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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 · 15d agoMalware in the wild

The Coding-Agent Trap: When a "Free" LLM Endpoint Is the Adversary, (Mon, Aug 31st)

A SANS honeypot caught a real coding-agent session routed to a rogue "free" LLM endpoint, exposing a Windows user's transcript and tool outputs.

A SANS analyst describes how an internet-exposed inference honeypot was discovered, relabeled with sought-after model names like DeepSeek, and enrolled in infrastructure serving "free" LLM backends. On 2026-08-30 an opencode terminal coding agent sent an 88-message, 224 KB transcript 210 times in 91 seconds via a China Unicom relay, exposing directory listings, tool outputs and read file portions. The analyst frames tool-enabled agents treating model endpoints as trusted control planes as a novel risk — a "rogue model endpoint" that could request tool executions on the user's machine.

SANS Internet Storm Center · 16d agoAI safety & security1

Mole Ransomware: How One Malicious Spam Campaign Quickly Increased Complexity and Changed Tactics

Unit 42 tracks the new Mole ransomware (CryptoMix family) spread via USPS-themed malspam, with tactics escalating to JavaScript downloaders dropping multiple malware families.

On April 11, 2017, a malspam campaign began distributing Mole ransomware, a CryptoMix-family strain, through USPS-themed emails linking to fake Microsoft Word Online sites offering a bogus Office plugin. By April 13 the campaign added Nemucod JavaScript downloaders installing Mole alongside Kovter and Miuref, and by April 18 it switched to the KINS banking Trojan before moving to speeding-ticket themes and a fake parking services website. Unit 42 notes the rapid tactic changes are likely intended to evade detection, and CryptoMix variants like Mole are typically repackaged within weeks.

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