All news with #malware tag

🔔 Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a coordinated campaign of 108 malicious Google Chrome extensions that share a common command-and-control backend and have accumulated roughly 20,000 installs. The add-ons, published under five publisher identities, exfiltrate credentials and session data, inject ads and arbitrary JavaScript, and can force-load attacker-controlled sessions. Many abuse OAuth2, strip security headers, and periodically harvest Telegram Web sessions. Users should remove suspicious extensions and log out of Telegram Web sessions to invalidate any stolen tokens.

🔒 Researchers report that the JanelaRAT malware, a modified BX RAT, extensively targeted banks and financial services across Latin America, with telemetry showing 14,739 attack attempts in Brazil and 11,695 in Mexico during 2025. The trojan steals banking and cryptocurrency credentials, captures keystrokes, screenshots and system metadata, and uses custom title-bar detection to trigger actions on matched sites. Attackers shifted delivery from VBScript ZIPs to rogue MSI installers and DLL side-loading, often installing a malicious Chromium extension for persistence and data exfiltration. Vendors including Kaspersky, KPMG, and Zscaler documented multi-stage chains and robust C2 capabilities.

📱 A newly identified Android banking trojan called Mirax is spreading across Europe, combining remote-access features with residential proxy capabilities to expand its criminal utility. Researchers at Cleafy report campaigns reached more than 200,000 accounts by leveraging social media advertisements and fake streaming apps. Mirax runs as a restricted Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS), enabling real-time device control, dynamic overlay injection for credential theft, continuous keylogging, and the conversion of infected phones into proxy nodes to help bypass fraud controls.

🐛 A new phase of the GlassWorm campaign uses a Zig-compiled native Node addon embedded in a malicious Open VSX extension named specstudio.code-wakatime-activity-tracker, impersonating WakaTime, to gain OS-level access and stealthily install additional payloads. The addon (installed as win.node on Windows and mac.node on macOS) runs outside the JavaScript sandbox, locates IDEs that support VS Code extensions, downloads a malicious VSIX from an attacker-controlled GitHub account, and silently installs it across detected editors. The second-stage extension then reads commands from the Solana blockchain to obtain its C2, exfiltrates sensitive data, and deploys a RAT that ultimately installs an information-stealing Chrome extension; affected users should assume compromise and rotate secrets.

⚠️ Hackers altered an API on the CPUID website and replaced official download links to serve trojanized installers for CPU-Z and HWMonitor, distributing a malicious file labeled HWiNFO_Monitor_Setup. The package launches a Russian installer wrapped with Inno Setup and was delivered via Cloudflare R2, while original signed binaries appear intact. Security researchers report a multi-stage, mostly in-memory loader that uses proxying of NTDLL calls from a .NET assembly to evade EDR/AV detection. CPUID says the secondary API was compromised for roughly six hours (April 9–10) and that the breach has been fixed.

⚠️ A vulnerability in Adobe Reader has been quietly exploited for months, using malicious PDFs with embedded JavaScript that executes when opened to fingerprint hosts and exfiltrate system details. Researcher Haifei Li traced samples back to at least November and confirmed recent variants still run on current Reader builds. The campaign appears focused on reconnaissance and data theft but could enable remote code execution. Mitigations include disabling Acrobat/Reader JavaScript, filtering non‑standard PDFs, marking external attachments, and reinforcing user training.

🛡️ Cisco Talos has identified a new Lua-based backdoor called LucidRook used in October 2025 spear-phishing operations targeting NGOs and universities in Taiwan. Attackers delivered payloads via password-protected archives and deployed either an LNK shortcut chain that dropped a loader named LucidPawn or a fake antivirus EXE. LucidPawn sideloads a malicious DLL (DismCore.dll) and embeds a Lua interpreter to fetch obfuscated bytecode, enabling modular updates while reducing forensic visibility. Collected reconnaissance is RSA-encrypted and exfiltrated via FTP; a related tool, LucidKnight, was observed abusing Gmail GMTP for data exfiltration.

🔒 Smart Slider 3 Pro update infrastructure was hijacked to push a malicious 3.5.1.35 release to WordPress and Joomla sites. The tampered update preserved normal slider functionality while installing multiple backdoors, creating a hidden administrator account, and exfiltrating credentials. The vendor urges immediate upgrade to 3.5.1.36 (or restoring to 3.5.1.34 or earlier) and advises treating affected sites as fully compromised.

🛡️ A concise roundup of the week's notable incidents: a resilient hybrid variant of Phorpiex combines HTTP C2 polling with a P2P protocol to survive takedowns, while a 13‑year‑old chainable flaw in Apache ActiveMQ (CVE-2026-34197) can yield stealthy RCE if left unpatched. Industry data show record cyber‑fraud losses and a spike in AI‑assisted DDoS tactics. Multiple supply‑chain and platform abuses—from trojanized developer tools to malicious PyPI packages and SaaS notification phishing—underscore the need to patch, audit, and harden AI integrations.

🛡️ Researchers at Jamf Threat Labs report a ClickFix campaign that opens Script Editor via the applescript:// URL scheme, preloading a malicious script with a single browser click. This bypasses Terminal paste protections introduced in macOS Tahoe 26.4 and removes a major user decision point. The lightweight script decodes a hidden URL, uses curl to retrieve a payload, and launches a new Atomic Stealer variant. Script Editor behavior can vary by macOS version; recent builds may prompt to save before execution.

