Tag: Cyber Threats

Sep 02, 2025The Hacker NewsData Privacy / SaaS Security

The Harsh Truths of AI Adoption

MITs State of AI in Business report revealed that while 40% of organizations have purchased enterprise LLM subscriptions, over 90% of employees are actively using AI tools in their daily work. Similarly, research from Harmonic Security found that 45.4% of sensitive AI interactions are coming from personal email accounts, where employees are bypassing corporate controls entirely.

This has, understandably, led to plenty of concerns around a growing “Shadow AI Economy”. But what does that mean and how can security and AI governance teams overcome these challenges?

AI Usage Is Driven by Employees, Not Committees

Enterprises incorrectly view AI use as something that comes top-down, defined by their own visionary business leaders. We now know that’s wrong. In most cases, employees are driving adoption from the bottom up, often without oversight, while governance frameworks are still being defined from the top down. Even if they have enterprise-sanctioned tools, they are often eschewing these in favor of other newer tools that are better-placed to improve their productivity.

Unless security leaders understand this reality, uncover and govern this activity, they are exposing the business to significant risks.

Why Blocking Fails

Many organizations have tried to meet this challenge with a “block and wait” strategy. This approach seeks to restrict access to well-known AI platforms and hope adoption slows.

The reality is different.

AI is no longer a category that can be easily fenced off. From productivity apps like Canva and Grammarly to collaboration tools with embedded assistants, AI is woven into nearly every SaaS app. Blocking one tool only drives employees to another, often through personal accounts or home devices, leaving the enterprise blind to real usage.

This is not the case for all enterprises, of course. Forward-leaning security and AI governance teams are looking to proactively understand what employees are using and for what use cases. They seek to understand what is happening and how to help their employees use the tools as securely as possible.

Shadow AI Discovery as a Governance Imperative

An AI asset inventory is a regulatory requirement and not a nice-to-have. Frameworks like the EU AI Act explicitly mandate organizations to maintain visibility into the AI systems in use, because without discovery there is no inventory, and without an inventory there can be no governance. Shadow AI is a key component of this.

Different AI tools pose different risks. Some may quietly train on proprietary data, others may store sensitive information in jurisdictions like China, creating intellectual property exposure. To comply with regulations and protect the business, security leaders must first uncover the full scope of AI usage, spanning sanctioned enterprise accounts and unsanctioned personal ones.

Once armed with this visibility, organizations can separate low-risk use cases from those involving sensitive data, regulated workflows, or geographic exposure. Only then can they enforce meaningful governance policies that both protect data and enable employee productivity.

How Harmonic Security Helps

Harmonic Security enables this approach by delivering intelligence controls for employee use of AI. This includes continuous monitoring of Shadow AI, with off-the-shelf risk assessments for each application.

Instead of relying on static block lists, Harmonic provides visibility into both sanctioned and unsanctioned AI use, then applies smart policies based on the sensitivity of the data, the role of the employee, and the nature of the tool.

That means a marketing team might be permitted to put specific information into specific tools for content creation, while HR or legal teams are restricted from using personal accounts for sensitive employee information. This is underpinned by models that can identify and classify information as employees share the data. This enables teams to enforce AI policies with the necessary precision.

The Path Forward

Shadow AI is here to stay. As more SaaS applications embed AI, unmanaged use will only expand. Organizations that fail to address discovery today will find themselves unable to govern tomorrow.

The path forward is to govern it intelligently, rather than block it. Shadow AI discovery gives CISOs the visibility they need to protect sensitive data, meet regulatory requirements, and empower employees to safely take advantage of AI’s productivity benefits.

Harmonic Security is already helping enterprises take this next step in AI governance.

For CISOs, it’s no longer a question of whether employees are using Shadow AI…it’s whether you can see it.

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a Ukrainian IP network for engaging in massive brute-force and password spraying campaigns targeting SSL VPN and RDP devices between June and July 2025.

The activity originated from a Ukraine-based autonomous system FDN3 (AS211736), per French cybersecurity company Intrinsec.

“We believe with a high level of confidence that FDN3 is part of a wider abusive infrastructure composed of two other Ukrainian networks, VAIZ-AS (AS61432) and ERISHENNYA-ASN (AS210950), and a Seychelles-based autonomous system named TK-NET (AS210848),” according to a report published last week.

“Those were all allocated in August 2021 and often exchange IPv4 prefixes with one another to evade blocklisting and continue hosting abusive activities.”

AS61432 currently announces a single prefix 185.156.72[.]0/24, while AS210950 has announced two prefixes 45.143.201[.]0/24 and

185.193.89[.]0/24. The two autonomous systems were allocated in May and August 2021, respectively. A major chunk of their prefixes has been announced on AS210848, another autonomous system also allocated in August 2021.

“This network shares all its peering agreements with IP Volume Inc. – AS202425, a company based in Seychelles and created by Ecatel’s owners, infamous for running an extensively abusive bulletproof hosting service in the Netherlands since 2005,” Intrinsec noted.

The entirety of prefixes that were moved from AS61432 and AS210950 are now announced by bulletproof and abusive networks fronted by shell companies like Global Internet Solutions LLC (gir.network), Global Connectivity Solutions LLP, Verasel, IP Volume Inc., and Telkom Internet LTD.

The findings build upon prior disclosures about how multiple networks allocated in August 2021 and based in Ukraine and Seychelles – AS61432, AS210848, and AS210950 – were used for spam distribution, network attacks, and malware command-and-control hosting. In June 2025, some of the IPv4 prefixes announced by these networks were moved to FDN3, which was created in August 2021.

That’s not all. Three of the prefixes announced by AS210848, and one by AS61432, were previously announced by another Russian network, SibirInvest OOO (AS44446). Of the four IPv4 prefixes announced by FDN3, one of them (88.210.63[.]0/24) is assessed to have been previously announced by a U.S.-based bulletproof hosting solution named Virtualine (AS214940 and AS214943).

It’s this IPv4 prefix range that has been attributed to large-scale brute-force and password spraying attempts, with the activity scaling to a record high between July 6 and 8, 2025.

The brute-force and password spraying efforts aimed at SSL VPN and RDP assets could last up to three days, per Intrinsec. It’s worth noting that these techniques have been adopted by various ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups like Black Basta, GLOBAL GROUP, and RansomHub as an initial access vector to breach corporate networks.

The two other prefixes that FDN3 announced in June, 92.63.197[.]0/24 and 185.156.73[.]0/24, were previously announced by AS210848, indicating a high degree of operational overlap. 92.63.197[.]0/24, for its part, has ties to Bulgarian spam networks like ROZA-AS (AS212283).

“All those strong similarities, including their configuration, the content they host, and their creation date, led us to assess with a high level of confidence the previously mentioned autonomous systems to be operated by a common bulletproof hosting administrator,” Intrinsec explained.

Further analysis of FDN3 has uncovered ties to a Russian company called Alex Host LLC that, in the past, has been linked to bulletproof hosting providers like TNSECURITY, which have been used to host Doppelganger infrastructure.

“This investigation once again highlights a common phenomenon of offshore ISPs such as IP Volume Inc. enabling smaller bulletproof networks through peering agreements and prefix hosting overall,” the company said. “Thanks to their offshore location, such as Seychelles, which provides anonymity to the owners of those companies, the malicious activities perpetrated through those networks cannot be directly imputed to them.”

The development comes as Censys uncovered a connect-back proxy management system associated with the PolarEdge botnet that’s currently running on over 2,400 hosts. The system is an RPX server that operates as a reverse-connect proxy gateway capable of managing proxy nodes and exposing proxy services.

“This system appears to be a well-designed server that may be one of the many tools used for managing the PolarEdge botnet,” senior security researcher Mark Ellzey said. “It is also possible that this specific service is completely unrelated to PolarEdge and is instead a service that the botnet utilizes to jump between different relays.”

