Analysis of the Aeternum botnet loader, a threat leveraging Polygon blockchain smart contracts for decentralized C2 infrastructure and payload execution. The post The Permanent Threat: Analyzing Aeternum’s Blockchain-Based C2 Operations and Communications appeared first on Unit 42.
A lot of security problems still begin with someone doing a completely normal thing. Cloning a repo. Answering a call. Leaving a box exposed. Trusting the default. That pretty much covers the mood this week. Old bugs are back, supply chains are getting stranger, and some exploit paths are so short you wonder what was supposed to stop them in the first place. That’s only part of it. Here’s
North Korea's state hackers are no longer content to type prompts into public chatbots. One of the country's main espionage groups has begun running artificial intelligence (AI) offline on its own servers, connecting document-search tools to files in its possession, and collecting the software parts needed to build AI into its malware. South Korean security firm Genians says it uncovered the
Go inside Huntress and the FBI’s five-year pursuit of Silk Typhoon, from 88,000 Exchange backdoors to an arrest and a wider fight against cybercrime.
Three separate research efforts last week demonstrated ways to defeat passkey protections without breaking the cryptography they rest on. Passkeys are designed to replace reusable passwords and resist phishing. The attacks instead reused signed authentication material that Windows had exposed, abused a cloud-synced passkey system from malware already on the victim's machine, and used a
Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a malicious Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension named Solidity Pro ("solidity-pro") that has been observed delivering a browser wallet and credential stealer. The names of the extensions are below - helper-beeps.solidity-pro web3devtoolsx.solidity-pro Although neither of the extensions is now available on Open VSX, the GitHub repository
A cluster of nearly 800 malicious packages has been published to the npm registry as part of a new campaign designed to deliver cross-platform malware targeting Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. "These packages appear to use AI slop squatted, or randomly generated typo-squatting package names, but all of them deliver a powerful RAT and infostealer payload," OpenSourceMalware researcher Paul
ClickFix-style attacks are being used to deliver a Go-based malware capable of stealing cryptocurrency assets, as well as browser-stored passwords, Apple iCloud Keychain data, and cached credentials. The macOS-focused infection chain is designed to deliver a shell script that profiles the host and then fetches a macOS malware payload that's compatible with the computer's CPU architecture. "
Entra ID researcher Dirk-jan Mollema demonstrated that malware already running in a signed-in Windows session can silently use the victim's Windows Hello for Business key to authenticate to Microsoft Entra ID. The attacker can then establish longer-term cloud access, register a device it controls, obtain a Primary Refresh Token (PRT), and add further authentication methods where tenant policies
A ClickFix scam tricked a Mac user into running a Terminal command that installed Go-based malware able to steal Keychain passwords and drain crypto wallets.
A macOS ClickFix campaign shifted tactics from openly serving infostealer lures to hiding them behind a browser-fingerprinting gate. The change makes malicious infrastructure harder to detect while giving defenders new hunting opportunities. The post From open lures to cloaked gates: How a macOS ClickFix campaign learned to hide appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.
A fake Bank of America phishing email kicks off a multi-stage malware infection chain. See how one convincing bank scam unravels.
Nearly half of C2 malware bypasses DNS by connecting directly to IP addresses. Zero trust IP enforcement secures networks against these threats. The post Almost Half of Malware Samples Communicate Direct to IP appeared first on Unit 42.
Storm-2945, a sub-cluster of the Russian threat actor Midnight Blizzard, has been observed compromising the sign-in portals of hospitality-related organizations such as hotels since May 2026 in order to deliver malware to travelers and steal credentials in an operation we call CaptiveCrunch. The post CaptiveCrunch: Midnight Blizzard targets travelers worldwide for malware delivery and credential theft appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.
Analysis of XCSSET v40 reveals a macOS malware targeting developers via Xcode. Unit 42 used advanced pattern matching and AI to decode its logic. The post The Xcode Assassin Returns: A Deep Dive Into the Latest XCSSET Version appeared first on Unit 42.
