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36 Malicious npm Packages Exploited Redis, PostgreSQL to Deploy Persistent Implants

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered 36 malicious packages in the npm registry that are disguised as Strapi CMS plugins but come with different payloads to facilitate Redis and PostgreSQL exploitation, deploy reverse shells, harvest credentials, and drop a persistent implant. "Every package contains three files (package.json, index.js, postinstall.js), has no description, repository,

Fortinet Patches Actively Exploited CVE-2026-35616 in FortiClient EMS

Fortinet has released out-of-band patches for a critical security flaw impacting FortiClient EMS that it said has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-35616 (CVSS score: 9.1), has been described as a pre-authentication API access bypass leading to privilege escalation. "An improper access control vulnerability [CWE-284] in FortiClient EMS may allow an

China-Linked TA416 Targets European Governments with PlugX and OAuth-Based Phishing

A China-aligned threat actor has set its sights on European government and diplomatic organizations since mid-2025, following a two-year period of minimal targeting in the region. The campaign has been attributed to TA416, a cluster of activity that overlaps with DarkPeony, RedDelta, Red Lich, SmugX, UNC6384, and Vertigo Panda. "This TA416 activity included multiple

Microsoft Details Cookie-Controlled PHP Web Shells Persisting via Cron on Linux Servers

Threat actors are increasingly using HTTP cookies as a control channel for PHP-based web shells on Linux servers and to achieve remote code execution, according to findings from the Microsoft Defender Security Research Team. "Instead of exposing command execution through URL parameters or request bodies, these web shells rely on threat actor-supplied cookie values to gate execution,

UNC1069 Social Engineering of Axios Maintainer Led to npm Supply Chain Attack

The maintainer of the Axios npm package has confirmed that the supply chain compromise was the result of a highly-targeted social engineering campaign orchestrated by North Korean threat actors tracked as UNC1069. Maintainer Jason Saayman said the attackers tailored their social engineering efforts "specifically to me" by first approaching him under the guise of the founder of a

Why Third-Party Risk Is the Biggest Gap in Your Clients' Security Posture

The next major breach hitting your clients probably won't come from inside their walls. It'll come through a vendor they trust, a SaaS tool their finance team signed up for, or a subcontractor nobody in IT knows about. That's the new attack surface, and most organizations are underprepared for it. Cynomi's new guide, Securing the Modern Perimeter: The Rise of Third-Party

New SparkCat Variant in iOS, Android Apps Steals Crypto Wallet Recovery Phrase Images

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of the SparkCat malware on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, more than a year after the trojan was discovered targeting both the mobile operating systems. The malware has been found to conceal itself within seemingly benign apps, such as enterprise messengers and food delivery services, while

Drift Loses $285 Million in Durable Nonce Social Engineering Attack Linked to DPRK

Solana-based decentralized exchange Drift has confirmed that attackers drained about $285 million from the platform during a security incident that took place on April 1, 2026. "Earlier today, a malicious actor gained unauthorized access to Drift Protocol through a novel attack involving durable nonces, resulting in a rapid takeover of Drift’s Security Council administrative powers," the&

Hackers Exploit CVE-2025-55182 to Breach 766 Next.js Hosts, Steal Credentials

A large-scale credential harvesting operation has been observed exploiting the React2Shell vulnerability as an initial infection vector to steal database credentials, SSH private keys, Amazon Web Services (AWS) secrets, shell command history, Stripe API keys, and GitHub tokens at scale. Cisco Talos has attributed the operation to a threat cluster it tracks as

Cisco Patches 9.8 CVSS IMC and SSM Flaws Allowing Remote System Compromise

Cisco has released updates to address a critical security flaw in the Integrated Management Controller (IMC) that, if successfully exploited, could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and gain access to the system with elevated privileges. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-20093, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. "This

ThreatsDay Bulletin: Pre-Auth Chains, Android Rootkits, CloudTrail Evasion & 10 More Stories

The latest ThreatsDay Bulletin is basically a cheat sheet for everything breaking on the internet right now. No corporate fluff or boring lectures here, just a quick and honest look at the messy reality of keeping systems safe this week. Things are moving fast. The list includes researchers chaining small bugs together to create massive backdoors, old software flaws