The threat actor known as Silver Fox has been attributed to abuse of a previously unknown vulnerable driver associated with WatchDog Anti-malware as part of a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attack aimed at disarming security solutions installed on compromised hosts.

The vulnerable driver in question is “amsdk.sys” (version 1.0.600), a 64-bit, validly signed Windows kernel device driver that’s assessed to be built upon Zemana Anti-Malware SDK.

“This driver, built on the Zemana Anti-Malware SDK, was Microsoft-signed, not listed in the Microsoft Vulnerable Driver Blocklist, and not detected by community projects like LOLDrivers,” Check Point said in an analysis.

The attack is characterized by a dual-driver strategy, where a known vulnerable Zemana driver (“zam.exe”) is used for Windows 7 machines, and the undetected WatchDog driver for systems that run on Windows 10 or 11.

The WatchDog Anti-malware driver has been found to contain multiple vulnerabilities, the first and foremost being the ability to terminate arbitrary processes without verifying whether the process is running as protected (PP/PPL). It’s also susceptible to local privilege escalation, allowing an attacker to gain unrestricted access to the driver’s device.

The end goal of the campaign, first spotted by Check Point in late May 2025, is to leverage these vulnerable drivers to neutralize endpoint protection products, creating a clear path for malware deployment and persistence without triggering signature-based defenses.

As observed before, the campaign is designed to deliver ValleyRAT (aka Winos 4.0) as the final payload, providing remote access and control capabilities to the threat actor. The cybersecurity company said the attacks employ an all-in-one loader, encapsulating anti-analysis features, two embedded drivers, antivirus killer logic, and the ValleyRAT DLL downloader in one binary.

“Upon execution, the sample performs a few common anti-analysis checks, such as Anti-VM (detection of virtual environments), Anti-Sandbox (detection of execution within a sandbox), hypervisor detection, and others,” Check Point said. “If any of these checks fail, the execution is aborted, and a fake system error message is displayed.”

The downloader is designed to communicate with a command-and-control (C2) server to fetch the modular ValleyRAT backdoor onto the infected machine.

Following responsible disclosure, Watchdog has released a patch (version 1.1.100) to address the LPE risk by enforcing a strong Discretionary Access Control List (DACL), while not plugging the arbitrary process termination issue. This, in turn, has had the side effect of causing the attackers to swiftly adapt and incorporate the modified version by altering just a single byte without invalidating Microsoft’s signature.

“By flipping a single byte in the unauthenticated timestamp field, they preserved the driver’s valid Microsoft signature while generating a new file hash, effectively bypassing hash-based blocklists,” Check Point noted. “This subtle yet efficient evasion technique mirrors patterns seen in earlier campaigns.”

“This campaign demonstrates how threat actors are moving beyond known weaknesses to weaponize unknown, signed drivers—a blind spot for many defense mechanisms. The exploitation of a Microsoft-signed, previously unclassified vulnerable driver, combined with evasive techniques such as signature manipulation, represents a sophisticated and evolving threat.”

Silver Fox, also called SwimSnake, The Great Thief of Valley (or Valley Thief), UTG-Q-1000, and Void Arachne, is assessed to be highly active since early last year, primarily targeting Chinese-speaking victims using fake websites masquerading as Google Chrome, Telegram, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools like DeepSeek to distribute remote access trojans like ValleyRAT.

According to Chinese cybersecurity vendor Antiy, the hacking group is believed to have been around since the second half of 2022, targeting domestic users and companies with an attempt to steal secrets and defraud them.

“The cybercriminal group mainly spreads malicious files through instant messaging software (WeChat, Enterprise WeChat, etc. ), search engine SEO promotion, phishing emails, etc.,” the company said. “The ‘SwimSnake’ cybercriminal group is still frequently updating malware and AV evasion methods.”

The attacks employ trojanized versions of open-source software, malicious programs built using the Qt framework, or MSI installers disguised as Youdao, Sogou AI, WPS Office, and DeepSeek to serve Valley RAT, including its online module that can capture screenshots of WeChat and online banks.

The development comes as QiAnXin also detailed a separate campaign mounted by the “Finance Group” within Silver Fox that targets financial personnel and managers of enterprises and institutions, aiming to plunder sensitive financial information or directly profit through fraud.

These attacks leverage phishing lures related to tax audits, electronic invoices, subsidy announcements, and personnel transfers to deceive users into running remote access trojans, while relying on legitimate cloud services such as Alibaba Cloud OSS and Youdao Cloud Notes to host malicious payloads in an attempt to sidestep detection.

The Finance Group is one of the four sub-clusters part of Silver Fox, the other three being the News and Romance Group, the Design and Manufacturing Group, and the Black Watering Hole Group.

Interestingly, after the Finance Group gains control of a victim’s computer through methods like watering hole attacks and phishing, they take over the victim’s social media accounts and leverage them to send phishing QR codes to various WeChat group chats with the goal of harvesting bank account numbers and passwords from group members, ultimately draining funds from their bank accounts for profit.

“UTG-Q-1000 is one of the most active and aggressive cybercrime groups in China in recent years. Their operations are highly organized, technically sophisticated, and financially motivated,” QiAnXin said. “They’ve established a complete black-market profit chain involving: espionage (data theft), remote control via malware, and financial fraud and phishing.”

Sep 02, 2025Ravie LakshmananCryptocurrency / Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious npm package that comes with stealthy features to inject malicious code into desktop apps for cryptocurrency wallets like Atomic and Exodus on Windows systems.

The package, named nodejs-smtp, impersonates the legitimate email library nodemailer with an identical tagline, page styling, and README descriptions, attracting a total of 347 downloads since it was uploaded to the npm registry in April 2025 by a user named “nikotimon.” It’s currently no longer available.

“On import, the package uses Electron tooling to unpack Atomic Wallet’s app.asar, replace a vendor bundle with a malicious payload, repackage the application, and remove traces by deleting its working directory,” Socket researcher Kirill Boychenko said.

The main objective is to overwrite the recipient address with hard-coded wallets controlled by the threat actor, redirecting Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT and TRX USDT), XRP (XRP), and Solana (SOL) transactions, effectively acting as a cryptocurrency clipper.

That having said, the package delivers on its stated functionality by acting as an SMTP-based mailer in an attempt to avoid raising developers’ suspicion.

The package still works as a mailer and exposes a drop-in interface compatible with nodemailer. That functional cover lowers suspicion, allows application tests to pass, and gives developers little reason to question the dependency.

The development comes months after ReversingLabs discovered an npm package named “pdf-to-office” that achieved the same goals by unpacking the “app.asar” archives associated with Atomic and Exodus wallets and modifying within them a JavaScript file to introduce the clipper function.

“This campaign shows how a routine import on a developer workstation can quietly modify a separate desktop application and persist across reboots,” Boychenko said. “By abusing import time execution and Electron packaging, a lookalike mailer becomes a wallet drainer that alters Atomic and Exodus on compromised Windows systems.”

Sep 01, 2025Ravie LakshmananMobile Security / Malvertising

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a new shift in the Android malware landscape where dropper apps, which are typically used to deliver banking trojans, to also distribute simpler malware such as SMS stealers and basic spyware.

These campaigns are propagated via dropper apps masquerading as government or banking apps in India and other parts of Asia, ThreatFabric said in a report last week.

The Dutch mobile security firm said the change is driven by recent security protections that Google has piloted in select markets like Singapore, Thailand, Brazil, and India to block sideloading of potentially suspicious apps requesting dangerous permissions like SMS messages and accessibility services, a heavily abused setting to carry out malicious actions on Android devices.

“Google Play Protect’s defences, particularly the targeted Pilot Program, are increasingly effective at stopping risky apps before they run,” the company said. “Second, actors want to future-proof their operations.”

