Mirage Kitten targeting aviation and FinTech sectors across the Middle East and Africa with a new malware set


While monitoring Mirage Kitten activity, Kaspersky researchers uncovered a previously undocumented malware family that we dubbed NodeRabbit. The researchers identified the first sample on a system in Afghanistan. Further threat hunting revealed two additional, more advanced, variants: one on a system in Egypt and another on a system in Ethiopia.

NodeRabbit is a cross-platform remote access trojan (RAT) built with Node.js. It targets Windows, Linux, and macOS. Its operators deliver it through spear-phishing messages on LinkedIn and other job search platforms that contain trojanized coding challenge archives.

During the same investigation, the researchers discovered another previously undocumented malware family that we dubbed PollCat. Like NodeRabbit, PollCat is a cross-platform RAT, but it is written in obfuscated JavaScript also distributed through trojanized coding challenge archives.

Read more…
Source:  Kaspersky


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • National cybercrime network operating for 14 years dismantled in Indonesia

    December 8, 2025

    Security researchers have uncovered enormous cybercrime infrastructure in Indonesia that’s been operating unabated for more than 14 years. The length of the operation, the domains included, the malware circulated, and the data being sold on the black market, were all so big that the researchers – Malanta.ai – said the campaign resembles a nation-state campaign ...

  • React2Shell RCE flaw exploited by Chinese hackers hours after disclosure

    December 8, 2025

    Just as the experts predicted, cybercriminals are now actively exploiting the critical severity vulnerability in React Server Components (RSC) that was discovered late last week. To make matters worse, the crooks observed abusing the bug seem to be working for the Chinese government. Late last week, the React team published a security advisory detailing a pre-authentication ...

  • AI-Automated Threat Hunting Brings GhostPenguin Out of the Shadows

    December 8, 2025

    Hunting high-impact, advanced malware is a difficult task. It becomes even harder and more time-consuming when defenders focus on low-detection or zero-detection samples. Every day, a huge number of files are sent to platforms like VirusTotal, and the relevant ones often get lost in all that noise. Identifying malware with low or no detections is ...

  • How phishers hide banking scams behind free Cloudflare Pages

    December 8, 2025

    During a recent investigation, we uncovered a phishing operation that combines free hosting on developer platforms with compromised legitimate websites to build convincing banking and insurance login portals. These fake pages don’t just grab a username and password–they also ask for answers to secret questions and other “backup” data that attackers can use to bypass multi-factor ...

  • Petco’s security lapse affected customers’ SSNs, drivers’ licenses and more

    December 8, 2025

    Last week, pet products and services giant Petco confirmed that it experienced a data breach involving customers’ personal information, without specifying what type of data was affected. On Friday, in a legally required filing with Texas’ attorney general’s office, Petco reported that the affected data included: names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial information such ...

  • Poland detains three Ukrainians over possession of hacking equipment

    December 8, 2025

    A Polish court has ordered three Ukrainian nationals held on charges of computer fraud and possessing hardware and software designed to commit crimes, including a suspected attempt to damage IT data deemed crucial to national defence. The three men, aged 43, 42 and 39, were detained after a roadside check in Warsaw, Polish state news agency ...