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Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a cluster of 16 malicious Mozilla Firefox extensions that are capable of stealing cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases and private keys. "The extensions masquerade as wallet portals, desktop utilities, and browser tools, but their code intercepts recovery phrases and private keys during wallet import flows and attempts to send those secrets to attacker-controlled Cloudflare Workers," Socket researcher Joseph Edwards said in an analysis. The names of the extensions are below - view-focus-bright@webtools.co@6.12.2 quick-track-nest@tabtools.co@8.1.18 vibe-kit-tool@fasttools.co@9.21.9 edge-hub-snap@protools.net@4.12.24 core-hub-peak@neattools.example@8.24.21 sipoo-grozza@browserweb.com@2.1 mozart-seo@webtools.com@1.4 clean-file-bar@neattools.com@4.21.8 clean-net-timer@plugify.example@4.17.1 manager-square@webtools.com@1.4 manager-course@webtools.com@1.4 val-andrew@browserweb.com@1.4 manag...

A blank field. A public repo. One reply to an email. A box left exposed. None of this sounds dramatic, which is partly the problem. This week’s threats keep finding leverage in small things that were easy to overlook. There are actively exploited bugs in the mix, cleaner intrusion paths, smarter automation, and a long patch list waiting behind them. Some attacks are getting more capable. Others are still getting in because the basics gave way first. Here’s what mattered this week. ⚡ Threat of the Week Citrix Warns of Newly Exploited NetScaler ADC and Gateway Flaw — Citrix released security updates for a high-severity security flaw in NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway that has been exploited as part of targeted zero-day attacks. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-88779, carries a CVSS score of 8.7 out of 10.0. "CVE-2026-88779 is a memory overflow vulnerability in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Citrix NetScaler Gateway that can lead to denial-of-service under specific depl...

A domain used as harmless placeholder text showed up in roughly 1,700 repositories. Then somebody registered it and started serving malicious lures. That is the kind of week this was: forgotten assumptions turning into live attack surface. Elsewhere, weak service accounts, old bugs, exposed systems, phishing kits, and strangely easy exploit paths kept doing useful work for attackers. Nothing exotic. Mostly things nobody expected to matter anymore. Here’s the full recap of what mattered this week. ⚡ Threat of the Week Citrix Warns of Actively Exploited NetScaler ADC and Gateway Flaws — Citrix released patches to address multiple vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-88771 and CVE-2026-88772, that have come under active exploitation. CVE-2026-88771 is an improper input validation vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands, while successful exploitation of CVE-2026-88772 could allow for remote code execution or denial-of-service. CISA...

The Psychedelic Stealer malware distributed via compromised Ukrainian websites using ClickFix-style Cloudflare verification checks is part of a wider malware-as-a-service (MaaS) platform called Lunex . The new findings come from Ontinue, which described the activity as a four-stage attack chain aimed at targeting Ukrainian-speaking users. "The attack chain begins with a fake CAPTCHA page and culminates in the deployment of a fully-featured C2 agent," Ontinue threat researcher Rhys Downing said in a technical report. "The stealer extracts credentials and data from seven Chromium-based browsers, exfiltrates cryptocurrency wallets, and establishes persistent remote filesystem access through a PowerShell-based Native Messaging Host installed within the victim's browser." The infection makes use of bogus MSI installers delivered via ClickFix to trigger a series of actions, including delivering a loader dubbed LunexLoader that's designed to bypass User Ac...

A browser. A plugin. A package. A login screen. Normal stuff. That is basically the problem this week. The trouble keeps showing up inside things people already trust: code that takes a bad turn, old payloads coming back, exposed systems, weak checks, fake fixes, and attack paths that look almost too easy. Even the research side is getting messy, with more findings, more automation, and not always more clarity. Nothing here needs much drama. Just a lot of small doors left open. Here’s what happened. ⚡ Threat of the Week Cisco Warns of Actively Exploited ISE Auth Bypass — Cisco warned of a fresh maximum-severity security flaw impacting Identity Services Engine (ISE) that has come under active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-76460 (CVSS score: 10.0), could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication. "This vulnerability is due to insufficient authentication control on an API endpoint," Cisco said. "An attacker could exp...