“By encapsulating even basic payloads inside a dropper, they gain a protective shell that can evade today’s checks while staying flexible enough to swap payloads and pivot campaigns tomorrow.”

ThreatFabric said that while Google’s strategy ups the ante by blocking a malicious app from being installed even before a user can interact with it, attackers are trying out new ways to get around the safeguards — an indication of the endless game of whack-a-mole when it comes to security.

This includes designing droppers, keeping in mind Google’s Pilot Program, so that they don’t seek high-risk permissions and serve only a harmless “update” screen that can fly past scanning in the regions.

But it’s only when the user clicks the “Update” button that the actual payload gets fetched from an external server or unpacked, which then proceeds to seek the necessary permissions to fulfil its objectives.

“Play Protect may display alerts about the risks, as a part of a different scan, but as long as the user accepts them, the app is installed, and the payload is delivered,” ThreatFabric said. “This illustrates a critical gap: Play Protect still allows risky apps through if the user clicks Install anyway, and the malware still slips through the Pilot Program.”

One such dropper is RewardDropMiner, which has been found to serve along with spyware payloads a Monero cryptocurrency miner that can be activated remotely. Recent variants of the tool, however, no longer include the miner functionality.

Some of the malicious apps delivered via RewardDropMiner, all targeting users in India, are listed below –

• PM YOJANA 2025 (com.fluvdp.hrzmkgi)
• °RTO Challan (com.epr.fnroyex)
• SBI Online (com.qmwownic.eqmff)
• Axis Card (com.tolqppj.yqmrlytfzrxa)

Other dropper variants that avoid triggering Play Protect or the Pilot Program include SecuriDropper, Zombinder, BrokewellDropper, HiddenCatDropper, and TiramisuDropper.

When reached for comment, Google told The Hacker News it has not found any apps using these techniques distributed via the Play Store and that it’s constantly adding new protections.

“Regardless of where an app comes from – even if it’s installed by a ‘dropper’ app – Google Play Protect helps to keep users safe by automatically checking it for threats,” a spokesperson said.

“Protection against these identified malware versions was already in place through Google Play Protect prior to this report. Based on our current detection, no apps containing these versions of this malware have been found on Google Play. We’re constantly enhancing our protections to help keep users safe from bad actors.”

The development comes as Bitdefender Labs has warned of a new campaign that’s using malicious ads on Facebook to peddle a free premium version of the TradingView app for Android to ultimately deploy an improved version of the Brokewell banking trojan to monitor, control, and steal sensitive information from the victim’s device.

No less than 75 malicious ads have been run since July 22, 2025, reaching tens of thousands of users in the European Union alone. The Android attack wave is just one part of a larger malvertising operation that has abused Facebook Ads to also target Windows desktops under the guise of various financial and cryptocurrency apps.

“This campaign shows how cybercriminals are fine-tuning their tactics to keep up with user behavior,” the Romanian cybersecurity company said. “By targeting mobile users and disguising malware as trusted trading tools, attackers hope to cash in on the growing reliance on crypto apps and financial platforms.”

Cybersecurity today is less about single attacks and more about chains of small weaknesses that connect into big risks. One overlooked update, one misused account, or one hidden tool in the wrong hands can be enough to open the door.

The news this week shows how attackers are mixing methods—combining stolen access, unpatched software, and clever tricks to move from small entry points to large consequences.

For defenders, the lesson is clear: the real danger often comes not from one major flaw, but from how different small flaws interact together.

⚡ Threat of the Week

WhatsApp Patches Actively Exploited Flaw — WhatsApp addressed a security vulnerability in its messaging apps for Apple iOS and macOS that it said may have been exploited in the wild in conjunction with a recently disclosed Apple flaw in targeted zero-day attacks. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-55177 relates to a case of insufficient authorization of linked device synchronization messages. The Meta-owned company said the issue “could have allowed an unrelated user to trigger processing of content from an arbitrary URL on a target’s device.” It also assessed that the shortcoming may have been chained with CVE-2025-43300, a vulnerability affecting iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, as part of a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users. WhatsApp said it sent in-app threat notifications to less than 200 users who may have been targeted as part of the spyware campaign.

• U.S. Treasury Continues to Hit IT Worker Scheme with Sanctions — The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a fraudulent IT worker network linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). This included Vitaliy Sergeyevich Andreyev, a Russian national who facilitated payments to Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company (Chinyong), also known as Jinyong IT Cooperation Company, which was sanctioned by OFAC and South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in May 2023. Also included in the designation were Kim Ung Sun, Shenyang Geumpungri Network Technology Co., Ltd., and Korea Sinjin Trading Corporation. These actors were designated for their involvement in schemes that funnel DPRK IT worker-derived revenue to support DPRK weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. The cryptocurrency wallet linked to Andreyev has “received over $600,000 of payments and has source exposure back to the Atomic Wallet exploit of June 2023,” which was attributed to the Lazarus Group, per Elliptic. The designation builds upon other actions OFAC has taken to disrupt the DPRK’s IT worker schemes.
• Critical Docker Flaw Patched — Users of Docker Desktop on Windows and Mac are urged to upgrade to the latest version to patch a critical vulnerability that could allow an attacker to break the container isolation layer and potentially take over the host system. The vulnerability (CVE-2025-9074) stems from the fact that Docker Desktop exposes the Docker Engine API, which can be used to control Docker containers over a TCP socket without any authentication. As a result of this flaw, an attacker who gains access to a Docker container could leverage the API to create a new Docker container and mount the operating system’s file system, gaining access to sensitive information or overwriting system-critical files, resulting in arbitrary code execution. However, mounting the file system administrator works only on Windows, as attempting this process on macOS would prompt the user for permission. Also, on macOS, Docker doesn’t run with administrator privileges like it does on Windows.
• Critical Sectors Targeted by MixShell — Cybercriminals have targeted dozens of critical U.S. manufacturers and supply-chain companies, looking to steal sensitive data and deploy ransomware. The activity, dubbed ZipLine, dates back to the beginning of May 2025. Instead of emailing a malicious link in an unsolicited email, the miscreants initiate contact through the organization’s public “Contact Us” form under the guise of partnership inquiries or other business pretexts, tricking the victim into starting the conversation and allowing the attackers to bypass email filters. The attacks led to the deployment of a stealthy implant called MixShell. By using website contact forms, the attack flips the phishing playbook by getting victims to make the first email contact with the attacker rather than the other way around.
• Salesforce Instances Targeted via Salesloft Drift — A threat activity cluster has committed a spate of data breaches of organizations’ Salesforce instances by compromising OAuth tokens associated with the Salesloft Drift third-party application. UNC6395 has been carrying out a “widespread data theft” campaign by targeting Salesforce instances beginning as early as August 8 through at least August 18. UNC6395 “systematically exported large volumes of data from numerous corporate Salesforce instances” for the purpose of harvesting sensitive credentials, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) access keys (AKIA), passwords, and Snowflake-related access tokens. Once these credentials were exfiltrated, “the actor then searched through the data to look for secrets that could be potentially used to compromise victim environments,” and then covered its tracks by deleting query jobs.
• Storm-0501 Linked to Cloud Extortion Attacks — Storm-0501 has sharpened its ransomware tactics by exploiting hijacked privileged accounts to move seamlessly between on-premises and cloud environments, exploiting visibility gaps to encrypt data and exfiltrate sensitive data, and carry out mass deletions of cloud resources, including backups. The threat actor checked for the presence of security software, suggesting a deliberate effort to avoid detection by targeting non-onboarded systems. The attackers also conducted reconnaissance activities to gain deep visibility into the organization’s security tooling and infrastructure. This evolution signals a technical shift and a change in impact strategy. Instead of just encrypting files and demanding ransom for decryption, Storm-0501 exfiltrates sensitive cloud data, destroys backups, and then extorts victims by threatening permanent data loss or exposure.
• UNC6384 Deploys PlugX via Captive Portal Hijack — Chinese state hackers have been hijacking captive portal checks to deliver malware couched as Adobe software. The activity, attributed to Mustang Panda, appears to have targeted Southeast Asian diplomats in particular, and other unidentified entities around the globe, between approximately March and July of this year. Around two dozen victims were likely compromised, although it’s possible there were more. The trick to Mustang Panda’s latest campaign involves hijacking captive portal checks to redirect users to a website under their control to distribute malware. It’s believed that the hackers infected edge devices in the targets’ networks, which they used to intercept the check made by the Google Chrome browser. Users who fell for the scheme ended up downloading an ostensibly innocuous binary that ultimately led to the deployment of PlugX.
• ShadowCapatcha Leverages ClickFix to Deliver Malware — A financially motivated campaign dubbed ShadowCaptcha is leveraging fake Google and Cloudflare CAPTCHA pages to trick victims into executing malicious commands using compromised WordPress sites as an infection vector. The attacks lead to the deployment of information stealers and ransomware, demonstrating a versatile monetization approach. The activity primarily focuses on three revenue streams: Data theft and subsequent sale, drop cryptocurrency miners, and infect machines with ransomware. This multi-pronged strategy ensures a sustained revenue generation mechanism, maximising their return on investment while also maintaining persistent access.

