⚡ Weekly Recap: Hyper-V Malware, Malicious AI Bots, RDP Exploits, WhatsApp Lockdown and More

Cyber threats didn’t slow down last week—and attackers are getting smarter. We’re seeing malware hidden in virtual machines, side-channel leaks exposing AI chats, and spyware quietly targeting Android devices in the wild. But that’s just the surface. From sleeper logic bombs to a fresh alliance between major threat groups, this week’s roundup highlights a clear […]

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Large-Scale ClickFix Phishing Attacks Target Hotel Systems with PureRAT Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a massive phishing campaign targeting the hospitality industry that lures hotel managers to ClickFix-style pages and harvest their credentials by deploying malware like PureRAT. “The attacker’s modus operandi involved using a compromised email account to send malicious messages to multiple hotel establishments,” Sekoia said. “This campaign leverages spear-phishing emails […]

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GlassWorm Malware Discovered in Three VS Code Extensions with Thousands of Installs

Nov 10, 2025Ravie LakshmananMalware / Threat Intelligence Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new set of three extensions associated with the GlassWorm campaign, indicating continued attempts on part of threat actors to target the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) ecosystem. The extensions in question, which are still available for download, are listed below – GlassWorm, first […]

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Microsoft Uncovers ‘Whisper Leak’ Attack That Identifies AI Chat Topics in Encrypted Traffic

Microsoft has disclosed details of a novel side-channel attack targeting remote language models that could enable a passive adversary with capabilities to observe network traffic to glean details about model conversation topics despite encryption protections under certain circumstances. This leakage of data exchanged between humans and streaming-mode language models could pose serious risks to the privacy of user […]

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Samsung Zero-Click Flaw Exploited to Deploy LANDFALL Android Spyware via WhatsApp

Nov 07, 2025Ravie LakshmananMobile Security / Vulnerability A now-patched security flaw in Samsung Galaxy Android devices was exploited as a zero-day to deliver a “commercial-grade” Android spyware dubbed LANDFALL in targeted attacks in the Middle East. The activity involved the exploitation of CVE-2025-21042 (CVSS score: 8.8), an out-of-bounds write flaw in the “libimagecodec.quram.so” component that […]

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Hidden Logic Bombs in Malware-Laced NuGet Packages Set to Detonate Years After Installation

Nov 07, 2025Ravie LakshmananSupply Chain Attack / Malware A set of nine malicious NuGet packages has been identified as capable of dropping time-delayed payloads to sabotage database operations and corrupt industrial control systems. According to software supply chain security company Socket, the packages were published in 2023 and 2024 by a user named “shanhai666” and […]

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Vibe-Coded Malicious VS Code Extension Found with Built-In Ransomware Capabilities

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a malicious Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension with basic ransomware capabilities that appears to be created with the help of artificial intelligence – in other words, vibe-coded. Secure Annex researcher John Tuckner, who flagged the extension “susvsex,” said it does not attempt to hide its malicious functionality. The extension was […]

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Cisco Warns of New Firewall Attack Exploiting CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362

Nov 06, 2025Ravie LakshmananZero-Day / Vulnerability Cisco on Wednesday disclosed that it became aware of a new attack variant that’s designed to target devices running Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software releases that are susceptible to CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362. “This attack can cause unpatched devices […]

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Trojanized ESET Installers Drop Kalambur Backdoor in Phishing Attacks on Ukraine

Nov 06, 2025Ravie LakshmananMalware / Vulnerability A previously unknown threat activity cluster has been observed impersonating Slovak cybersecurity company ESET as part of phishing attacks targeting Ukrainian entities. The campaign, detected in May 2025, is tracked by the security outfit under the moniker InedibleOchotense, describing it as Russia-aligned. “InedibleOchotense sent spear-phishing emails and Signal text […]

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From Tabletop to Turnkey: Building Cyber Resilience in Financial Services

Introduction Financial institutions are facing a new reality: cyber-resilience has passed from being a best practice, to an operational necessity, to a prescriptive regulatory requirement. Crisis management or Tabletop exercises, for a long time relatively rare in the context of cybersecurity, have become required as a series of regulations has introduced this requirement to FSI […]

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Bitdefender Named a Representative Vendor in the 2025 Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response

Nov 06, 2025The Hacker NewsUnited States Bitdefender has once again been recognized as a Representative Vendor in the Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response (MDR) — marking the fourth consecutive year of inclusion. According to Gartner, more than 600 providers globally claim to deliver MDR services, yet only a select few meet the […]

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SonicWall Confirms State-Sponsored Hackers Behind September Cloud Backup Breach

