Malware-as-a-Service | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed the inner workings of an Android banking trojan called ERMAC 3.0, uncovering serious shortcomings in the operators' infrastructure. "The newly uncovered version 3.0 reveals a significant evolution of the malware, expanding its form injection and data theft capabilities to target more than 700 banking, shopping, and cryptocurrency applications," Hunt.io said in a report. ERMAC was first documented by ThreatFabric in September 2021, detailing its ability to conduct overlay attacks against hundreds of banking and cryptocurrency apps across the world. Attributed to a threat actor named DukeEugene, it's assessed to be an evolution of Cerberus and BlackRock. Other commonly observed malware families – including Hook (ERMAC 2.0), Pegasus, and Loot – possess a shared lineage: An ancestor in the form of ERMAC from which source code components have been passed down and modified through generations. Hunt.io said it managed to obt...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new Android trojan called PhantomCard that abuses near-field communication (NFC) to conduct relay attacks for facilitating fraudulent transactions in attacks targeting banking customers in Brazil. "PhantomCard relays NFC data from a victim's banking card to the fraudster's device," ThreatFabric said in a report. "PhantomCard is based on Chinese-originating NFC relay malware-as-a-service." The Android malware, distributed via fake Google Play web pages mimicking apps for card protection, goes by the name "Proteção Cartões" (package name "com.nfupay.s145" or "com.rc888.baxi.English"). The bogus pages also feature deceptive positive reviews to persuade victims into installing the app. It's currently not known how links to these pages are distributed, but it likely involves smishing or a similar social engineering technique. Once the app is installed and opened, it requests victim...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a nascent Android remote access trojan (RAT) called PlayPraetor that has infected more than 11,000 devices, primarily across Portugal, Spain, France, Morocco, Peru, and Hong Kong. "The botnet's rapid growth, which now exceeds 2,000 new infections per week, is driven by aggressive campaigns focusing on Spanish and French speakers, indicating a strategic shift away from its previous common victim base," Cleafy researchers Simone Mattia, Alessandro Strino, and Federico Valentini said in an analysis of the malware. PlayPraetor, managed by a Chinese command-and-control (C2) panel, doesn't significantly deviate from other Android trojans in that it abuses accessibility services to gain remote control and can serve fake overlay login screens atop nearly 200 banking apps and cryptocurrency wallets in an attempt to hijack victim accounts. PlayPraetor was first documented by CTM360 in March 2025, detailing the operation's u...

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a new versatile malware loader called CastleLoader that has been put to use in campaigns distributing various information stealers and remote access trojans (RATs). The activity employs Cloudflare-themed ClickFix phishing attacks and fake GitHub repositories opened under the names of legitimate applications, Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The malware loader, first observed in the wild earlier this year, has been used to distribute DeerStealer , RedLine , StealC , NetSupport RAT , SectopRAT , and even other loaders like Hijack Loader . "It employs dead code injection and packing techniques to hinder analysis," the company said. "After unpacking itself at runtime, it connects to a C2 (command-and-control) server, downloads target modules, and executes them." CastleLoader's modular structure allows it to act as both a delivery mechanism and a staging utility, enabling...

Threat actors are leveraging public GitHub repositories to host malicious payloads and distribute them via Amadey as part of a campaign observed in April 2025. "The MaaS [malware-as-a-service] operators used fake GitHub accounts to host payloads, tools, and Amadey plug-ins, likely as an attempt to bypass web filtering and for ease of use," Cisco Talos researchers Chris Neal and Craig Jackson said in a report published today. The cybersecurity company said the attack chains leverage a malware loader called Emmenhtal (aka PEAKLIGHT) to deliver Amadey, which, for its part, downloads various custom payloads from public GitHub repositories operated by the threat actors. The activity shares tactical similarities with an email phishing campaign that used invoice payment and billing-related lures to distribute SmokeLoader via Emmenhtal in February 2025 in attacks targeting Ukrainian entities.