🔥 Trending CVEs

Hackers act fast. They attack soon after a weakness is found. One missed update, a hidden error, or a forgotten security alert can let them in. A small problem can quickly turn into big trouble like stolen data or system crashes, before you even notice. Here are this week’s serious risks. Check them, fix them fast, and stay safe before attackers do.

This week’s list includes — CVE-2025-55177 (WhatsApp), CVE-2025-34509, CVE-2025-34510, CVE-2025-34511 (Sitecore Experience Platform), CVE-2025-57819 (FreePBX), CVE-2025-26496 (Tableau Server), CVE-2025-54939 (LSQUIC QUIC), CVE-2025-9118 (Google Cloud Dataform API), CVE-2025-53118 (Securden Unified PAM), CVE-2025-9478 (Google Chrome), CVE-2025-50975 (IPFire 2.29), CVE-2025-23307 (NVIDIA NeMo Curator), CVE-2025-20241 (Cisco Nexus 3000 and 9000 Series switches), CVE-2025-20317 (Cisco Integrated Management Controller), CVE-2025-20294, CVE-2025-20295 (Cisco Unified Computing System Manager), CVE-2025-54370 (PhpSpreadsheet), CVE-2025-39245, CVE-2025-39246, CVE-2025-39247 (Hikvision HikCentral), CVE-2025-49146, CVE-2025-48976, CVE-2025-53506, CVE-2025-52520 (Atlassian), CVE-2025-50979 (NodeBB), and CVE-2025-8067 (Linux UDisks daemon).

