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"DPRK hackers use ClickFix to deliver Beaver Tail Malware in Crypto Job Scams."

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DPRK Hackers Use ClickFix to Deliver BeaverTail Malware in Crypto Job Scams

Sep 21, 2025Malware / Threat Intelligence

Threat actors with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka DPRK or North Korea) have been observed leveraging ClickFix-style lures to deliver a known malware called BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret. "The threat actor used ClickFix lures to target marketing and trader roles in cryptocurrency and retail sector organizations rather than targeting software development roles," GitLab Threat Intelligence researcher Oliver Smith said in a report published last week. First exposed by Palo Alto Networks in late 2023, BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret have been deployed by North Korean operatives as part of a long-running campaign dubbed Contagious Interview (aka Gwisin Gang), wherein the malware is distributed to software developers under the pretext of a job assessment. Assessed to be a subset of the umbrella group Lazarus , the cluster has been active since at least December 2022. Over the years, BeaverTail has also been propagated via bogus npm packages and f...

Executive's Guide to Incident Response Readiness

SygniaIncident Response / Cyber Resilience

Practical steps for executives to strengthen defenses and lead effective cyber response. Get the Guide.

LastPass Warns of Fake Repositories Infecting macOS with Atomic Infostealer

Sep 20, 2025Software Security / Malware

LastPass is warning of an ongoing, widespread information stealer campaign targeting Apple macOS users through fake GitHub repositories that distribute malware-laced programs masquerading as legitimate tools. "In the case of LastPass, the fraudulent repositories redirected potential victims to a repository that downloads the Atomic infostealer malware," researchers Alex Cox, Mike Kosak, and Stephanie Schneider from the LastPass Threat Intelligence, Mitigation, and Escalation (TIME) team said . Beyond LastPass, some of the popular tools impersonated in the campaign include 1Password, Basecamp, Dropbox, Gemini, Hootsuite, Notion, Obsidian, Robinhood, Salesloft, SentinelOne, Shopify, Thunderbird, and TweetDeck, among others. All the GiHub repositories are designed to target macOS systems. The attacks involve the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) poisoning to push links to malicious GitHub sites on top of search results on Bing and Google, which then instruct users ...

Researchers Uncover GPT-4-Powered MalTerminal Malware Creating Ransomware, Reverse Shell

Sep 20, 2025Malware / Artificial Intelligence

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered what they say is the earliest example known to date of a malware that bakes in Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities. The malware has been codenamed MalTerminal by SentinelOne SentinelLABS research team. The findings were presented at the LABScon 2025 security conference. In a report examining the malicious use of LLMs, the cybersecurity company said AI models are being increasingly used by threat actors for operational support, as well as for embedding them into their tools – an emerging category called LLM-embedded malware that's exemplified by the appearance of LAMEHUG (aka PROMPTSTEAL) and PromptLock . This includes the discovery of a previously reported Windows executable called MalTerminal that uses OpenAI GPT-4 to dynamically generate ransomware code or a reverse shell. There is no evidence to suggest it was ever deployed in the wild, raising the possibility that it could also be a proof-of-concept malware or red team tool. ...

ShadowLeak Zero-Click Flaw Leaks Gmail Data via OpenAI ChatGPT Deep Research Agent

Sep 20, 2025Artificial Intelligence / Cloud Security

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a zero-click flaw in OpenAI ChatGPT's Deep Research agent that could allow an attacker to leak sensitive Gmail inbox data with a single crafted email without any user action. The new class of attack has been codenamed ShadowLeak by Radware. Following responsible disclosure on June 18, 2025, the issue was addressed by OpenAI in early August. "The attack utilizes an indirect prompt injection that can be hidden in email HTML (tiny fonts, white-on-white text, layout tricks) so the user never notices the commands, but the agent still reads and obeys them," security researchers Zvika Babo, Gabi Nakibly, and Maor Uziel said . "Unlike prior research that relied on client-side image rendering to trigger the leak, this attack leaks data directly from OpenAI's cloud infrastructure, making it invisible to local or enterprise defenses." Launched by OpenAI in February 2025, Deep Research is an agentic capability built into ...

