Unit 42 details recent threat intelligence, highlighting cyberespionage, financial extortion, and the rapid adoption of AI across offensive workflows. The post Unit 42 Threat Intelligence Highlights - Nov. 2, 2026 appeared first on Unit 42.
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FortiGuard Labs examines a BITTER cyberespionage campaign targeting South Asian organizations through three attack chains and the PapRAT remote access trojan
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Written by: Aurora Blum, David Mainor, Rohit Nambiar, Omar ElAhdan, Matthew McWhirt, Will Silverstone, Bhavesh Dhake, Chris Busse Introduction Recent intrusions in which threat actors have been observed weaponizing agentic frameworks to execute highly-automated intrusions has put a spotlight on evolving adversarial use of LLMs. In our September 2026 report, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) noted that forward leaning adversaries were beginning to transition from basic prompting to agentic…
A newly identified advanced persistent threat (APT) group tracked as UAT-11473 was observed exploiting CVE-2026-20127, an authentication-bypass flaw in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controllers, to deploy a custom malware framework called KeyDrift. [...]
KEV ✓ EPSS 0.89 CVE-2026-20127 Cisco obrana US EU FR
In this article Stages of AI adoption by North Korean threat actors AI use across North Korean threat operations AI-assisted targeting and reconnaissance AI-assisted social engineering and identity deception AI-assisted software and tooling development AI-assisted operational scaling and analysis Mitigation and protection guidance Microsoft Defender detections As Microsoft Threat Intelligence continues to track how threat actors operationalize AI to increase the speed, efficiency, and…
Phishing remained the leading initial access technique, appearing in slightly over one-third of all Cisco Talos Incident Response (Talos IR) engagements — a decrease from over 50 percent last quarter. In addition to traditional phishing links and attachments, we observed numerous threat actors conducting voice phishing (vishing) in tandem with IT desk impersonation to socially engineer the victim into allowing remote access via a legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool.…
KEV ✓ EPSS 1.00 CVE-2023-20198 Cisco Microsoft Anthropic telekomunikace US
Introduction A couple of months ago, our research revealed a highly sophisticated infection chain and a complex .NET assembly-loading framework built on XAML markup, which strongly indicates a supply-chain attack targeting a custom Windows build used exclusively by government entities in Asia. The malicious framework has been labeled NetamLoader; at present, no attribution to any known APT group has been established. The sample came to light in the first half of 2026, when Kaspersky Security…
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An overview of the activities of selected APT groups investigated and analyzed by ESET Research in Q2 2026 and Q3 2026
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A new UEFI bootkit named BlackX, deployed in an espionage campaign in early 2026, exploited the old Baton Drop vulnerability to bypass Secure Boot and load a malicious driver designed to interfere with security solutions from Kaspersky and Avast. [...]
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ESET researchers uncover MythicRatatoskr – a previously unknown Go-based backdoor hiding its C&C server inside the Yggdrasil mesh network – that paved the way for a destructive attack against a Ukrainian grain firm
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North Korean hackers are using a post-quantum cryptographic mechanism to secure malicious payload delivery in new operations that combine old and new malware. [...]
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In this article What’s happening What is ARTEX? Mitigation and protection guidance References Learn more As early as September 2026, Storm-0940, a China-state aligned actor, used the agentic AI penetration testing framework ARTEX to automate attacks targeting hundreds of organizations globally across a broad range of industries. Several of these Storm-0940 ARTEX-driven attacks have resulted in the actor obtaining privileged access to an organization’s cloud infrastructure – including multiple…
In January, we responded to the Lazarus Group’s novel attack campaign against South Korea, which followed last year’s Operation SyncHole. In this new operation, the group employed an updated malware chain that included both their old and new malware, which we disclosed in full, and used another mandatory South Korean security software program as a part of infection chain using a watering‑hole strategy. Notably, the group targeted victims more selectively, sending spear‑phishing emails with…
<p>The China-based threat group uses DLL sideloading in these attacks</p> Categories: Threat Research Tags: BRONZE SANDCASTLE, Meterpreter, Sandboxie
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Classification: Critical, Solution: Official Fix, Exploit Maturity: Functional, CVSSv3.1: 9.3, CVEs: CVE-2026-102764, Summary: BeyondTrust has remediated a critical vulnerability in Remote Support (RS) that could allow a remote attacker to perform file operations on an affected appliance. The vulnerability exists within internal components of Remote Support. The components did not adequately validate the origin of the messages it received. Under the right conditions, this could be used to…
KEV ✓ EPSS 0.19 CVSS 9.3 CVE-2026-102764 BeyondTrust FI CA SE US NL IT
Last month, Volexity published two blog posts in its Mind the (Patch) Gap series. The series details Volexity’s discovery of multiple Chinese threat actors simultaneously using zero-day exploits in Google Chrome and Microsoft Windows in campaigns that, if successful, would download and run malware on an exploited system. Those posts covered technical details of the exploits and malware Volexity observed, along with general detection methods for each case. Behind those findings was one of the…
Candiru spyware was delivered to devices at Al Jazeera Media Network via targeted online advertisements in a zero-click attack that required only rendering the malicious ads on the victim's device. [...]
