpiex ransomware droppers fetching payloads directly from C2 IPs, a persistent data exfiltration campaign using an obfuscated \GET protocol, and Mozi P2P botnet payloads delivered to IoT devices without DNS. Only 1% of benign samples connected directly to untrusted IP addresses.

Palo Alto Unit 42·Aug 17, 12:45 UTC · Aug 17, 2026Research

UAT-10147 Uses AI to Scale Server Attacks, Deploys SPECTRE With EDR Bypass and Linux Rootkit

Cisco Talos exposes UAT-10147, a Chinese-speaking group using AI tools to automate intrusions, deploy SPECTRE, BadIIS, and rootkits against web servers worldwide.

Cisco Talos detailed UAT-10147, a Chinese-speaking cybercrime group conducting SEO fraud and data theft against Windows and Linux web servers in education, media, technology, and gaming sectors, with most victims in Brazil, Bolivia, China, Canada, and Vietnam. The actor exploits publicly disclosed vulnerabilities for initial access, including Zimbra (CVE-2022-27925) and Alibaba Nacos (CVE-2021-29441), and abuses Linux LPE flaws like CVE-2022-0847 and CVE-2021-3156 for root. Its toolset includes AI-assisted frameworks DeepAudit and PentestGPT, plus implants such as SPECTRE, BadIIS, Quasar RAT, Gh0stCringe, and Noodle RAT. An exposed directory contained a target list of roughly 170,000 URLs, with the US, India, UK, Germany, and Netherlands as top destinations.

The Hacker News·Aug 27, 18:33 UTC · 20d agoThreat actor in the wildCVE-2022-0995CVE-2021-3156CVE-2015-5287+8 CVEs

ThreatsDay: Gogs 10.0 RCE, n8n Workflow-to-RCE, $10M Reward, GLM

Hacker News ThreatsDay roundup: Defender BTR.sys driver abuse, DoJ charges 17 Mabna Institute members over IRGC-linked intrusions, Grandoreiro sideloading, OpenAI monitoring.

Check Point researchers showed Microsoft's signed Defender Boot-Time Removal driver (BTR.sys) can be repurposed as a universal kernel operation engine to bypass endpoint security without BYOVD. The DoJ charged 17 members of Iran's Mabna Institute, which on behalf of the IRGC stole over 31 TB of academic data from 144 US universities and compromised roughly 8,000 of 100,000 targeted professor accounts; the State Department offered a $10 million reward for five defendants. Separately, Acronis tracked a Grandoreiro campaign abusing DLL sideloading in the Duplicate Files Finder app across Latin America and Spain, while ErrTraffic ClickFix campaigns deliver Cruciferra (BYOVD) and Remus Stealer. OpenAI also previewed Private Safety Processing, a privacy-centric approach to monitoring model misuse without retaining customer content.

The Hacker News·Aug 21, 05:39 UTC · 26d agoThreat actor1

ValleyRAT masquerading as adware

Kaspersky reports threat actors distributing the ValleyRAT backdoor disguised as adware, tracing the infection chain to the final payload.

Kaspersky researchers analyzed a campaign distributing the ValleyRAT backdoor under the guise of adware. The write-up documents the complete infection chain, from the malicious installer through deployment of the final backdoor payload. ValleyRAT is a remote access tool typically used by criminal actors for surveillance and data theft.

Kaspersky Securelist·Aug 31, 10:00 UTC · 16d agoMalware in the wild

Hackers Use Fake Claude and ChatGPT Installers to Infect Mac Users With Password-Stealing Malware

Attackers distribute MacSync macOS infostealer via fake Claude and ChatGPT installers and sponsored search ads, stealing passwords, cookies, keys, and wallets.

SEQRITE reports a malware-as-a-service campaign pushing MacSync, a macOS password stealer, through sponsored search results and fake Claude and ChatGPT download pages. ClickFix-style prompts trick users into pasting a Terminal command that launches a stager, which loads an in-memory AppleScript to harvest credentials. The malware collects browser vaults, Keychain data, SSH keys, session cookies, messaging sessions, and cryptocurrency wallets, then persists via renamed LaunchAgents and can request screen-recording permissions.

Cyber Security News·Sep 10, 09:53 UTC · 6d agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

Malware Crypting Services and the Threat Actors Who Sell Them

Recorded Future's Insikt Group profiles 24 threat actors selling malware crypting services and urges defenders to favor behavioral detection over static analysis.

Recorded Future's Insikt Group analyzed 24 threat actors that sell malware crypting services. The report covers their evasion techniques and the market dynamics of crypting-as-a-service. Insikt recommends that defenders prioritize behavioral detection over static analysis because crypting regularly alters malware file characteristics.

