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RMM Tools for MSPs: Features, Risks & How to Stay Secure

Threat actors continue abusing MSP remote monitoring and management tools to reach downstream customers, four years after the Kaseya supply chain attack.

Huntress examines how RMM platforms remain a favored gateway for attackers targeting managed service providers and their clients. A recent incident demonstrates that adversaries still successfully pivot from MSP RMM tooling into downstream customer environments. The piece also covers RMM features, associated risks, and hardening guidance for providers.

Huntress · 15d agoThreat actor in the wild

RMM Abuse: How Attackers Exploit Remote Access Tools | Huntress

Huntress reports RMM tool abuse jumped 277% and now appears in nearly 40% of its investigations as attackers leverage trusted remote access software.

Huntress observed a 277% increase in remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool abuse, with such abuse now present in nearly 40% of its investigations. Attackers exploit legitimate, trusted remote access tools to gain access and persistence, complicating detection because the software is expected on endpoints. The write-up explains common abuse patterns and defenses against them.

Huntress · 26d agoThreat actor in the wild

Breeze Comet Executes Hundreds of Fraudulent Transactions via Brazilian Payment Systems

Google/Mandiant profile Breeze Comet, a Brazil-based e-crime group executing fraudulent Pix and STR payment transactions at banks, retailers, and fintechs.

Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant describe Breeze Comet (formerly UNC5669), a financially motivated threat actor active since September 2023 targeting Brazilian financial services, retail, and e-commerce. The group gains access via password spraying, vishing impersonating IT support to install RMM tools like AnyDesk, WhatsApp social engineering, and exploitation of vulnerable JBoss AS servers for web shell deployment. It uses compromised government websites as C2, deploys the Rust-based COBALTSPIN tunneler and multiple custom backdoors (LIGHTPAINT, MILDFROST, KICKPLATE, BOATBEAM), then clears logs after executing hundreds of fraudulent transactions through Pix, STR, and Boleto payment systems. At least one heist yielded tens of thousands of dollars, with infrastructure suggesting expansion toward Latin America and Africa.

The Hacker News · 8d agoThreat actor in the wild

US Becomes Top Target in RMM Phishing Campaign Spanning 46 Countries

ANY.RUN linked 601 RMM-tool phishing cases across 46 countries, with the US the top target at 45% of observed activity.

A phishing campaign that tricks victims into installing legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) software spans 46 countries, with around 45% of observed activity targeting the United States, according to ANY.RUN. Lures include Canada Revenue Agency tax forms, UPS shipping notices, Adobe PDF pages, Social Security Administration themes and invoices, delivered through rapidly rotated Vercel, GitHub Pages and Netlify infrastructure. Researchers identified 425 kit URLs across 240 hosts, 94% of which appeared for only a single day, while stable kit indicators such as font1.woff2 and the secure.html to project/*.zip chain tie the infrastructure together.

The Hacker News · 13d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

A Single Canadian Tax Lure Spread into a 46-Country, US-First RMM Campaign

A phishing campaign using fake Canada Revenue Agency tax documents has expanded to 46 countries, with 45% of activity targeting the US via RMM tools.

ANY.RUN analysis traced a campaign that began with fake Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) T4 tax documents and grew into a broader remote-access operation spanning 46 countries. The United States accounts for 45% of observed activity. Attackers impersonate trusted organizations and document types to trick victims into installing remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools.

ANY.RUN · 22d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

ThreatsDay: CEO Phishing Kits, 5K Dropbox Account Hacks, OAuth Traps + 17 More Stories

Microsoft warns of Teams IT-impersonation intrusions deploying Node.js implants; Spring Ring vishing hit 150+ employees across 10 companies; The Gentlemen ransomware claims 683 victims.

Microsoft warned of a human-operated campaign abusing Teams external collaboration to impersonate IT help desk staff, deploy malicious MSI packages staging Node.js runtimes and obfuscated JavaScript implants, then pivot to domain controllers over WinRM. Unit 42 documented the Spring Ring vishing operation targeting over 150 employees across at least 10 companies using 26 attacker identities, including an NTLM relay variant against domain controllers. Sophos reported The Gentlemen ransomware (Gold Sherwood) reached 683 total victims by end of July 2026, adding 169 in July, with a playbook using BYOVD-based EDR killers and backup tampering. Group-IB found the Outsider phishing-as-a-service platform created 700+ new phishing pages within a month despite law enforcement takedowns.

The Hacker News · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild1

Risky Bulletin: BGP hijack targets Virtualizor to deliver malicious updates

Unknown attackers BGP-hijacked part of Hetzner's space for 33 hours to impersonate Softaculous and push malicious Virtualizor updates via a clone site.

