Search results for windows terminal | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Microsoft on Thursday disclosed details of a new widespread ClickFix social engineering campaign that has leveraged the Windows Terminal app as a way to activate a sophisticated attack chain and deploy the Lumma Stealer malware. The activity, observed in February 2026, makes use of the terminal emulator program instead of instructing users to launch the Windows Run dialog and paste a command into it. "This campaign instructs targets to use the Windows + X → I shortcut to launch Windows Terminal (wt.exe) directly, guiding users into a privileged command execution environment that blends into legitimate administrative workflows and appears more trustworthy to users," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a series of posts on X. What makes the latest variant notable is that it bypasses detections specifically designed to flag Run dialog abuse, not to mention take advantage of the legitimacy of Windows Terminal to trick unsuspecting users into running malicious ...

Yes, you heard me right. Microsoft is taking another step forward to show its love for Linux and open source community by shipping a full Linux kernel in Windows 10 this summer. No, that doesn't mean Microsoft is making its Windows 10 a Linux distro, but the company will begin to ship an in-house custom built Linux kernel later this year starting with the Windows 10 Insider builds. Microsoft announced the move in a blog post while unveiling Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2.0 (or WSL 2 ) that will feature "dramatic file system performance increases" and support more Linux apps like Docker. So, to support this entirely new architecture for the WSL 2, Windows 10 will have its own Linux kernel. Although this is not the first time Microsoft has shipped a Linux kernel as the company has already shipped its own custom Linux kernel on Azure Sphere  last year, this is the first time a Linux kernel is shipped with Windows. Unlike Windows Subsystem for Linux version...

Do You Know:  China has planned to eliminate all foreign Technologies and Services by 2020, just like Google and Facebook . And it seems China in some years would be an entirely independent IT economy; building homegrown Mobile and computer devices, Operating Systems, Applications, Browsers and almost everything existing in the IT ecosystem. Well, China was not at all happy when Microsoft finally announced the end of official support for Windows XP. At the time, Windows holded 91% of total market share, compared to just for Mac OS X and just 1% for Linux. However, China wasn't interested to pay either for extended support for Windows XP or for switching to Windows 8. So, they decided to develop their own Operating System. Yes, China has developed a Desktop Operating System named “ NeoKylin ” ( and ‘ Kylin ’ in Chinese ), tagged as a substitute to Windows XP by Quartz , who got an opportunity to have a hands-on experience of its “community version” OS. NeoKylin...

Windows and Linux in the same line? Yes, you heard that right... and that too, on the same computer and within the same operating system. Two months ago, Microsoft announced its plans to let its users install three different flavours of the Linux operating system – Ubuntu , Fedora , and SUSE – directly through their Windows Store, allowing them to run Windows and Linux apps side-by-side. Now, downloading an entire operating system has just become as easy as downloading an application with the availability of popular Linux distro 'Ubuntu' in the Windows App Store . However, unlike a conventional Ubuntu installation, this Ubuntu version runs in a sandboxed alongside Windows 10 with limited interaction with the operating system and is focused on running regular command-line utilities like bash or SSH as a standalone installation through an Ubuntu Terminal. For now, Ubuntu is currently only available to Windows 10 Insiders users and would be made available to the pub...

Threat actors have been observed leveraging the deceptive social engineering tactic known as ClickFix to deploy a versatile backdoor codenamed CORNFLAKE.V3. Google-owned Mandiant described the activity, which it tracks as UNC5518, as part of an access-as-a-service scheme that employs fake CAPTCHA pages as lures to trick users into providing initial access to their systems, which is then monetized by other threat groups. "The initial infection vector, dubbed ClickFix, involves luring users on compromised websites to copy a malicious PowerShell script and execute it via the Windows Run dialog box," Google said in a report published today. The access provided by UNC5518 is assessed to be leveraged by at least two different hacking groups, UNC5774 and UNC4108, to initiate a multi-stage infection process and drop additional payloads - UNC5774, another financially motivated group that delivers CORNFLAKE as a way to deploy various subsequent payloads UNC4108, a threat act...