Researchers Uncover Mining Operation Using ISO Lures to Spread RATs and Crypto Miners

A financially motivated operation codenamed REF1695 has been observed leveraging fake installers to deploy remote access trojans (RATs) and cryptocurrency miners since November 2023. "Beyond cryptomining, the threat actor monetizes infections through CPA (Cost Per Action) fraud, directing victims to content locker pages under the guise of software registration," Elastic

The State of Trusted Open Source Report

In December 2025, we shared the first-ever The State of Trusted Open Source report, featuring insights from our product data and customer base on open source consumption across our catalog of container image projects, versions, images, language libraries, and builds. These insights shed light on what teams pull, deploy, and maintain day to day, alongside the vulnerabilities and

WhatsApp Alerts 200 Users After Fake iOS App Installed Spyware; Italian Firm Faces Action

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp said it alerted about 200 users who were tricked into installing a bogus version of its iOS app that was infected with spyware. According to reports from Italian newspaper La Repubblica and news agency ANSA, the vast majority of the targets are located in Italy. It's assessed that the threat actors behind the activity used social engineering

Apple Expands iOS 18.7.7 Update to More Devices to Block DarkSword Exploit

Apple on Wednesday expanded the availability of iOS 18.7.7 and iPadOS 18.7.7 to a broader range of devices to protect users from the risk posed by a recently disclosed exploit kit known as DarkSword. "We enabled the availability of iOS 18.7.7 for more devices on April 1, 2026, so users with Automatic Updates turned on can automatically receive important security

CERT-UA Impersonation Campaign Spread AGEWHEEZE Malware to 1 Million Emails

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has disclosed details of a new phishing campaign in which the cybersecurity agency itself was impersonated to distribute a remote administration tool known as AGEWHEEZE. As part of the attacks, the threat actors, tracked as UAC-0255, sent emails on March 26 and 27, 2026, posing as CERT-UA to distribute a password-protected ZIP archive

Block the Prompt, Not the Work: The End of "Doctor No"

There is a character that keeps appearing in enterprise security departments, and most CISOs know exactly who that is. It doesn’t build. It doesn’t enable. Its entire function is to say "No." No to ChatGPT. No to DeepSeek. No to the file-sharing tool the product team swears by. For years, this looked like security. But in 2026, "Doctor No" is no longer just a management headache &

Casbaneiro Phishing Targets Latin America and Europe Using Dynamic PDF Lures

A multi-pronged phishing campaign is targeting Spanish-speaking users in organizations across Latin America and Europe to deliver Windows banking trojans like Casbaneiro (aka Metamorfo) via another malware called Horabot. The activity has been attributed to a Brazilian cybercrime threat actor tracked as Augmented Marauder and Water Saci. The e-crime group was first documented by Trend Micro in

Microsoft Warns of WhatsApp-Delivered VBS Malware Hijacking Windows via UAC Bypass

Microsoft is calling attention to a new campaign that has leveraged WhatsApp messages to distribute malicious Visual Basic Script (VBS) files. The activity, beginning in late February 2026, leverages these scripts to initiate a multi-stage infection chain for establishing persistence and enabling remote access. It's currently not known what lures the threat actors use to trick users into

New Chrome Zero-Day CVE-2026-5281 Under Active Exploitation — Patch Released

Google on Thursday released security updates for its Chrome web browser to address 21 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day flaw that it said has been exploited in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2026-5281 (CVSS score: N/A), concerns a use-after-free bug in Dawn, an open-source and cross-platform implementation of the WebGPU standard. "Use-after-free in Dawn in Google Chrome prior

3 Reasons Attackers Are Using Your Trusted Tools Against You (And Why You Don’t See It Coming)

For years, cybersecurity has followed a familiar model: block malware, stop the attack. Now, attackers are moving on to what’s next. Threat actors now use malware less frequently in favor of what’s already inside your environment, including abusing trusted tools, native binaries, and legitimate admin utilities to move laterally, escalate privileges, and persist without raising alarms. Most

