ransomware | 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...

A new exploit combining two critical, now-patched security flaws in SAP NetWeaver has emerged in the wild, putting organizations at risk of system compromise and data theft. The exploit in question chains together CVE-2025-31324 and CVE-2025-42999 to bypass authentication and achieve remote code execution, SAP security company Onapsis said . CVE-2025-31324 (CVSS score: 10.0) - Missing Authorization check in SAP NetWeaver's Visual Composer development server CVE-2025-42999 (CVSS score: 9.1) - Insecure Deserialization in SAP NetWeaver's Visual Composer development server The vulnerabilities were addressed by SAP back in April and May 2025, but not before they were abused by threat actors as zero-days since at least March. Multiple ransomware and data extortion groups, including Qilin, BianLian, and RansomExx, have been observed weaponizing the flaws , not to mention several China-nexus espionage crews who have also put them to use in attacks targeting critical infra...

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...

Cybersecurity researchers have lifted the lid on the threat actors' exploitation of a now-patched security flaw in Microsoft Windows to deploy the PipeMagic malware in RansomExx ransomware attacks. The attacks involve the exploitation of CVE-2025-29824, a privilege escalation vulnerability impacting the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) that was addressed by Microsoft in April 2025, Kaspersky and BI.ZONE said in a joint report published today. PipeMagic was first documented in 2022 as part of RansomExx ransomware attacks targeting industrial companies in Southeast Asia, capable of acting as a full-fledged backdoor providing remote access and executing a wide range of commands on compromised hosts. In those attacks, the threat actors have been found to exploit CVE-2017-0144 , a remote code execution flaw in Windows SMB, to infiltrate victim infrastructure. Subsequent infection chains observed in October 2024 in Saudi Arabia were spotted leveraging a fake OpenAI ChatGPT...

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 U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday renewed sanctions against Russian cryptocurrency exchange platform Garantex for facilitating ransomware actors and other cybercriminals by processing more than $100 million in transactions linked to illicit activities since 2019. The Treasury said it's also imposing sanctions on Garantex's successor, Grinex , as well as three executives of Garantex and six associated companies in Russia and the Kyrgyz Republic that have enabled these activities - Sergey Mendeleev (Co-founder) Aleksandr Mira Serda (Co-founder) Pavel Karavatsky (Co-founder) Independent Decentralized Finance Smartbank and Ecosystem (InDeFi Bank) Exved Old Vector A7 LLC A71 LLC A7 Agent LLC "Digital assets play a crucial role in global innovation and economic development, and the United States will not tolerate abuse of this industry to support cybercrime and sanctions evasion," said Under Secretar...

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...

Story teaser text: Cybersecurity leaders face mounting pressure to stop attacks before they start, and the best defense may come down to the settings you choose on day one. In this piece, Yuriy Tsibere explores how default policies like deny-by-default, MFA enforcement, and application Ringfencing ™ can eliminate entire categories of risk. From disabling Office macros to blocking outbound server traffic, these simple but strategic moves create a hardened environment that attackers can't easily penetrate. Whether you're securing endpoints or overseeing policy rollouts, adopting a security-by-default mindset can reduce complexity, shrink your attack surface, and help you stay ahead of evolving threats. Cybersecurity has changed dramatically since the days of the "Love Bug" virus in 2001. What was once an annoyance is now a profit-driven criminal enterprise worth billions. This shift demands proactive defense strategies that don't just respond to threats—they prevent t...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malvertising campaign that's designed to infect victims with a multi-stage malware framework called PS1Bot . "PS1Bot features a modular design, with several modules delivered used to perform a variety of malicious activities on infected systems, including information theft, keylogging, reconnaissance, and the establishment of persistent system access," Cisco Talos researchers Edmund Brumaghin and Jordyn Dunk said . "PS1Bot has been designed with stealth in mind, minimizing persistent artifacts left on infected systems and incorporating in-memory execution techniques to facilitate execution of follow-on modules without requiring them to be written to disk." Campaigns distributing the PowerShell and C# malware have been found to be active since early 2025, leveraging malvertising as a propagation vector, with the infection chains executing modules in-memory to minimize forensic trail. PS1Bot is assessed to share ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new campaign that employs a previously undocumented ransomware family called Charon to target the Middle East's public sector and aviation industry. The threat actor behind the activity, according to Trend Micro, exhibited tactics mirroring those of advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, such as DLL side-loading, process injection, and the ability to evade endpoint detection and response (EDR) software. The DLL side-loading techniques resemble those previously documented as part of attacks orchestrated by a China-linked hacking group called Earth Baxia , which was flagged by the cybersecurity company as targeting government entities in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region to deliver a backdoor known as EAGLEDOOR following the exploitation of a now-patched security flaw affecting OSGeo GeoServer GeoTools. "The attack chain leveraged a legitimate browser-related file, Edge.exe (originally named cookie_exporter.exe), to sideload a...

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),...