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Our analysis an AI-powered espionage campaign targeting government Linux infrastructure with custom malware, web shells, and advanced credential theft. The post AI-Powered Espionage Campaign Targets Government Linux Infrastructure appeared first on Unit 42.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I've been following a lot of (sometimes heated) threads and discussions lately about the current vulnerability landscape. I learned new words/phrases such as Summer of Hell (although I'm writing this with 1°C/34°F outside), Vulnpocalypse, Bugmageddon, Bugpocalypse, Breachpocalypse... Let's look at some numbers: We crossed the 70k mark, and it's only the end of September. This has never been seen before — I think we can agree this…
KEV ✓ EPSS 0.87 CVE-2014-125110 CVE-2015-1000013 CVE-2026-104935 veřejná správa US
This research was conducted jointly with Julian-Ferdinand Vögele of Recorded Future’s Insikt Group. Details of the joint research and presentation are available here. Cisco Talos identified UAT-6275 (TAG-193 by Recorded Future) activity targeting government organizations across the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Recovered artifacts show additional interest in water resources and energy. This focus is consistent with intelligence collection and may reflect the regional effects of the…
KEV ✓ · ransomware EPSS 1.00 CVE-2025-25257 CVE-2025-8088 WinRAR Fortinet veřejná správa energetika vodárenství US
The National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB) is warning about targeted phishing campaigns aimed at users of the Signal messaging app. These activities are primarily linked to actors connected to the Russian Federation, and their goal is to gain access to victims’ communications by exploiting human error. Given the popularity of the Signal app among high-profile individuals and the occurrence of cyber incidents associated with it in the Czech Republic, NÚKIB is publishing an…
Russian-aligned hackers have targeted Ukrainian transportation, manufacturing and energy companies with a constantly evolving malware strain designed to harvest system data, according to new research.
Cisco Talos identified an advanced persistent threat (APT) spear-phishing campaign against individuals affiliated with Taiwan research organizations. The operation leveraged legitimate public event themes and impersonated reputable academic and policy institutions to establish credibility. The phishing emails exhibited highly consistent structure, rhetoric, and personalization patterns, suggesting the threat actor likely used AI-assisted content generation to rapidly customize invitation lures…
ESET Research catalogs the changes of UAC-0099’s MATCHBOIL downloader from 2024 to 2026
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For months, GreyNoise recorded almost no Hikvision camera exploit attempts against Ukraine. On Sept 21 activity surged for nine days during Russian strikes, almost all from four IPs, then stopped. We can't say if the two are linked.
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Analysis of Blinder Tunnel, an Iran-nexus campaign using fake Dubai Airports recruitment lures and GitHub C2 malware to target critical infrastructure. The post Blinder Tunnel Campaign Targets Iraqi Infrastructure appeared first on Unit 42.
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Overview Rapid7 tracked a set of Linux samples that blend into the software and device conventions of the telecom environments they target. The set spans a newly observed BPFDoor variant, a BPF Rekoobe build seen against South Korean targets, a dropper, and six builds of a Linux implant we track as AVERAT, deployed against Taiwanese appliances. Additionally, we provide source code details of the Rapid7 BPFDoor controller introduced in our April 2026 blog, Stealthy BPFDoor Variants are a Needle…
According to this year’s Microsoft Digital Defense Report, government agencies and services were the sector most impacted by cyber threats in 2026, accounting for 27% of observed activity, up from 17% in 2025. Governments are also the most frequently targeted sectors for nation-state activity. They are attractive targets because they hold sensitive information, operate essential services, and sit at the center of networks of agencies, contractors, technology providers, and critical…
The Russian state actor Star Blizzard has been using a new malware installation tactic dubbed "RedFlick" to deploy its signature CosmicPulse backdoor. [...]
