Threat Intelligence | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Threat actors are exploiting a nearly two-year-old security flaw in Apache ActiveMQ to gain persistent access to cloud Linux systems and deploy malware called DripDropper . But in an unusual twist, the unknown attackers have been observed patching the exploited vulnerability after securing initial access to prevent further exploitation by other adversaries and evade detection, Red Canary said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Follow-on adversary command-and-control (C2) tools varied by endpoint and included Sliver , and Cloudflare Tunnels to maintain covert command and control over the long term," researchers Christina Johns, Chris Brook, and Tyler Edmonds said. The attacks exploit a maximum-severity security flaw in Apache ActiveMQ ( CVE-2023-46604 , CVSS score: 10.0), a remote code execution vulnerability that could be exploited to run arbitrary shell commands. It was addressed in late October 2023. The security defect has since come under heavy exploitation...

Financial institutions like trading and brokerage firms are the target of a new campaign that delivers a previously unreported remote access trojan called GodRAT . The malicious activity involves the "distribution of malicious .SCR (screen saver) files disguised as financial documents via Skype messenger," Kaspersky researcher Saurabh Sharma said in a technical analysis published today. The attacks, which have been active as recently as August 12, 2025, employ a technique called steganography to conceal within image files shellcode used to download the malware from a command-and-control (C2) server. The screen saver artifacts have been detected since September 9, 2024, targeting countries and territories like Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Jordan. Assessed to be based on Gh0st RAT, GodRAT follows a plugin-based approach to augment its functionality in order to harvest sensitive information and deliver secondary payloads like AsyncRAT. It'...

The threat actors behind the Noodlophile malware are leveraging spear-phishing emails and updated delivery mechanisms to deploy the information stealer in attacks aimed at enterprises located in the U.S., Europe, Baltic countries, and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. "The Noodlophile campaign, active for over a year, now leverages advanced spear-phishing emails posing as copyright infringement notices, tailored with reconnaissance-derived details like specific Facebook Page IDs and company ownership information," Morphisec researcher Shmuel Uzan said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Noodlophile was previously detailed by the cybersecurity vendor in May 2025, uncovering the attackers' use of fake artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools as lures to propagate the malware. These counterfeit programs were found to be advertised on social media platforms like Facebook. That said, the adoption of copyright infringement lures is not a new development. Back in Nov...

Power doesn't just disappear in one big breach. It slips away in the small stuff—a patch that's missed, a setting that's wrong, a system no one is watching. Security usually doesn't fail all at once; it breaks slowly, then suddenly. Staying safe isn't about knowing everything—it's about acting fast and clear before problems pile up. Clarity keeps control. Hesitation creates risk. Here are this week's signals—each one pointing to where action matters most. ⚡ Threat of the Week Ghost Tap NFC-Based Mobile Fraud Takes Off — A new Android trojan called PhantomCard has become the latest malware to abuse near-field communication (NFC) to conduct relay attacks for facilitating fraudulent transactions in attacks targeting banking customers in Brazil. In these attacks, users who end up installing the malicious apps are instructed to place their credit/debit card on the back of the phone to begin the verification process, only for the card data to be sent to an attacker-controlled NFC relay...

The threat actor known as EncryptHub is continuing to exploit a now-patched security flaw impacting Microsoft Windows to deliver malicious payloads. Trustwave SpiderLabs said it recently observed an EncryptHub campaign that brings together social engineering and the exploitation of a vulnerability in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) framework (CVE-2025-26633, aka MSC EvilTwin ) to trigger the infection routine via a rogue Microsoft Console (MSC) file. "These activities are part of a broad, ongoing wave of malicious activity that blends social engineering with technical exploitation to bypass security defenses and gain control over internal environments," Trustwave researchers Nathaniel Morales and Nikita Kazymirskyi said . EncryptHub, also tracked as LARVA-208 and Water Gamayun, is a Russian hacking group that first gained prominence in mid-2024. Operating at a high tempo, the financially motivated crew is known for leveraging several methods, including fake job of...

