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Chinese state-sponsored threat actors have been observed using a Go-based artificial intelligence (AI)-powered penetration testing framework called ARTEX in attacks aimed at high-value targets simultaneously. The activity has been attributed by CrowdStrike to a China-based "targeted intrusion adversary" it tracks under the moniker Vapor Panda (previously VexatiousTemper). First identified in February 2021, the hacking group overlaps with a threat cluster detailed by Trend Micro as Earth Estries . "Agentic tooling like ARTEX enables this scale of expansion at speed, allowing a small team to pursue a wider target set than manual operations would support, rather than a wholesale shift away from the adversary's established access-development mission," CrowdStrike said in a Thursday analysis. Starting October 17, 2026, Vapor Panda is said to have used the AI tool against more than 200 distinct organizations across the world, including foreign ministries in ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed that a trojanized version of Anthropic's official Claude Code extension was distributed through the Cursor Marketplace as a legitimate update, attempting to install a persistent SSH backdoor on affected systems. The malicious update, version 2.1.313, was distributed under the extension's legitimate publisher identity, prompting Cursor to temporarily shut down its marketplace to remove the compromised package. The exact method attackers used to introduce the unauthorized update remains unclear. "We identified a security incident affecting a modified Claude Code VS Code extension accessed through our Cursor IDE extension marketplace, impacting at most 5,000 users," Cursor said . "This malicious version of the extension was not developed by Anthropic. It does not impact other extensions downloaded from the cursor[.]com/marketplace, Grok Bot, Grok, or our other SpaceXSI product. However, Cursor's statement that the...

Some attacks take real skill. Others just need someone to leave a door open. This week has both. Exposed passwords, old bugs still getting exploited, and trusted software doing things it shouldn't. There's a strange mix of clever tricks and careless mistakes. Hackers are borrowing trust from familiar apps, websites, and AI tools. Some are using AI to speed things up. Others are leaving their own attack files exposed. Not exactly careful work. Different stories, familiar weak spots. Here's what showed up this week. The threats change every week. Subscribe, and we’ll alert you when each new ThreatsDay Bulletin is out.

Threat actors are delivering malicious loaders and cryptocurrency miners under the guise of artificial intelligence (AI) desktop applications for Anthropic Claude and OpenAI ChatGPT as part of a campaign dubbed Yoba . The activity involves creating fake GitHub projects that claim to be desktop applications like GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, and Claude Opus, only to deliver a malware family called YobaLoader. "The malware is placed next to legitimate, signed executables from OpenAI and Anthropic so it can be loaded indirectly, a technique commonly known as DLL sideloading, which is often used to bypass security protections," Check Point Research said in an analysis. To add to the project's credibility, the attackers set up GitHub.io pages to describe the capabilities of the software. Although the GitHub projects' popularity is not manipulated using techniques like ghost networks , signs point to the use of SEO poisoning tactics to ensure that links to them are sur...

GitHub has announced that it's introducing a new package firewall as a preview to block installation of suspicious npm packages during installation time. "The firewall inspects both metadata requests and package downloads for signs of malicious activity, acting as an install-time policy gate," GitHub said . The feature, which currently supports only npm packages, is available in public preview for all GitHub Enterprise Cloud customers, including data-resident GitHub Enterprise Cloud. According to the Microsoft subsidiary, the firewall is placed between endpoints or internal registries and the upstream package repositories so as to deter malware attacks that compromise systems when packages are installed. This behavior can expose users to severe security risks, especially when artificial intelligence (AI) agents and CI runners automatically install dependencies to complete a task or build without their explicit permission. The idea is that endpoints like coding ...