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Cisco Talos uncovered a cluster of activity we track as UAT-11587 targeting government and policy organizations across Asia, including in Taiwan, India, the Philippines, and Cambodia, to deliver a previously undocumented backdoor referred to as “Antino” in developer artifacts. Talos first observed UAT-11587 activity in September 2025. By July 2026, Talos had identified at least 16 affected or targeted institutional environments across eight Asian countries. Antino is a Rust-compiled Windows…
In this article Star Blizzard TTPs observed in 2026Defending against Star Blizzard and RedFlick-related activityMicrosoft Defender detectionsHunting queriesIndicators of compromise Since January 2026, Microsoft has observed Russian state threat actor Star Blizzard evolve their detection evasion capabilities through large-scale phishing campaigns, the use of accounts on compromised websites, and a novel malware delivery technique that Microsoft tracks as “RedFlick”. These changes represent a…
In this article Observed operators and targetingMalware packaging and distributionNeedyMantis architecture and capabilitiesMitigation and protection guidanceHunting queriesIndicators of compromise Microsoft Threat Intelligence has identified NeedyMantis, a modular post-compromise malware family observed in a limited number of targeted operations affecting telecommunications organizations, universities, medical nonprofits, intergovernmental organizations, and government contractors. Based on…
DarkMe, an APT-linked VB6 RAT known for using zero day exploits, turned up in two Huntress incidents stripped down to a plain .pif infostealer malware.
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On September 9, 2026, Volexity published a blog post detailing the simultaneous use of multiple chained zero-day exploits in Google Chrome (CVE-2026-85046, CVE-2026-87491) and Microsoft Windows (CVE-2026-85880) by two different Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) actors. Shortly after that blog post was published, Volexity discovered additional campaigns—this time from a third Chinese threat actor, tracked by Volexity under the alias UTA0565—that used the same chained exploits on September…
KEV ✓ EPSS 0.04 CVE-2026-85046 CVE-2026-85880 CVE-2026-87491 Google Microsoft veřejná správa US
Executive Summary Following disclosure of the TraderTraitor attack against LayerZero in April 2026, SentinelOne identified an additional victim with the same macOS backdoors. Our analysis explores the mechanics of these backdoors and the expanded targeting against a victim in the IT services sector with no relationship to cryptocurrency trading. We also identified more weaponized GitHub repositories from the social engineering schemes used to target job seekers in these campaigns. This report…
ESET researchers document SparroWocky, the new flagship backdoor of the FamousSparrow APT group
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Group-IB Threat Intelligence analyzes HEAVYGRAM, a Telegram-based Windows backdoor attributed with moderate confidence to the Iran-linked threat actor Handala Hack. Active since Fall 2023, it has been used to surveil Iranian dissidents, journalists and government opponents, enabling remote command execution, data exfiltration, and persistence over Telegram command-and-control.
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Over the past year, our Global Emergency Response Team (GERT) has investigated several incidents involving the NightEagle group (APT-Q-95). This group has been active since at least 2023 and originally focused on organizations in Asia, as we reported previously. We have now identified attacks by the group targeting businesses in Russia. This post examines both known and new tools NightEagle used in its latest campaign. Initial access In most incidents, the attackers used compromised valid…
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Advisory on CHOSEN BRICK malware, including technical analysis and advice to help individuals and organisations protect themselves.
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Anthropic says multiple threat groups, including the financially motivated and state-sponsored espionage groups linked to Russia and China, tried to abuse its Claude AI model for malicious purposes. [...]
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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Ask anybody in this industry what the work does to the health of the people who do it and you get one word back: burnout. It's a fine word, in and of itself. It’s easy to reach for, understandable to everyone… and it's the wrong one, most of the time. So, story time. Last year I gave an interview with the amazing Hazel Burton about VPNFilter, and my run-in with burnout. I was a manager during that time, and it took a toll on me and…
KEV ✓ · ransomware EPSS 0.89 CVSS 10.0 CVE-2026-20079 CVE-2026-20316 Cisco US
BlueMoon, a shared Chrome and Windows exploit kit, shows why “patch later” is becoming a dangerous gamble. Security updates are easy to put off. The browser still opens, Windows still works, and choosing to relaunch your browser or restart your computer later can feel harmless. But a newly documented exploit kit called “BlueMoon” shows how quickly patching delays can become dangerous. Proofpoint Researchers found four espionage groups using the same exploit chain against Chrome browsers running…
OverviewA new Linux toolkit, identified by Rapid7 Labs, has been targeting organizations across South Korea’s automotive and media industries with minimal detection. The campaign made use of a HAProxy instance named “ted backdoor”, alongside trojanized versions of crond, agetty, atd, sshd, and polkitd. This previously undocumented framework enabled threat actors to execute remote commands on compromised servers, inject malicious scripts into web traffic, perform credential harvesting, and…
Národní úřad pro kybernetickou a informační bezpečnost (NÚKIB) upozorňuje na cílené phishingové kampaně zaměřené na uživatele komunikační aplikace Signal.
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In a report published Tuesday, Kaspersky said it first discovered NodeRabbit on a system in Afghanistan and later identified variants on systems in Egypt and Ethiopia.