📰 Around the Cyber World

• Microsoft RDP services Targeted by Malicious Scans — Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services have been hit with a torrent of malicious scans from tens of thousands of IP addresses in recent days, indicating a coordinated reconnaissance campaign. “The wave’s aim was clear: test for timing flaws that reveal valid usernames, laying the groundwork for credential-based intrusions,” GreyNoise said. The activity took place over two waves on August 21 and 24, with thousands of unique IP addresses simultaneously probing both Microsoft RD Web Access and Microsoft RDP Web Client authentication portals.
• Flaw in TheTruthSpy Spyware — A vulnerability in TheTruthSpy spyware app can allow bad actors to take over any account and retrieve collected victim data. The vulnerability exploits an issue with the app’s password recovery process to change the password of any account. TheTruthSpy told TechCrunch it can’t fix the bug because it “lost” the app’s source code.
• Russia’s Max App Logs User Activity — The Russian government’s WhatsApp rival, Max, is constantly monitoring and logging all user activity. According to Corellium’s technical analysis, the app doesn’t use encryption and tracks user location in real-time and with high accuracy. Developed by Russian tech giant VK, the app has been made mandatory and must be installed on all mobile devices sold in Russia after September 1, 2025. The app was initially launched earlier this March.
• OpenSSH’s PQC Play — OpenSSH said it will start showing warnings when users connect to an SSH server that does not have post-quantum cryptography protections starting with OpenSSH 10.1. “The ideal solution is to update the server to use an SSH implementation that supports at least one of these,” the maintainers said. “OpenSSH versions 9.0 and greater support sntrup761x25519-sha512 and versions 9.9 and greater support mlkem768x25519-sha256. If your server is already running one of these versions, then check whether the KexAlgorithms option has disabled their use.”
• Credential Harvesting Campaign Targets ScreenConnect Super Admin Accounts — A low-volume campaign is targeting ScreenConnect cloud administrators with fake email alerts warning about a potentially suspicious login event with the goal of stealing their credentials for potential ransomware deployment. The activity, ongoing since 2022, has been attributed by Mimecast to MCTO3030. “The campaign employs spear phishing emails delivered through Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) accounts, targeting senior IT professionals, including directors, managers, and security personnel with elevated privileges in ScreenConnect environments,” the company said. “The attackers specifically seek super administrator credentials, which provide comprehensive control over remote access infrastructure across entire organizations.” The attackers are using the open source Evilginx framework to provision these phishing pages and to act as a reverse proxy between the victim and the real site. The framework can capture both login credentials and session cookies.
• More ScreenConnect-Themed Campaigns Discovered — Another campaign has leveraged phishing emails with fake Zoom meeting invitations and Microsoft Teams calls to lead victims to malicious links that download the ScreenConnect software. “The weaponization of a legitimate IT administration tool – one designed to grant IT professionals deep system access for troubleshooting and maintenance – combined with social engineering and convincing business impersonation creates a multi-layered deception that provides attackers with the dual advantage of trust exploitation and security evasion,” Abnormal AI said. The campaign has so far targeted more than 900 organizations, impacting a broad range of sectors and geographies. A separate campaign has also been observed using fake AI-themed content to lure users into executing a malicious, pre-configured ScreenConnect installer, which then acts as an entry point for the XWorm malware, per Trustwave. In a related development, attackers have been observed weaponizing Cisco’s secure links (“secure-web.cisco[.]com”) in credential phishing campaigns to evade link scanning and by-pass network filters. “Attackers compromise or create accounts within Cisco-protected organizations,” Raven AI said. “They simply email themselves malicious links, let Cisco’s system rewrite them into Safe Links, then harvest these URLs for their campaigns.” A similar campaign exploiting Proofpoint links was disclosed by Cloudflare in July 2025.
• TRM Labs Warns of Scam Campaign Impersonating the Firm — Blockchain intelligence company said it’s aware of individuals using false domains to impersonate TRM Labs and/or government agencies working in collaboration with TRM Labs. “These are not TRM Labs domains, and the actors behind these are scammers,” the company said. “TRM Labs is not involved in fund recovery processes for victims and does not partner with government agencies for the purposes of fund recovery. Unfortunately, these types of scams deliberately target vulnerable people, often when they’re financially vulnerable, having potentially already lost funds to scams.” The warning comes against the backdrop of an alert issued by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), urging cryptocurrency scam victims to be on the lookout for scams where fraudsters pose as lawyers representing fictitious law firms to help them assist with fund recovery, only to deceive them a second time.
• New Ransomware Strains Detected — A new ransomware strain going by the name of Cephalus has been spotted in the wild. In incidents observed around mid-August 2025, the group behind the locker used compromised RDP accounts for initial access and used the cloud storage service MEGA for likely data exfiltration purposes. The development comes as the Underground and NightSpire ransomware gangs have launched ransomware attacks against companies in various countries and industries, including South Korea. In another attack analyzed by eSentire, compromised third-party MSP SonicWall SSL VPN credentials served as an initial access pathway for Sinobi, a rebrand of the Lynx ransomware. “Using the compromised account, the threat actors executed commands to create a new local administrator account, set its password, and add it to the domain administrators group,” eSentire said. “Both the initial compromised account and the newly created account were subsequently used for lateral movement throughout the network.”
• Most Active Ransomware Groups — Akira, Cl0p, Qilin, Safepay, and RansomHub were the most active ransomware groups in the first half of 2025, per Flashpoint, which found that ransomware attacks increased by 179% compared to the 2024 midyear. The development comes amid notable changes in the ransomware ecosystem, where threat actors increasingly prefer extortion over encryption and have begun to incorporate LLMs in their tooling. The landscape has also continued to splinter, with new gangs and rebrands proliferating in the wake of law enforcement takedowns. MalwareBytes said it tracked 41 newcomers between July 2024 and June 2025, with more than 60 total ransomware gangs operating at once.
• Microsoft to Throttle Emails to Combat Spam — Microsoft said it will begin throttling emails starting October 15, 2025. The limit will be set to 100 external recipients per organization per 24-hour rolling window. From December 1, the tech giant will start rolling out the restrictions across tenants, starting with tenants with fewer than three seats and eventually reaching tenants with more than 10,001 seats by June 2026. “Despite our efforts to minimize abuse, spammers often exploit newly created tenants to send bursts of spam from ‘.onmicrosoft.com’ addresses before we can intervene,” Microsoft said. “This degrades this shared domain’s reputation, affecting all legitimate users. To ensure brand trust and email deliverability, organizations should establish and use their own custom domains for sending email.”
• SleepWalk, a Physical Side-Channel Attack to Leak Data — A group of academics from the University of Florida has devised a new hardware side-channel attack dubbed SleepWalk that exploits context switching and CPU power consumption to leak sensitive data like cryptographic keys. “We introduce a physical power side-channel leakage source that exploits the power spike observed during a context switch, triggered by the inbuilt sleep function of the system kernel,” the researchers said. “We observed that this power spike directly correlates with both the power consumption during context switching and the residual power consumption of the previously executed program. Notably, the persistence of residual power signatures from previous workloads extends the scope of this side-channel beyond extracting the data in registers during the context switch. Unlike traditional approaches that require analyzing full power traces, applying complex preprocessing, or relying on external synchronization triggers, this novel technique leverages only the amplitude of a single power spike, significantly simplifying the attack.”
• AI Systems Vulnerable to Prompt Injection via Image Scaling Attack — In a novel form of prompt injection attacks aimed at artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, attackers can hide malicious instructions inside large-scale images and have the prompts execute when the AI agent downscales them. The attacker’s prompt is invisible to the human eye in the high-resolution image, but shows up when the image is downscaled by preprocessing algorithms. “This attack works because AI systems often scale down large images before sending them to the model: when scaled, these images can reveal prompt injections that are not visible at full resolution,” Trail of Bits said. The cybersecurity company has released an open-source tool called Anamorpher to generate such crafted images.
• Social Media Accounts Launder News from Chinese State Media Sites — A network of 11 domains and 16 companion social media accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and X has been found laundering exclusively English-language articles originally published by the Chinese state media outlet CGTN. “The assets almost certainly used AI tools to translate and summarize articles from CGTN, likely in an attempt to disguise the content’s origin,” Graphika said. “The network assets disseminated primarily pro-China, anti-West content in English, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese.” The findings came as the U.S. told Denmark to “calm down” over allegations of covert influence operations by U.S. citizens in Greenland to sow discord between Denmark and Greenland and to promote Greenland’s secession from Denmark to the U.S.
• Analyzing Secret Families of VPN Apps — New research conducted by the Arizona State University and Citizen Lab has found that nearly two dozen VPN applications in Google Play contain security weaknesses impacting the privacy of their users, exposing transmitted data to decryption risks. Further analysis has determined that eight VPN applications from Innovative Connecting, Autumn Breeze, and Lemon Clove (Turbo VPN, Turbo VPN Lite, VPN Monster, VPN Proxy Master, VPN Proxy Master – Lite, Snap VPN, Robot VPN, and SuperNet VPN) share code, dependencies, outdated and unsafe encryption methods, and hard-coded passwords, potentially allowing attackers to decrypt the traffic of their users. Cumulatively, these apps have over 380 million downloads on Google Play. All three companies were found to have ties with Qihoo 360, a Chinese cybersecurity firm that the U.S. sanctioned in 2020.
• Security Risks in the eSIM Ecosystem — A new study undertaken by academics from Northeastern University has found that many providers associated with eSIMs route user data through foreign telecommunications networks, including Chinese infrastructure, regardless of user location. “Many travel eSIMs route user traffic through third-party infrastructure, often located in foreign jurisdictions,” the researchers said. “This may expose user metadata and content to networks outside the user’s country, raising concerns about jurisdictional control and surveillance.” What’s more, the digital provisioning model creates new opportunities for phishing and spoofing. Malicious actors can distribute fake eSIM profiles via fraudulent QR codes or websites, tricking users into installing unauthorized configurations.
• ComfyUI Flaw Exploited to Deliver Pickai Backdoor — Threat actors have exploited vulnerabilities in an artificial intelligence (AI) platform called ComfyUI to deliver a backdoor called Pickai. “Pickai is a lightweight backdoor written in C++, designed to support remote command execution and reverse shell access,” XLab said, adding that it “includes anti-debugging, process name spoofing, and multiple persistence mechanisms.” Pickai samples have been observed hosted on the official site of Rubick.ai, a commercial AI-powered platform serving the e-commerce sector across the U.S., India, Singapore, and the Middle East. Early versions of the malware were uploaded to VirusTotal as far back as February 28, 2025. The activity has compromised nearly 700 infected servers worldwide, mainly in Germany, the U.S., and China.
• Flaw in LSQUIC QUIC Disclosed — Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a vulnerability dubbed QUIC-LEAK (CVE-2025-54939) in the LSQUIC QUIC implementation, allowing threat actors to smuggle malformed packets to exhaust memory and crash QUIC servers even before a connection handshake is established, thereby bypassing QUIC connection-level safeguards. The issue has been fixed in OpenLiteSpeed 1.8.4 and LiteSpeed Web Server 6.3.4.
• Fake Sites Pushing YouTube Downloads Serve Proxyware — Proxyware programs are being distributed through YouTube sites that allow users to download videos. Attackers who previously installed DigitalPulse and HoneyGain Proxywares are also installing Infatica Proxyware. Similar to coin miners, Proxyware malware profits by utilizing the system’s resources, and many systems in South Korea have recently become the targets of these attacks.
• U.S. Senator Castigates Federal Judiciary for Negligence — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden accused the federal judiciary of “negligence and incompetence” following a recent hack, reportedly by hackers with ties to the Russian government, that exposed confidential court documents. The breach of the judiciary’s electronic case filing system first came to light in a report by Politico three weeks ago, which went on to say that the vulnerabilities exploited in the hack were known since 2020. The New York Times, citing people familiar with the intrusion, said that Russia was “at least partly responsible” for the hack. “The federal judiciary’s current approach to information technology is a severe threat to our national security,” Wyden wrote. “The courts have been entrusted with some of our nation’s most confidential and sensitive information, including national security documents that could reveal sources and methods to our adversaries, and sealed criminal charging and investigative documents that could enable suspects to flee from justice or target witnesses.”
• Law Enforcement Freezes $50M in Crypto Assets Tied to Romance Baiting Scams — Several cryptocurrency companies, including Chainalysis, OKX, Binance, and Tether, have come together to freeze nearly $50 million stolen via “romance baiting” scams in collaboration with APAC-based authorities. “Once funds were transferred, scammers then sent proceeds to a consolidation wallet which transferred $46.9 million in USDT [Tether] to a collection of three intermediary addresses,” Chainalysis said. “The funds then moved to five different wallets.” The funds were frozen by Tether in July 2024.
• South Korea Extradites Chinese National for Cyber Attacks — South Korean authorities have successfully extradited a 34-year-old Chinese national suspected of orchestrating one of the most sophisticated hacking operations targeting high-profile individuals and financial institutions. He is alleged to have stolen 38 billion won from financial accounts and virtual asset accounts.
• Anthropic and OpenAI Test Each Other’s AI — OpenAI has called on AI firms to test their rivals’ systems for safety, as the company and Anthropic conducted safety evaluations of each other’s AI systems to tackle risks like prompt injection and model poisoning. The development came as Anthropic revealed that a cybercriminal abused its agentic AI coding tool to automate a large-scale data theft and extortion campaign, marking a “new evolution” in how AI is super-charging cybercrime. The chatbot then analyzed the companies’ hacked financial documents to help arrive at a realistic amount of bitcoin to demand in exchange for not leaking the stolen material. It also wrote suggested extortion emails. “The operation demonstrates a concerning evolution in AI-assisted cybercrime, where AI serves as both a technical consultant and active operator, enabling attacks that would be more difficult and time-consuming for individual actors to execute manually.” Where years of specialized training once throttled the ability of bad actors to pull off attacks at scale, the new wave of AI-assisted cybercrime could further lower technical barriers, allowing even novices and unskilled operators to carry out complex activities with ease. Separately, Anthropic has announced a policy change to train its AI chatbot Claude with user data, giving existing users until September 28, 2025, to either opt in or opt out to continue using the service; it says it will enable the company to deliver “even more capable, useful AI models” and strengthen safeguards against harmful usage like scams and abuse.
• Plex Servers Susceptible to New Flaw — Plex has addressed a security vulnerability (CVE-2025-34158), stemming from incorrect resource transfer between spheres, affecting Plex Media Server versions 1.41.7.x to 1.42.0.x. It has been patched in versions 1.42.1.10060 or later. According to data from Censys, there are 428,083 devices exposing the Plex Media Server web interface, although not all of them are necessarily vulnerable.
• Fake Recipe and Guide Sites Drop Malware — Bogus sites masquerading as image, recipe, and educational guide finders have been found to harbor stealthy code to issue stealthy commands and drop malware on users’ systems that can steal sensitive information. It’s assessed that these sites reach targets via malvertising campaigns.

