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A cybercrime gang known as Black Cat has been attributed to a search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning campaign that employs fraudulent sites advertising popular software to trick users into downloading a backdoor capable of stealing sensitive data. According to a report published by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC) and Beijing Weibu Online (aka ThreatBook), the activity is designed to strategically push bogus sites to the top of search results on search engines like Microsoft Bing, specifically targeting users looking for programs like Google Chrome, Notepad++, QQ International, and iTools. "After visiting these high-ranking phishing pages, users are lured by carefully constructed download pages, attempting to download software installation packages bundled with malicious programs," CNCERT/CC and ThreatBook said. "Once installed, the program implants a backdoor Trojan without the user's k...

Threat actors engaging in phishing attacks are exploiting routing scenarios and misconfigured spoof protections to impersonate organizations' domains and distribute emails that appear as if they have been sent internally. "Threat actors have leveraged this vector to deliver a wide variety of phishing messages related to various phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platforms such as Tycoon 2FA ," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a Tuesday report. "These include messages with lures themed around voicemails, shared documents, communications from human resources (HR) departments, password resets or expirations, and others, leading to credential phishing." While the attack vector is not necessarily new , the tech giant said it has witnessed a surge in the use of the tactic since May 2025 as part of opportunistic campaigns targeting a wide variety of organizations across multiple industries and verticals. This includes a campaign that has employed spoofed e...

A newly discovered critical security flaw in legacy D-Link DSL gateway routers has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-0625 (CVSS score: 9.3), concerns a case of command injection in the "dnscfg.cgi" endpoint that arises as a result of improper sanitization of user-supplied DNS configuration parameters. "An unauthenticated remote attacker can inject and execute arbitrary shell commands, resulting in remote code execution," VulnCheck noted in an advisory. "The affected endpoint is also associated with unauthenticated DNS modification ('DNSChanger') behavior documented by D-Link , which reported active exploitation campaigns targeting firmware variants of the DSL-2740R, DSL-2640B, DSL-2780B, and DSL-526B models from 2016 through 2019." The cybersecurity company also noted that exploitation attempts targeting CVE-2026-0625 were recorded by the Shadowserver Foundation on November 27, 2025. Some of ...

Source: Securonix Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new campaign dubbed PHALT#BLYX that has leveraged ClickFix -style lures to display fixes for fake blue screen of death ( BSoD ) errors in attacks targeting the European hospitality sector. The end goal of the multi-stage campaign is to deliver a remote access trojan known as DCRat , according to cybersecurity company Securonix. The activity was detected in late December 2025. "For initial access, the threat actors utilize a fake Booking.com reservation cancellation lure to trick victims into executing malicious PowerShell commands, which silently fetch and execute remote code," researchers Shikha Sangwan, Akshay Gaikwad, and Aaron Beardslee said . The starting point of the attack chain is a phishing email impersonating Booking.com that contains a link to a fake website (e.g., "low-house[.]com"). The messages warn recipients of unexpected reservation cancellations, urging them to click the ...

Popular artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) forks such as Cursor, Windsurf, Google Antigravity, and Trae have been found to recommend extensions that are non-existent in the Open VSX registry, potentially opening the door to supply chain risks when bad actors publish malicious packages under those names. The problem, according to Koi , is that these integrated development environments (IDEs) inherit the list of officially recommended extensions from Microsoft's extensions marketplace. These extensions don't exist in Open VSX. The VS Code extension recommendations can take two different forms: file-based, which are displayed as toast notifications when users open a file in specific formats, or software-based, which are suggested when certain programs are already installed on the host. "The problem: these recommended extensions didn't exist on Open VSX," Koi security researcher Oren Yomtov said. "The namespaces were u...

The Russia-aligned threat actor known as UAC-0184 has been observed targeting Ukrainian military and government entities by leveraging the Viber messaging platform to deliver malicious ZIP archives. "This organization has continued to conduct high-intensity intelligence gathering activities against Ukrainian military and government departments in 2025," the 360 Threat Intelligence Center said in a technical report. Also tracked as Hive0156, the hacking group is primarily known for leveraging war-themed lures in phishing emails to deliver Hijack Loader in attacks targeting Ukrainian entities. The malware loader subsequently acts as a pathway for Remcos RAT infections. The threat actor was first documented by CERT-UA in early January 2024. Subsequent attack campaigns have been found to leverage messaging apps like Signal and Telegram as a delivery vehicle for malware. The latest findings from the Chinese security vendor points to a further evolution of this tactic. ...