Japan's CERT coordination center (JPCERT/CC) on Thursday revealed it observed incidents that involved the use of a command-and-control (C2) framework called CrossC2 , which is designed to extend the functionality of Cobalt Strike to other platforms like Linux and Apple macOS for cross-platform system control. The agency said the activity was detected between September and December 2024, targeting multiple countries, including Japan, based on an analysis of VirusTotal artifacts. "The attacker employed CrossC2 as well as other tools such as PsExec, Plink, and Cobalt Strike in attempts to penetrate AD. Further investigation revealed that the attacker used custom malware as a loader for Cobalt Strike," JPCERT/CC researcher Yuma Masubuchi said in a report published today. The bespoke Cobalt Strike Beacon loader has been codenamed ReadNimeLoader. CrossC2, an unofficial Beacon and builder, is capable of executing various Cobalt Strike commands after establishing communicati...

You check that the windows are shut before leaving home. Return to the kitchen to verify that the oven and stove were definitely turned off. Maybe even circle back again to confirm the front door was properly closed. These automatic safety checks give you peace of mind because you know the unlikely but potentially dangerous consequences of forgetting – a break-in, fire, or worse. Your external-facing IT infrastructure deserves the same methodical attention. External Attack Surface Management (EASM) and Digital Risk Protection (DRP) tools provide that same peace of mind for your digital "home," automating the everyday safety checks that prevent costly incidents. Why does the external-facing IT infrastructure need the same care? Just as you secure your physical home prior to leaving, your assets that are exposed to the internet require consistent safety protocols. Think about it this way:  Locking doors = locking down exposed assets, ensuring only authorized access points...

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of a "significant spike" in brute-force traffic aimed at Fortinet SSL VPN devices. The coordinated activity, per threat intelligence firm GreyNoise, was observed on August 3, 2025, with over 780 unique IP addresses participating in the effort. As many as 56 unique IP addresses have been detected over the past 24 hours. All the IP addresses have been classified as malicious, with the IPs originating from the United States, Canada, Russia, and the Netherlands. Targets of the brute-force activity include the United States, Hong Kong, Brazil, Spain, and Japan. "Critically, the observed traffic was also targeting our FortiOS profile, suggesting deliberate and precise targeting of Fortinet's SSL VPNs," GreyNoise said . "This was not opportunistic -- it was focused activity." The company also pointed out that it identified two distinct assault waves spotted before and after August 5: One, a long-running, brute-force a...

A previously undocumented threat actor dubbed Curly COMrades has been observed targeting entities in Georgia and Moldova as part of a cyber espionage campaign designed to facilitate long-term access to target networks. "They repeatedly tried to extract the NTDS database from domain controllers -- the primary repository for user password hashes and authentication data in a Windows network," Bitdefender said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Additionally, they attempted to dump LSASS memory from specific systems to recover active user credentials, potentially plain-text passwords, from machines where users were logged on." The activity, tracked by the Romanian cybersecurity company since mid-2024, has singled out judicial and government bodies in Georgia, as well as an energy distribution company in Moldova. "Regarding the timeline, while we have been tracking the campaign since mid-2024, our analysis of the artifacts indicates that activity began e...

The Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NL) has warned of cyber attacks exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting Citrix NetScaler ADC products to breach organizations in the country. The NCSC-NL said it discovered the exploitation of CVE-2025-6543 targeting several critical organizations within the Netherlands, and that investigations are ongoing to determine the extent of the impact. CVE-2025-6543 (CVSS score: 9.2) is a critical security vulnerability in NetScaler ADC that results in unintended control flow and denial-of-service (DoS) when the devices are configured as a Gateway (VPN virtual server, ICA Proxy, CVPN, RDP Proxy) OR AAA virtual server. The vulnerability was first disclosed in late June 2025, with patches released in the following versions - NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway 14.1 prior to 14.1-47.46 NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway 13.1 prior to 13.1-59.19 NetScaler ADC 13.1-FIPS and NDcPP prior to 13.1-37.236-FIPS and NDcPP ...