🛡️ Jamf Threat Labs has identified a macOS malware campaign delivering the Atomic Stealer (AMOS) infostealer/backdoor using a ClickFix social engineering technique that now leverages Script Editor instead of Terminal. Attackers display fake Apple guidance in a browser window to convince users to paste and run malicious commands, bypassing Terminal paste-scanning warnings added in the macOS 26.4 update. Network defenders are advised to restrict clipboard and run-dialog use, limit execution of untrusted binaries, and block suspicious adverts and sites.

🔍 Sansec researchers uncovered a campaign that embeds a credit-card skimmer into Magento storefronts by hiding it inside a 1×1-pixel SVG element with an onload handler. The handler stores the entire payload as a base64 string decoded via atob() and executed inline to avoid external script detection. When shoppers click checkout a fake Secure Checkout overlay validates card and billing fields in real time and exfiltrates data in XOR-encrypted, base64-obfuscated JSON; Sansec identified six exfiltration domains and published actionable mitigations.

🔍 Trend Micro links a targeted spear-phishing campaign to APT28 that delivers a previously undocumented malware suite called PRISMEX, active since at least September 2025. The operation blends steganography, COM DLL hijacking, and abuse of legitimate cloud services to retrieve and execute in-memory payloads. Researchers observed rapid weaponization of CVE-2026-21509 and CVE-2026-21513, with overlapping infrastructure such as "wellnesscaremed[.]com". The toolkit includes PrismexSheet, PrismexDrop, PrismexLoader and a COVENANT-based stager that has been associated with both espionage and destructive wiper activity.

🛡️ Cisco Talos disclosed a targeted spear‑phishing campaign delivering LucidRook, a Lua‑based stager that embeds a Lua 5.4 interpreter and Rust‑compiled libraries inside a DLL to fetch and run staged Lua bytecode. The threat actor delivered payloads via password‑protected archives and used decoy documents to distract victims while the dropper executed. Two delivery chains were observed — an LNK dropper LucidPawn and a .NET EXE masquerading as antivirus — both abusing public FTP services and OAST domains. Execution is gated to Traditional Chinese locales linked to Taiwan.

🔒 Socket Security researchers say the North Korea-linked campaign known as Contagious Interview has published more than 1,700 malicious packages across npm, PyPI, Go, Rust and Packagist. The packages impersonate legitimate developer tooling and act as loaders that fetch platform-specific malware with infostealer and RAT capabilities. A Windows variant delivered through license-utils-kit behaves as a full implant, enabling command execution, keystroke logging, browser and wallet theft, file exfiltration and remote access via AnyDesk.

⚠ SafeDep researchers disclosed 36 malicious npm packages masquerading as Strapi v3 plugins that execute payloads via the postinstall hook. Uploaded by four sockpuppet accounts over 13 hours, the packages weaponized Redis and PostgreSQL to deploy reverse shells, harvest credentials, and install a persistent implant targeting a hostname named prod-strapi. The postinstall script runs with the installing user's privileges, creating acute risk for CI/CD pipelines and containers. Users who installed any listed package are advised to assume compromise and rotate all credentials.

🔍 A China-aligned threat cluster identified as TA416 has resumed focused operations against European government and diplomatic entities since mid-2025, according to Proofpoint. The campaign combined web bugs and malware delivery to deploy the PlugX backdoor via Azure Blob, Google Drive, compromised SharePoint, and attacker-controlled domains. Attackers repeatedly altered infection chains—abusing Cloudflare Turnstile pages, OAuth redirection through Microsoft Entra ID, and MSBuild-based C# project files with DLL side-loading—to enhance stealth and persistence. The group also expanded targeting to Middle Eastern governments following the February 2026 regional conflict.

🔐 Cisco Talos is investigating a March 31, 2026 supply chain attack that briefly replaced the official Axios npm package with two malicious releases (v1.14.1 and v0.30.4). The tainted packages were available for about three hours, and Talos strongly advises rolling back to known safe versions (v1.14.0 or v0.30.3) and auditing any systems that installed them. The injected runtime dependency executes at post-install and fetches platform-specific RAT payloads for Linux, MacOS, and Windows.

🍪 Microsoft Defender Security Research Team warns that threat actors are increasingly using HTTP cookies as a covert control channel for PHP-based web shells on Linux servers. Instead of passing commands via URL parameters or request bodies, attackers gate execution and convey instructions through values accessible in the PHP $_COOKIE superglobal. This technique keeps malicious code dormant during normal application activity and activates only when specific cookie values are present, reducing observable indicators. Microsoft observed multiple obfuscated loaders and a cron-driven 'self-healing' persistence model that recreates loaders and minimizes forensic visibility.

🛡️Security researchers have discovered an updated SparkCat trojan on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, hiding inside seemingly benign apps such as enterprise messengers and food delivery services. Kaspersky said it found two infected iOS apps and one Android app that primarily target cryptocurrency users in Asia. The iOS variant scans photo galleries for English wallet mnemonic phrases, while the Android version employs code virtualization, cross-platform languages and regional keyword scanning for Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Both samples use an OCR module to exfiltrate images containing recovery phrases to attacker-controlled servers, underscoring a rapidly evolving threat.