Threat Intelligence | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Hackers aren't kicking down the door anymore. They just use the same tools we use every day — code packages, cloud accounts, email, chat, phones, and "trusted" partners — and turn them against us. One bad download can leak your keys. One weak vendor can expose many customers at once. One guest invite, one link on a phone, one bug in a common tool, and suddenly your mail, chats, repos, and servers are in play. Every story below is a reminder that your "safe" tools might be the real weak spot. ⚡ Threat of the Week Shai-Hulud Returns with More Aggression — The npm registry was targeted a second time by a self-replicating worm that went by the moniker "Sha1-Hulud: The Second Coming," affecting over 800 packages and 27,000 GitHub repositories. Like in the previous iteration, the main objective was to steal sensitive data like API keys, cloud credentials, and npm and GitHub authentication information, and facilitate deeper supply chain compromise in a worm-like fashion. Th...

A new Android malware named Albiriox has been advertised under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model to offer a "full spectrum" of features to facilitate on-device fraud (ODF), screen manipulation, and real-time interaction with infected devices. The malware embeds a hard-coded list comprising over 400 applications spanning banking, financial technology, payment processors, cryptocurrency exchanges, digital wallets, and trading platforms. "The malware leverages dropper applications distributed through social engineering lures, combined with packing techniques, to evade static detection and deliver its payload," Cleafy researchers Federico Valentini, Alessandro Strino, Gianluca Scotti, and Simone Mattia said . Albiriox is said to have been first advertised as part of a limited recruitment phase in late September 2025, before shifting to a MaaS offering a month later. There is evidence to suggest that the threat actors are Russian-speaking based on their activity o...

The threat actor known as Tomiris has been attributed to attacks targeting foreign ministries, intergovernmental organizations, and government entities in Russia with an aim to establish remote access and deploy additional tools. "These attacks highlight a notable shift in Tomiris's tactics, namely the increased use of implants that leverage public services (e.g., Telegram and Discord) as command-and-control (C2) servers," Kaspersky researchers Oleg Kupreev and Artem Ushkov said in an analysis. "This approach likely aims to blend malicious traffic with legitimate service activity to evade detection by security tools." The cybersecurity company said more than 50% of the spear-phishing emails and decoy files used in the campaign used Russian names and contained Russian text, indicating that Russian-speaking users or entities were the primary focus. The spear-phishing emails have also targeted Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan using tailored...

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a cross-tenant blind spot that allows attackers to bypass Microsoft Defender for Office 365 protections via the guest access feature in Teams. "When users operate as guests in another tenant, their protections are determined entirely by that hosting environment, not by their home organization," Ontinue security researcher Rhys Downing said in a report. "These advancements increase collaboration opportunities, but they also widen the responsibility for ensuring those external environments are trustworthy and properly secured." The development comes as Microsoft has begun rolling out a new feature in Teams that allows users to chat with anyone via email, including those who don't use the enterprise communications platform, starting this month. The change is expected to be globally available by January 2026. "The recipient will receive an email invitation to join the chat session as a guest, enabling seamles...

2026 will mark a pivotal shift in cybersecurity. Threat actors are moving from experimenting with AI to making it their primary weapon, using it to scale attacks, automate reconnaissance, and craft hyper-realistic social engineering campaigns. The Storm on the Horizon Global world instability, coupled with rapid technological advancement, will force security teams to adapt not just their defensive technologies but their entire workforce approach. The average SOC already processes about 11,000 alerts daily, but the volume and sophistication of threats are accelerating. For business leaders, this translates to direct impacts on operational continuity, regulatory compliance, and bottom-line financials. SOCs that can't keep pace won't just struggle; they'll fail spectacularly. Solve these three core issues now, or pay dearly later. 1. Evasive Threats Are Slipping Through—And Getting Smarter Fast Attackers have mastered evasion. ClickFix campaigns trick employees into pas...

This week saw a lot of new cyber trouble. Hackers hit Fortinet and Chrome with new 0-day bugs. They also broke into supply chains and SaaS tools. Many hid inside trusted apps, browser alerts, and software updates. Big firms like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Google had to react fast — stopping DDoS attacks, blocking bad links, and fixing live flaws. Reports also showed how fast fake news, AI risks, and attacks on developers are growing. Here's what mattered most in security this week. ⚡ Threat of the Week Fortinet Warns of Another Silently Patched and Actively Exploited FortiWeb Flaw — Fortinet has warned that a new security flaw in FortiWeb has been exploited in the wild. The medium-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-58034, carries a CVSS score of 6.7 out of a maximum of 10.0. It has been addressed in version 8.0.2. "An Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') vulnerability [CWE-78] in FortiWeb may allow an a...

