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Cybersecurity researchers have discovered what they say is the first Android malware that abuses Gemini, Google's generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, as part of its execution flow and achieves persistence. The malware has been codenamed PromptSpy by ESET. The malware is equipped to capture lockscreen data, block uninstallation efforts, gather device information, take screenshots, and record screen activity as video. "Gemini is used to analyze the current screen and provide PromptSpy with step-by-step instructions on how to ensure the malicious app remains pinned in the recent apps list, thus preventing it from being easily swiped away or killed by the system," ESET researcher Lukáš Štefanko said in a report published today. "Since Android malware often relies on UI navigation, leveraging generative AI enables the threat actors to adapt to more or less any device, layout, or OS version, which can greatly expand the pool of potential victims." ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Android trojan called Massiv that's designed to facilitate device takeover ( DTO ) attacks for financial theft. The malware, according to ThreatFabric, masquerades as seemingly harmless IPTV apps to deceive victims, indicating that the activity is primarily singling out users looking for the online TV applications. "This new threat, while only seen in a limited number of rather targeted campaigns, already poses a great risk to the users of mobile banking, allowing its operators to remotely control infected devices and perform device takeover attacks with further fraudulent transactions performed from the victim's banking accounts," the Dutch mobile security company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. ThreatFabric told The Hacker News via email that the malware was first spotted in a campaign targeting users in Portugal and Greece earlier this year, although it has observed samples dating back to...

A new Android backdoor that's embedded deep into the device firmware can silently harvest data and remotely control its behavior, according to new findings from Kaspersky. The Russian cybersecurity vendor said it discovered the backdoor, dubbed Keenadu , in the firmware of devices associated with various brands, including Alldocube, with the compromise occurring during the firmware build phase. Keenadu has been detected in Alldocube iPlay 50 mini Pro firmware dating back to August 18, 2023. In all cases, the backdoor is embedded within tablet firmware, and the firmware files carry valid digital signatures. The names of the other vendors were not disclosed. "In several instances, the compromised firmware was delivered with an OTA update," security researcher Dmitry Kalinin said in an exhaustive analysis published today. "A copy of the backdoor is loaded into the address space of every app upon launch. The malware is a multi-stage loader granting its operators the ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new mobile spyware platform dubbed ZeroDayRAT that's being advertised on Telegram as a way to grab sensitive data and facilitate real-time surveillance on Android and iOS devices. "The developer runs dedicated channels for sales, customer support, and regular updates, giving buyers a single point of access to a fully operational spyware panel," Daniel Kelley, security researcher at iVerify, said . "The platform goes beyond typical data collection into real-time surveillance and direct financial theft." ZeroDayRAT is designed to support Android versions 5 through 16 and iOS versions up to 26. It's assessed that the malware is distributed via social engineering or fake app marketplaces. The malicious binaries are generated through a builder that's provided to buyers along with an online panel that they can set up on their own server. Once the malware infects a device, the operator gets to see all ...

The distributed denial-of-service ( DDoS ) botnet known as AISURU/Kimwolf has been attributed to a record-setting attack that peaked at 31.4 Terabits per second (Tbps) and lasted only 35 seconds. Cloudflare, which automatically detected and mitigated the activity, said it's part of a growing number of hyper-volumetric HTTP DDoS attacks mounted by the botnet in the fourth quarter of 2025. The attack took place in November 2025. AISURU/Kimwolf has also been linked to another DDoS campaign codenamed The Night Before Christmas that commenced on December 19, 2025. Per Cloudflare, the average size of the hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks during the campaign was 3 billion packets per second (Bpps), 4 Tbps, and 54 requests per second (Mrps), with the maximum rates touching 9 Bpps, 24 Tbps, and 205 Mrps. "DDoS attacks surged by 121% in 2025, reaching an average of 5,376 attacks automatically mitigated every hour," Cloudflare's Omer Yoachimik and Jorge Pacheco said. "In...

Google on Wednesday announced that it worked together with other partners to disrupt IPIDEA, which it described as one of the largest residential proxy networks in the world. To that end, the company said it took legal action to take down dozens of domains used to control devices and proxy traffic through them. As of writing, IPIDEA's website ("www.ipidea.io") is no longer accessible. It advertised itself as the "world's leading provider of IP proxy" with more than 6.1 million daily updated IP addresses and 69,000 daily new IP addresses. "Residential proxy networks have become a pervasive tool for everything from high-end espionage to massive criminal schemes," John Hultquist, Google Threat Intelligence Group's (GTIG) chief analyst, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. "By routing traffic through a person’s home internet connection, attackers can hide in plain sight while infiltrating corporate environments. By taking do...

In cybersecurity, the line between a normal update and a serious incident keeps getting thinner. Systems that once felt reliable are now under pressure from constant change. New AI tools, connected devices, and automated systems quietly create more ways in, often faster than security teams can react. This week’s stories show how easily a small mistake or hidden service can turn into a real break-in. Behind the headlines, the pattern is clear. Automation is being used against the people who built it. Attackers reuse existing systems instead of building new ones. They move faster than most organizations can patch or respond. From quiet code flaws to malware that changes while it runs, attacks are focusing less on speed and more on staying hidden and in control. If you’re protecting anything connected—developer tools, cloud systems, or internal networks—this edition shows where attacks are going next, not where they used to be. ⚡ Threat of the Week Critical Fortinet Flaw Comes Under...