You might be aware of Microsoft and Canonical's partnership to integrate " Bash on Ubuntu on Windows 10 ," which is typically a non-graphical Ubuntu running over Windows Subsystem for Linux . Windows 10 doesn’t officially support graphical Linux desktop applications. But, now we have noticed a very interesting ticket titled "Run Any Desktop Environment in WSL" raised at Github  repository, in which a user who goes by name Guerra24 has managed to run the graphical version of Ubuntu Linux, i.e. Ubuntu Unity on Windows 10. It’s not " Microsoft Linux ." BASH or Bourne Again Shell is capable of handling advanced command line functionalities. Microsoft has provided support for Bash on Windows 10 as an expansion of its command-line tool family, so don't get confused. The Bash on Windows 10 feature is designed only for developers who want to run Linux terminal utilities without any OS dependencies. However, this feature downloads and installs...

If you are using any supported version of the Windows operating system, stop everything and install the latest security updates from Microsoft immediately. Windows operating system contains four new critical wormable, remote code execution vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Services, similar to the recently patched ' BlueKeep ' RDP vulnerability. Discovered by Microsoft's security team itself, all four vulnerabilities, CVE-2019-1181 , CVE-2019-1182 , CVE-2019-1222 , and CVE-2019-1226 , can be exploited by unauthenticated, remote attackers to take control of an affected computer system without requiring any user interaction. Just like BlueKeep RDP flaw , all four newly discovered vulnerabilities are also wormable and could be exploited by potential malware to propagate itself from one vulnerable computer to another automatically. "An attacker can get code execution at the system level by sending a specially crafted pre-authentication RDP packet to an affected RD...

It's Patch Tuesday—the day when Microsoft releases monthly security updates for its software. Microsoft has software updates to address a total of 79 CVE-listed vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other products, including a critical wormable flaw that can propagate malware from computer to computer without requiring users' interaction. Out of 79 vulnerabilities, 18 issues have been rated as critical and rest Important in severity. Two of the vulnerabilities addressed this month by the tech giant are listed as publicly known, of which one is listed as under active attack at the time of release. May 2019 security updates address flaws in Windows OS, Internet Explorer, Edge, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Office Services and Web Apps, ChakraCore, .NET Framework, and ASP.NET, Skype for Android, Azure DevOps Server, and the NuGet Package Manager. Critical Wormable RDP Vulnerability The wormable vulnerability ( CVE-2019-0708 ) resides in Remote Desktop...

ClickFix , the trick that fools people into running malware by hand, has quietly grown a back office. New research shows the malicious commands behind its fake "prove you're human" pages are now handed out by API-driven servers that give each visitor the same malware in a different disguise. The same research also turned up a new delivery method built to slip past Windows' script scanning. Security researcher Bert-Jan Pals took apart several ClickFix platforms and analyzed roughly 3,000 payloads from live campaigns. He presented the findings at  OrangeCon  in early June and  published the details  on June 30. ClickFix is simple by design. A booby-trapped page shows a fake CAPTCHA or error, hidden JavaScript drops a command into your clipboard, and the page tells you to press a key combo, paste, and hit Enter. You run the malware yourself. There's usually no exploit at the first step and often no file for traditional antivirus to flag, so conventional emai...

WikiLeaks has today published the 15th batch of its ongoing Vault 7 leak , this time detailing two alleged CIA implants that allowed the agency to intercept and exfiltrate SSH (Secure Shell) credentials from targeted Windows and Linux operating systems using different attack vectors. Secure Shell or SSH is a cryptographic network protocol used for remote login to machines and servers securely over an unsecured network. Dubbed BothanSpy — implant for Microsoft Windows Xshell client, and Gyrfalcon — targets the OpenSSH client on various distributions of Linux OS, including CentOS, Debian, RHEL (Red Hat), openSUSE and Ubuntu. Both implants steal user credentials for all active SSH sessions and then sends them to a CIA-controlled server. BothanSpy — Implant for Windows OS BothanSpy is installed as a Shellterm 3.x extension on the target machine and only works if Xshell is running on it with active sessions. Xshell is a powerful terminal emulator that supports SSH, SFTP, ...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a set of 10 malicious npm packages that are designed to deliver an information stealer targeting Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. "The malware uses four layers of obfuscation to hide its payload, displays a fake CAPTCHA to appear legitimate, fingerprints victims by IP address, and downloads a 24MB PyInstaller-packaged information stealer that harvests credentials from system keyrings, browsers, and authentication services across Windows, Linux, and macOS," Socket security researcher Kush Pandya said . The npm packages were uploaded to the registry on July 4, 2025, and accumulated over 9,900 downloads collectively - deezcord.js dezcord.js dizcordjs etherdjs ethesjs ethetsjs nodemonjs react-router-dom.js typescriptjs zustand.js The multi-stage credential theft operation manifested in the form of various typosquatted packages impersonating popular npm libraries such as TypeScript, discord.js, ethers.js, nodemon, react...

