Malware

Pierluigi Paganini July 03, 2026
JADEPUFFER: First End-to-End AI-Driven Ransomware Operation

Sysdig reports an AI agent ran a full ransomware attack end-to-end, exploiting flaws, stealing creds, moving laterally, and encrypting data without humans. Sysdig’s Threat Research Team has documented what it assesses to be the first ransomware operation driven end-to-end by a large language model. The operator, which Sysdig calls JADEPUFFER, broke into a server, harvested […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 03, 2026
Law enforcememt operation disrupted Malicious Residential Proxy Networks NetNut

Google disrupted NetNut, a major proxy network that routed internet traffic through compromised home devices used by cybercriminals. Google has disrupted NetNut, one of the world’s largest residential proxy networks. The service routed internet traffic through home devices, allowing customers to hide their real location and identity. “Today, in coordination with the FBI, Lumen, and […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 02, 2026
430,000 FortiGate Devices Exposed in FortiBleed Ransomware Link

FortiBleed exposed 430,000 FortiGate firewalls, linked to INC Ransom and Lynx, enabling domain compromise and at least 12 ransomware attacks. SOCRadar’s Threat Research Unit has connected FortiBleed, a large-scale campaign that harvested credentials from over 430,000 FortiGate firewalls worldwide, directly to two active ransomware operations: INC Ransom and Lynx. The link isn’t circumstantial. An operator […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 01, 2026
CISA Warns BlueHammer Flaw Is Now Exploited in Ransomware Attacks

CISA confirms BlueHammer (CVE-2026-33825) is now used in ransomware attacks to gain SYSTEM privileges through Microsoft Defender. BlueHammer, tracked as CVE-2026-33825, has moved from proof-of-concept noise to real ransomware attacks in the wild, the US CISA confirms. BlueHammer allows attackers to escalate privileges locally in Microsoft Defender. The vulnerability, along with two other zero-days dubbed […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 01, 2026
RustDuck: The Botnet That’s Still Small but Engineering Like It Plans to Grow

RustDuck is a small, evolving DDoS botnet migrating to Rust. It uses advanced encryption, anti-analysis evasion, and exploits known IoT flaws. Since February 2026, researchers at QiAnXin’s XLab have been tracking a new malware family, called RustDuck, that hijacks routers, cameras, Android set-top boxes, and exposed servers, then uses them to flood targets with junk […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 29, 2026
StegoAd: How 119 Fake Browser Extensions Stole Credentials and Ran Ad Fraud for Two Years

Microsoft shut down the StegoAd campaign, which used 119 malicious Edge extensions, hit 2.6M installs, and ran undetected for two years. Microsoft just shut down one of the more technically clever malicious extension campaigns it’s ever documented. The operation, named StegoAd, ran 119 extensions on the Edge Add-ons store, racked up roughly 2.6 million installs, […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 28, 2026
SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 103

Security Affairs Malware newsletter includes a collection of the best articles and research on malware in the international landscape Malware Newsletter More Than 4,000 Legacy Routers Compromised by AryStinger, Turned into Global Attack Proxies for Hackers   A VBScript campaign distributed through WhatsApp deploying RMM software  Lost in relocation: analysis of a new loader distributing CASTLESTEALER   […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 26, 2026
Chinese APT CL-STA-1062 Expands Attacks on Southeast Asian Critical Infrastructure With Custom Malware

Chinese-speaking APT CL-STA-1062 targeted Southeast Asian government and energy networks open-source tools, and a new TinyRCT backdoor. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers published a detailed report on a Chinese-speaking threat actor, tracked as CL-STA-1062, that has been running persistent operations across East Asia since at least March 2022 and shifted focus to Southeast Asian […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 26, 2026
macOS.Gaslight: North Korea-Linked Malware That Tries to Gaslight the Analyst

macOS.Gaslight: DPRK Rust implant for Mac with a prompt injection payload designed to fool AI-based malware analysts. SentinelLabs researchers spotted a Rust-based macOS implant, dubbed macOS.Gaslight, that surfaced in early June after an Apple XProtect update pointed to a VirusTotal sample uploaded on May 22. The binary was undetected by static engines at the time […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 25, 2026
Inside Mistic, the New Stealth Backdoor in Ransomware Intrusions

Mistic is a stealthy backdoor used by KongTuke-linked actors to keep long-term access in ransomware-targeted networks. Mistic is the kind of backdoor that tells you the operator wants time, not noise. Symantec security researchers say it has shown up in financially motivated attacks against insurance, education, IT, and professional services firms, and they link it […]