Google Attributes Axios npm Supply Chain Attack to North Korean Group UNC1069

Google has formally attributed the supply chain compromise of the popular Axios npm package to a financially motivated North Korean threat activity cluster tracked as UNC1069. "We have attributed the attack to a suspected North Korean threat actor we track as UNC1069," John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), told The Hacker News in a statement. "North Korean

Claude Code Source Leaked via npm Packaging Error, Anthropic Confirms

Anthropic on Tuesday confirmed that internal code for its popular artificial intelligence (AI) coding assistant, Claude Code, had been inadvertently released due to a human error. "No sensitive customer data or credentials were involved or exposed," an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement shared with CNBC News. "This was a release packaging issue caused by human error, not a security

Android Developer Verification Rollout Begins Ahead of September Enforcement

Google on Monday said it's officially rolling out Android developer verification to all developers to combat the problem of bad actors distributing harmful apps while "hiding behind anonymity." The development comes ahead of a planned verification mandate that goes into effect in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand this September, before it expands globally next year. As part of this

TrueConf Zero-Day Exploited in Attacks on Southeast Asian Government Networks

A high-severity security flaw in the TrueConf client video conferencing software has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day as part of a campaign targeting government entities in Southeast Asia dubbed TrueChaos. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-3502 (CVSS score: 7.8), a lack of integrity check when fetching application update code, allowing an attacker to distribute a tampered update,

Vertex AI Vulnerability Exposes Google Cloud Data and Private Artifacts

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a security "blind spot" in Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform that could allow artificial intelligence (AI) agents to be weaponized by an attacker to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data and compromise an organization's cloud environment. According to Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, the issue relates to how the Vertex AI permission model can be misused

Silver Fox Expands Asia Cyber Campaign with AtlasCross RAT and Fake Domains

Chinese-speaking users are the target of an active campaign that uses typosquatted domains impersonating trusted software brands to deliver a previously undocumented remote access trojan named AtlasCross RAT. "The operation covers VPN clients, encrypted messengers, video conferencing tools, cryptocurrency trackers, and e-commerce applications, with eleven confirmed delivery domains impersonating

The AI Arms Race – Why Unified Exposure Management Is Becoming a Boardroom Priority

The cybersecurity landscape is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. What is emerging is not simply a rise in the number of vulnerabilities or tools, but a dramatic increase in speed. Speed of attack, speed of exploitation, and speed of change across modern environments. This is the defining challenge of the new era of digital warfare: the weaponization of Artificial Intelligence. Threat actors

Axios Supply Chain Attack Pushes Cross-Platform RAT via Compromised npm Account

The popular HTTP client known as Axios has suffered a supply chain attack after two newly published versions of the npm package introduced a malicious dependency that delivers a trojan capable of targeting Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. Versions 1.14.1 and 0.30.4 of Axios have been found to inject "plain-crypto-js" version 4.2.1 as a fake dependency. According to StepSecurity, the two

OpenAI Patches ChatGPT Data Exfiltration Flaw and Codex GitHub Token Vulnerability

A previously unknown vulnerability in OpenAI ChatGPT allowed sensitive conversation data to be exfiltrated without user knowledge or consent, according to new findings from Check Point. "A single malicious prompt could turn an otherwise ordinary conversation into a covert exfiltration channel, leaking user messages, uploaded files, and other sensitive content," the cybersecurity company said in

DeepLoad Malware Uses ClickFix and WMI Persistence to Steal Browser Credentials

A new campaign has leveraged the ClickFix social engineering tactic as a way to distribute a previously undocumented malware loader referred to as DeepLoad. "It likely uses AI-assisted obfuscation and process injection to evade static scanning, while credential theft starts immediately and captures passwords and sessions even if the primary loader is blocked," ReliaQuest researchers Thassanai

⚡ Weekly Recap: Telecom Sleeper Cells, LLM Jailbreaks, Apple Forces U.K. Age Checks and More