Written by: Kelli Vanderlee, Stuart Carrera For years, the cybersecurity industry's understanding of software supply chain compromise has been anchored by a few watershed events, including Russian cyber espionage actor ICE RELIC’s (formerly known as APT29) 2020 compromise of SolarWinds and North Korean cyber espionage actor UNC4736's 2023 compromise of 3CX. However, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has been tracking growth in threat activity targeting open source software repositories to…
We reverse-engineered MacSync, a six-stage macOS stealer and RAT, recovered from attacker infrastructure after the victim’s host was taken offline.
A coordinated cyber attack disrupted water and wastewater systems in at least 12 U.S. states, including more than 30 Minnesota communities. Here is what defenders need to know about the attack so far. This FAQ also details recent cyberactivity targeting internet-exposed PLCs, and how to protect exposed infrastructure.Change logUpdate August 10: Added Columbus Water Works as a second confirmed Georgia victim. Added a table summarizing publicly confirmed affected entities to date.This is an activ…
The Chaos ransomware group uses new malware "msaRAT" that hijacks browsers. The malware doesn't communicate directly with C2 but connects through the browser. It enables arbitrary command execution while hiding the attacker's IP from victims via WebRTC over TURN.
On July 21 and July 22, Huntress observed a number of attacks that started with a malicious public Claude Artifact hosted on a legitimate Claude domain, and ended in organizations being infected by the SectopRAT stealer.
Group-IB uncovers HOLLOWGRAPH, a Windows malware that abuses Microsoft Graph API to exfiltrate files and receive commands from the attacker using Microsoft 365 calendar events, and DNS tunneling to refresh credentials used in C2 communication.
Four Microsoft SharePoint Server vulnerabilities are under active exploitation, prompting CISA to issue a hardening alert. An additional high-severity flaw recently patched adds pressure for organizations running on-premises deployments.Key TakeawaysCISA confirmed active exploitation of three on-premises SharePoint Server vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-32201, CVE-2026-45659, CVE-2026-56164), used to gain unauthorized access, establish remote code execution, steal IIS machine keys and deploy malware …
Analyzing a new threat targeting macOS users in Europe, North America and MEA
Unit 42 analyzes npm supply chain evolution post-Shai Hulud. Discover wormable malware, CI/CD persistence, multi-stage attacks and more. The post The npm Threat Landscape: Attack Surface and Mitigations (Updated July 15) appeared first on Unit 42.
Written by: Corné de Jong Introduction Mandiant security assessments frequently identify publicly exposed serverless applications that lack authentication, often as a result of specific business requirements. Serverless deployments typically run custom-developed code that incorporates third-party packages, making them targets for a wide range of application-level attacks, including: Local and Remote File Inclusion (LFI/RFI) Command Injection Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities can …
TuxBot v3 Evolution, an IoT botnet framework built with LLMs. Read our analysis of its cross-compiled binaries, C2 architecture and bugs. The post TuxBot v3: Inside an IoT Botnet Framework With LLM-Assisted Development appeared first on Unit 42.
56Critical510Important3Moderate0LowMicrosoft addresses 569 CVEs in the largest Patch Tuesday release yet. This month’s release includes three zero-days, two of which were exploited in the wild.Microsoft patched 569 CVEs in its July 2026 Patch Tuesday release, with 56 rated critical, 510 rated as important, and 3 rated as moderate. This marks the largest Patch Tuesday release ever, crushing the previous record of 198 CVEs in June. Last week, Microsoft announced that its multi-model agentic scann…
Ransomware, BEC, and social engineering attacks increasingly start with a simple login, not malware. See the five threat patterns IT and security teams need to watch for, and how to catch them early.
Group-IB analysts examine this resurfaced Android Remote Access Trojan, demonstrating new, sophisticated and malicious functionalities including autonomous privilege abuse, expanded command-and-control capabilities, and a robust persistence stack.
Threat actors are now using AI to generate custom PowerShell scripts for Active Directory attacks. Our team analyzed real vibe-coded malware and what it means for defenders.