The Black Lotus Labs team at Lumen Technologies said it null-routed traffic to more than 550 command-and-control (C2) nodes associated with the AISURU/Kimwolf botnet since early October 2025. AISURU and its Android counterpart, Kimwolf, have emerged as some of the biggest botnets in recent times, capable of directing enslaved devices to participate in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and relay malicious traffic for residential proxy services . Details about Kimwolf emerged last month when QiAnXin XLab published an exhaustive analysis of the malware, which turns compromised devices – mostly unsanctioned Android TV streaming devices – into a residential proxy by delivering a software development kit (SDK) called ByteConnect either directly or through sketchy apps that come pre-installed on them. The net result is that the botnet has expanded to infect more than 2 million Android devices with an exposed Android Debug Bridge (ADB) service by tunneling through residentia...

This week made one thing clear: small oversights can spiral fast. Tools meant to save time and reduce friction turned into easy entry points once basic safeguards were ignored. Attackers didn’t need novel tricks. They used what was already exposed and moved in without resistance. Scale amplified the damage. A single weak configuration rippled out to millions. A repeatable flaw worked again and again. Phishing crept into apps people rely on daily, while malware blended into routine system behavior. Different victims, same playbook: look normal, move quickly, spread before alarms go off. For defenders, the pressure keeps rising. Vulnerabilities are exploited almost as soon as they surface. Claims and counterclaims appear before the facts settle. Criminal groups adapt faster each cycle. The stories that follow show where things failed—and why those failures matter going forward. ⚡ Threat of the Week Maximum Severity Security Flaw Disclosed in n8n — A maximum-severity vulnerability ...

The botnet known as Kimwolf has infected more than 2 million Android devices by tunneling through residential proxy networks, according to findings from Synthient. "Key actors involved in the Kimwolf botnet are observed monetizing the botnet through app installs, selling residential proxy bandwidth, and selling its DDoS functionality," the company said in an analysis published last week. Kimwolf was first publicly documented by QiAnXin XLab last month, while documenting its connections to another botnet known as AISURU. Active since at least August 2025, Kimwolf is assessed to be an Android variant of AISURU. There is growing evidence to suggest that the botnet is actually behind a series of record-setting DDoS attacks late last year. The malware turns infected systems into conduits for relaying malicious traffic and orchestrating distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks at scale. The vast majority of the infections are concentrated in Vietnam, Brazil, India, and ...

Threat actors have been observed leveraging malicious dropper apps masquerading as legitimate applications to deliver an Android SMS stealer dubbed Wonderland in mobile attacks targeting users in Uzbekistan. "Previously, users received 'pure' Trojan APKs that acted as malware immediately upon installation," Group-IB said in an analysis published last week. "Now, adversaries increasingly deploy droppers disguised as legitimate applications. The dropper looks harmless on the surface but contains a built-in malicious payload, which is deployed locally after installation – even without an active internet connection." Wonderland (formerly WretchedCat), according to the Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity company, facilitates bidirectional command-and-control (C2) communication to execute commands in real-time, allowing for arbitrary USSD requests and SMS theft. It masquerades as Google Play, or files of other formats, such as videos, photos, and wedding in...

The North Korean threat actor known as Kimsuky has been linked to a new campaign that distributes a new variant of Android malware called DocSwap via QR codes hosted on phishing sites mimicking Seoul-based logistics firm CJ Logistics (formerly CJ Korea Express). "The threat actor leveraged QR codes and notification pop-ups to lure victims into installing and executing the malware on their mobile devices," ENKI said . "The malicious app decrypts an embedded encrypted APK and launches a malicious service that provides RAT capabilities." "Since Android blocks apps from unknown sources and displays security warnings by default, the threat actor claims the app is a safe, official release to trick victims into ignoring the warning and installing the malware." According to the South Korean cybersecurity company, some of these artifacts masquerade as package delivery service apps. It's being assessed that the threat actors are using smishing texts or phi...

A new distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) botnet known as Kimwolf has enlisted a massive army of no less than 1.8 million infected devices comprising Android-based TVs, set-top boxes, and tablets, and may be associated with another botnet known as AISURU , according to findings from QiAnXin XLab. "Kimwolf is a botnet compiled using the NDK [Native Development Kit]," the company said in a report published today. "In addition to typical DDoS attack capabilities, it integrates proxy forwarding, reverse shell, and file management functions." The hyper-scale botnet is estimated to have issued 1.7 billion DDoS attack commands within a three-day period between November 19 and 22, 2025, around the same time one of its command-and-control (C2) domains – 14emeliaterracewestroxburyma02132[.]su – came first in Cloudflare's list of top 100 domains, briefly even surpassing Google. Kimwolf's primary infection targets are TV boxes deployed in residential network en...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of two new Android malware families dubbed FvncBot and SeedSnatcher , as another upgraded version of ClayRat has been spotted in the wild. The findings come from Intel 471 , CYFIRMA , and Zimperium , respectively. FvncBot, which masquerades as a security app developed by mBank, targets mobile banking users in Poland. What's notable about the malware is that it's completely written from scratch and is not inspired by other Android banking trojans like ERMAC that have had their source code leaked. The malware "implemented multiple features including keylogging by abusing Android’s accessibility services, web-inject attacks, screen streaming and hidden virtual network computing (HVNC) to perform successful financial fraud," Intel 471 said. Similar to the recently uncovered Albiriox banking malware, the malware is protected by a crypting service known as apk0day that's offered by Golden Crypt. The malicious a...

