FortiGuard Labs analyzed a SectopRAT variant that is embedded in legitimate software to evade detection. The malware uses a multi-stage loader to extract its payload from files, then applies API hashing, indirect function calls and in-memory loading to run the final .NET payload. Once running, it sets up encrypted communication with its C…
This SentinelOne weekly roundup (Week 39, 2026) covers one law enforcement success and two active threat campaigns. A US court sentenced Armenian national Karen Serobovich Vardanyan ("Maneeken"/"Karl Lagerfeld"), an initial access specialist for Ryuk ransomware, to two years in prison and over $1.2 million in restitution. SentinelLABS ide…
Unit 42 reports that threat actors are moving supply chain malware C2 from hardcoded endpoints to Web3 mechanisms, so an entire botnet or worm infrastructure can be re-pointed with a single blockchain transaction. The ChainDrop npm worm (Shai-Hulud family, 400+ npm packages) and the PolinRider campaign (npm, Go modules, Packagist) target …
This weekly roundup covers a cluster of breaches, critical vulnerabilities and law-enforcement actions. Bluesky confirmed more than 4,500 accounts compromised in a phishing campaign using a fake government payment offer. Zeabur will shut down after a second breach this year that exposed over 3.2 million environment variable records and da…
Straiker reports that a criminal group it tracks as AiPT-67 (operating as Tr4nsHack Team under the name Hexagon Security Labs Mexico) used a multi-agent system called CARLIY0S to coordinate attacks against more than 400 financial institutions and payment providers in Latin America. The system combined commercial AI models, Anthropic's Cla…
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…
The FBI, CISA, DC3, NSA, USSS and the Republic of Korea's KNPA issued joint advisory AA26-222A on Gunra ransomware. Gunra appeared in April 2025 as a double-extortion variant derived from the leaked Conti source code. It launched a structured RaaS affiliate program in January 2026, also operating under the alias Golden Community, and recr…
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…
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 …
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 …
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…
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…
Elastic Security Labs is tracking REF8801, a campaign in which a fake Web3 venture capital accelerator, Apex Accelerator (Apex Foundation), targets cryptocurrency startups and founders with malicious npm packages. The packages, @apexacc/cli and @apexacc/audit, pose as an AI advisor and an MCP-based security scanner, with offers of free Cl…
The Citizen Lab disclosed AdFection on 15 October 2026. It calls this the first public technical confirmation of zero-click mercenary spyware delivered to real devices through targeted online advertising. The Israeli ad firm Discover-Tech (spelled Discovere-Tech by bleepingcomputer.com) posed as a legitimate ad company while acting as a b…