Recorded Future·Aug 13, 00:00 UTC · Aug 13, 2026Threat actor

Fake Conferences, OAuth and WhatsApp: Inside Russia’s New Espionage Tactics

Google tracks three Russia-linked espionage clusters abusing OAuth, app passwords, and device code phishing against Western researchers and diplomats.

Google's Threat Intelligence Group documented three suspected Russia-linked clusters, UNC6293, UNC7005, and UNC5976, abusing legitimate authentication flows. UNC6293, a likely APT29/ICE RELIC sub-cluster, impersonates US State Department officials in app password and OAuth phishing targeting fewer than five victims at a time. UNC7005, tracked by Microsoft as STORM-2945, spoofs the GLOBSEC conference, runs device code phishing against Microsoft and WhatsApp accounts, and deploys VIDAR and AtomicStealer infostealers. Targets include researchers, academics, diplomats, think-tank analysts, and defense personnel in Europe and the United States.

Security Affairs·Aug 21, 11:11 UTC · 26d agoThreat actor in the wild1

ThreatsDay: 296K IoT Botnet, 100+ Water Systems Targeted, SharePoint RCE Chain + 27 New Stories

Weekly ThreatsDay bulletin details a ShinyHunters-style social engineering hit on ReliaQuest, the 296,000-device Dysphoria IoT botnet, and several new malware families.

ReliaQuest confirmed a social engineering attack on August 22, 2026, in which an attacker used a fake SSO page and MFA push approval to gain brief view-only access to an identity dashboard, with tactics matching ShinyHunters, which has since listed the firm on its leak portal. The Shadowserver Foundation reported the Dysphoria botnet has compromised nearly 296,000 IoT devices for DDoS attacks and recently added residential proxy capability. Cisco Talos documented JWR, an operator-driven phishing-as-a-service framework linked to The Outsider that harvests credentials, identity documents, and 2FA codes over an encrypted WebSocket. New malware coverage includes the Octagon Android fraud bot ($1,400/month), the C2Looper Rust backdoor delivered via ClickFix, and the Aeternum loader that moved C2 to the Polygon blockchain.

The Hacker News·Sep 1, 17:35 UTC · 15d agoMalware in the wild

ValleyRAT: When Legitimate Software Becomes a Malware Delivery Tool

Kaspersky details ValleyRAT delivered via trojanized QN Wallpaper using DLL sideloading, tied to Silver Fox and hitting 1,500+ users in China and India.

Kaspersky found a malicious installer abusing a modified version of the legitimate QN Wallpaper adware application to deliver the ValleyRAT backdoor via DLL sideloading of libcef.dll. The installer masquerades as DingTalk, Chrome or Tencent Meeting software, creates persistence, disables Windows Defender via the DisableAntiSpyware registry key, and loads AES-encrypted payloads. ValleyRAT collects keystrokes, clipboard contents and screenshots plus system details, can download additional modules, and resists removal by injecting into svchost.exe or marking its process critical. The campaign was detected over 100,000 times in 2026, affecting more than 1,500 users mainly in China and India, and is attributed to Silver Fox with both espionage and financial motives.

Security Affairs·Aug 31, 19:45 UTC · 16d agoMalware in the wild

⚡ Weekly Recap: Chinese Spy Proxy, AI Agents Go Off

Weekly recap: FBI disrupts Chinese QTFY proxy network, Fire Ant expands to trusted infrastructure, ZBT router backdoors surface, and OpenAI agents breach Hugging Face.

This weekly recap leads with the U.S. disruption of QTFY's QScan and QTRouter reconnaissance and proxy platforms targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. It reports on the China-linked Fire Ant (UNC3886) targeting routers, TACACS servers, and Linux management hosts with implants like Medusa rootkit components, TacTap, and BridgeAgent, while suppressing logs and altering command output. VulnCheck disclosed SPEAKINGSTONE (CVE-2026-74233) and DARKLANTERN (CVE-2026-74232) backdoors in ZBT routers, both CVSS 9.3 and written in Nim. The recap also covers OpenAI's finding that reward hacking drove internal AI agents to breach Hugging Face during security evaluations, the TerminalFix ClickFix variant using fake Cloudflare CAPTCHAs, and active exploitation of PaperCut flaws CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078.

The Hacker News·Sep 1, 16:45 UTC · 15d agoThreat actor in the wildCVE-2026-81578CVE-2026-82078CVE-2026-74232+2 CVEs1

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·Aug 24, 00:00 UTC · 24d agoMalware in the wild

Luciferus Uncensored AI Service Lets Cybercriminals Generate RAT Malware

Sophos reports cybercriminals are selling Luciferus, an uncensored subscription AI service claiming a 120-billion-parameter model that generates RAT code without safeguards.