A human rights lawyer from Pakistan's Balochistan province received a suspicious link on WhatsApp from an unknown number, marking the first time a civil society member in the country was targeted by Intellexa's Predator spyware, Amnesty International said in a report. The link, the non-profit organization said, is a "Predator attack attempt based on the technical behaviour of the infection server, and on specific characteristics of the one-time infection link which were consistent with previously observed Predator 1-click links." Pakistan has dismissed the allegations, stating "there is not an iota of truth in it." The findings come from a new joint investigation published in collaboration with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Greek news site Inside Story, and Swiss tech site Inside IT. It's based on documents and other materials leaked from the company, including internal documents, sales and marketing material, and training videos. Intellexa is the mak...

Cybercriminals associated with a financially motivated group known as GoldFactory have been observed staging a fresh round of attacks targeting mobile users in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam by impersonating government services. The activity , observed since October 2024, involves distributing modified banking applications that act as a conduit for Android malware, Group-IB said in a technical report published Wednesday. Assessed to be active as far back as June 2023, GoldFactory first gained attention early last year, when the Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity company detailed the threat actor's use of custom malware families like GoldPickaxe, GoldDigger, and GoldDiggerPlus targeting both Android and iOS devices. Evidence points to GoldFactory being a well-organized Chinese-speaking cybercrime group with close connections to Gigabud , another Android malware that was spotted in mid-2023. Despite major disparities in their codebases, both GoldDigger and Gigabud have bee...

The threat actor known as Water Saci is actively evolving its tactics, switching to a sophisticated, highly layered infection chain that uses HTML Application (HTA) files and PDFs to propagate via WhatsApp a worm that deploys a banking trojan in attacks targeting users in Brazil. The latest wave is characterized by the attackers shifting from PowerShell to a Python-based variant that spreads the malware in a worm-like manner over WhatsApp Web. "Their new multi-format attack chain and possible use of artificial intelligence (AI) to convert propagation scripts from PowerShell to Python exemplifies a layered approach that has enabled Water Saci to bypass conventional security controls, exploit user trust across multiple channels, and ramp up their infection rates," Trend Micro researchers Jeffrey Francis Bonaobra, Sarah Pearl Camiling, Joe Soares, Byron Gelera, Ian Kenefick, and Emmanuel Panopio said . In these attacks, users receive messages from trusted contacts on WhatsA...

Google on Monday released monthly security updates for the Android operating system, including two vulnerabilities that it said have been exploited in the wild. The patch addresses a total of 107 security flaws spanning different components, including Framework, System, Kernel, as well as those from Arm, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Unison. The two high-severity shortcomings that have been exploited are listed below - CVE-2025-48633 - An information disclosure vulnerability in Framework CVE-2025-48572 - An elevation of privilege vulnerability in Framework As is customary, Google has not released any additional details about the nature of the attacks exploiting them, if they have been chained together or used separately, and the scale of such efforts. It's not known who is behind the attacks. However, the tech giant acknowledged in its advisory that there are indications they "may be under limited, targeted exploitation." Also fixed by Go...

A new Android malware named Albiriox has been advertised under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model to offer a "full spectrum" of features to facilitate on-device fraud (ODF), screen manipulation, and real-time interaction with infected devices. The malware embeds a hard-coded list comprising over 400 applications spanning banking, financial technology, payment processors, cryptocurrency exchanges, digital wallets, and trading platforms. "The malware leverages dropper applications distributed through social engineering lures, combined with packing techniques, to evade static detection and deliver its payload," Cleafy researchers Federico Valentini, Alessandro Strino, Gianluca Scotti, and Simone Mattia said . Albiriox is said to have been first advertised as part of a limited recruitment phase in late September 2025, before shifting to a MaaS offering a month later. There is evidence to suggest that the threat actors are Russian-speaking based on their activity o...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Monday issued an alert warning of bad actors actively leveraging commercial spyware and remote access trojans (RATs) to target users of mobile messaging applications. "These cyber actors use sophisticated targeting and social engineering techniques to deliver spyware and gain unauthorized access to a victim's messaging app, facilitating the deployment of additional malicious payloads that can further compromise the victim's mobile device," the agency said . CISA cited as examples multiple campaigns that have come to light since the start of the year. Some of them include - The targeting of the Signal messaging app by multiple Russia-aligned threat actors by taking advantage of the service's "linked devices" feature to hijack target user accounts Android spyware campaigns codenamed ProSpy and ToSpy that impersonate apps like Signal and ToTok to target users in the United Arab Emi...