Some weeks are loud. This one was quieter but not in a good way. Long-running operations are finally hitting courtrooms, old attack methods are showing up in new places, and research that stopped being theoretical right around the time defenders stopped paying attention. There's a bit of everything this week. Persistence plays, legal wins, influence ops, and at least one thing that looks boring

3 SOC Process Fixes That Unlock Tier 1 Productivity

What is really slowing Tier 1 down: the threat itself or the process around it? In many SOCs, the biggest delays do not come from the threat alone. They come from fragmented workflows, manual triage steps, and limited visibility early in the investigation. Fixing those process gaps can help Tier 1 move faster, reduce unnecessary escalations, and improve how the entire SOC responds under pressure

The State of Secrets Sprawl 2026: 9 Takeaways for CISOs

Secrets sprawl isn't slowing down: in 2025, it accelerated faster than most security teams anticipated. GitGuardian's State of Secrets Sprawl 2026 report analyzed billions of commits across public GitHub and uncovered 29 million new hardcoded secrets in 2025 alone, a 34% increase year over year and the largest single-year jump ever recorded. This year's findings reveal three core trends: AI has

Russian CTRL Toolkit Delivered via Malicious LNK Files Hijacks RDP via FRP Tunnels

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a remote access toolkit of Russian-origin that's distributed via malicious Windows shortcut (LNK) files that are disguised as private key folders. The CTRL toolkit, according to Censys, is custom-built using .NET and includes various executables" to facilitate credential phishing, keylogging, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) hijacking, and reverse tunneling

Three China-Linked Clusters Target Southeast Asian Government in 2025 Cyber Campaign

Three threat activity clusters aligned with China have targeted a government organization in Southeast Asia as part of what has been described as a "complex and well-resourced operation." The campaigns have led to the deployment of various malware families, including HIUPAN (aka USBFect, MISTCLOAK, or U2DiskWatch), PUBLOAD, EggStremeFuel (aka RawCookie), EggStremeLoader (aka Gorem RAT), MASOL

Iran-Linked Hackers Breach FBI Director’s Personal Email, Hit Stryker With Wiper Attack

Threat actors with ties to Iran successfully broke into the personal email account of Kash Patel, the director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and leaked a cache of photos and other documents to the internet. Handala Hack Team, which carried out the breach, said on its website that Patel "will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims." In a statement

Citrix NetScaler Under Active Recon for CVE-2026-3055 (CVSS 9.3) Memory Overread Bug

A recently disclosed critical security flaw impacting Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway is witnessing active reconnaissance activity, according to Defused Cyber and watchTowr. The vulnerability, CVE-2026-3055 (CVSS score: 9.3), refers to a case of insufficient input validation leading to memory overread, which an attacker could exploit to leak potentially sensitive information. Per

TA446 Deploys DarkSword iOS Exploit Kit in Targeted Spear-Phishing Campaign

Proofpoint has disclosed details of a targeted email campaign in which threat actors with ties to Russia are leveraging the recently disclosed DarkSword exploit kit to target iOS devices. The activity has been attributed with high confidence to the Russian state-sponsored threat group known as TA446, which is also tracked by the broader cybersecurity community under the monikers Callisto,

CISA Adds CVE-2025-53521 to KEV After Active F5 BIG-IP APM Exploitation

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added a critical security flaw impacting F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-53521 (CVSS v4 score: 9.3), which could allow a threat actor to achieve remote code execution. "When a

Apple Sends Lock Screen Alerts to Outdated iPhones Over Active Web-Based Exploits

Apple is now sending Lock Screen notifications to iPhones and iPads running older versions of iOS and iPadOS to alert users of web-based attacks and urge them to install the update. The development was first reported by MacRumors. "Apple is aware of attacks targeting out-of-date iOS software, including the version on your iPhone. Install this critical update to protect your iPhone," the

TeamPCP Pushes Malicious Telnyx Versions to PyPI, Hides Stealer in WAV Files

TeamPCP, the threat actor behind the supply chain attack targeting Trivy, KICS, and litellm, has now compromised the telnyx Python package by pushing two malicious versions to steal sensitive data. The two versions, 4.87.1 and 4.87.2, published to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository on March 27, 2026, concealed their credential harvesting capabilities within a .WAV file. Users are