UNC1549 Hacks 34 Devices in 11 Telecom Firms via LinkedIn Job Lures and MINIBIKE Malware

Sep 19, 2025Cyber Espionage / Threat Intelligence

An Iran-nexus cyber espionage group known as UNC1549 has been attributed to a new campaign targeting European telecommunications companies, successfully infiltrating 34 devices across 11 organizations as part of a recruitment-themed activity on LinkedIn. Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT is tracking the cluster under the name Subtle Snail . It's assessed to be affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The targeted 11 companies are located in Canada, France, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. "The group operates by posing as HR representatives from legitimate entities to engage employees, then compromises them through deployment of a MINIBIKE backdoor variant that communicates with command-and-control (C2) infrastructure proxied through Azure cloud services to bypass detection," the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. UNC1549 (aka TA455), believed to be active since at least June 2022, ...

Weaponized GenAI + Extortion-First Strategies Fueling a New Age of Ransomware

ZscalerRansomware / Endpoint Security

Trends and insights based on expert analysis of public leak sites, ransomware samples and attack data.

SystemBC Powers REM Proxy With 1,500 Daily VPS Victims Across 80 C2 Servers

Sep 19, 2025Botnet / Network Security

A proxy network known as REM Proxy is powered by malware known as SystemBC , offering about 80% of the botnet to its users, according to new findings from the Black Lotus Labs team at Lumen Technologies. "REM Proxy is a sizeable network, which also markets a pool of 20,000 Mikrotik routers and a variety of open proxies it finds freely available online," the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This service has been a favorite for several actors such as those behind TransferLoader , which has ties to the Morpheus ransomware group." SystemBC is a C-based malware that turns infected computers into SOCKS5 proxies, allowing infected hosts to communicate with a command-and-control (C2) server and download additional payloads. First documented by Proofpoint in 2019, it's capable of targeting both Windows and Linux systems . In a report earlier this January, ANY.RUN revealed that the Linux variant of SystemBC proxy implant is potentially desi...

Fortra Releases Critical Patch for CVSS 10.0 GoAnywhere MFT Vulnerability

Sep 19, 2025Vulnerability / Threat Intelligence

Fortra has disclosed details of a critical security flaw in GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer (MFT) software that could result in the execution of arbitrary commands. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-10035 , carries a CVSS score of 10.0, indicating maximum severity. "A deserialization vulnerability in the License Servlet of Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT allows an actor with a validly forged license response signature to deserialize an arbitrary actor-controlled object, possibly leading to command injection," Fortra said in an advisory released Thursday. The company also noted that successful exploitation of the vulnerability is dependent on the system being publicly accessible over the internet. Users are advised to update to the patched release – version 7.8.4, or the Sustain Release 7.6.3 – to safeguard against potential threats. If immediate patching is not possible, it's advisable to ensure that access to the GoAnywhere Admin Console is not open to the public...

17,500 Phishing Domains Target 316 Brands Across 74 Countries in Global PhaaS Surge

Sep 19, 2025Email Security / Social Engineering

The phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) offerings known as Lighthouse and Lucid has been linked to more than 17,500 phishing domains targeting 316 brands from 74 countries. "Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) deployments have risen significantly recently," Netcraft said in a new report. "The PhaaS operators charge a monthly fee for phishing software with pre-installed templates impersonating, in some cases, hundreds of brands from countries around the world." Lucid was first documented by Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT earlier this April, detailing the phishing kit's ability to send smishing messages via Apple iMessage and Rich Communication Services (RCS) for Android. The service is assessed to be the work of a Chinese-speaking threat actor known as the XinXin group (changqixinyun), which has also leveraged other phishing kits like Lighthouse and Darcula in its operations. Darcula is developed by an actor named LARVA-246 (aka X667788X0 or xxhcvv), while Light...