🎥 Cybersecurity Webinars

• What Every AppSec Leader Must Learn About Code-to-Cloud Security – Modern AppSec is no longer just about spotting risks—it’s about learning how they emerge and spread from code to cloud. Without visibility across that journey, teams face blind spots, noise, and delayed fixes. Code-to-cloud context changes the game, giving security and engineering teams the clarity to learn faster, act sooner, and protect what matters most.
• Practical Steps to Keep AI Agents Safe from Cyberattacks – AI agents are rapidly reshaping business—automating decisions, streamlining operations, and unlocking new opportunities. But with innovation comes risk. Join our upcoming webinar with Auth0’s Michelle Agroskin to uncover the security challenges AI agents introduce and learn actionable strategies to protect your organization. Discover how to stay ahead of threats while confidently embracing the future of AI-driven innovation.
• From Fingerprints to Code Traces: How Experts Hunt Down Shadow AI – AI Agents are multiplying in your workflows, clouds, and business processes—often without approval. These “shadow agents” move faster than governance, fueled by hidden identities and one-click deployments. The result? Security teams are left chasing ghosts. Join our expert panel to uncover where shadow AI hides, who’s behind it, and how to take back control—without slowing down innovation.

🔧 Cybersecurity Tools

• PcapXray – Investigating packet captures can be slow and messy. PcapXray speeds up the process by turning raw PCAP files into clear, visual network diagrams. It highlights hosts, traffic flows, Tor usage, and potential malicious activity—helping investigators and analysts quickly see what’s happening inside the data without digging line by line.
• Kopia – It is an open-source backup and restore tool that creates encrypted snapshots of selected files and directories. Instead of imaging an entire machine, it lets you back up what matters most—whether to local storage, network drives, or cloud providers like S3, Azure, or Google Cloud. With built-in deduplication, compression, and end-to-end encryption, Kopia helps ensure backups are efficient, secure, and under your full control.

Disclaimer: These newly released tools are for educational use only and haven’t been fully audited. Use at your own risk—review the code, test safely, and apply proper safeguards.

🔒 Tip of the Week

How to Lock Down Your MCP Servers — AI tools like GitHub Copilot are getting smarter every day. With the Model Context Protocol (MCP), they can connect to outside tools and services—running code, pulling data, or even talking to internal systems. That’s powerful, but it’s also risky: if a bad actor sneaks in with a fake or compromised MCP server, your AI could be tricked into leaking secrets, exposing credentials, or executing harmful commands.

The solution isn’t to avoid MCP. It’s to secure it properly. Here’s a practical way to do that using free tools.

1. Test Before You Trust: Before turning on any MCP server, run an audit.

• Tool to try: MCPSafetyScanner
• What it does: Scans MCP definitions, runs test attacks, and reports if something looks unsafe.

2. Wrap Servers with a Safety Net: Don’t expose servers directly. Add a guard layer.

• Tool to try: MCP Guardian (open-source prototype from research).
• What it does: Adds authentication, logs all activity, and blocks suspicious requests.

3. Stress-Test Like an Attacker: Simulate real-world threats to see how your setup holds up.

• Tool to try: MCPSecBench
• What it does: Launches different known MCP attack patterns and measures resilience.

4. Enforce Rules as Code: Add guardrails for what AI can and can’t do.

• Tools to try: Open Policy Agent (OPA) or Kyverno
• What they do: Define policies (e.g., “only read from X API, never write”) and enforce them automatically.

5. Go Zero-Trust on Access: Every connection should be verified and limited.

• Use OAuth 2.1 for authorization.
• Add mTLS (mutual TLS) so both client and server prove who they are.
• Send all logs to your SIEM (e.g., Elastic or Grafana Loki) for monitoring.

AI + MCP is moving fast. The line between “helpful automation” and “security hole” is thin. By auditing, stress-testing, enforcing rules, and monitoring, you’re not just protecting against today’s risks—you’re preparing for tomorrow’s.

Think of it like this: MCP gives your AI superpowers. Your job is to make sure those powers don’t get hijacked.

Conclusion

Quantum-safe encryption, AI-driven phishing, identity without passwords—these are not distant theories anymore. They are already shaping the security landscape quietly, underneath the day-to-day headlines.

The closing lesson: the biggest shocks often arrive not as breaking news, but as trends that grow slowly until suddenly they cannot be ignored.

As enterprises continue to shift their operations to the browser, security teams face a growing set of cyber challenges. In fact, over 80% of security incidents now originate from web applications accessed via Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and other browsers. One particularly fast-evolving adversary, Scattered Spider, has made it their mission to wreak havoc on enterprises by specifically targeting sensitive data on these browsers.

Scattered Spider, also referred to as UNC3944, Octo Tempest, or Muddled Libra, has matured over the past two years through precision targeting of human identity and browser environments. This shift differentiates them from other notorious cybergangs like Lazarus Group, Fancy Bear, and REvil. If sensitive information such as your calendar, credentials, or security tokens is alive and well in browser tabs, Scattered Spider is able to acquire them.

In this article, you’ll learn details about Scattered Spider’s attack methods and how you can stop them in their tracks. Overall, this is a wake-up call to CISOs everywhere to elevate the organization’s browser security from an ancillary control to a central pillar of their defense.