Security researchers at Forever Security have shown that one ordinary browser extension could take control of the AI assistants built into five Chromium-based products: Gemini Live in Chrome, Perplexity Comet, Microsoft Edge, Opera Neon and the Claude in Chrome extension. Once the extension was installed, it could access each product's built-in AI with a single click. On Comet, Edge, Opera Neon, and Claude in Chrome, it could drive the AI agent to act on behalf of the attacker; on Chrome and Comet, it could read files from the user's computer, and on Chrome, it could also switch on the camera and microphone. The findings are researcher demonstrations, not attacks seen in the wild, and each requires the attacker's extension to be already running in the victim's browser. These products all work the same way. The AI has a "body" inside the browser that can see the screen, open files, use the camera, and take actions, and a "brain" that runs on th...

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a previously undocumented Brazilian banking malware operation that delivers a toolkit called KREMLIN . Elastic Security Labs is tracking the activity under the moniker REF9334 . Active since at least May 2025, the threat actor has used lures that impersonate a dozen Brazilian banks and install a malicious browser extension on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. "The KREMLIN malware ecosystem employs multi-stage JavaScript loaders, custom C++ installers, and malicious browser extensions to steal credentials, session tokens, and sensitive data," security researchers Cyril François and Andrew Pease said in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. "Malicious browser extensions bypass Chromium integrity mechanisms by manipulating Secure Preferences and regenerating required HMACs, and App-Bound encrypted hashes." A defining aspect of the operation is the use of blockchain to conceal the threat actor-controlled...

AI keeps showing up in the wrong places. Attackers are using it to speed up exploits, test defenses, and automate more of the job. Some models are also crossing lines on their own. That is not a great combination. The rest of the week is more familiar: old bugs still working, fresh exploit chains, exposed systems, weak defaults, and simple paths that should have been harder to abuse. A few of these stories are clever. Most are just easy. Here’s what mattered this week. ⚡ Threat of the Week OpenAI Agents Behind May 2026 Attack on RubyGems — The "major malicious attack" that targeted RubyGems in May 2026 was the work of a swarm of OpenAI agents, according to researchers. The event was driven by a cluster of OpenAI agents that engaged in en masse publication of thousands of packages to RubyGems in May and June 2026. "The swarm behaves extremely similarly to the German-wiki agents we previously found," researchers Spencer Kitts, Thomas Larsen, and Sydney Von...

A malicious cross-store Twitch browser extension has leaked OAuth tokens associated with nearly 31,000 users to proxy servers operated by a Russian commercial bot service. The extension, named "Twitch Enhanced Viewer | JeetBot," lists HISHIMIRO/jeetbot.cc as its developer and has the following identifiers on the Google Chrome Web Store and Mozilla Firefox Add-Ons store - Chrome - pnhhdhhcadcjfckjhpmjneldiegbojfb - 30,000 users (Published on June 26, 2025) Firefox - twitchenhancedviewer@example.com - 604 users (Published on July 7, 2025) Both extensions are still available for download as of writing. The extension listing description states: "JeetBot is a modern tool for streamers and viewers who appreciate quality, convenience, and control," adding it "expands Twitch capabilities: 1080p stream for regions with constraints." "Current builds (v85.x) forward the token inline as an &auth= query parameter on a network-layer redirect ...