How To Automate Alert Triage With AI Agents and Confluence SOPs Using Tines

Sep 19, 2025AI Automation / Security Operations

Run by the team at workflow orchestration and AI platform Tines, the Tines library features over 1,000 pre-built workflows shared by security practitioners from across the community - all free to import and deploy through the platform's Community Edition. The workflow we are highlighting streamlines security alert handling by automatically identifying and executing the appropriate Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) from Confluence. When an alert triggers, AI agents analyze it, locate relevant SOPs, and perform required remediation steps - all while keeping the on-call team informed via Slack. It was created by Michael Tolan, Security Researcher L2 at Tines, and Peter Wrenn, Senior Solutions Engineer at Tines. In this guide, we'll share an overview of the workflow, plus step-by-step instructions for getting it up and running. The problem - manual alert triage and SOP execution For security teams, responding to alerts efficiently requires quickly identifying the threat ty...

Russian Hackers Gamaredon and Turla Collaborate to Deploy Kazuar Backdoor in Ukraine

Sep 19, 2025Malware / Cyber Espionage

Cybersecurity researchers have discerned evidence of two Russian hacking groups Gamaredon and Turla collaborating together to target and co-comprise Ukrainian entities. Slovak cybersecurity company ESET said it observed the Gamaredon tools PteroGraphin and PteroOdd being used to execute Turla group's Kazuar backdoor on an endpoint in Ukraine in February 2025, indicating that Turla is very likely actively collaborating with Gamaredon to gain access to specific machines in Ukraine and deliver the Kazuar backdoor.  "PteroGraphin was used to restart the Kazuar v3 backdoor, possibly after it crashed or was not launched automatically," ESET said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Thus, PteroGraphin was probably used as a recovery method by Turla." In a separate instance in April and June 2025, ESET said it also detected the deployment of Kazuar v2 through two other Gamaredon malware families tracked as PteroOdd and PteroPaste. Both Gamaredon (aka Aqua B...

U.K. Arrests Two Teen Scattered Spider Hackers Linked to August 2024 TfL Cyber Attack

Sep 19, 2025Ransomware / Cybercrime

Law enforcement authorities in the U.K. have arrested two teen members of the Scattered Spider hacking group in connection with their alleged participation in an August 2024 cyber attack targeting Transport for London (TfL), the city's public transportation agency. Thalha Jubair (aka EarthtoStar, Brad, Austin, and @autistic), 19, from East London and Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall, West Midlands were arrested at their home addresses on Tuesday, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said. They are 19 and 18, respectively. It's worth noting that Flowers was initially arrested for his alleged involvement in the TfL attack in September 2024, but was subsequently released on bail. The agency said it found evidence of Flowers targeting U.S. healthcare companies, and that he has also been charged with conspiring with others to infiltrate and damage the networks of SSM Health Care Corporation and Sutter Health. Jubair has also been charged under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers...

CISA Warns of Two Malware Strains Exploiting Ivanti EPMM CVE-2025-4427 and CVE-2025-4428

Sep 19, 2025Data Breach / Vulnerability

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday released details of two sets of malware that were discovered in an unnamed organization's network following the exploitation of security flaws in Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM). "Each set contains loaders for malicious listeners that enable cyber threat actors to run arbitrary code on the compromised server," CISA said in an alert. The vulnerabilities that were exploited in the attack include CVE-2025-4427 and CVE-2025-4428 , both of which have been abused as zero-days prior to them being addressed by Ivanti in May 2025. While CVE-2025-4427 concerns an authentication bypass that allows attackers to access protected resources, CVE-2025-4428 enables remote code execution. As a result, the two flaws could be chained to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable device without authentication. According to CISA, the threat actors gained access to server running EPMM by combing the two vulner...