While monitoring Mirage Kitten activity, we uncovered a previously undocumented malware family that we dubbed NodeRabbit. We identified the first sample on a system in Afghanistan. Further threat hunting revealed two additional, more advanced, variants: one on a system in Egypt and another on a system in Ethiopia. NodeRabbit is a cross-platform remote access trojan (RAT) built with Node.js. It targets Windows, Linux, and macOS. Its operators deliver it through spear-phishing messages on…
The researchers discovered Fire Ant's new tactic after finding an active GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) tunnel interface on a Cisco IOS XR router that could not be explained by a running configuration or commit history. [...]
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Attackers typically try to pass off malware as legitimate applications or as potentially unwanted programs that users deliberately search for and download, such as cheats or cracks. They often rely on ad and affiliate networks to deliver their creations to victims’ devices. This post examines a less conventional case: a well-known backdoor distributed under the guise of adware. The attackers may have chosen this distribution method because the adware was signed by the developer. On top of that,…
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A joint Tenable-SentinelOne analysis of 93 CVE-actor attribution pairs reveals that both state-sponsored actors and cybercriminals independently converge on the same edge infrastructure. Special thanks to SentinelOne® Incident Readiness & Response for their contributions to this publication.It is the shared attack surface where state-sponsored threat actors and financially motivated criminal groups independently converge — not the province of a single adversary category, and not exclusively a…
Huntress analyzed several incidents involving DPRK remote workers (Famous Chollima) in partner environments. Learn key indicators to detect and prevent North Korean threats.
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You can’t patch everything. So what do you fix first? Findings in Q2 2026 have changed traditional answers.The latest Quarterly Threat Landscape Report from Rapid7 Labs shows vulnerability disclosures still surging while attackers use automation and AI-assisted tooling to compress the time between disclosure and exploitation. The gap that patch cycles were built to fill is closing. Speed and volume are overwhelming security teams that have relied on traditional patch cycles and reactive…
CVSS 7.0 Microsoft veřejná správa finance zdravotnictví výroba a průmysl US
Tenable’s Research Special Operations (RSO) team has been tracking a cluster of agentic AI threat activity since late July 2026. The Taiwan autonomous AI cyber attack confirmed what the cluster data already showed: near-autonomous offensive AI has crossed from theoretical risk to operational reality.Key TakeawaysTaiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs confirmed a near-autonomous AI cyber attack in July 2026 in which autonomous agents mapped 21 connected government systems, compromised 85 accounts,…
KEV ✓ · ransomware EPSS 1.00 CVE-2025-3248 GitBook veřejná správa energetika US
Go inside Huntress and the FBI’s five-year pursuit of Silk Typhoon, from 88,000 Exchange backdoors to an arrest and a wider fight against cybercrime.
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In this article The CaptiveCrunch campaignStorm-2945 and Midnight BlizzardCaptiveCrunch tradecraft and toolingHow to protect against CaptiveCrunch activityMicrosoft Defender detections and hunting guidanceIndicators of compromise Since early May 2026, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed Storm-2945, a sub-cluster of Midnight Blizzard, conducting widespread but targeted traffic manipulation attacks involving hospitality sector networks served by captive portals worldwide. Despite some…
In April, SentinelLABS’ Tom Hegel published an initial assessment of the first five weeks of the conflict. Three months later, the evidence supports refinement. Executive Summary The cyber risk remains quieter than the public narrative. It rests on persistent access, trusted administration, service-provider pathways, selective disruption, and personas that magnify technical effects. Iran-linked activity is not a single threat set. MOIS, the IRGC Intelligence Organization, the IRGC Cyber…
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Elastic Security Labs found a new Contagious Interview campaign, tracked as REF9403, hiding malware inside SVG image files using steganography. To our knowledge, this specific infection chain has not been previously documented. We found it after the DPRK-aligned group targeted our own community Slack workspace with a fake job posting and a "coding challenge" project. Any user who ran the project ended up with a four-stage payload aligned with OTTERCOOKIE: a browser credential and crypto wallet…
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Elastic Security Labs found a new Contagious Interview campaign, tracked as REF9403, hiding malware inside SVG image files using steganography. To our knowledge, this specific infection chain has not been previously documented. We found it after the DPRK-aligned group targeted our own community Slack workspace with a fake job posting and a "coding challenge" project. Any user who ran the project ended up with a four-stage payload aligned with OTTERCOOKIE: a browser credential and crypto wallet…
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For years, the cyber security industry tracked AI as a force multiplier: something that made existing attack techniques faster, cheaper, and more accessible. That framing was accurate. But the Annual AI Security Report 2026 from Check Point Research documents a transition that goes further. AI has crossed from assistant to operator. Where it once helped attackers prepare, it now runs the operation. Key observed findings AI has crossed from development aid to live attack operator. It now does…