Featuring: Cybersecurity is being reshaped by forces that extend beyond individual threats or tools. As organizations operate across cloud infrastructure, distributed endpoints, and complex supply chains, security has shifted from a collection of point solutions to a question of architecture, trust, and execution speed. This report examines how core areas of cybersecurity are evolving in response to that shift. Across authentication, endpoint security, software supply chain protection, network visibility, and human risk, it explores how defenders are adapting to adversaries that move faster, blend technical and social techniques, and exploit gaps between systems rather than weaknesses in any single control. Download the Full Report Here: https://papryon.live/report Authentication — Yubico Authentication is evolving from password-based verification to cryptographic proof of possession. As phishing and AI-driven impersonation scale, identity has become the primary control point ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Python-based information stealer called VVS Stealer (also styled as VVS $tealer) that's capable of harvesting Discord credentials and tokens. The stealer is said to have been on sale on Telegram as far back as April 2025, according to a report from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42. "VVS stealer's code is obfuscated by Pyarmor," researchers Pranay Kumar Chhaparwal and Lee Wei Yeong said . "This tool is used to obfuscate Python scripts to hinder static analysis and signature-based detection. Pyarmor can be used for legitimate purposes and also leveraged to build stealthy malware." Advertised on Telegram as the "ultimate stealer," it's available for €10 ($11.69) for a weekly subscription. It can also be purchased at different pricing tiers: €20 ($23) for a month, €40 ($47) for three months, €90 ($105) for a year, and €199 ($232) for a lifetime license, making it one of the cheapest stealers ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a phishing campaign that involves the attackers impersonating legitimate Google-generated messages by abusing Google Cloud's Application Integration service to distribute emails. The activity, Check Point said, takes advantage of the trust associated with Google Cloud infrastructure to send the messages from a legitimate email address ("noreply-application-integration@google[.]com") so that they can bypass traditional email security filters and have a better chance of landing in users' inboxes. "The emails mimic routine enterprise notifications such as voicemail alerts and file access or permission requests, making them appear normal and trustworthy to recipients," the cybersecurity company said . Attackers have been observed sending 9,394 phishing emails targeting approximately 3,200 customers over a 14-day period observed in December 2025, with the affected organizations located in the U.S., Asia-Pac...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a persistent nine-month-long campaign that has targeted Internet of Things (IoT) devices and web applications to enroll them into a botnet known as RondoDox. As of December 2025, the activity has been observed leveraging the recently disclosed React2Shell (CVE-2025-55182, CVSS score: 10.0) flaw as an initial access vector, CloudSEK said in an analysis. React2Shell is the name assigned to a critical security vulnerability in React Server Components (RSC) and Next.js that could allow unauthenticated attackers to achieve remote code execution on susceptible devices. According to statistics from the Shadowserver Foundation, there are about 90,300 instances that remain susceptible to the vulnerability as of December 31, 2025, out of which 68,400 instances are located in the U.S., followed by Germany (4,300), France (2,800), and India (1,500). RondoDox, which emerged in early 2025, has broadened its scale by adding new N-day secur...

Trust Wallet on Tuesday revealed that the second iteration of the Shai-Hulud (aka Sha1-Hulud) supply chain outbreak in November 2025 was likely responsible for the hack of its Google Chrome extension , ultimately resulting in the theft of approximately $8.5 million in assets. "Our Developer GitHub secrets were exposed in the attack, which gave the attacker access to our browser extension source code and the Chrome Web Store (CWS) API key," the company said in a post-mortem published Tuesday. "The attacker obtained full CWS API access via the leaked key, allowing builds to be uploaded directly without Trust Wallet's standard release process, which requires internal approval/manual review." Subsequently, the attacker is said to have registered the domain "metrics-trustwallet[.]com" and pushed a trojanized version of the extension with a backdoor that's capable of harvesting users' wallet mnemonic phrases to the sub-domain "api.metrics...

The threat actor behind two malicious browser extension campaigns, ShadyPanda and GhostPoster , has been attributed to a third attack campaign codenamed DarkSpectre that has impacted 2.2 million users of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. The activity is assessed to be the work of a Chinese threat actor that Koi Security is tracking under the moniker DarkSpectre . In all, the campaigns have collectively affected over 8.8 million users spanning a period of more than seven years. ShadyPanda was first unmasked by the cybersecurity company earlier this month as targeting all three browser users to facilitate data theft, search query hijacking, and affiliate fraud. It has been found to affect 5.6 million users, including 1.3 newly identified victims stemming from over 100 extensions flagged as connected to the same cluster. This also includes an Edge add-on named "New Tab - Customized Dashboard" that features a logic bomb that waits for three days prior to t...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday removed three individuals linked to the Intellexa Consortium, the holding company behind a commercial spyware known as Predator , from the specially designated nationals list. The names of the individuals are as follows - Merom Harpaz Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou Hamou was sanctioned by OFAC in March 2024, and Harpaz and Gambazzi were targeted in September 2024 in connection with developing, operating, and distributing Predator. The Treasury's press release does not give any reason as to why they were removed from the list. However, in a statement shared with Reuters, it said the removal "was done as part of the normal administrative process in response to a petition request for reconsideration." The department added that the individuals had "demonstrated measures to separate themselves from the Intellexa Consortium....

