Acronis Threat Research Unit found that the Gentlemen ransomware operation is using the BYOVD (bring your own vulnerable driver) technique with legitimate Lenovo and Safetica kernel drivers to terminate endpoint security software before encrypting files. Two custom dropper samples were recovered from a recent incident. They install the dr…
ESET Research reports that the China-aligned APT group FamousSparrow has been using a new modular C++ backdoor, SparroWocky, since at least August 2025. The backdoor has replaced SparrowDoor as the group's main implant. From mid-2025 into 2026, about 90% of the group's targets in ESET telemetry were in Latin America, mostly governmental e…
Kaspersky identified MovieReaper, a previously unknown modular, multi-stage crimeware framework distributed since mid-August 2026 through movie-themed torrents, including fake "The Odyssey (2026)" releases. Rather than compromising individual trackers, the actor modified the public torrent file repository itorrents.org, so trackers relyin…
SafeDep flagged the malicious npm package ulid-xyz in June 2026. It typosquats ulidx and is a cross-platform remote access trojan. It is delivered through a three-layer transitive dependency chain: ioredis-xyz (a clone of the legitimate ioredis client) depends on redis-type-xyz (an empty manifest posing as Redis OM), which in version 1.10…
SafeDep reports that the PolinRider loader family now resolves its C2 servers from Ethereum mainnet. The loader reads small transactions from operator wallets and decodes the recipient address as an IP:port. SafeDep confirmed 35 GitHub repositories carrying the loader at HEAD on 2026-09-30 (7,578 stars and 2,884 forks combined). The inves…
A joint advisory (AA26-194a) from NSA, CISA, FBI, DC3 and 15 allied agencies warns that Russian FSB Center 16 cyber actors continue to opportunistically compromise poorly configured and vulnerable networking devices worldwide, primarily routers. The advisory builds on the FBI's August 2025 PSA on the decade-plus campaign and adds TTPs. Go…
A malicious version 0.7.4 of the mrmustard photonic quantum computing library (Xanadu) was published to PyPI on July 23, 2026, after the account of the project's lead maintainer (ziofil, Filippo Miatto) was compromised. Importing the package reads SSH private keys, AWS credentials and the Kubernetes config, then sends them to an attacker-…
Unit 42 attributes with high confidence to an Iranian state-aligned actor, tracked as CL-STA-1178, a campaign called Blinder Tunnel. In March 2026 it targeted an individual in Iraq's critical infrastructure sector, after infrastructure staging that began as early as November 2025. The actor impersonated the Dubai Airports IT department an…
Researchers at SafeDep identified imgdecode, a malicious npm package tied to the long-running MALFEX supply chain campaign first documented by Checkmarx and CloudSEK. Published on September 30, 2026 by user "malfexteste8", it has been downloaded 979 times and was still available at the time of reporting (latest version 1.0.3). MALFEX has …
BRONZE SANDCASTLE (written Bronze Sandcastle by thehackernews.com) is a previously undocumented intrusion set disclosed by SophosLabs on 2026-10-21. It is assessed as China-based or China-aligned and has been active since mid-2025 (thehackernews.com). Between August 2025 and August 2026 it compromised victims in the Philippines, Taiwan, A…
A ClickFix malvertising campaign uses sponsored Google results for "amazon business" to lure victims to a fake Amazon login page on Google Sites and then to a fake CAPTCHA. The CAPTCHA pastejacks a command into the clipboard that the victim is told to run in the Windows Run box. The command abuses the legacy finger.exe utility to fetch a …
Symantec reports that the Russia-linked APT28 (aka Swallowtail, Fancy Bear, Forest Blizzard, BlueDelta), which the U.S. government links to the GRU, targeted organizations in two NATO member states. Victims were a naval shipbuilder, a manufacturer of military aircraft engines and a law enforcement agency (thehackernews.com, cyberscoop.com…
Kaspersky analysis of an installer first classified as adware (MD5 c24e99f9437feacaa63766a3cde3fe3d) found that it delivers the ValleyRAT backdoor. The installer drops a modified, signed Chinese wallpaper tool, QN Wallpaper, and uses it for DLL sideloading of a malicious libcef.dll. The adware's advertising function does not work. Attacke…
Check Point Research describes Aokigahara, a newly observed Windows infostealer that may have appeared in earlier versions as Kamidere or Stygian. It combines standard theft of browser, cryptocurrency wallet, VPN, FTP/SFTP, password manager and email data with a dedicated aisessions handler. That handler collects authentication, session a…
Researchers at SafeDep analyzed a macOS implant recovered from a compromised workstation. Infection began on 2026-07-26 with a paid YouTube video ad impersonating TradingView that led to a fake .pkg installer. The malware is a remote-controlled task runner, not a single-purpose stealer. It persists via a LaunchAgent that re-fetches a shel…
SafeDep reports that the npm package imgdecode (versions 1.0.0-1.0.3, publisher malfexteste8) is part of the MALFEX campaign, which targets Windows developers. After npm removed earlier JavaScript loaders, the operator moved the loader logic into a compiled Node.js native addon (a Windows DLL). On require('imgdecode') from an interactive …
Kaspersky's analysis of Operation FlashHole describes a Lazarus Group (North Korea-linked) cyberespionage campaign against South Korean organizations. It follows Operation SyncHole, which abused the related Cross EX product and hit at least six organizations (gbhackers.com), and is placed within the broader Cascade Hole activity. The earl…
Kaspersky researchers describe a new MacSync macOS infostealer variant, first seen in the wild in September 2026, that replaces the earlier AppleScript-based droppers with FAT Mach-O binaries written in Objective-C and Swift. MacSync is sold as malware-as-a-service, so delivery varies by operator. In this campaign it spread through malici…
Unit 42 (unit42.paloaltonetworks.com) tracks a campaign, CL-UNK-1211, that compromised government entities and state-affiliated Linux infrastructure between October 2025 and April 2026. Unit 42 published the research on October 15, and gbhackers.com covered it on October 22. The operators carried out reconnaissance, persistence and intell…