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Cybersecurity firm Expel, in an update shared on July 25, 2025, said it's retracting its findings about a phishing attack that it said leveraged cross-device sign-in to get around FIDO account protections despite being not in physical proximity to the authenticating client device. "The evidence does show the targeted user's credentials (username and password) being phished and that the attacker successfully passed password authentication for the targeted user," the company said . "It also shows the user received a QR code from the attacker. This QR code, when scanned by a mobile device, initiates a FIDO Cross-Device Authentication flow, which according to FIDO specification requires local proximity to the device which generated the QR code (the WebAuthn client). When properly implemented, without proximity, the request will time out and fail." The company further said that while the attackers managed to breach the password barrier, further analysis of t...

Phishing attacks are steadily becoming more sophisticated, with cybercriminals investing in new ways of deceiving victims into revealing sensitive information or installing malicious software. One of the latest trends in phishing is the use of QR codes, CAPTCHAs, and steganography. See how they are carried out and learn to detect them. Quishing Quishing, a phishing technique resulting from the combination of "QR" and "phishing," has become a popular weapon for cybercriminals in 2023. By concealing malicious links within QR codes, attackers can evade traditional spam filters, which are primarily geared towards identifying text-based phishing attempts. The inability of many security tools to decipher the content of QR codes further makes this method a go-to choice for cybercriminals. An email containing a QR code with a malicious link Analyzing a QR code with an embedded malicious link in a safe environment is easy with  ANY.RUN : Simply open  this task  in th...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday released an advisory warning of North Korean state-sponsored threat actors leveraging malicious QR codes in spear-phishing campaigns targeting entities in the country. "As of 2025, Kimsuky actors have targeted think tanks, academic institutions, and both U.S. and foreign government entities with embedded malicious Quick Response (QR) codes in spear-phishing campaigns," the FBI said in the flash alert. "This type of spear-phishing attack is referred to as quishing." The use of QR codes for phishing is a tactic that forces victims to shift from a machine that's secured by enterprise policies to a mobile device that may not offer the same level of protection, effectively allowing threat actors to bypass traditional defenses. Kimsuky, also tracked as APT43, Black Banshee, Emerald Sleet, Springtail, TA427, and Velvet Chollima, is a threat group that's assessed to be affiliated with North Korea's...

GitHub on Monday announced that it will be changing its authentication and publishing options "in the near future" in response to a recent wave of supply chain attacks targeting the npm ecosystem, including the Shai-Hulud attack . This includes steps to address threats posed by token abuse and self-replicating malware by allowing local publishing with required two-factor authentication (2FA), granular tokens that will have a limited lifetime of seven days, and trusted publishing , which enables the ability to securely publish npm packages directly from CI/CD workflows using OpenID Connect (OIDC). Trusted publishing, besides eliminating the need for npm tokens, establishes cryptographic trust by authenticating each publish using short-lived, workflow-specific credentials that cannot be exfiltrated or reused. Even more significantly, the npm CLI automatically generates and publishes provenance attestations for the package. "Every package published via trusted publi...

An analysis of a hybrid biometric access system from Chinese manufacturer ZKTeco has uncovered two dozen security flaws that could be used by attackers to defeat authentication, steal biometric data, and even deploy malicious backdoors. "By adding random user data to the database or using a fake QR code, a nefarious actor can easily bypass the verification process and gain unauthorized access," Kaspersky said . "Attackers can also steal and leak biometric data, remotely manipulate devices, and deploy backdoors." The 24 flaws span six SQL injections, seven stack-based buffer overflows, five command injections, four arbitrary file writes, and two arbitrary file reads. A brief description of each vulnerability type is below - CVE-2023-3938 (CVSS score: 4.6) - An SQL injection flaw when displaying a QR code into the device's camera by passing a specially crafted request containing a quotation mark, thereby allowing an attacker to authenticate as any user in th...

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a new adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing kit that's capable of Microsoft 365 accounts with an aim to steal credentials and two-factor authentication (2FA) codes since at least October 2024. The nascent phishing kit has been dubbed Sneaky 2FA by French cybersecurity company Sekoia, which detected it in the wild in December. Nearly 100 domains hosting Sneaky 2FA phishing pages have been identified as of this month, suggesting moderate adoption by threat actors. "This kit is being sold as phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) by the cybercrime service 'Sneaky Log,' which operates through a fully-featured bot on Telegram," the company said in an analysis. "Customers reportedly receive access to a licensed obfuscated version of the source code and deploy it independently." Phishing campaigns have been observed sending payment receipt-related emails to entice recipients into opening bogus PDF documents containing QR co...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new malware loader called QuirkyLoader that's being used to deliver via email spam campaigns an array of next-stage payloads ranging from information stealers to remote access trojans since November 2024. Some of the notable malware families distributed using QuirkyLoader include Agent Tesla , AsyncRAT , Formbook , Masslogger , Remcos RAT , Rhadamanthys Stealer , and Snake Keylogger . IBM X-Force, which detailed the malware, said the attacks involve sending spam emails from both legitimate email service providers and a self-hosted email server. These emails feature a malicious archive, which contains a DLL, an encrypted payload, and a real executable. "The actor uses DLL side-loading, a technique where launching the legitimate executable also loads the malicious DLL," security researcher Raymond Joseph Alfonso said . "This DLL, in turn, loads, decrypts, and injects the final payload into its target process....

