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Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies are being advised to update their Sitecore instances by September 25, 2025, following the discovery of a security flaw that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability , tracked as CVE-2025-53690 , carries a CVSS score of 9.0 out of a maximum of 10.0, indicating critical severity. "Sitecore Experience Manager (XM), Experience Platform (XP), Experience Commerce (XC), and Managed Cloud contain a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability involving the use of default machine keys," the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said . "This flaw allows attackers to exploit exposed ASP.NET machine keys to achieve remote code execution." Google-owned Mandiant, which discovered the active ViewState deserialization attack, said the activity leveraged a sample machine key that had been exposed in Sitecore deployment guides from 2017 and earlier. The threat intelligence team ...

The threat actor behind the malware-as-a-service (MaaS) framework and loader called CastleLoader has also developed a remote access trojan known as CastleRAT . "Available in both Python and C variants, CastleRAT's core functionality consists of collecting system information, downloading and executing additional payloads, and executing commands via CMD and PowerShell," Recorded Future Insikt Group said . The cybersecurity company is tracking the threat actor behind the malware families as TAG-150. Believed to be active since at least March 2025, CastleLoader et al are seen as initial access vectors for a wide range of secondary payloads, including remote access trojans, information stealers, and even other loaders. CastleLoader was first documented by Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT in July 2025, as having been put to use in various campaigns distributing DeerStealer, RedLine, StealC, NetSupport RAT, SectopRAT, and Hijack Loader. A subsequent analysis from IBM X-...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new malware campaign that has leveraged Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files as part of phishing attacks impersonating the Colombian judicial system. The SVG files, according to VirusTotal , are distributed via email and designed to execute an embedded JavaScript payload, which then decodes and injects a Base64-encoded HTML phishing page masquerading as a portal for Fiscalía General de la Nación, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. The page then simulates an official government document download process with a fake progress bar, while it stealthily triggers the download of a ZIP archive in the background. The exact nature of the ZIP file was not disclosed. The Google-owned malware scanning service said it found 44 unique SVG files, all of which have remained undetected by antivirus engines, owing to the use of techniques like obfuscation, polymorphism, and large amounts of junk code to evade static detection methods. In all, as ...

The Russian state-sponsored hacking group tracked as APT28 has been attributed to a new Microsoft Outlook backdoor called NotDoor in attacks targeting multiple companies from different sectors in NATO member countries. NotDoor "is a VBA macro for Outlook designed to monitor incoming emails for a specific trigger word," S2 Grupo's LAB52 threat intelligence team said . "When such an email is detected, it enables an attacker to exfiltrate data, upload files, and execute commands on the victim's computer." The artifact gets its name from the use of the word "Nothing" within the source code, the Spanish cybersecurity company added. The activity highlights the abuse of Outlook as a stealthy communication, data exfiltration, and malware delivery channel. The exact initial access vector used to deliver the malware is currently not known, but analysis shows that it's deployed via Microsoft's OneDrive executable ("onedrive.exe") using a t...

Cybersecurity researchers have lifted the lid on a previously undocumented threat cluster dubbed GhostRedirector that has managed to compromise at least 65 Windows servers primarily located in Brazil, Thailand, and Vietnam. The attacks, per Slovak cybersecurity company ESET, led to the deployment of a passive C++ backdoor called Rungan and a native Internet Information Services (IIS) module codenamed Gamshen. The threat actor is believed to be active since at least August 2024. "While Rungan has the capability of executing commands on a compromised server, the purpose of Gamshen is to provide SEO fraud as-a-service, i.e., to manipulate search engine results, boosting the page ranking of a configured target website," ESET researcher Fernando Tavella said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Even though Gamshen only modifies the response when the request comes from Googlebot – i.e., it does not serve malicious content or otherwise affect regular visitors of the ...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new technique that cybercriminals have adopted to bypass social media platform X's malvertising protections and propagate malicious links using its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant Grok. The findings were highlighted by Nati Tal, head of Guardio Labs, in a series of posts on X. The technique has been codenamed Grokking. The approach is designed to get around restrictions imposed by X in Promoted Ads that allow users to only include text, images, or videos, and subsequently amplify them to a broader audience, attracting hundreds of thousands of impressions through paid promotion. To achieve this, malvertisers have been found to run video card-promoted posts with adult content as bait, with the spurious link hidden in the "From:" metadata field below the video player that apparently isn't scanned by the social media platform. In the next step, the fraudsters tag Grok in replies to the post, asking something similar t...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered two new malicious packages on the npm registry that make use of smart contracts for the Ethereum blockchain to carry out malicious actions on compromised systems, signaling the trend of threat actors constantly on the lookout for new ways to distribute malware and fly under the radar. "The two npm packages abused smart contracts to conceal malicious commands that installed downloader malware on compromised systems," ReversingLabs researcher Lucija Valentić said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The packages, both uploaded to npm in July 2025 and no longer available for download, are listed below - colortoolsv2 (7 downloads) mimelib2 (1 download) The software supply chain security firm said the libraries are part of a larger and sophisticated campaign impacting both npm and GitHub, tricking unsuspecting developers into downloading and running them. While the packages themselves make no effort to conceal their malici...

