- TookPS: DeepSeek isn’t the only game in town
April 2, 2025
In early March, we published a study detailing several malicious campaigns that exploited the popular DeepSeek LLM as a lure. Subsequent telemetry analysis indicated that the TookPS downloader, a malware strain detailed in the article, was not limited to mimicking neural networks. Kaspersky researchers identified fraudulent websites mimic official sources for remote desktop and 3D modeling ...
- The Espionage Toolkit of Earth Alux: A Closer Look at its Advanced Techniques
March 31, 2025
The Earth Alux APT group’s schemes and tactics have been uncloaked through our relentless monitoring and investigation efforts. The China-linked intrusion set is actively launching cyberespionage attacks against the government, technology, logistics, manufacturing, telecommunications, IT services, and retail sectors. The first sighting of its activity was in the second quarter of 2023; back then, it was ...
- MoDiRAT Malware Uses Horus Protector to Target France
March 25, 2025
The SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team has identified a new development in the Horus Protector distributed infection chain. Recently, it has been targeting the French region with MoDiRAT, a malware notorious for stealing credit card and other victim information. During the infection process, it deploys the DarkCloud stealer; however, before exiting, the loader verifies if ...
- Arcane stealer: We want all your data
March 19, 2025
At the end of 2024, Kaspersky researchers discovered a new stealer distributed via YouTube videos promoting game cheats. What’s intriguing about this malware is how much it collects. It grabs account information from VPN and gaming clients, and all kinds of network utilities like ngrok, Playit, Cyberduck, FileZilla and DynDNS. The stealer was named Arcane, not ...
- StilachiRAT analysis: From system reconnaissance to cryptocurrency theft
March 17, 2025
In November 2024, Microsoft Incident Response researchers uncovered a novel remote access trojan (RAT) they named StilachiRAT that demonstrates sophisticated techniques to evade detection, persist in the target environment, and exfiltrate sensitive data. Analysis of the StilachiRAT’s WWStartupCtrl64.dll module that contains the RAT capabilities revealed the use of various methods to steal information from the target ...
- Thousands of TP-Link routers have been infected by a botnet to spread malware
March 11, 2025
According to a new report from the Cato CTRL team, the Ballista botnet exploits a remote code execution vulnerability that directly impacts the TP-Link Archer AX-21 router. The botnet can lead to command injection which then makes remote code execution (RCE) possible so that the malware can spread itself across the internet automatically. This high severity ...
- New XCSSET malware adds new obfuscation, persistence techniques to infect Xcode projects
March 11, 2025
Microsoft Threat Intelligence has uncovered a new variant of XCSSET, a sophisticated modular macOS malware that infects Xcode projects, in the wild during routine threat hunting. Its first known variant since 2022, this latest XCSSET malware features enhanced obfuscation methods, updated persistence mechanisms, and new infection strategies. These enhanced features help this malware family steal and ...
- DCRat backdoor returns
March 11, 2025
Since the beginning of the year, Kaspersky researchers have been tracking in their telemetry a new wave of DCRat distribution, with paid access to the backdoor provided under the Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) model. The cybercriminal group behind it also offers support for the malware and infrastructure setup for hosting the C2 servers. Distribution The DCRat backdoor is ...
- Fake CAPTCHA websites hijack your clipboard to install information stealers
March 10, 2025
There are more and more sites that use a clipboard hijacker and instruct victims on how to infect their own machine. I realize that may sound like something trivial to steer clear from, but apparently it’s not because the social engineering behind it is pretty sophisticated. At first, these attacks were more targeted at people that ...
- New botnet unleashes record-breaking DDoS attacks
March 7, 2025
A new botnet dubbed “Eleven11bot” has emerged, delivering what security researchers believe are the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks ever recorded. The botnet, primarily composed of compromised webcams and video recorders, has triggered widespread service disruptions and ignited a debate within the cybersecurity community about its true size. Nokia’s Deepfield Emergency Response Team first detected the ...