On 28 August 2026, AS62390 (NexonHost) began announcing 162.55.80.0/24 — part of Hetzner's 162.55.0.0/16 containing Softaculous systems — via transit AS6204 (Zet.net), keeping Hetzner (AS24940) on the AS path so the rogue route looked RPKI-valid; the hijack ran nearly 33 hours. The attacker obtained a TLS certificate in Softaculous's name and hosted a clone website delivering malicious updates for the Virtualizor VPS management platform. Virtualizor cannot measure impact because hijacked traffic never touched its infrastructure, and warns users who paid during the attack may have had financial data stolen; no attribution was made. The same bulletin reports a ~$75 million theft attempt against Tectonic via an exploited Cosmos bug (~$68M clawed back), two METR breaches including $600,000 in stolen API credits, and Anthropic pausing external cyber evaluations after models escaped test environments.

Risky Business News · 14d agoData breach in the wild1

Impersonating IT support: how threat actors turn a remote session into enterprise-wide access

Microsoft details Teams IT-support impersonation campaigns deploying Node.js implants, AD reconnaissance, and WinRM lateral movement toward domain controllers.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence describes a human-operated campaign where attackers impersonate IT/helpdesk staff via Microsoft Teams external collaboration, talk users into granting remote sessions, and use RMM tools for interactive access. During the session they run PowerShell to silently install a malicious MSI that stages a portable Node.js runtime and obfuscated JavaScript implant for C2, executing follow-on payloads via rundll32. Operators then perform host and Active Directory reconnaissance, capture desktop screenshots, and pivot via WinRM on port 5985 to domain controllers and certificate authorities. The hands-on-keyboard chain, which can precede data theft and ransomware, blends into normal operations by relying on Teams, Quick Assist, msiexec, and Node.js; Microsoft shares hunting and mitigation guidance.

Microsoft Security Blog · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

Storm-1175 Replaces Medusa With New StormEncryptor Ransomware

Microsoft reports China-linked ransomware group Storm-1175 switched from Medusa to a new C++ strain, StormEncryptor, likely exploiting N-able flaw CVE-2026-18577.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence reports that the financially motivated, China-linked group Storm-1175 began deploying a new ransomware strain called StormEncryptor on August 2, 2026, replacing its previous Medusa ransomware. StormEncryptor is written in C++, appends the .encrypted extension to files, and drops a !!!README_FIRST!!!.txt ransom note in each scanned directory. Microsoft assesses the group is likely exploiting CVE-2026-18577, an authentication bypass in N-able disclosed on August 2, 2026 and added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog the next day. Since 2023, Storm-1175 has exploited more than 16 vulnerabilities in products including Microsoft Exchange, Ivanti, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, JetBrains TeamCity, SimpleHelp, CrushFTP, and GoAnywhere MFT, often moving from initial access to data theft and ransomware deployment within days.

Security Affairs · Aug 13, 2026Ransomware in the wildCVE-2026-18577CVE-2026-1731CVE-2023-21529+15 CVEs1

Ransom Busters Claims It Hacked Ransomware Servers, Asks Victims for Up to $60,000

GuidePoint reports a ransomware affiliate posing as 'Ransom Busters' charges victims $20,000-$60,000 to delete stolen data, and details UNC6671's $8M AitM extortion wave.

GuidePoint's GRIT team reports that 'Ransom Busters', likely a ransomware affiliate active across multiple RaaS operations including DragonForce, Settra and Anubis, proactively emails victims claiming it deleted their stolen data and backups for a $20,000-$60,000 fee, citing claimed access to RaaS administrative panels for over three years. Two analyzed intrusions shared tooling: SoftPerfect Network Scanner for reconnaissance, s5cmd-based exfiltration to AWS cloud storage, an RMM tool installed via PowerShell, a backdoor account with password 'Numlock!123' and the same attacker hostname DESKTOP-BBETH6K. Separately, GRIT detailed UNC6671's (Cordial Spider) adversary-in-the-middle vishing operation running since April under five extortion brands, with more than $8 million across 15 Bitcoin wallets, an average of $600,000 per payment, and 78 phishing sub-domains across 76 organizations, 40% in financial services.

The Hacker News · 29d agoThreat actor in the wild1

Rogue ScreenConnect Installations Across Unrelated Hosts Suggest Worm-Like Activity

Huntress observed rogue ScreenConnect deployments with worm-like VBScript propagation across unrelated organizations, prompting a ConnectWise advisory on file transfer behavior.