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new variant of a known malware loader called Matanbuchus that packs in significant features to enhance its stealth and evade detection. Matanbuchus is the name given to a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) offering that can act as a conduit for next-stage payloads , including Cobalt Strike beacons and ransomware. First advertised in February 2021 on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums for a rental price of $2,500, the malware has been put to use as part of ClickFix-like lures to trick users visiting legitimate-but-compromised sites not running it. Matanbuchus's delivery methods have evolved over time, leveraging phishing emails pointing to booby-trapped Google Drive links, drive-by downloads from compromised sites, malicious MSI installers , and malvertising . It has been used to deploy a variety of secondary payloads including DanaBot, QakBot, and Cobalt Strike, all known precursors to ransomware deployment.

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a previously undocumented Rust-based information stealer called Myth Stealer that's being propagated via fraudulent gaming websites. "Upon execution, the malware displays a fake window to appear legitimate while simultaneously decrypting and executing malicious code in the background," Trellix security researchers Niranjan Hegde, Vasantha Lakshmanan Ambasankar, and Adarsh S said in an analysis. The stealer, initially marketed on Telegram for free under beta in late December 2024, has since transitioned to a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model. It's equipped to steal passwords, cookies, and autofill information from both Chromium- and Gecko-based browsers, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and Mozilla Firefox. The operators of the malware have been found maintaining a number of Telegram channels to advertise the sale of compromised accounts as well as provide testimonials of their service. The...

A multinational law enforcement operation has resulted in the takedown of an online cybercrime syndicate that offered services to threat actors to ensure that their malicious software stayed undetected from security software. To that effect, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said it seized four domains and their associated server facilitated the crypting service on May 27, 2025, in partnership with Dutch and Finnish authorities. These include AvCheck[.]net, Cryptor[.]biz, Cryptor[.]live, and Crypt[.]guru, all of which now display a seizure notice. Other countries that participated in the effort include France, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, and Ukraine. "Crypting is the process of using software to make malware difficult for antivirus programs to detect," the DoJ said . "The seized domains offered services to cybercriminals, including counter-antivirus (CAV) tools. When used together, CAV and crypting services allow criminals to obfuscate malware, making it undetecta...

The threat actors known as Golden Chickens have been attributed to two new malware families dubbed TerraStealerV2 and TerraLogger, suggesting continued development efforts to fine-tune and diversify their arsenal. "TerraStealerV2 is designed to collect browser credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and browser extension information," Recorded Future Insikt Group said . "TerraLogger, by contrast, is a standalone keylogger. It uses a common low-level keyboard hook to record keystrokes and writes the logs to local files." Golden Chickens, also known as Venom Spider, is the name given to a financially motivated threat actor linked to a notorious malware family called More_eggs . It's known to be active since at least 2018, offering its warez under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model. Campaigns distributing More_eggs entail the use of spear-phishing emails to target hiring managers using fake resumes, allowing attackers to steal confidential data. Other campa...

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a new malware campaign that leverages fake CAPTCHA verification checks to deliver the infamous Lumma information stealer. "The campaign is global, with Netskope Threat Labs tracking victims targeted in Argentina, Colombia, the United States, the Philippines, and other countries around the world," Leandro Fróes, senior threat research engineer at Netskope Threat Labs, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The campaign also spans multiple industries, including healthcare, banking, and marketing, with the telecom industry having the highest number of organizations targeted." The attack chain begins when a victim visits a compromised website, which directs them to a bogus CAPTCHA page that specifically instructs the site visitor to copy and paste a command into the Run prompt in Windows that uses the native mshta.exe binary to download and execute an HTA file from a remote server. It's worth noting...