A China-linked hacking group exploited a flaw in Sogou Input Method , one of the most widely used tools for typing Chinese characters on Windows, to install a backdoor on victims' computers, security company Gen Digital said in  research published Thursday . The attack started with a crafted link and ended with the attacker able to do anything the logged-in user could do. Tencent, which owns and develops Sogou, fixed the flaw in April 2026. Gen found the flaw while investigating a live intrusion by UNC3569 , a group that  Google Threat Intelligence ties to China  and places in the country's hacker-for-hire scene. Google has tracked the group since 2021 and says it has targeted government, education, technology, and finance sectors, mostly in East and Southeast Asia. The backdoor it installed is GRAYRABBIT , a small program the group has used for years and that Google describes as its first step onto a machine. It gives an attacker a remote command shell, allows fil...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a complex Chromium-based post-exploitation toolkit called PEEP that masquerades as a bookmarks extension for the web browser. "Requiring prior administrative or code execution access, its installer injects the extension directly into Chrome/Edge profiles, bypassing Web Store checks and user prompts by forging Chromium's own Secure Preferences integrity values," SOCRadar said . "A native-messaging tool then extends it beyond browser telemetry to host-level command execution and file management." Once installed, the PEEP "extension" agent polls its command-and-control (C2) server ("206.237.30[.]232" or " xfjcc[.]fun ") every 30 seconds over plaintext HTTP for new commands, while exfiltrating browsing history, active-tab metadata, and session cookies. It also functions as a remote access and browser monitoring toolkit that runs host commands, steals credentials, hijacks sessions...

Turning off email images should at least stop the pictures. This week, attackers had a workaround: a scannable QR code built out of text. It still appears, even with images blocked. A small detail, but an annoying one if that was a precaution you were counting on. Elsewhere, a trusted software source delivered code that stole credentials, and a protocol designed for secure network management gave outsiders useful clues before login. Add active attacks on browsers, routers, and online stores, and there’s plenty to check—even for teams that have kept up with the patches. Read the full recap for the week’s major developments, plus more research, attacks, and security news beyond what we covered last week. ⚡ Threat of the Week N-able Patches Critical N-central Flaws — N-able has released hotfixes to address two severe N-central flaws (CVE-2026-86206 and CVE-2026-86207) that could allow an unauthorized party to bypass authentication controls and gain full access to the platform. ...

Google on Thursday released security updates to patch 12 vulnerabilities, including one that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-85046 (CVSS score: 8.8), has been described as a type confusion bug in V8, Chrome's JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. "Type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 152.0.7977.82 allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page," reads a description of the flaw in CVE.org. Security researcher Salvatore Gulizia (aka Serotav) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on August 4, 2026. The researcher has been awarded a bug bounty of $1,000 for responsible disclosure. In a separate blog post detailing the issue, Gulizia  described it as a "V8 bug in the compilers that leads to an array containing PACKED_ELEMENTS to receive the map PACKED_SMI_ELEMENTS, this can be turned into arbitrary read/write on the J...

The boring parts caused most of the trouble. A router shipped ready to listen. A fake check turned the user into the installer. Trusted systems collected traffic and passwords, then cleaned the logs. Old bugs formed new attack chains. Even an AI agent decided its assigned task was optional. Elsewhere, fake apps, helpful support calls, cheap banking kits, exposed systems, and weak defaults kept things moving. Different attacks, same useful mistake: something familiar was trusted without a second look. Here is the week... ⚡ Threat of the Week U.S. Disrupts Chinese Proxy Network Enabling Cyber Espionage — The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) disrupted infrastructure associated with a technical quartermaster who sold reconnaissance, proxy management, and operational routing capabilities for Chinese cyber espionage activities. The QTYF group is said to have created and operated the QScan and QTRouter frameworks, which have been used to target U.S. critical infrastructu...

A package gets installed. A login prompt opens. A box sits exposed to the internet. Nothing looks unusual yet. That’s roughly the mood this week. Trusted tools turn hostile, old weak spots get fresh attention, AI makes exploit work cheaper, and researchers keep finding attacks that sound harder than they actually are. Plenty to clean up. Here’s the short version. ⚡ Threat of the Week U.S. Warns of AI-Powered Attacks on Siemens PLCs — Threat actors are using AI to write exploit scripts targeting internet-exposed Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used across water, energy, manufacturing, and other critical infrastructure sectors, according to the U.S. government. The agencies warned: "This is not a theoretical risk—it is an active threat." The exploitation of poorly secured PLCs could result in disruption of critical industrial processes, safety incidents, downtime or equipment damage, compromise of sensitive data, and compliance violations, not...