The China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as APT31 has been attributed to cyber attacks targeting the Russian information technology (IT) sector between 2024 and 2025 while staying undetected for extended periods of time. "In the period from 2024 to 2025, the Russian IT sector, especially companies working as contractors and integrators of solutions for government agencies, faced a series of targeted computer attacks," Positive Technologies researchers Daniil Grigoryan and Varvara Koloskova said in a technical report. APT31, also known as Altaire, Bronze Vinewood, Judgement Panda, PerplexedGoblin, RedBravo, Red Keres, and Violet Typhoon (formerly Zirconium), is assessed to be active since at least 2010. It has a track record of striking a wide range of sectors, including governments, financial, and aerospace and defense, high tech, construction and engineering, telecommunications, media, and insurance. The cyber espionage group is primarily focused ...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added a critical security flaw impacting Oracle Identity Manager to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-61757 (CVSS score: 9.8), a case of missing authentication for a critical function that can result in pre-authenticated remote code execution. The vulnerability affects versions 12.2.1.4.0 and 14.1.2.1.0. It was addressed by Oracle as part of its quarterly updates released last month. "Oracle Fusion Middleware contains a missing authentication for a critical function vulnerability, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to take over Identity Manager," CISA said. Searchlight Cyber researchers Adam Kues and Shubham Shah, who discovered the flaw, said it can permit an attacker to access API endpoints that, in turn, can allow them "to manipulate authentication flows, escalate privileges, and ...

Ever wonder how some IT teams keep corporate data safe without slowing down employees? Of course you have. Mobile devices are essential for modern work—but with mobility comes risk. IT admins, like you, juggle protecting sensitive data while keeping teams productive. That's why more enterprises are turning to Samsung for mobile security. Hey—you're busy, so here's a quick-read article on what makes Samsung Galaxy devices and Knox Suite really stand out. Security built in. Management simplified. Samsung Galaxy devices come with Samsung Knox built in at the manufacturing stage, creating a hardware foundation that extends visibility and control across your security infrastructure. Simplified management with Knox Suite: Samsung's all-in-one package to manage and secure work devices grants centralized control without the need for extra tools or workflows (that got your attention!). Integrated security: Samsung Knox is built into both hardware and software, giving multi-la...

A China-nexus threat actor known as APT24 has been observed using a previously undocumented malware dubbed BADAUDIO to establish persistent remote access to compromised networks as part of a nearly three-year campaign. "While earlier operations relied on broad strategic web compromises to compromise legitimate websites, APT24 has recently pivoted to using more sophisticated vectors targeting organizations in Taiwan," Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) researchers Harsh Parashar, Tierra Duncan, and Dan Perez said . "This includes the repeated compromise of a regional digital marketing firm to execute supply chain attacks and the use of targeted phishing campaigns." APT24, also called Pitty Tiger, is the moniker assigned to a suspected Chinese hacking group that has targeted government, healthcare, construction and engineering, mining, non-profit, and telecommunications sectors in the U.S. and Taiwan. The group is also known to engage in cyber operations wh...

CTM360 has identified a rapidly expanding WhatsApp account-hacking campaign targeting users worldwide via a network of deceptive authentication portals and impersonation pages. The campaign, internally dubbed HackOnChat, abuses WhatsApp's familiar web interface, using social engineering tactics to trick users into compromising their accounts. Investigators identified thousands of malicious URLs being hosted on inexpensive top-level domains and rapidly generated through modern website-building platforms, allowing attackers to deploy new pages at scale. The campaign's activity logs show hundreds of incidents in recent weeks, with a noticeable surge across the Middle East and Asia. Read the full report here: https://www.ctm360.com/reports/hackonchat-unmasking-the-whatsapp-hacking-scam The hacking operations and the exploitation techniques Two techniques dominate these hacking operations. The Session Hijacking , where threat actors misuse the linked-device functionality to hijack act...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Android banking trojan called Sturnus that enables credential theft and full device takeover to conduct financial fraud. "A key differentiator is its ability to bypass encrypted messaging," ThreatFabric said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "By capturing content directly from the device screen after decryption, Sturnus can monitor communications via WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal." Another notable feature is its ability to stage overlay attacks by serving fake login screens atop banking apps to capture victims' credentials. According to the Dutch mobile security company, Sturnus is privately operated and is currently assessed to be in the evaluation stage. Artifacts distributing the banking malware are listed below - Google Chrome ("com.klivkfbky.izaybebnx") Preemix Box ("com.uvxuthoq.noscjahae") The malware has been designed to specifically single out financial inst...

Threat actors with ties to Iran engaged in cyber warfare as part of efforts to facilitate and enhance physical, real-world attacks, a trend that Amazon has called cyber-enabled kinetic targeting. The development is a sign that the lines between state-sponsored cyber attacks and kinetic warfare are increasingly blurring, necessitating the need for a new category of warfare, the tech giant's threat intelligence team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. While traditional cybersecurity frameworks have treated digital and physical threats as separate domains, CJ Moses, CISO of Amazon Integrated Security, said these delineations are artificial and that nation-state threat actors are engaging in cyber reconnaissance activity to enable kinetic targeting. "These aren't just cyber attacks that happen to cause physical damage; they are coordinated campaigns where digital operations are specifically designed to support physical military objectives," Moses added. As an...

