Cybercriminals behind a campaign dubbed DEAD#VAX are taking phishing one step further by delivering malware inside virtual hard disks that pretend to be ordinary PDF documents.
Open the wrong “invoice” or “purchase order” and you won’t see a document at all. Instead, Windows mounts a virtual drive that quietly installs AsyncRAT, a backdoor Trojan that allows attackers to remotely monitor and control your computer. It’s a remote access tool, which means attackers gain remote hands‑on‑keyboard control, while traditional file‑based defenses see almost nothing suspicious on disk.
Read more…
Source: Malwarebytes Labs
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Analyzing a Multi-Stage AsyncRAT Campaign via Managed Detection and Response
January 12, 2026
AsyncRAT has emerged as a notable Remote Access Trojan (RAT) used by threat actors for its robust capabilities and ease of deployment. It gained favor for its extensive feature set, which includes keylogging, screen capturing, and remote command execution capabilities. Its modular architecture, typically implemented in Python, provides flexibility and ease of customization, making it a ...
- New Zealand: Second health provider, Canopy Health, hit in major cyber attack
January 12, 2026
Patients caught up in the CanopyHealth data breach are furious that it took the company six months to tell them about it. On Monday, it was revealed the leading private provider doing breast cancer diagnosis and treatment took six months to notify some patients or the public of a major cyber attack on its systems. In ...
- Europol: 34 arrests in Spain during action against the ‘Black Axe’ criminal organisation
January 9, 2026
The Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional), in close cooperation with the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt) and with the support of Europol, has conducted an operation against the international criminal organisation ‘Black Axe’. The action resulted in 34 arrests and significant disruptions to the group’s activities. Black Axe is a highly structured, hierarchical group ...
- ‘ZombieAgent’ zero click vulnerability allows for silent account takeover
January 9, 2026
OpenAI recently introduced a new feature for ChatGPT which, unfortunately, also puts users at risk of data exfiltration and persistent access. In December 2025, a feature called Connectors finally moved out of beta and into general availability. This feature allows ChatGPT to connect to numerous other apps, such as calendars, cloud storage, email accounts, and similar ...
- 10 emergency directives retired as CISA declares them redundant
January 9, 2026
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) retired ten Emergency Directives (ED) it issued between 2019 and 2024, saying they achieved their purpose and are no longer needed. In a short announcement published on its website, CISA said the EDs have either been successfully implemented or are now encompassed through Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01, ...
- CVE-2026-21858: Maximum-severity n8n flaw lets randos run your automation server
January 8, 2026
A maximum-severity bug in the popular automation platform n8n has left an estimated 100,000 servers wide open to complete takeover, courtesy of a flaw so bad it doesn’t even require logging in. The vulnerability, uncovered by researchers at security outfit Cyera, carries a CVSS score of 10.0 and has been dubbed “ni8mare” for good reason. Tracked ...