Scattered Spider’s Browser-Focused Attack Chain

Scattered Spider avoids high-volume phishing in favor of precision exploitation. This is done by leveraging users’ trust in their most used daily application, stealing saved credentials, and manipulating browser runtime.

• Browser Tricks: Techniques like Browser-in-the-Browser (BitB) overlays and auto-fill extraction are used to steal credentials while evading detection by traditional security tools like Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).
• Session Token Theft: Scattered Spider and other attackers will bypass Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to capture tokens and personal cookies from the browser’s memory.
• Malicious Extensions & JavaScript Injection: Malicious payloads get delivered through fake extensions and execute in-browser via drive-by techniques and other advanced methods.
• Browser-Based Reconnaissance: Web APIs and the probing of installed extensions allow these attackers to gain access map critical internal systems.

Strategic Browser-Layer Security: A Blueprint for CISOs

To counteract Scattered Spider and other advanced browser threats, CISOs must utilize a multi-layered browser security strategy across the following domains.

1. Stop Credential Theft with Runtime Script Protection

Phishing attacks have been around for decades. Attackers like Scattered Spider, however, have advanced their techniques tenfold in recent years. These advanced phishing campaigns are now relying on malicious JavaScript executions that are executed directly inside the browser, bypassing security tools like EDR. This is done to steal user credentials and other sensitive data. In order to successfully block phishing overlays and intercept dangerous patterns that steal credentials, organizations must implement JavaScript runtime protection to analyze behavior. By applying such protection, security leaders can stop attackers from gaining access and stealing credentials before it’s too late.

2. Prevent Account Takeovers by Protecting Sessions

Once user credentials get into the wrong hands, attackers like Scattered Spider will move quickly to hijack previously authenticated sessions by stealing cookies and tokens. Securing the integrity of browser sessions can best be achieved by restricting unauthorized scripts from gaining access or exfiltrating these sensitive artifacts. Organizations must enforce contextual security policies based on components such as device posture, identity verification, and network trust. By linking session tokens to context, enterprises can prevent attacks like account takeovers, even after credentials have become compromised.

3. Enforce Extension Governance and Block Rogue Scripts

Browser extensions have become extremely popular in recent years, with Google Chrome featuring 130,000+ for download on the Chrome Web Store. While they can serve as productivity boosters, they have also become attack vectors. Malicious or poorly vetted extensions can request invasive permissions, inject malicious scripts into the browser, or act as the delivery system for attack payloads. Enterprises must enforce robust extension governance to allow pre-approved extensions with validated permissions. Equally important is the need to block untrusted scripts before they execute. This approach ensures that legitimate extensions remain available, so the user’s workflow is not disrupted.

4. Disrupt Reconnaissance Without Breaking Legitimate Workflows

Attackers like Scattered Spider will often begin attacks through in-browser reconnaissance. They do this by using APIs such as WebRTC, CORS, or fingerprinting to map the environment. This allows them to identify frequently used applications or track specific user behavior. To stop this reconnaissance, organizations must disable or replace sensitive APIs with decoys that deliver incorrect information to the attacking group. However, adaptive policies are needed to avoid the breaking of legitimate workflows, which are particularly important in BYOD and unmanaged devices.

5. Integrate Browser Telemetry into Actionable Security Intelligence

Although browser security is the last mile of defense for malware-less attacks, integrating it into an existing security stack will fortify the entire network. By implementing activity logs enriched with browser data into SIEM, SOAR, and ITDR platforms, CISOs can correlate browser events with endpoint activity for a much fuller picture. This will enable SOC teams to gain faster incident responses and better support threat hunting activities. Doing so can improve alert times on attacks and strengthen the overall security posture of an organization.

Browser Security Use Cases and Business Impacts

Deploying browser-native protection delivers measurable strategic benefits.

Recommendations for Security Leadership

1. Assess Your Risk Posture: Use tools like BrowserTotal™ to determine where browser vulnerabilities lie across your organization.
2. Enable Browser Protection: Deploy a solution that’s capable of real-time JavaScript protection, token security, extension oversight, and telemetry across Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and all other browsers.
3. Define Contextual Policies: Enforce rules on web APIs, the capturing of credentials, installing web extensions, and downloads.
4. Integrate with Your Existing Stack: Feed browser-enabled threat telemetry into SIEM, SOAR, or EDR tools that you already use daily. This will enrich your detection and response capabilities.
5. Educate Your Team: Cement browser security as a core principle of your Zero Trust architecture, SaaS protection, and BYOD access.
6. Continuously Test and Validate: Simulate real browser-based attacks so you can validate your defenses and learn where your blind spots may be.
7. Harden Identity Access Across Browsers: Put adaptive authentication in place that continuously validates identity within each session.
8. Regularly Audit Browser Extensions: Develop review processes to keep track of all extensions in use.
9. Apply Least-Privilege to Web APIs:
10. Restrict sensitive browser APIs to only the business apps that require them.
11. Automate Browser Threat Hunting: Leverage browser telemetry and integrate the data with your existing stack to hunt for suspicious patterns.

Final Thought: Browsers as the New Identity Perimeter

The Scattered Spider group personifies how attackers can evolve their tactics from targeting an endpoint to focusing on the enterprise’s most used application, the browser. They do so to steal identities, take over sessions, and remain inside a user’s environment without a trace. CISOs must adapt and use browser-native security controls to stop these identity-based threats.

Investing in a frictionless, runtime-aware security platform is the answer. Instead of being reactionary, security teams can stop attacks at the source. For all security leaders, enterprise browser protection doesn’t just work to mitigate attackers like Scattered Spider; it fortifies the window into your enterprise and upgrades the security posture for all SaaS applications, remote work, and beyond.

To learn more about Secure Enterprise Browsers and how they can benefit your organization, speak to a Seraphic expert.

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new phishing campaign undertaken by the North Korea-linked hacking group called ScarCruft (aka APT37) to deliver a malware known as RokRAT.

The activity has been codenamed Operation HanKook Phantom by Seqrite Labs, stating the attacks appear to target individuals associated with the National Intelligence Research Association, including academic figures, former government officials, and researchers.

“The attackers likely aim to steal sensitive information, establish persistence, or conduct espionage,” security researcher Dixit Panchal said in a report published last week.

The starting point of the attack chain is a spear-phishing email containing a lure for “National Intelligence Research Society Newsletter—Issue 52,” a periodic newsletter issued by a South Korean research group focused on national intelligence, labour relations, security, and energy issues.

The digital missive contains a ZIP archive attachment that contains a Windows shortcut (LNK) masquerading as a PDF document, which, when opened, launches the newsletter as a decoy while dropping RokRAT on the infected host.

RokRAT is a known malware associated with APT37, with the tool capable of collecting system information, executing arbitrary commands, enumerating the file system, capturing screenshots, and downloading additional payloads. The gathered data is exfiltrated via Dropbox, Google Cloud, pCloud, and Yandex Cloud.

Seqrite said it detected a second campaign in which the LNK file serves as a conduit for a PowerShell script that, besides dropping a decoy Microsoft Word document, runs an obfuscated Windows batch script that’s responsible for deploying a dropper. The binary then runs a next-stage payload to steal sensitive data from the compromised host while concealing network traffic as a Chrome file upload.

The lure document used in this instance is a statement issued by Kim Yo Jong, the Deputy Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea and, dated July 28, rejecting Seoul’s efforts at reconciliation.

“The analysis of this campaign highlights how APT37 (ScarCruft/InkySquid) continues to employ highly tailored spear-phishing attacks, leveraging malicious LNK loaders, fileless PowerShell execution, and covert exfiltration mechanisms,” Panchal said.