A spear-phishing email campaign has been observed targeting recruiters with a JavaScript backdoor called More_eggs, indicating persistent efforts to single out the sector under the guise of fake job applications. "A sophisticated spear-phishing lure tricked a recruitment officer into downloading and executing a malicious file disguised as a resume, leading to a more_eggs backdoor infection," Trend Micro researchers Ryan Soliven, Maria Emreen Viray, and Fe Cureg said in an analysis. More_eggs, sold as a malware-as-a-service (MaaS), is a malicious software that comes with capabilities to siphon credentials, including those related to online bank accounts, email accounts, and IT administrator accounts. It's attributed to a threat actor called the Golden Chickens group (aka Venom Spider), and has been put to use by several other e-crime groups like FIN6 (aka ITG08 ), Cobalt, and Evilnum. Earlier this June, eSentire disclosed details of a similar attack that leverages ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of an Android banking trojan called Octo that comes with improved capabilities to conduct device takeover ( DTO ) and perform fraudulent transactions. The new version has been codenamed Octo2 by the malware author, Dutch security firm ThreatFabric said in a report shared with The Hacker News, adding campaigns distributing the malware have been spotted in European countries like Italy, Poland, Moldova, and Hungary. "The malware developers took actions to increase the stability of the remote actions capabilities needed for Device Takeover attacks," the company said . Some of the malicious apps containing Octo2 are listed below - Europe Enterprise (com.xsusb_restore3) Google Chrome (com.havirtual06numberresources) NordVPN (com.handedfastee5) Octo was first flagged by the company in early 2022, describing it as the work of a threat actor who goes by the online aliases Architect and goodluck. It has been assessed...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen dropper that serves as a conduit to launch next-stage malware with the ultimate goal of infecting Windows systems with information stealers and loaders. "This memory-only dropper decrypts and executes a PowerShell-based downloader," Google-owned Mandiant said . "This PowerShell-based downloader is being tracked as PEAKLIGHT." Some of the malware strains distributed using this technique are Lumma Stealer , Hijack Loader (aka DOILoader, IDAT Loader, or SHADOWLADDER), and CryptBot , all of which are advertised under the malware-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The starting point of the attack chain is a Windows shortcut (LNK) file that's downloaded via drive-by download techniques -- e.g., when users look up a movie on search engines. It's worth pointing out that the LNK files are distributed within ZIP archives that are disguised as pirated movies. The LNK file connects to a content delivery network...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new information stealer that's designed to target Apple macOS hosts and harvest a wide range of information, underscoring how threat actors are increasingly setting their sights on the operating system. Dubbed Cthulhu Stealer, the malware has been available under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model for $500 a month from late 2023. It's capable of targeting both x86_64 and Arm architectures. "Cthulhu Stealer is an Apple disk image (DMG) that is bundled with two binaries, depending on the architecture," Cado Security researcher Tara Gould said . "The malware is written in Golang and disguises itself as legitimate software." Some of the software programs it impersonates include CleanMyMac, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Adobe GenP, the last of which is an open-source tool that patches Adobe apps to bypass the Creative Cloud service and activates them without a serial key. Users who end up launching the unsigned file af...

The nascent malware known as SSLoad is being delivered by means of a previously undocumented loader called PhantomLoader, according to findings from cybersecurity firm Intezer. "The loader is added to a legitimate DLL, usually EDR or AV products, by binary patching the file and employing self-modifying techniques to evade detection," security researchers Nicole Fishbein and Ryan Robinson said in a report published this week. SSLoad, likely offered to other threat actors under a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) model owing to its different delivery methods, infiltrates systems through phishing emails, conducts reconnaissance, and pushes additional types of malware down to victims. Prior reporting from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 and Securonix has revealed the use of SSLoad to deploy Cobalt Strike, a legitimate adversary simulation software often used for post-exploitation purposes. The malware has been detected since April 2024. The attack chains typically involve the use o...

Cybersecurity researchers have spotted a phishing attack distributing the More_eggs malware by masquerading it as a resume, a technique originally detected more than two years ago. The attack, which was unsuccessful, targeted an unnamed company in the industrial services industry in May 2024, Canadian cybersecurity firm eSentire disclosed last week. "Specifically, the targeted individual was a recruiter that was deceived by the threat actor into thinking they were a job applicant and lured them to their website to download the loader," it said. More_eggs, believed to be the work of a threat actor known as the Golden Chickens (aka Venom Spider), is a modular backdoor that's capable of harvesting sensitive information. It's offered to other criminal actors under a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) model. Last year, eSentire unmasked the real-world identities of two individuals – Chuck from Montreal and Jack – who are said to be running the operation. The latest atta...