A new attack campaign has targeted known Chrome browser extensions, leading to at least 35 extensions being compromised and exposing over 2.6 million users to data exposure and credential theft. The attack targeted publishers of browser extensions on the Chrome Web Store via a phishing campaign and used their access permissions to insert malicious code into legitimate extensions in order to steal cookies and user access tokens. The first company to shed light the campaign was cybersecurity firm Cyberhaven, one of whose employees was targeted by a phishing attack on December 24, allowing the threat actors to publish a malicious version of the extension. On December 27, Cyberhaven disclosed that a threat actor compromised its browser extension and injected malicious code to communicate with an external command-and-control (C&C) server located on the domain cyberhavenext[.]pro, download additional configuration files, and exfiltrate user data. The phishing email, which purported...

Cybercriminals associated with a financially motivated group known as GoldFactory have been observed staging a fresh round of attacks targeting mobile users in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam by impersonating government services. The activity , observed since October 2024, involves distributing modified banking applications that act as a conduit for Android malware, Group-IB said in a technical report published Wednesday. Assessed to be active as far back as June 2023, GoldFactory first gained attention early last year, when the Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity company detailed the threat actor's use of custom malware families like GoldPickaxe, GoldDigger, and GoldDiggerPlus targeting both Android and iOS devices. Evidence points to GoldFactory being a well-organized Chinese-speaking cybercrime group with close connections to Gigabud , another Android malware that was spotted in mid-2023. Despite major disparities in their codebases, both GoldDigger and Gigabud have bee...

Cybersecurity researchers have found that bad actors are continuing to have success by spoofing sender email addresses as part of various malspam campaigns. Faking the sender address of an email is widely seen as an attempt to make the digital missive more legitimate and get past security mechanisms that could otherwise flag it as malicious. While there are safeguards such as DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) that can be used to prevent spammers from spoofing well-known domains, such measures have increasingly led them to leverage old, neglected domains in their operations. In doing so, the email messages are likely to bypass security checks that rely on the domain age as a means to identify spam. DNS threat intelligence firm Infoblox, in a new analysis shared with The Hacker News, discovered that threat actors, including Muddling Meerkat and others, have abused some of it...

Cyber threats last week showed how attackers no longer need big hacks to cause big damage. They're going after the everyday tools we trust most — firewalls, browser add-ons, and even smart TVs — turning small cracks into serious breaches. The real danger now isn't just one major attack, but hundreds of quiet ones using the software and devices already inside our networks. Each trusted system can become an entry point if it's left unpatched or overlooked. Here's a clear look at the week's biggest risks, from exploited network flaws to new global campaigns and fast-moving vulnerabilities. ⚡ Threat of the Week Flaws in Multiple Network Security Products Come Under Attack — Over the past week, Fortinet , SonicWall , Cisco , and WatchGuard said vulnerabilities in their products have been exploited by threat actors in real-world attacks. Cisco said attacks exploiting CVE-2025-20393, a critical flaw in AsyncOS, have been abused by a China-nexus advanced persistent threat (APT) actor cod...

This week's ThreatsDay Bulletin tracks how attackers keep reshaping old tools and finding new angles in familiar systems. Small changes in tactics are stacking up fast, and each one hints at where the next big breach could come from. From shifting infrastructures to clever social hooks, the week's activity shows just how fluid the threat landscape has become. Here's the full rundown of what moved in the cyber world this week. International scam ring busted Fraudulent Call Centers Disrupted in Ukraine Authorities from the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine, along with Eurojust, took action against a criminal network operating call centers in Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kyiv that scammed more than 400 victims across Europe out of more than €10 million ($11.7 million). "The criminal group established a professional organisation with employees who received a percentage of the proceeds for each completed scam," Eur...

In cybersecurity, precision matters—and there's little room for error. A small mistake, missed setting, or quiet misconfiguration can quickly lead to much bigger problems. The signs we're seeing this week highlight deeper issues behind what might look like routine incidents: outdated tools, slow response to risks, and the ongoing gap between compliance and real security. For anyone responsible for protecting systems, the key isn't just reacting to alerts—it's recognizing the larger patterns and hidden weak spots they reveal. Here's a breakdown of what's unfolding across the cybersecurity world this week. ⚡ Threat of the Week NCA Arrests for Alleged Scattered Spider Members — The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that four people have been arrested in connection with cyber attacks targeting major retailers Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Harrods. The arrested individuals include two men aged 19, a third aged 17, and a 20-year-old woman. They were apprehended in the West...

The popularity of Brazil's  PIX  instant payment system has made it a  lucrative target for threat actors  looking to generate illicit profits using a new malware called GoPIX . Kaspersky, which has been tracking the active campaign since December 2022, said the attacks are pulled off  using malicious ads  that are served when potential victims search for "WhatsApp web" on search engines. "The cybercriminals employ malvertising: their links are placed in the ad section of the search results, so the user sees them first," the Russian cybersecurity vendor  said . "If they click such a link, a redirection follows, with the user ending up on the malware landing page." As other malvertising campaigns observed recently, users who click on the ad will be redirected via a cloaking service that is meant to filter sandboxes, bots, and others not deemed to be genuine victims. This is accomplished by using a legitimate fraud prevention solution known as ...