Big security risks come in small packages. While enterprise security teams focus on policing the proliferation of employees using ChatGPT and Claude for quick drafting tasks, a more urgent threat is posed by a handful of AI super-adopters who are quietly hardcoding unvetted tools into critical business operations. According to new research published by Akamai, the top 5% of enterprise power users interact with AI models at 12 times the rate of the bottom 50% of the workforce. The findings, published in Akamai’s State of the Internet: Enterprise AI Usage Risk Report 2026 , are based on real-world usage and telemetry data as well as research and threat analysis.  These AI super-adopters are creating a disproportionate security risk by expanding the use of shadow AI, increasing opportunities for data leakage, and introducing autonomous AI agents that operate within the enterprise but outside its established guardrails. “Small groups of AI power users are casting outsized shado...

A set of 40 Mozilla Firefox extensions has been found to engage in cryptocurrency wallet theft by masquerading as OKX, Rabby Wallet, TronLink, and other Web3 products. According to the Socket Threat Research team, the extensions are part of a broader set of 77 browser add-ons that share source code and infrastructure overlaps. The campaign, dubbed Offside Wallet Theft Factory , is believed to have been active since March 2026. The activity has not been attributed to any known threat actor or group. "Extension-level analysis confirms 40 as malicious," security researcher Kirill Boychenko said . "Another 37 form a coordinated multi-sport score-shell operation. Their analyzed builds contain no confirmed credential- or wallet-stealing payloads, but their deceptive functionality, shared publishing artifacts, and version histories indicate malicious intent." Among those 40 extensions, seven use threat actor-controlled Supabase projects as remote switches to server ...

The expensive attacks are not always the clever ones. This week had plenty of proof. Exposed services got hit, old bugs found fresh use, browser sessions became attack paths, and supply-chain problems kept spreading farther than the original compromise. A lot of it came down to access that was already there and defenses that assumed nobody would look too closely. So, nothing magical. Just a lot of small openings turning into bigger problems. Here’s what stood out. ⚡ Threat of the Week Suspected China APT Behind Exploitation of New VMware Flaw — A suspected China-nexus APT is assessed to be behind the exploitation of a newly patched security flaw in VMware vCenter. The attacks involve the exploitation of CVE-2026-59310 (CVSS score: 9.8), a severe directory-traversal vulnerability in the VMware vCenter server that could be weaponized by a malicious actor to execute arbitrary code. In at least one compromised instance, the attacks led to the deployment of a backdoor and. a rever...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a post-exploitation technique that enables the  Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP)  inside a running Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge process on Windows, allowing an operator to access cookies, saved data, and authenticated browser sessions. The technique assumes that an operator already has code execution on the Windows host and does not involve exploiting a Chrome or Edge security vulnerability. The requirement for prior code execution and sufficient access to manipulate the target process places the technique in a narrower post-compromise scenario than a remotely exploitable browser flaw. SpecterOps said defenders can look for signs of process injection targeting chrome.exe and msedge.exe using Sysmon Event IDs 8 and 10. "Since App-Bound Encryption was enabled, we've seen an increase in attackers using Chrome Remote Debugging to extract cookies," Google said in a  March 2025 post . Google  changed C...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a large-scale, global recruitment-themed phishing campaign that uses fake interview scheduling pages and Browser-in-the-Browser (BitB) windows to steal Google and Facebook credentials and, in more advanced cases, relay multi-factor authentication (MFA) prompts in real time. CTM360, which detailed the activity in a new report titled RecruitTrap , said it identified more than 3,000+ phishing URLs over two months. The campaign impersonated real recruiters and recruitment processes associated with more than 50 organizations across 14 sectors . Marketing professionals accounted for the majority of observed targets. The focus on marketing roles appears deliberate. Compromised marketing accounts can provide access to advertising platforms, corporate social media profiles, customer data, email, and other business-critical services. Read the full report here: https://www.ctm360.com/reports/recruittrap-browser-in-the-browser-bitb-recruitment-scam...