Hackers Are Hiding Espionage Infrastructure Inside Ordinary-Looking Casino Websites
Infoblox links China-aligned APT PeckBirdy C2 infrastructure hidden in casino and adult websites targeting Asian government, finance, IT, and education sectors.
Infoblox researchers report that China-aligned APT groups have used casino and adult websites as cover for PeckBirdy, a JavaScript command-and-control framework active since 2023. The sites embed C2 servers, register service workers for persistence, and serve fake browser-update prompts delivering backdoors capable of running commands, stealing credentials, and providing remote access. Targeted sectors across Asia include education, IT, banking, financial services, and government. Just over 3% of Infoblox enterprise customers resolved at least one PeckBirdy C2 domain, with detection coverage on VirusTotal ranging from 13 detections to none.
Telegram Desktop XSS Vulnerability Lets Attackers Steal Entire Chat Histories
Stored XSS in Telegram Desktop HTML chat exports (CVSS 8.2) could let attacker-controlled inline keyboard buttons steal full chat histories.
ExPatch researchers Denis and Aleksander Rostilov found a stored XSS in Telegram Desktop's HTML chat export pipeline affecting builds before Beta 6.9.4 and Stable 7.0.1. Unsanitized inline keyboard button text becomes executable JavaScript when a user exports a chat and opens the HTML file in a browser, exposing messages, metadata, and local file paths, and enabling phishing overlays. Telegram patched the issue in commit 8457d13a during July 2026; no CVE had been assigned at disclosure time.
Iran-Linked Hackers Use Fake LinkedIn Job Offers to Deploy NodeRabbit and PollCat RATs
Iran-linked Mirage Kitten targets software engineers with fake LinkedIn recruiter coding tests deploying new NodeRabbit and PollCat RATs.
Kaspersky researchers link the campaign to Mirage Kitten (also tracked as UNC1549, Smoke Sandstorm, Nimbus Manticore), with victims in aviation, aerospace and fintech in Egypt, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Trojanized npm dependencies (colorized_terminal, pretty-log) bundled in coding-challenge archives launch the Node.js implants across Windows, Linux and macOS. NodeRabbit uses AES-256-GCM-encrypted C2 via Azure, and its third variant persists through a fake GitHub Copilot Helper VS Code extension plus Git post-merge/post-checkout hooks. PollCat is an obfuscated JavaScript RAT that registers with C2 before OTP authentication and inventories tools from 24 security vendors.
13 Malicious Packagist Packages Target Unpatched iPhones to Steal Crypto Wallet Seeds
Trojanized Packagist themes inject JavaScript into Vietnamese streaming sites, exploiting unpatched iPhone WebKit and kernel flaws to install spyware and steal crypto wallet seeds.
Socket researchers found 13 malicious Composer theme packages across five vendor namespaces (including vsmov, vsphim, and ophimcms) that inject JavaScript into Vietnamese movie and comic streaming sites. On iPhones running iOS 18.4-18.6.x, the injected code fires a WebKit-to-kernel exploit chain using CVE-2025-31277 and CVE-2025-43529, pivoting through the GPU process and the AppleM2ScalerCSCDriver IOKit user client to gain kernel read/write. Since around August 12, 2026 the payload also steals cryptocurrency wallet seeds and mnemonics from Bitget, BitKeep, Bitpie, Phantom, Tonkeeper, Trust Wallet, and OKX, alongside keychain databases, Wi-Fi passwords, SMS, photos, cookies, and location history, uploaded via HTTPS to rotating C2 domains. The group is believed to be Vietnamese-operated, hosts exploits on Funnull infrastructure, and Apple patched the kernel escape flaw in iOS and macOS 26.1.