An Iran-nexus group has been linked to a "coordinated" and "multi-wave" spear-phishing campaign targeting the embassies and consulates in Europe and other regions across the world. The activity has been attributed by Israeli cybersecurity company Dream to Iranian-aligned operators connected to broader offensive cyber activity undertaken by a group known as Homeland Justice . "Emails were sent to multiple government recipients worldwide, disguising legitimate diplomatic communication," the company said . "Evidence points toward a broader regional espionage effort aimed at diplomatic and governmental entities during a time of heightened geopolitical tension." The attack chains involve the use of spear-phishing emails with themes related to geopolitical tensions between Iran and Israel to send a malicious Microsoft Word that, when opened, urges recipients to "Enable Content" in order to execute an embedded Visual Basic for Application...

Cloudflare on Tuesday said it automatically mitigated a record-setting volumetric distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that peaked at 11.5 terabits per second (Tbps). "Over the past few weeks, we've autonomously blocked hundreds of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks, with the largest reaching peaks of 5.1 Bpps and 11.5 Tbps," the web infrastructure and security company said in a post on X. "The 11.5 Tbps attack was a UDP flood that mainly came from Google Cloud." The entire attack lasted only about 35 seconds, with the company stating its "defenses have been working overtime." Volumetric DDoS attacks are designed to overwhelm a target with a tsunami of traffic, causing the server to slow down or even fail. These attacks typically result in network congestion, packet loss, and service disruptions. Such attacks are often conducted by sending the requests from botnets that are already under the control of the threat actors after having infected t...

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as the Lazarus Group has been attributed to a social engineering campaign that distributes three different pieces of cross-platform malware called PondRAT, ThemeForestRAT, and RemotePE. The attack, observed by NCC Group's Fox-IT in 2024, targeted an organization in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, ultimately leading to the compromise of an employee's system. "From there, the actor performed discovery from inside the network using different RATs in combination with other tools, for example, to harvest credentials or proxy connections," Yun Zheng Hu and Mick Koomen said . "Afterwards, the actor moved to a stealthier RAT, likely signifying a next stage in the attack." The attack chain begins with the threat actor impersonating an existing employee of a trading company on Telegram and using fake websites masquerading as Calendly and Picktime to schedule a meeting with the victim. Although the exact initial ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a stealthy new backdoor called MystRodX that comes with a variety of features to capture sensitive data from compromised systems. "MystRodX is a typical backdoor implemented in C++, supporting features like file management, port forwarding, reverse shell, and socket management," QiAnXin XLab said in a report published last week. "Compared to typical backdoors, MystRodX stands out in terms of stealth and flexibility." MystRodX, also called ChronosRAT, was first documented by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 last month in connection with a threat activity cluster called CL-STA-0969 that it said exhibits overlaps with a China-nexus cyber espionage group dubbed Liminal Panda. The malware's stealth stems from the use of various levels of encryption to obscure source code and payloads, while its flexibility allows it to dynamically enable different functions based on a configuration, such as choosing TCP or HTTP for network co...

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 mu...

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...

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 t...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 Wind...