The Chinese hacking group known as Mustang Panda (aka HoneyMyte) has leveraged a previously undocumented kernel-mode rootkit driver to deliver a new variant of backdoor dubbed TONESHELL in a cyber attack detected in mid-2025 targeting an unspecified entity in Asia. The findings come from Kaspersky, which observed the new backdoor variant in cyber espionage campaigns mounted by the hacking group targeting government organizations in Southeast and East Asia, primarily Myanmar and Thailand. "The driver file is signed with an old, stolen, or leaked digital certificate and registers as a minifilter driver on infected machines," the Russian cybersecurity company said . "Its end-goal is to inject a backdoor trojan into the system processes and provide protection for malicious files, user-mode processes, and registry keys." The final payload deployed as part of the attack is TONESHELL, an implant with reverse shell and downloader capabilities to fetch next-stage malwa...

A recently disclosed security vulnerability in MongoDB has come under active exploitation in the wild, with over 87,000 potentially susceptible instances identified across the world. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-14847 (CVSS score: 8.7), which allows an unauthenticated attacker to remotely leak sensitive data from the MongoDB server memory. It has been codenamed MongoBleed . "A flaw in zlib compression allows attackers to trigger information leakage," OX Security said . "By sending malformed network packets, an attacker can extract fragments of private data." The problem is rooted in MongoDB Server's zlib message decompression implementation ("message_compressor_zlib.cpp"). It affects instances with zlib compression enabled, which is the default configuration. Successful exploitation of the shortcoming could allow an attacker to extract sensitive information from MongoDB servers, including user information, passwords, and API keys. ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of what has been described as a "sustained and targeted" spear-phishing campaign that has published over two dozen packages to the npm registry to facilitate credential theft. The activity, which involved uploading 27 npm packages from six different npm aliases, has primarily targeted sales and commercial personnel at critical infrastructure-adjacent organizations in the U.S. and Allied nations, according to Socket. "A five-month operation turned 27 npm packages into durable hosting for browser-run lures that mimic document-sharing portals and Microsoft sign-in, targeting 25 organizations across manufacturing, industrial automation, plastics, and healthcare for credential theft," researchers Nicholas Anderson and Kirill Boychenko said .

Trust Wallet is urging users to update its Google Chrome extension to the latest version following what it described as a "security incident" that led to the loss of approximately $7 million. The issue, the multi‑chain, non‑custodial cryptocurrency wallet service said, impacts version 2.68. The extension has about one million users, according to the Chrome Web Store listing. Users are advised to update to version 2.69 as soon as possible. "We've confirmed that approximately $7 million has been impacted and we will ensure all affected users are refunded," Trust Wallet said in a post on X. "Supporting affected users is our top priority, and we are actively finalizing the process to refund the impacted users." Trust Wallet is also urging users to refrain from interacting with any messages that do not come from its official channels. Mobile-only users and all other browser extension versions are not affected. According to details shared by SlowMist...

A China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group has been attributed to a highly-targeted cyber espionage campaign in which the adversary poisoned Domain Name System (DNS) requests to deliver its signature MgBot backdoor in attacks targeting victims in Türkiye, China, and India. The activity, Kaspersky said, was observed between November 2022 and November 2024. It has been linked to a hacking group called Evasive Panda , which is tracked as Bronze Highland, Daggerfly, and StormBamboo. It's assessed to be active since at least 2012. "The group mainly performed adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) attacks on specific victims," Kaspersky researcher Fatih Şensoy said in a deep-dive analysis. "These included techniques such as dropping loaders into specific locations and storing encrypted parts of the malware on attacker-controlled servers, which were resolved as a response to specific website DNS requests." This is not the first time Evasive Panda's DNS pois...

It's getting harder to tell where normal tech ends and malicious intent begins. Attackers are no longer just breaking in — they're blending in, hijacking everyday tools, trusted apps, and even AI assistants. What used to feel like clear-cut "hacker stories" now looks more like a mirror of the systems we all use. This week's findings show a pattern: precision, patience, and persuasion. The newest campaigns don't shout for attention — they whisper through familiar interfaces, fake updates, and polished code. The danger isn't just in what's being exploited, but in how ordinary it all looks. ThreatsDay pulls these threads together — from corporate networks to consumer tech — revealing how quiet manipulation and automation are reshaping the threat landscape. It's a reminder that the future of cybersecurity won't hinge on bigger walls, but on sharper awareness. Open-source tool exploited Abuse of Nezha for Post-Exploitation Bad actors are le...

Fortinet on Wednesday said it observed "recent abuse" of a five-year-old security flaw in FortiOS SSL VPN in the wild under certain configurations. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2020-12812 (CVSS score: 5.2), an improper authentication vulnerability in SSL VPN in FortiOS that could allow a user to log in successfully without being prompted for the second factor of authentication if the case of the username was changed. "This happens when two-factor authentication is enabled in the 'user local' setting, and that user authentication type is set to a remote authentication method (e.g., LDAP)," Fortinet noted in July 2020. "The issue exists because of inconsistent case-sensitive matching among the local and remote authentication."