Update: The NHS England Digital, in an updated advisory on November 20, 2025, said it has not observed in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2025-11001, but noted that it's "aware of a public proof-of-concept exploit." It has since removed what it said were "erroneous references" to active exploitation. The original story follows below - A recently disclosed security flaw impacting 7-Zip has come under active exploitation in the wild, according to an advisory issued by the U.K. NHS England Digital on Tuesday. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-11001 (CVSS score: 7.0), which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. It has been addressed in 7-Zip version 25.00 released in July 2025. "The specific flaw exists within the handling of symbolic links in ZIP files. Crafted data in a ZIP file can cause the process to traverse to unintended directories," Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) said in an alert released last month. "An a...

A newly discovered campaign has compromised tens of thousands of outdated or end-of-life (EoL) ASUS routers worldwide, predominantly in Taiwan, the U.S., and Russia, to rope them into a massive network. The router hijacking activity has been codenamed Operation WrtHug by SecurityScorecard's STRIKE team. Southeast Asia and European countries are some of the other regions where infections have been recorded. Over the past six months, more than 50,000 unique IP addresses belonging to these compromised devices around the globe have been identified. The attacks likely involve the exploitation of six known security flaws in end-of-life ASUS WRT routers to take control of susceptible devices. All the infected routers have been found to share a unique self-signed TLS certificate with an expiration date set for 100 years from April 2022. SecurityScorecard said 99% of the services presenting the certificate are ASUS AiCloud, a proprietary service designed to enable access to local stora...

The threat actor known as PlushDaemon has been observed using a previously undocumented Go-based network backdoor codenamed EdgeStepper to facilitate adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) attacks. EdgeStepper "redirects all DNS queries to an external, malicious hijacking node, effectively rerouting the traffic from legitimate infrastructure used for software updates to attacker-controlled infrastructure," ESET security researcher Facundo Muñoz said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Known to be active since at least 2018, PlushDaemon is assessed to be a China-aligned group that has attacked entities in the U.S., New Zealand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and mainland China. It was first documented by the Slovak cybersecurity company earlier this January, detailing a supply chain attack aimed at a South Korean virtual private network (VPN) provider named IPany to target a semiconductor company and an unidentified software development company in South Korea wi...

Microsoft on Monday disclosed that it automatically detected and neutralized a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeting a single endpoint in Australia that measured 15.72 terabits per second (Tbps) and nearly 3.64 billion packets per second (pps). The tech giant said it was the largest DDoS attack ever observed in the cloud, and that it originated from a TurboMirai-class Internet of Things (IoT) botnet known as AISURU . It's currently not known who was targeted by the attack. "The attack involved extremely high-rate UDP floods targeting a specific public IP address, launched from over 500,000 source IPs across various regions," Microsoft's Sean Whalen said . "These sudden UDP bursts had minimal source spoofing and used random source ports, which helped simplify traceback and facilitated provider enforcement." According to data from QiAnXin XLab, the AISURU botnet is powered by nearly 300,000 infected devices, most of which are routers, se...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered malware campaigns using the now-prevalent ClickFix social engineering tactic to deploy Amatera Stealer and NetSupport RAT . The activity, observed this month, is being tracked by eSentire under the moniker EVALUSION . First spotted in June 2025, Amatera is assessed to be an evolution of ACR (short for "AcridRain") Stealer, which was available under the malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model until sales of the malware were suspended in mid-July 2024. Amatera is available for purchase via subscription plans that go from $199 per month to $1,499 for a year. "Amatera provides threat actors with extensive data exfiltration capabilities targeting crypto-wallets, browsers, messaging applications, FTP clients, and email services," the Canadian cybersecurity vendor said. "Notably, Amatera employs advanced evasion techniques such as WoW64 SysCalls to circumvent user-mode hooking mechanisms commonly used by sandboxes, Anti-Vi...

This week showed just how fast things can go wrong when no one's watching. Some attacks were silent and sneaky. Others used tools we trust every day — like AI, VPNs, or app stores — to cause damage without setting off alarms. It's not just about hacking anymore. Criminals are building systems to make money, spy, or spread malware like it's a business. And in some cases, they're using the same apps and services that businesses rely on — flipping the script without anyone noticing at first. The scary part? Some threats weren't even bugs — just clever use of features we all take for granted. And by the time people figured it out, the damage was done. Let's look at what really happened, why it matters, and what we should all be thinking about now. ⚡ Threat of the Week Silently Patched Fortinet Flaw Comes Under Attack — A vulnerability that was patched by Fortinet in FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF) has been exploited in the wild since early October 2025 by threat actors to c...