Open VSX Bug Let Malicious VS Code Extensions Bypass Pre-Publish Security Checks

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched bug impacting Open VSX's pre-publish scanning pipeline to cause the tool to allow a malicious Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension to pass the vetting process and go live in the registry. "The pipeline had a single boolean return value that meant both 'no scanners are configured' and 'all scanners failed to run,'" Koi

AitM Phishing Targets TikTok Business Accounts Using Cloudflare Turnstile Evasion

Threat actors are using adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing pages to seize control of TikTok for Business accounts in a new campaign, according to a report from Push Security. Business accounts associated with social media platforms are a lucrative target, as they can be weaponized by bad actors for malvertising and distributing malware. "TikTok has been historically abused to distribute

We Are At War

Rising geopolitical tensions are reflected (or in some cases preceded) by cyber operations, while technology itself has become politicized. Let’s admit it: we are in the middle of it.  Introduction: One tech power to rule them all is a thing of the past  The relative safety, peace and prosperity that much of the world has enjoyed since 1945 was not accidental. It emerged from the ashes

Bearlyfy Hits Russian Firms with Custom GenieLocker Ransomware

A pro-Ukrainian group called Bearlyfy has been attributed to more than 70 cyber attacks targeting Russian companies since it first surfaced in the threat landscape in January 2025, with recent attacks leveraging a custom Windows ransomware strain codenamed GenieLocker. "Bearlyfy (also known as Labubu) operates as a dual-purpose group aimed at inflicting maximum damage upon Russian businesses;

LangChain, LangGraph Flaws Expose Files, Secrets, Databases in Widely Used AI Frameworks

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed three security vulnerabilities impacting LangChain and LangGraph that, if successfully exploited, could expose filesystem data, environment secrets, and conversation history. Both LangChain and LangGraph are open-source frameworks that are used to build applications powered by Large Language Models (LLMs). LangGraph is built on the foundations of

China-Linked Red Menshen Uses Stealthy BPFDoor Implants to Spy via Telecom Networks

A long-term and ongoing campaign attributed to a China-nexus threat actor has embedded itself in telecom networks to conduct espionage against government networks. The strategic positioning activity, which involves implanting and maintaining stealthy access mechanisms within critical environments, has been attributed to Red Menshen, a threat cluster that's also tracked as Earth Bluecrow,

Claude Extension Flaw Enabled Zero-Click XSS Prompt Injection via Any Website

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a vulnerability in Anthropic's Claude Google Chrome Extension that could have been exploited to trigger malicious prompts simply by visiting a web page. The flaw "allowed any website to silently inject prompts into that assistant as if the user wrote them," Koi Security researcher Oren Yomtov said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "No clicks, no

Masters of Imitation: How Hackers and Art Forgers Perfect the Art of Deception

Unmasking impostors is something the art world has faced for decades, and there are valuable lessons from the works of Elmyr de Hory that can apply to the world of defensive cybersecurity. During the 1960s, de Hory gained infamy as a premier forger, passing off counterfeit masterworks of Picasso, Matisse, and Renoir to unsuspecting collectors and renowned museums. Over the next several decades,

ThreatsDay Bulletin: PQC Push, AI Vuln Hunting, Pirated Traps, Phishing Kits & 20 More Stories

Some weeks in security feel loud. This one feels sneaky. Less big dramatic fireworks, more of that slow creeping sense that too many people are getting way too comfortable abusing things they probably shouldn’t even be touching. There’s a little bit of everything in this one, too. Weird delivery tricks, old problems coming back in slightly worse forms, shady infrastructure doing

[Webinar] Stop Guessing. Learn to Validate Your Defenses Against Real Attacks

Most teams have security tools in place. Alerts are firing, dashboards look clean, threat intel is flowing in. On the surface, everything feels under control. But one question usually stays unanswered: Would your defenses actually stop a real attack? That’s where things get shaky. A control exists, so it’s assumed to work. A detection rule is active, so it’s expected to catch something. But very

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