In their first article on the XZ backdoor, Kaspersky researchers analyzed its code from initial infection to the function hooking it performs. As they mentioned then, its initial goal was to successfully hook one of the functions related to RSA key manipulation.
In this article, the research team will focus on the backdoor’s behaviour inside OpenSSH, specifically OpenSSH portable version 9.7p1 – the most recent version at this time. To better understand what’s going on, they recommend you to read Baeldung’s article about SSH authentication methods and JFrog’s article about privilege separation in SSH.
Read more…
Source: Kaspersky
Related:
- StopRansomware: Gunra Ransomware
August 10, 2026
Gunra is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) used by affiliates to target government, critical infrastructure, and other organizations. The Gunra ransomware variant first appeared in 2025 and expanded to RaaS operations in 2026. The actors leverage a double-extortion model, both encrypting data and threatening to publish exfiltrated data to a dedicated leak site (DLS) if the ransom ...
- An analysis of incidents at Brazilian educational institutions
August 3, 2026
Because of the amount of data that can be obtained and the high impact that successful attacks may have, educational institutions are frequent targets of cybercriminals. Both public and private schools and universities rely on software for managing personally identifiable information (PII) that is often insecure or insufficiently tested against known vulnerabilities. In addition, machines ...
- Mirage Kitten targets Middle East and Africa region with new malware
July 28, 2026
Mirage Kitten – also known as UNC1549, Smoke Sandstorm, and Nimbus Manticore – is an advanced persistent threat (APT) group focused on cyber-espionage operations against aerospace, aviation, defense, and telecommunications sectors across the Middle East and Africa, using highly targeted spear-phishing campaigns, fake recruitment portals, and custom multi-stage malware to gain persistent access and exfiltrate sensitive data. During ...
- HOLLOWGRAPH: Turning Microsoft 365 Calendars into Covert Command-and-Control Channels
July 20, 2026
The Group-IB Threat Intelligence team has identified HOLLOWGRAPH, a new malware sample that we attribute, with high confidence, to the Cavern backdoor framework. This malware is one component of a larger toolkit, and it uses the Microsoft Graph API through a compromised Microsoft 365 account observed in Israel to communicate with its operators — a technique ...
- GoSerpent: a persistent threat evolves with sophisticated data collection and exfiltration
July 16, 2026
In February 2026, Kaspersky discovered a set of malicious activities that had been ongoing since late 2025. These activities involved a RAT module written in Go with proxy capabilities, which served as the main stage of the attack. The attack targeted government and diplomatic entities in Southeast Asia and showed a level of sophistication that ...
- This fake Apple app can unlock your Mac’s password vault
July 15, 2026
CrashStealer is a new macOS infostealer that masquerades as Apple’s CrashReporter component, uses an Apple‑notarized installer to slip past Gatekeeper, tricks users into handing over their password, and then systematically loots browsers, password managers, crypto wallets, and Keychain secrets before exfiltrating them in AES‑encrypted bundles. Researchers have been following the development of CrashStealer since May 2026. It ...