This week, cyber attackers are moving quickly, and businesses need to stay alert. They're finding new weaknesses in popular software and coming up with clever ways to get around security. Even one unpatched flaw could let attackers in, leading to data theft or even taking control of your systems. The clock is ticking—if defenses aren't updated regularly, it could lead to serious damage. The message is clear: don't wait for an attack to happen. Take action now to protect your business. Here's a look at some of the biggest stories in cybersecurity this week: from new flaws in WinRAR and NVIDIA Triton to advanced attack techniques you should know about. Let's get into the details. ⚡ Threat of the Week Trend Micro Warns of Actively Exploited 0-Day — Trend Micro has released temporary mitigations to address critical security flaws in on-premise versions of Apex One Management Console that it said have been exploited in the wild. The vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-54948 and CVE-2025-54987),...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed vulnerabilities in select model webcams from Lenovo that could turn them into BadUSB attack devices. "This allows remote attackers to inject keystrokes covertly and launch attacks independent of the host operating system," Eclypsium researchers Paul Asadoorian, Mickey Shkatov, and Jesse Michael said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The vulnerabilities have been codenamed BadCam (aka CVE-2025-4371 ) by the firmware security company. The findings were presented at the DEF CON 33 security conference today. The development likely marks the first time it has been demonstrated that threat actors who gain control of a Linux-based USB peripheral that's already attached to a computer can weaponize it for malicious intent. In a hypothetical attack scenario, an adversary can take advantage of the vulnerability to send a victim a backdoored webcam, or attach it to a computer if they are able to secure physical access, and remot...

When an organization's credentials are leaked, the immediate consequences are rarely visible—but the long-term impact is far-reaching. Far from the cloak-and-dagger tactics seen in fiction, many real-world cyber breaches begin with something deceptively simple: a username and password. According to Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, leaked credentials accounted for 22% of breaches in 2024, outpacing phishing and even software exploitation. That's nearly a quarter of all incidents, initiated not through zero-days or advanced persistent threats, but by logging in through the front door. This quiet and persistent threat has been growing. New data compiled by Cyberint—an external risk management and threat intelligence company recently acquired by Check Point—shows a 160% increase in leaked credentials in 2025 compared to the previous year. The report, titled The Rise of Leaked Credentials , provides a look into not just the volume of these leaks, but how they are exploi...

The threat actors behind the SocGholish malware have been observed leveraging Traffic Distribution Systems (TDSs) like Parrot TDS and Keitaro TDS to filter and redirect unsuspecting users to sketchy content. "The core of their operation is a sophisticated Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) model, where infected systems are sold as initial access points to other cybercriminal organizations," Silent Push said in an analysis. SocGholish, also called FakeUpdates, is a JavaScript loader malware that's distributed via compromised websites by masquerading as deceptive updates for web browsers like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, as well as other software such as Adobe Flash Player or Microsoft Teams. It's attributed to a threat actor called TA569, which is also tracked as Gold Prelude, Mustard Tempest, Purple Vallhund, and UNC1543. Attack chains involve deploying SocGholish to establish initial access and broker that compromised system access to a diverse clientele, includ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a set of 11 malicious Go packages that are designed to download additional payloads from remote servers and execute them on both Windows and Linux systems. "At runtime the code silently spawns a shell, pulls a second-stage payload from an interchangeable set of .icu and .tech command-and-control (C2) endpoints, and executes it in memory," Socket security researcher Olivia Brown said . The list of identified packages is below - github.com/stripedconsu/linker github.com/agitatedleopa/stm github.com/expertsandba/opt github.com/wetteepee/hcloud-ip-floater github.com/weightycine/replika github.com/ordinarymea/tnsr_ids github.com/ordinarymea/TNSR_IDS github.com/cavernouskina/mcp-go github.com/lastnymph/gouid github.com/sinfulsky/gouid github.com/briefinitia/gouid