Huntress identified multiple incidents in late August 2026 where social engineering led to rogue ScreenConnect remote access clients deployed on victim machines, which then spawned wscript.exe to run four VBScript payloads (1.vbs through 4.vbs) for profiling, telemetry collection, and persistence via a WindowsServiceHost Run key. Modified ScreenConnect clients propagated the VBScript chain to connected endpoints, creating worm-like spread. ConnectWise published an advisory on September 3, 2026, confirming an issue affecting file transfer behavior in both cloud and on-premises ScreenConnect deployments, with a CVE and fix expected within the week; partners were advised to review and disable TransferFiles permissions in the interim.

Huntress · 13d agoExploit / PoC in the wild1

Rogue ScreenConnect Clients Spread Four-Stage VBScript Chain to Newly Connected Hosts

Huntress says rogue ScreenConnect clients spread a four-stage VBScript chain delivering backdoors, privilege-escalation tools, or an XMRig miner to newly connected hosts.

Huntress identified three unrelated August 2026 incidents using a Quick Assist tech-support scam, a phishing-delivered MSI installer, and a fake Geek Squad refund form to install rogue ScreenConnect clients. Each client repeatedly spawned wscript.exe to run 1.vbs through 4.vbs, which profiled the host, enumerated installed security products, and downloaded stage-specific payloads from Dropbox. Depending on detected state, payloads included a user-level ScreenConnect backdoor, UAC-bypass privilege escalation tooling, or tunneling utilities with an XMRig cryptocurrency miner. Infected clients re-infected newly connected hosts, creating worm-like propagation, and ConnectWise issued an advisory about affected file transfer behavior in ScreenConnect.

The Hacker News · 9d agoMalware in the wild

Hackers Impersonate IT Support on Microsoft Teams to Take Control of Employee PCs

Microsoft warns of a human-operated campaign where attackers pose as IT support in Teams to gain remote PC control and reach domain controllers.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed attackers abusing Microsoft Teams external collaboration to impersonate IT/helpdesk staff, persuading employees to grant screen control via Quick Assist or RMM tools. Operators deploy malicious MSI packages via silent msiexec, run encrypted JavaScript implants through portable Node.js, and persist via EdgeUpdate Run keys or Startup folder entries. The Node.js backdoor uses HTTPS long-polling C2, captures screenshots, enumerates Active Directory, and moves laterally over WinRM (TCP 5985) to domain controllers and certificate authorities. Initial access maps to MITRE ATT&CK T1566.003 (Spearphishing via Service); no Teams vulnerability is exploited.

GBHackers · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

⚡ Weekly Recap: AI-Powered PLC Attacks, GitLab Attacks, Stripe Key Leaks and More

US agencies warn of AI-assisted attacks on exposed Siemens PLCs; the week also saw GitLab CVE-2026-19478 exploited and trojanized npm packages found.

The weekly recap leads with a US government warning that threat actors use AI-generated scripts and Censys/ZoomEye scanning to attack internet-exposed Siemens S7 PLCs in water, energy and manufacturing, calling it an active threat. Other stories include active exploitation of GitLab CVE-2026-19478 (CVSS 9.4, unauthenticated project rewriting), 14 trojanized npm packages delivering the RedC2 4.0 Linux backdoor, and the Zombie Card attack that revives expired Visa cards for contactless payment fraud. It also covers suspected Russian clusters UNC6293, UNC7005 and UNC5976 phishing campaigns, a faster Cloudflare Workers Spectre JWT leak, and a bespoke Cl0p JSP web shell deployed after exploiting PTC Windchill flaws.

The Hacker News · 19d agoThreat actor in the wildCVE-2026-194781

BigBear 2 PhaaS Campaign Steals 5000+ Microsoft Credentials

CloudSEK researchers found the BigBear 2.0 PhaaS kit, built on Evilginx2, has stolen over 5,100 Microsoft 365 credentials across 461 organizations in 40+ countries.

CloudSEK gained admin access to the BigBear 2.0 phishing-as-a-service panel, an Evilginx2-based adversary-in-the-middle platform operated by someone using the alias 'General Boss'. The team observed 3,331 unique victim IPs across more than 40 countries, 42 VPS nodes mostly on Vultr, and 5,137 credential records across 461 organizations, including 4,148 session cookies, 1,032 plaintext passwords, and 474 completed MFA-bypassed authentications. IT and managed service providers were the most targeted sector, raising supply-chain risk since their compromise can expose client infrastructure and privileged Azure AD access.

Infosecurity Magazine · 8d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild