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:

  • Attackers use hidden SMS and signalling systems to track targets’ location

    April 24, 2026

    Security researchers have just unveiled details of two covert surveillance campaigns that exploit weaknesses in the global telecom infrastructure. In a report published on Thursday, Citizen Lab explains that attackers abuse the signalling systems mobile operators use to support roaming, route messages, and locate devices on the network. The weaknesses were used to track certain subscribers ...

  • Governments on high alert after CISA snuffs out Firestarter backdoor on fed network

    April 24, 2026

    A US federal agency was successfully targeted by a previously unknown backdoor malware called Firestarter, according to CISA cybersnoops and their UK counterparts – neither of which disclosed the agency’s name. Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies include NASA; Homeland Security itself (cyberworkers at CISA are part of an operational unit in Homeland Security); the FBI; the DoJ; the IRS; the ...

  • PhantomRPC: A new privilege escalation technique in Windows Remote Procedure Call

    April 24, 2026

    Windows Interprocess Communication (IPC) is one of the most complex technologies within the Windows operating system. At the core of this ecosystem is the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) mechanism, which can function as a standalone communication channel or as the underlying transport layer for more advanced interprocess communication technologies. Because of its complexity and widespread ...

  • Researchers find cyber-sabotage malware that may predate Stuxnet by five years

    April 24, 2026

    Infosec outfit SentinelOne found malware that tries to induce errors in engineering and physics simulation software and therefore represents an attempt at sabotage, and suggests it was created years before the Stuxnet worm that aimed to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges. The company’s Vitaly Kamluk discussed the malware in a talk at the Black Hat Asia ...

  • Apple fixes iOS bug that kept deleted notifications, including chat previews

    April 23, 2026

    Apple has released a software update that deals with an issue that could allow deleted notifications to be retrieved. Something that, in at least one reported case, was used by law enforcement during forensic analysis. Apple fixed the issue in iOS and iPadOS versions 18.7.8 and 26.4.2 (check availability for your device at those links). The ...

  • France confirms data breach at government agency that manages citizens’ IDs

    April 22, 2026

    The French government agency that handles the issuing and management of citizens’ identity documents, including national IDs, passports, and immigration documents, confirmed Wednesday that it experienced a data breach. In an announcement, the Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés (ANTS) said the data stolen in the breach could include full names, dates and places of birth, mailing ...