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed multiple security flaws in video surveillance products from Axis Communications that, if successfully exploited, could expose them to takeover attacks. "The attack results in pre-authentication remote code execution on Axis Device Manager, a server used to configure and manage fleets of cameras, and the Axis Camera Station, client software used to view camera feeds," Claroty researcher Noam Moshe said . "Furthermore, using internet scans of exposed Axis.Remoting services, an attacker can enumerate vulnerable servers and clients, and carry out granular, highly targeted attacks." The list of identified flaws is below - CVE-2025-30023 (CVSS score: 9.0) - A flaw in the communication protocol used between client and server that could lead to an authenticated user performing a remote code execution attack (Fixed in Camera Station Pro 6.9, Camera Station 5.58, and Device Manager 5.32) CVE-2025-30024 (CVSS score: 6.8) - A f...

SonicWall has revealed that the recent spike in activity targeting its Gen 7 and newer firewalls with SSL VPN enabled is related to an older, now-patched bug and password reuse. "We now have high confidence that the recent SSL VPN activity is not connected to a zero-day vulnerability," the company said . "Instead, there is a significant correlation with threat activity related to CVE-2024-40766." CVE-2024-40766 (CVSS score: 9.3) was first disclosed by SonicWall in August 2024, calling it an improper access control issue that could allow malicious actors unauthorized access to the devices. "An improper access control vulnerability has been identified in the SonicWall SonicOS management access, potentially leading to unauthorized resource access and, in specific conditions, causing the firewall to crash," it noted in an advisory at the time. SonicWall also said it's investigating less than 40 incidents related to this activity, and that many of ...

The malicious ad tech purveyor known as VexTrio Viper has been observed developing several malicious apps that have been published on Apple and Google's official app storefronts under the guise of seemingly useful applications. These apps masquerade as VPNs, device "monitoring" apps, RAM cleaners, dating services, and spam blockers, DNS threat intelligence firm Infoblox said in an exhaustive analysis shared with The Hacker News. "They released apps under several developer names, including HolaCode, LocoMind, Hugmi, Klover Group, and AlphaScale Media," the company said . "Available in the Google Play and Apple store, these have been downloaded millions of times in aggregate." These fake apps, once installed, deceive users into signing up for subscriptions that are difficult to cancel, flood them with ads, and part with personal information like email addresses. It's worth noting that LocoMind was previously flagged by Cyjax as part of a phish...

Microsoft on Tuesday announced an autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agent that can analyze and classify software without assistance in an effort to advance malware detection efforts. The large language model (LLM)-powered autonomous malware classification system, currently a prototype, has been codenamed Project Ire by the tech giant. The system "automates what is considered the gold standard in malware classification: fully reverse engineering a software file without any clues about its origin or purpose," Microsoft said . "It uses decompilers and other tools, reviews their output, and determines whether the software is malicious or benign." Project Ire, per the Windows maker, is an effort to enable malware classification at scale, accelerate threat response, and reduce the manual efforts that analysts have to undertake in order to examine samples and determine if they are malicious or benign. Specifically, it uses specialized tools to reverse engineer...

Trend Micro has released mitigations to address critical security flaws in on-premise versions of Apex One Management Console that it said have been exploited in the wild. The vulnerabilities ( CVE-2025-54948 and CVE-2025-54987 ), both rated 9.4 on the CVSS scoring system, have been described as management console command injection and remote code execution flaws. "A vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One (on-premise) management console could allow a pre-authenticated remote attacker to upload malicious code and execute commands on affected installations," the cybersecurity company said in a Tuesday advisory. While both shortcomings are essentially the same, CVE-2025-54987 targets a different CPU architecture. The Trend Micro Incident Response (IR) Team and Jacky Hsieh at CoreCloud Tech have been credited with reporting the two flaws. According to ZeroPath , CVE-2025-54948 stems from a lack of sufficient input validation in the management console's backend, thereby...