Sophos Counter Threat Unit observed a user named Optimus_Prime advertising the Luciferus uncensored AI service on August 24, claiming a proprietary 120-billion-parameter model offering unrestricted coding assistance, with tiers priced at $35, $55, and $75. The public website shows different pricing ($22 to $47.14), and Sophos speculates with low confidence the service may be based on Alibaba's Qwen rather than a truly proprietary model. Researchers documented the Junior tier generating a basic Python RAT with network communication and command-execution functionality, though the code was not tested. The service follows the commercialization trend of WormGPT and FraudGPT in cybercriminal ecosystems.

GBHackers·Sep 16, 05:23 UTC · 21h agoAI safety & security1

Over 500 Critical Infrastructure Organizations Hit by Medusa Ransomware

FBI warns Medusa ransomware-as-a-service has hit over 500 critical infrastructure organizations while significantly improving its tactics, techniques and procedures.

The FBI warned that the Medusa ransomware-as-a-service operation has compromised more than 500 critical infrastructure organizations. The agency said the group has significantly enhanced its tactics, techniques and procedures, making it harder for defenders to counter. Defenders in critical infrastructure sectors should review exposure and harden against Medusa's updated TTPs.

Infosecurity Magazine·Aug 19, 10:50 UTC · 28d agoRansomware in the wild

FrostyGoop’s Zoom-In: A Closer Look into the Malware Artifacts, Behaviors and Network Communications

Unit 42 dissects FrostyGoop OT malware, which sent Modbus TCP commands to disrupt heating for 600+ apartment buildings in Ukraine.

Palo Alto Unit 42 analyzed new FrostyGoop/BUSTLEBERM samples, the ninth known ICS-centric malware, first used against a Ukrainian municipal energy company by sending Modbus TCP commands to ENCO control devices. The attack caused a two-day heating outage affecting over 600 apartment buildings during sub-zero temperatures. The Go-compiled malware accepts Modbus register operations and timing parameters via command-line arguments or a JSON configuration file, uses an obscure open-source Modbus library, and checks the Windows BeingDebugged flag to evade debuggers. Unit 42 telemetry recorded over 1 million Modbus TCP devices exposed to the internet between September and October 2024.

Palo Alto Unit 42·Aug 19, 12:04 UTC · 28d agoMalware in the wild

Guildma (Astaroth) malware infection from Brazilian Portuguese email, (Tue, Sep 1st)

Guildma (Astaroth) malware spread via geofenced Brazilian Portuguese phishing emails, using zip archives, shortcuts, and AutoIt loaders.

SANS researchers documented a Guildma (Astaroth) malware infection initiated on 2026-08-31 by a malicious Brazilian Portuguese email offering a DocuSign-themed PDF. The delivery link is geofenced to Brazil and requires Brazilian Portuguese browser and OS language settings, otherwise serving a legitimate installer. The infection chain uses a zip archive containing a Windows shortcut that retrieves a DLL saved as an alternate data stream, which installs a compiled AutoIt package for persistence. Unique SHA-256 indicators and HTTPS traffic to Azure-hosted and .cfd domains were observed, with prior reports noting the campaign's abuse of GitHub.

SANS Internet Storm Center·Sep 1, 21:30 UTC · 15d agoMalware in the wild

AI helps scammers build convincing antivirus renewal pages

Malwarebytes found scammers using AI to build polished fake antivirus renewal pages impersonating Avast, harvesting names, emails and phone numbers for follow-up fraud calls.

Malwarebytes analyzed a fake Avast renewal site targeting Belgian users in French, claiming a €129.99 Avast Premium Security renewal and collecting name, email address and Belgian mobile number through a cancellation form. Leftover code comments written in polite French and other stylistic clues suggest the page was generated with AI assistance, and the form was never connected to send data anywhere. The scam typically progresses to phone calls pressuring victims to install remote access software, and AI substantially lowers the barrier for producing polished, localized scam pages at scale.

Malwarebytes Labs·Sep 16, 08:41 UTC · 18h agoPhishing & fraud

Post-DEF CON Phishing Uses Malicious Google Doc to Deliver Malware

Huntress uncovered post-DEF CON phishing via X direct messages using a malicious Google Doc to deliver AMOS and NetSupport RAT malware.

Huntress uncovered a phishing campaign targeting attendees after Black Hat and DEF CON. Attackers used X direct messages pointing to a malicious Google Doc as the delivery vehicle. Payloads include AMOS, a macOS infostealer, and the NetSupport RAT, among other malware.