A newly discovered campaign dubbed GreedyBear has leveraged over 150 malicious extensions to the Firefox marketplace that are designed to impersonate popular cryptocurrency wallets and steal more than $1 million in digital assets. The published browser add-ons masquerade as MetaMask, TronLink, Exodus, and Rabby Wallet, among others, Koi Security researcher Tuval Admoni said. What makes the activity notable is the threat actor's use of a technique that the cybersecurity company called Extension Hollowing to bypass safeguards put in place by Mozilla and exploit user trust. It's worth noting that some aspects of the campaign were first documented by security researcher Lukasz Olejnik last week. "Rather than trying to sneak malicious extensions past initial reviews, they build legitimate-seeming extension portfolios first, then weaponize them later when nobody's watching," Admoni said in a report published Thursday. To achieve this, the attackers first create ...

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...

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 ...

SonicWall said it's actively investigating reports to determine if there is a new zero-day vulnerability following reports of a spike in Akira ransomware actors in late July 2025. "Over the past 72 hours, there has been a notable increase in both internally and externally reported cyber incidents involving Gen 7 SonicWall firewalls where SSLVPN is enabled," the network security vendor said in a statement Monday. "We are actively investigating these incidents to determine whether they are connected to a previously disclosed vulnerability or if a new vulnerability may be responsible." While SonicWall is digging deeper, organizations using Gen 7 SonicWall firewalls are advised to follow the steps below until further notice - Disable SSL VPN services where practical Limit SSL VPN connectivity to trusted IP addresses Activate services such as Botnet Protection and Geo-IP Filtering Enforce multi-factor authentication Remove inactive or unused local user ac...

Malware isn't just trying to hide anymore—it's trying to belong. We're seeing code that talks like us, logs like us, even documents itself like a helpful teammate. Some threats now look more like developer tools than exploits. Others borrow trust from open-source platforms, or quietly build themselves out of AI-written snippets. It's not just about being malicious—it's about being believable. In this week's cybersecurity recap, we explore how today's threats are becoming more social, more automated, and far too sophisticated for yesterday's instincts to catch. ⚡ Threat of the Week Secret Blizzard Conduct ISP-Level AitM Attacks to Deploy ApolloShadow — Russian cyberspies are abusing local internet service providers' networks to target foreign embassies in Moscow and likely collect intelligence from diplomats' devices. The activity has been attributed to the Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Secret Blizzard (aka Turla). It likely involves using an adversary-...

SonicWall SSL VPN devices have become the target of Akira ransomware attacks as part of a newfound surge in activity observed in late July 2025. "In the intrusions reviewed, multiple pre-ransomware intrusions were observed within a short period of time, each involving VPN access through SonicWall SSL VPNs," Arctic Wolf Labs researcher Julian Tuin said in a report. The cybersecurity company suggested that the attacks could be exploiting an as-yet-undetermined security flaw in the appliances, meaning a zero-day vulnerability, given that some of the incidents affected fully-patched SonicWall devices. However, the possibility of credential-based attacks for initial access hasn't been ruled out. The uptick in attacks involving SonicWall SSL VPNs was first registered on July 15, 2025, although Arctic Wolf said that it has observed similar malicious VPN logins as far back as October 2024 , suggesting sustained efforts to target the devices. "A short interval was obser...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a new cluster of activity where threat actors are impersonating enterprises with fake Microsoft OAuth applications to facilitate credential harvesting as part of account takeover attacks. "The fake Microsoft 365 applications impersonate various companies, including RingCentral, SharePoint, Adobe, and Docusign," Proofpoint said in a Thursday report. The ongoing campaign, first detected in early 2025, is designed to use the OAuth applications as a gateway to obtain unauthorized access to users' Microsoft 365 accounts by means of phishing kits like Tycoon and ODx that are capable of conducting multi-factor authentication (MFA) phishing. The enterprise security company said it observed the approach being used in email campaigns with more than 50 impersonated applications. The attacks begin with phishing emails sent from compromised accounts and aim to trick recipients into clicking on URLs under the pretext of sharing requests ...

The threat actor linked to the exploitation of the recently disclosed security flaws in Microsoft SharePoint Server is using a bespoke command-and-control (C2) framework called AK47 C2 (also spelled ak47c2) in its operations. The framework includes at least two different types of clients, HTTP-based and Domain Name System ( DNS )-based, which have been dubbed AK47HTTP and AK47DNS, respectively, by Check Point Research. The activity has been attributed to Storm-2603 , which, according to Microsoft, is a suspected China-based threat actor that has leveraged the SharePoint flaws – CVE-2025-49706 and CVE-2025-49704 (aka ToolShell) – to deploy Warlock (aka X2anylock) ransomware. A previously unreported threat cluster, evidence gathered following an analysis of VirusTotal artifacts shows that the group may have been active since at least March 2025, deploying ransomware families like LockBit Black and Warlock together – something that's not observed commonly among established e-c...