Remote Access Trojan | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity researchers have revealed that Russian military personnel are the target of a new malicious campaign that distributes Android spyware under the guise of the Alpine Quest mapping software. "The attackers hide this trojan inside modified Alpine Quest mapping software and distribute it in various ways, including through one of the Russian Android app catalogs," Doctor Web said in an analysis. The trojan has been found embedded in older versions of the software and propagated as a freely available variant of Alpine Quest Pro , a paid offering that removes advertising and analytics features. The Russian cybersecurity vendor said it also observed the malware, dubbed Android.Spy.1292.origin, being distributed in the form of an APK file via a fake Telegram channel. While the threat actors initially provided a link for downloading the app in one of the Russian app catalogs through the Telegram channel, the trojanized version was later distributed directly as an A...

Multiple state-sponsored hacking groups from Iran, North Korea, and Russia have been found leveraging the increasingly popular ClickFix social engineering tactic to deploy malware over a three-month period from late 2024 through the beginning of 2025. The phishing campaigns adopting the strategy have been attributed to clusters tracked as TA427 (aka Kimsuky), TA450 (aka MuddyWater), UNK_RemoteRogue, and TA422 (aka APT28). ClickFix has been an initial access technique primarily affiliated with cybercrime groups, although the effectiveness of the approach has led to it also being adopted by nation-state groups. "The incorporation of ClickFix is not revolutionizing the campaigns carried out by TA427, TA450, UNK_RemoteRogue, and TA422 but instead is replacing the installation and execution stages in existing infection chains," enterprise security firm Proofpoint said in a report published today. ClickFix , in a nutshell, refers to a sneaky technique that tricks users int...

The China-linked threat actor known as UNC5174 has been attributed to a new campaign that leverages a variant of a known malware dubbed SNOWLIGHT and a new open-source tool called VShell to infect Linux systems. "Threat actors are increasingly using open source tools in their arsenals for cost-effectiveness and obfuscation to save money and, in this case, plausibly blend in with the pool of non-state-sponsored and often less technical adversaries (e.g., script kiddies), thereby making attribution even more difficult," Sysdig researcher Alessandra Rizzo said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This seems to hold especially true for this particular threat actor , who has been under the radar for the last year since being affiliated with the Chinese government." UNC5174, also referred to as Uteus (or Uetus), was previously documented by Google-owned Mandiant as exploiting security flaws in Connectwise ScreenConnect and F5 BIG-IP software to deliver a C-base...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new, sophisticated remote access trojan called ResolverRAT that has been observed in attacks targeting healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. "The threat actor leverages fear-based lures delivered via phishing emails, designed to pressure recipients into clicking a malicious link," Morphisec Labs researcher Nadav Lorber said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Once accessed, the link directs the user to download and open a file that triggers the ResolverRAT execution chain." The activity, observed as recently as March 10, 2025, shares infrastructure and delivery mechanism overlap with phishing campaigns that have distributed information stealer malware such as Lumma and Rhadamanthys, as documented by Cisco Talos and Check Point last year. A notable aspect of the campaign is the use of localized phishing lures, with the emails crafted in the languages predominantly spoken in the targeted countries. This includ...

Attackers aren't waiting for patches anymore — they are breaking in before defenses are ready. Trusted security tools are being hijacked to deliver malware. Even after a breach is detected and patched, some attackers stay hidden. This week's events show a hard truth: it's not enough to react after an attack. You have to assume that any system you trust today could fail tomorrow. In a world where AI tools can be used against you and ransomware hits faster than ever, real protection means planning for things to go wrong — and still staying in control. Check out this week's update to find important threat news, helpful webinars, useful tools, and tips you can start using right away. ⚡ Threat of the Week Windows 0-Day Exploited for Ransomware Attacks — A security affecting the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) was exploited as a zero-day in ransomware attacks aimed at a small number of targets, Microsoft revealed. The flaw, CVE-2025-29824, is a privilege escalation vulnerabilit...

A threat actor with ties to Pakistan has been observed targeting various sectors in India with various remote access trojans like Xeno RAT, Spark RAT, and a previously undocumented malware family called CurlBack RAT . The activity, detected by SEQRITE in December 2024, targeted Indian entities under railway, oil and gas, and external affairs ministries, marking an expansion of the hacking crew's targeting footprint beyond government, defence, maritime sectors, and universities. "One notable shift in recent campaigns is the transition from using HTML Application (HTA) files to adopting Microsoft Installer (MSI) packages as a primary staging mechanism," security researcher Sathwik Ram Prakki said . SideCopy is suspected to be a sub-cluster within Transparent Tribe (aka APT36) that's active since at least 2019. It's so named for mimicking the attack chains associated with another threat actor called SideWinder to deliver its own payloads. In June 2024, SEQR...

Cybersecurity researchers have found that threat actors are setting up deceptive websites hosted on newly registered domains to deliver a known Android malware called SpyNote . These bogus websites masquerade as Google Play Store install pages for apps like the Chrome web browser, indicating an attempt to deceive unsuspecting users into installing the malware instead. "The threat actor utilized a mix of English and Chinese-language delivery sites and included Chinese-language comments within the delivery site code and the malware itself," the DomainTools Investigations (DTI) team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. SpyNote (aka SpyMax) is a remote access trojan long known for its ability to harvest sensitive data from compromised Android devices by abusing accessibility services. In May 2024, the malware was propagated via another bogus site impersonating a legitimate antivirus solution known as Avast. Subsequent analysis by mobile security firm Zimperium h...

Overview of the PlayPraetor Masquerading Party Variants CTM360 has now identified a much larger extent of the ongoing Play Praetor campaign. What started with 6000+ URLs of a very specific banking attack has now grown to 16,000+ with multiple variants. This research is ongoing, and much more is expected to be discovered in the coming days.  As before, all the newly discovered play impersonations are mimicking legitimate app listings, deceiving users into installing malicious Android applications or exposing sensitive personal information. While these incidents initially appeared to be isolated, further investigation has revealed a globally coordinated campaign that poses a significant threat to the integrity of the Play Store ecosystem. Evolution of the Threat This report expands on the earlier research into PlayPraetor, highlighting the discovery of five newly identified variants. These variants reveal the campaign's increasing sophistication in terms of attack techniques, ...

Today, every unpatched system, leaked password, and overlooked plugin is a doorway for attackers. Supply chains stretch deep into the code we trust, and malware hides not just in shady apps — but in job offers, hardware, and cloud services we rely on every day. Hackers don't need sophisticated exploits anymore. Sometimes, your credentials and a little social engineering are enough. This week, we trace how simple oversights turn into major breaches — and the silent threats most companies still underestimate. Let's dive in. ⚡ Threat of the Week UNC5221 Exploits New Ivanti Flaw to Drop Malware — The China-nexus cyber espionage group tracked as UNC5221 exploited a now-patched flaw in Ivanti Connect Secure, CVE-2025-22457 (CVSS score: 9.0), to deliver an in-memory dropper called TRAILBLAZE, a passive backdoor codenamed BRUSHFIRE, and the SPAWN malware suite. The vulnerability was originally patched by Ivanti on February 11, 2025, indicating that the threat actors studied the patch a...