WikiLeaks has just published a new batch of the ongoing Vault 7 leak , and this time the whistleblowing website has unveiled a classified malware for that tracks geo-location of targeted PCs and laptops running the Microsoft Windows operating system. In short, the malware does it by capturing the IDs of nearby public hotspots and then matching them with the global database of public Wi-Fi hotspots’ locations. Dubbed ELSA , the alleged CIA's project consists of two main elements: the processing component (Operator Terminal) and the implant (Windows Target) which is typically being deployed on a target Windows host. Here's How the CIA's ELSA Malware Works The Elsa system first installs the malware on a targeted WiFi-enabled machine using separate CIA exploits to gain persistent access on the device. The malware then uses Wi-Fi hardware of the infected computer to scan nearby visible WiFi access points (AP) and records their ESSID – stands for Extended Service Se...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged two malicious cyber campaigns that exhibit similarities with a persistent North Korean threat cluster known as Contagious Interview (aka Famous Chollima, HexagonalRodent, and Void Dokkaebi). According to a report published by Proofpoint, the threat actor has been found orchestrating phishing campaigns using developer role recruitment or code review themes to target nearly 100 organizations in finance, cryptocurrency, education, technology, and several other sectors. The activity has been codenamed UNK_DeadDrop . "The infection chain begins with emails containing links to actor-controlled GitHub repositories hosting malicious scripts that result in the execution of cross-platform malware for macOS, Linux, and Windows, including an open-source Go framework named Overlord ," Proofpoint researchers Saher Naumaan and Carlos Rubio said . A crucial aspect connecting the campaign to Pyongyang is the use of Microsoft Visual Studio Code (...

Cybersecurity researchers today uncovered a sustained malicious campaign dating back to May 2018 that targets Windows machines running MS-SQL servers to deploy backdoors and other kinds of malware, including multi-functional remote access tools (RATs) and cryptominers. Named " Vollgar " after the Vollar cryptocurrency it mines and its offensive "vulgar" modus operandi, researchers at Guardicore Labs said the attack employs password brute-force to breach Microsoft SQL servers with weak credentials exposed to the Internet. Researchers claim the attackers managed to successfully infect nearly 2,000-3,000 database servers daily over the past few weeks, with potential victims belonging to healthcare, aviation, IT & telecommunications, and higher education sectors across China, India, the US, South Korea, and Turkey. Thankfully for those concerned, researchers have also released a script to let sysadmins detect if any of their Windows MS-SQL servers have been...

Three different ClickFix campaigns have been found to act as a delivery vector for the deployment of a macOS information stealer called MacSync . "Unlike traditional exploit-based attacks, this method relies entirely on user interaction – usually in the form of copying and executing commands – making it particularly effective against users who may not appreciate the implications of running unknown and obfuscated terminal commands," Sophos researchers Jagadeesh Chandraiah, Tonmoy Jitu, Dmitry Samosseiko, and Matt Wixey said . It's currently not known if the campaigns are the work of the same threat actor. The use of ClickFix lures to distribute the malware was also flagged by Jamf Threat Labs in December 2025. The details of the three campaigns are as follows - November 2025: A campaign that used OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas web browser as bait, delivered via sponsored search results on Google, to direct users to a fake Google Sites URL with a download button that, whe...

Microsoft on Thursday disclosed four medium-severity security flaws in the open-source OpenVPN software that could be chained to achieve remote code execution (RCE) and local privilege escalation (LPE). "This attack chain could enable attackers to gain full control over targeted endpoints, potentially resulting in data breaches, system compromise, and unauthorized access to sensitive information," Vladimir Tokarev of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Community said . That said, the exploit, presented by Black Hat USA 2024, requires user authentication and an advanced understanding of OpenVPN's inner workings. The flaws affect all versions of OpenVPN prior to version 2.6.10 and 2.5.10. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2024-27459 - A stack overflow vulnerability leading to a Denial-of-service (DoS) and LPE in Windows CVE-2024-24974 - Unauthorized access to the "\\openvpn\\service" named pipe in Windows, allowing an attacker to remotely inte...