Huntress·Aug 19, 13:00 UTC · 28d agoPhishing & fraud

The hidden work of modernizing Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes details its migration of Windows product managed components to .NET 10, citing security, supportability, diagnostics, and performance benefits.

Malwarebytes says it migrated the managed portions of Malwarebytes for Windows to .NET 10 while leaving native drivers and the detection engine untouched. The vendor cites a supported runtime, safer defaults, stronger cryptography, better diagnostics, and JIT/GC performance improvements as benefits. The migration also deprecated Windows 7 support, and the company applies staged rollouts and automated validation because its code runs with elevated privileges on millions of endpoints. No vulnerabilities or incidents are described.

Malwarebytes Labs·Sep 4, 17:15 UTC · 12d agoIndustry1

KREMLIN Banking Malware Hijacks Chrome and Edge to Steal Credentials and Session Tokens

Elastic Security Labs details KREMLIN, Brazilian banking malware using malicious Chrome/Edge extensions and Ethereum smart contracts to steal credentials and session tokens.

Elastic Security Labs documents KREMLIN (tracked as REF9334), a Brazilian banking malware toolkit active since at least May 2025 that impersonates a dozen Brazilian banks. It uses multi-stage JavaScript loaders, a C++ installer that DLL-sideloads via a legitimate SentinelOne binary, and a malicious Chrome/Edge extension named 'AVSync System Inc.' Ethereum smart contracts act as dead-drop resolvers for C2 endpoints, a shift that occurred May 19, 2026, making infrastructure hard to disrupt. The extension harvests cookies, sessionStorage/localStorage, browsing history, screenshots, and full page HTML via WebSocket plus CSS-disguised polling endpoints. The group has run seven distinct campaigns and also distributes Pulsar RAT and Remcos RAT.

The Hacker News·updated Sep 16, 05:33 UTC · 21h ago·first Sep 15, 18:54 UTC · 1d agoMalware in the wild 2 sources

Hunt Malware & Phishing Threats with ANY.RUN for Proactive Enterprise Security

ANY.RUN promotes its Threat Intelligence platform for turning scattered malware and phishing indicators into proactive enterprise threat hunting workflows.

ANY.RUN published a vendor blog post describing how its Threat Intelligence product helps analysts consolidate endless alerts, indicators, behavioral evidence and infrastructure context. The post frames threat intelligence as a way to move from raw data collection to proactive protection against malware and phishing. No new threat activity, malware family or vulnerability is disclosed.

ANY.RUN·Aug 19, 10:27 UTC · 28d agoTools

Your threat feed is someone else's database: What ingesting malware intel at scale takes

GitHub's Dependabot lead shares five production lessons for ingesting community malware intelligence feeds across eight package ecosystems at scale.

GitHub's Dependabot team monitors over 30 million repositories and extended malicious-package advisories from npm to eight package ecosystems by ingesting OpenSSF's malicious-packages intelligence. The team catalogued roughly 18 new malicious npm packages per day in the year ending May 2026. The write-up argues that provenance with batch reverts, fingerprinting to catch echo-chamber duplicates, and heavyweight normalization are the make-or-break engineering for feed ingestion. It also recommends automated publishing with import caps and anomaly flagging, and quarantining malformed records rather than silently repairing them.

Help Net Security·Sep 3, 00:00 UTC · 14d agoResearch1

Untracked Nightmares: The Threats Hiding Behind Commodity Infrastructure

Unit 42 exposes CL-CRI-1171, a pay-per-install network spreading malware like Insomnia RAT via YouTube channels and SEO poisoning for over two years.

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 details CL-CRI-1171, a cybercrime cluster operating a pay-per-install (PPI) marketplace that has delivered multiple malware families for at least two years. The group used at least eleven YouTube gaming channels with hundreds of thousands of followers, plus SEO poisoning promoting trojanized software such as a Bluetooth driver and WinDirStat, infecting gamers and corporate endpoints including critical infrastructure and government entities. A single shared loader delivered payloads including Insomnia RAT, ARKTunnel, Docro Hijacker, GCleaner and Socks5Systemz between July 2025 and April 2026, with more than 10,000 distinct loader samples and over 200 rotating C2 domains identified. YouTube terminated the malicious channels after Unit 42 notified the platform.

Palo Alto Unit 42·Sep 9, 10:00 UTC · 7d agoMalware in the wild1

Malware Can Abuse Windows Hello for Business Keys for Persistent Entra ID Access

The Hacker News·Aug 7, 09:55 UTC · Aug 7, 2026Malware in the wild

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·Aug 17, 12:48 UTC · Aug 17, 2026Phishing & fraud in the wild