Nov 06, 2025Ravie LakshmananIncident Response / Cloud Security SonicWall has formally implicated state-sponsored threat actors as behind the September security breach that led to the unauthorized exposure of firewall configuration backup files. “The malicious activity – carried out by a state-sponsored threat actor – was isolated to the unauthorized access of cloud backup files from […]

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Google Uncovers PROMPTFLUX Malware That Uses Gemini AI to Rewrite Its Code Hourly

Nov 05, 2025Ravie LakshmananArtificial Intelligence / Threat Intelligence Google on Wednesday said it discovered an unknown threat actor using an experimental Visual Basic Script (VB Script) malware dubbed PROMPTFLUX that interacts with its Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) model API to write its own source code for improved obfuscation and evasion. “PROMPTFLUX is written in VBScript […]

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Researchers Find ChatGPT Vulnerabilities That Let Attackers Trick AI Into Leaking Data

Nov 05, 2025Ravie LakshmananArtificial Intelligence / Vulnerability Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new set of vulnerabilities impacting OpenAI’s ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that could be exploited by an attacker to steal personal information from users’ memories and chat histories without their knowledge. The seven vulnerabilities and attack techniques, according to Tenable, were found in […]

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Mysterious ‘SmudgedSerpent’ Hackers Target U.S. Policy Experts Amid Iran–Israel Tensions

Nov 05, 2025Ravie LakshmananCybersecurity / Cyber Espionage A never-before-seen threat activity cluster codenamed UNK_SmudgedSerpent has been attributed as behind a set of cyber attacks targeting academics and foreign policy experts between June and August 2025, coinciding with heightened geopolitical tensions between Iran and Israel. “UNK_SmudgedSerpent leveraged domestic political lures, including societal change in Iran and […]

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U.S. Sanctions 10 North Korean Entities for Laundering $12.7M in Crypto and IT Fraud

Nov 05, 2025Ravie LakshmananCybercrime / Ransomware The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions against eight individuals and two entities within North Korea’s global financial network for laundering money for various illicit schemes, including cybercrime and information technology (IT) worker fraud. “North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder money to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons […]

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Why SOC Burnout Can Be Avoided: Practical Steps

Behind every alert is an analyst; tired eyes scanning dashboards, long nights spent on false positives, and the constant fear of missing something big. It’s no surprise that many SOCs face burnout before they face their next breach. But this doesn’t have to be the norm. The path out isn’t through working harder, but through […]

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CISA Adds Gladinet and CWP Flaws to KEV Catalog Amid Active Exploitation Evidence

Nov 05, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Network Security The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday added two security flaws impacting Gladinet and Control Web Panel (CWP) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerabilities in question are listed below – CVE-2025-11371 (CVSS score: 7.5) […]

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A Cybercrime Merger Like No Other — Scattered Spider, LAPSUS$, and ShinyHunters Join Forces

The nascent collective that combines three prominent cybercrime groups, Scattered Spider, LAPSUS$, and ShinyHunters, has created no less than 16 Telegram channels since August 8, 2025. “Since its debut, the group’s Telegram channels have been removed and recreated at least 16 times under varying iterations of the original name – a recurring cycle reflecting platform […]

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Europol and Eurojust Dismantle €600 Million Crypto Fraud Network in Global Sweep

Nov 04, 2025Ravie LakshmananCybercrime / Money Laundering Nine people have been arrested in connection with a coordinated law enforcement operation that targeted a cryptocurrency money laundering network that defrauded victims of €600 million (~$688 million). According to a statement released by Eurojust today, the action took place between October 27 and 29 across Cyprus, Spain, […]

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Critical React Native CLI Flaw Exposed Millions of Developers to Remote Attacks

Nov 04, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Supply Chain Security Details have emerged about a now-patched critical security flaw in the popular “@react-native-community/cli” npm package that could be potentially exploited to run malicious operating system (OS) commands under certain conditions. “The vulnerability allows remote unauthenticated attackers to easily trigger arbitrary OS command execution on the machine running […]

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Microsoft Teams Bugs Let Attackers Impersonate Colleagues and Edit Messages Unnoticed

Nov 04, 2025Ravie Lakshmanan Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of four security flaws in Microsoft Teams that could have exposed users to serious impersonation and social engineering attacks. The vulnerabilities “allowed attackers to manipulate conversations, impersonate colleagues, and exploit notifications,” Check Point said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Following responsible disclosure in […]

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Ransomware Defense Using the Wazuh Open Source Platform

Ransomware is malicious software designed to block access to a computer system or encrypt data until a ransom is paid. This cyberattack is one of the most prevalent and damaging threats in the digital landscape, affecting individuals, businesses, and critical infrastructure worldwide. A ransomware attack typically begins when the malware infiltrates a system through various […]

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