The development comes as cybersecurity company QiAnXin detailed attacks mounted by the infamous Lazarus Group (aka QiAnXin) using ClickFix-style tactics to trick job seekers into downloading a supposed NVIDIA-related update to address camera or microphone issues when providing a video assessment. Details of this activity were previously disclosed by Gen Digital in late July 2025.

The ClickFix attack results in the execution of a Visual Basic Script that leads to the deployment of BeaverTail, a JavaScript stealer that can also deliver a Python-based backdoor dubbed InvisibleFerret. Furthermore, the attacks pave the way for a backdoor with command execution and file read/write capabilities.

The disclosure also follows new sanctions imposed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against two individuals and two entities for their role in the North Korean remote information technology (IT) worker scheme to generate illicit revenue for the regime’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

The Chollima Group, in a report released last week, detailed its investigation into an IT Worker cluster affiliated with Moonstone Sleet that it tracks as BABYLONGROUP in connection with a blockchain play-to-earn (P2E) game called DefiTankLand.

It’s assessed that Logan King, the supposed CTO of DefiTankLand, is actually a North Korean IT Worker, a hypothesis bolstered by the fact that King’s GitHub account has been used as a reference by a Ukrainian freelancer and blockchain developer named “Ivan Kovch.”

“Many members had previously worked on a huge cryptocurrency project on behalf of a shady company called ICICB (who we believe to be a front), that one of the non-DPRK members of the cluster runs the Chinese cybercrime market FreeCity, and an interesting connection between DeTankZone and an older IT Worker who previously operated out of Tanzania,” the Chollima Group said.

“While the DefiTankLand CEO Nabil Amrani has worked previously with Logan on other blockchain projects, we do not believe he is responsible for any of the development. This all means that the “legitimate” game behind Moonstone Sleet’s DeTankZone was in fact developed by DPRK IT Workers, only to be later picked up and used by a North Korean APT Group.”

Aug 30, 2025Ravie LakshmananZero-Day / Vulnerability

WhatsApp has addressed a security vulnerability in its messaging apps for Apple iOS and macOS that it said may have been exploited in the wild in conjunction with a recently disclosed Apple flaw in targeted zero-day attacks.

The vulnerability, CVE-2025-55177 (CVSS score: 8.0), relates to a case of insufficient authorization of linked device synchronization messages. Internal researchers on the WhatsApp Security Team have been credited with discovering and rerating the bug.

The Meta-owned company said the issue “could have allowed an unrelated user to trigger processing of content from an arbitrary URL on a target’s device.”

The flaw affects the following versions –

• WhatsApp for iOS prior to version 2.25.21.73
• WhatsApp Business for iOS version 2.25.21.78, and
• WhatsApp for Mac version 2.25.21.78

It also assessed that the shortcoming may have been chained with CVE-2025-43300, a vulnerability affecting iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, as part of a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users.

CVE-2025-43300 was disclosed by Apple last week as having been weaponized in an “extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.”

The vulnerability in question is an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the ImageIO framework that could result in memory corruption when processing a malicious image.

Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of the Security Lab at Amnesty International, said WhatsApp has notified an unspecified number of individuals that they believe were targeted by an advanced spyware campaign in the past 90 days using CVE-2025-55177.

In the alert sent to the targeted individuals, WhatsApp has also recommended performing a full device factory reset and keeping their operating system and the WhatsApp app up-to-date for optimal protection. It’s currently not known who, or which spyware vendor, is behind the attacks.

Ó Cearbhaill described the pair of vulnerabilities as a “zero-click” attack, meaning it does not require any user interaction, such as clicking a link, to compromise their device.

“Early indications are that the WhatsApp attack is impacting both iPhone and Android users, civil society individuals among them,” Ó Cearbhaill said. “Government spyware continues to pose a threat to journalists and human rights defenders.”

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a cyber attack in which unknown threat actors deployed an open-source endpoint monitoring and digital forensic tool called Velociraptor, illustrating ongoing abuse of legitimate software for malicious purposes.

“In this incident, the threat actor used the tool to download and execute Visual Studio Code with the likely intention of creating a tunnel to an attacker-controlled command-and-control (C2) server,” the Sophos Counter Threat Unit Research Team said in a report published this week.

While threat actors are known to adopt living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques or take advantage of legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools in their attacks, the use of Velociraptor signals a tactical evolution, where incident response programs are being used to obtain a foothold and minimize the need for having to deploy their own malware.

Further analysis of the incident has revealed that the attackers used the Windows msiexec utility to download an MSI installer from a Cloudflare Workers domain, which serves as a staging ground for other tools used by them, including a Cloudflare tunneling tool and a remote administration utility known as Radmin.

The MSI file is designed to install Velociraptor, which then establishes contact with another Cloudflare Workers domain. The access is then leveraged to download Visual Studio Code from the same staging server using an encoded PowerShell command and execute the source code editor with the tunnel option enabled in order to allow both remote access and remote code execution.

The threat actors have also been observed utilizing the msiexec Windows utility again to download additional payloads from the workers[.]dev folder.

“Organizations should monitor for and investigate unauthorized use of Velociraptor and treat observations of this tradecraft as a precursor to ransomware,” Sophos said. “Implementing an endpoint detection and response system, monitoring for unexpected tools and suspicious behaviors, and following best practices for securing systems and generating backups can mitigate the ransomware threat.”

The disclosure comes as cybersecurity firms Hunters and Permiso detailed a malicious campaign that has leveraged Microsoft Teams for initial access, reflecting a growing pattern of threat actors weaponizing the platform’s trusted and deeply embedded role in enterprise-focused communications for malware deployment.

These attacks begin with the threat actors using newly created or compromised tenants to send direct messages or initiate calls to targets, impersonating IT help desk teams or other trusted contacts to install remote access software like AnyDesk, DWAgent, or Quick Assist, and seize control of victim systems to deliver malware.

While similar techniques involving remote access tools have been linked to ransomware groups like Black Basta since mid-2024, these newer campaigns forgo the preliminary email bombing step and ultimately make use of the remote access to deliver a PowerShell payload with capabilities commonly associated with credential theft, persistence, and remote code execution.

“The lures used to initiate engagement are tailored to appear routine and unremarkable, typically framed as IT assistance related to Teams performance, system maintenance, or general technical support,” Permiso researcher Isuf Deliu said. “These scenarios are designed to blend into the background of everyday corporate communication, making them less likely to trigger suspicion.”

It’s worth noting that similar tactics have been employed to propagate malware families like DarkGate and Matanbuchus malware over the past year.

The attacks also serve a Windows credential prompt to trick users into entering their passwords under the guise of a benign system configuration request, which are then harvested and saved to a text file on the system.

“Microsoft Teams phishing isn’t a fringe technique anymore — it’s an active, evolving threat that bypasses traditional email defenses and exploits trust in collaboration tools,” security researchers Alon Klayman and Tomer Kachlon said.

“By monitoring audit logs like ChatCreated and MessageSent, enriching signals with contextual data, and training users to spot IT/help desk impersonations, SOC teams can close this new gap before it’s exploited.”

The findings also follow the discovery of a novel malvertising campaign that combines legitimate office[.]com links with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) to redirect users to Microsoft 365 phishing pages that are capable of harvesting login information.

The attack chain, in a nutshell, begins when a victim clicks on a rogue sponsored link on search engine results pages, triggering a redirect chain that ultimately leads them to a fake login page mimicking Microsoft.

“It turns out the attacker had set up a custom Microsoft tenant with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) configured,” Push Security’s Luke Jennings said. “This means Microsoft will perform the redirect to the custom malicious domain.”

“While this isn’t a vulnerability per se, the ability for attackers to add their own Microsoft ADFS server to host their phishing page and have Microsoft redirect to it is a concerning development that will make URL-based detections even more challenging than they already are.”