Threats Affecting Saudi Arabia

In June 2026, researchers uncovered BigBear 2.0, a rebranded Evilginx2-based phishing-as-a-service framework targeting Microsoft 365 credentials globally. The operation, managed by operator 'General Boss', deployed 42 VPS nodes primarily hosted on Vultr infrastructure, utilizing the 'offy' phishlet configuration. The platform employed adversary-in-the-middle techniques with geo-matched residential proxy pools across 69 countries, real-time Telegram exfiltration, and automated cookie replay to bypass MFA. The campaign exfiltrated 5,137 credential records including 474 complete MFA-bypassed authentications, 1,032 plaintext passwords, and 4,148 session cookies, affecting 3,331 unique victim IPs across 40+ countries. The multi-user PhaaS panel was leased to at least five identified affiliate operators. Custom JavaScript injections disabled FIDO2/WebAuthn MFA while residential proxies bypassed anti-bot detection, enabling persistent access to compromised Microsoft 365 environments.

MediumMalwareBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryFranceGermany+3#phishing-as-a-service#evilginx2#microsoft 365

The Iranian-linked cyber-espionage group Tortoiseshell has expanded its malware toolkit with a new reverse SSH tunneling utility disguised as wtsapi32.dll and a C++ backdoor similar to TWOSTROKE malware. The SSH tunnel uses the Windows OpenSSH client to connect to command-and-control servers. The backdoor supports executing files, shell commands, in-memory DLL execution, and file manipulation. Infrastructure analysis shows domains linked to multiple countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, UK, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the United States, indicating broader targeting beyond the Middle East and US defense and military sectors. The group has been active since 2018 and maintains persistent infrastructure despite domain suspensions. No known exploits in the wild or patches are reported.

MediumMalwareUnited StatesAustraliaBelgium+4#wtsapi32.dll#cyber-espionage#mirage kitten

Mirage2FA is an active phishing-as-a-service toolkit built to steal Microsoft 365 credentials and authenticated sessions through Adversary-in-the-Middle attacks. Analysis shows 63.7% of identified victims are in the US, with Technology, Manufacturing, and Education among the most targeted industries. The operation generated thousands of compromise events between 2024 and 2026, including stolen session cookies, passwords, and SSO access. Once a Microsoft 365 session is hijacked, attackers gain access to corporate email, sensitive data, and trusted business accounts. The toolkit uses browser-based delivery through .htm, .xhtml, and .svg stagers, QR codes, JavaScript obfuscation, and WebSocket-based AiTM activity. Of 9,426 unique targeted email addresses, 4,532 were potentially compromised, representing approximately 48% success rate.

MediumCampaignUnited StatesBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryCanada+4#microsoft 365#websocket#adversary-in-the-middle

A sophisticated credential theft campaign manipulates DNS and HTTP traffic on captive portal networks at hotels, conference centers, and hospitality venues to redirect victims to attacker-controlled infrastructure. The operation harvests Microsoft 365 credentials through phishing pages, device code phishing abusing Microsoft Entra ID authentication flow, and malware delivery via ClickFix social engineering techniques. Evidence indicates compromised shared captive portal services rather than individual venue breaches, with affected gateways identified in several U.S. cities, India, and Saudi Arabia. The campaign deploys two primary malware tools: CornFlake, a Go-based RAT providing persistent access and extensive surveillance capabilities, and ChocoShell, an in-memory PowerShell stealer that harvests browser credentials, Microsoft 365 tokens, and Azure AD tokens. The operation targets travelers across multiple sectors and has expanded to include Android devices through malicious APK files.

HighVulnerabilityUnited StatesBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryIndia+1#cve#cve-2026-21509#cwe-807

This report highlights a cyber espionage campaign attributed to the Iranian APT group Charming Kitten, targeting eight countries and eight critical sectors simultaneously. The campaign, dubbed Operation Olalampo, affects Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Hungary, Turkmenistan, Israel, and South America, focusing on government, healthcare, financial services, energy, education, telecommunications, defense, and industrial sectors. The information is sourced from a Reddit post linking to a GitHub repository simulating adversary tactics. No specific vulnerabilities or exploits are detailed, and no affected software versions are identified.

CriticalCampaignEgyptSaudi ArabiaUnited Arab Emirates+4#blueteamsec+asknetsec+information_security#reddit#high-priority

Beginning in August 2025, a sophisticated intrusion was discovered where attackers used log poisoning techniques to deploy a web shell on vulnerable phpMyAdmin panels. The threat actors exploited misconfigured web applications to plant China Chopper web shells, controlled via AntSword, before deploying Nezha, an open-source monitoring tool, to facilitate remote command execution. This led to the deployment of Ghost RAT on compromised systems. Analysis revealed over 100 compromised machines, predominantly located in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The attackers demonstrated technical proficiency through multi-stage operations, utilizing AWS and VPS infrastructure, with indicators pointing to China-nexus threat actors. The campaign highlights increasing abuse of legitimate publicly available tools to achieve malicious objectives while maintaining plausible deniability.

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In early 2026, a threat actor targeted SD-WAN infrastructure at a service provider, exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN to escalate privileges. The attacker initially gained access through unauthorized peering connections and manipulated default account passwords. They then exploited CVE-2026-20245, a privilege escalation flaw in the file upload feature, by uploading a malicious CSV file to achieve root-level access. The vulnerability allowed the creation of a privileged user account through manipulation of system password files. Throughout the intrusion, the threat actor employed extensive anti-forensic techniques, systematically deleting malicious files, restoring modified system configurations, and executing validation scripts to ensure removal of indicators. This campaign demonstrates the living off the edge paradigm, where adversaries compromise network appliances to bypass traditional security perimeters and maintain persistent access.

CriticalVulnerabilityUnited StatesCanadaUnited Kingdom+12#cve#cve-2026-20127#credential manipulation

The Iranian IRGC-affiliated threat actor Nimbus Manticore launched sophisticated cyber operations during Operation Epic Fury, the US military campaign against Iran beginning February 28, 2026. The campaigns targeted organizations in aviation and software sectors across the United States, Europe, and Middle East using career-themed phishing lures. For the first time, the actor employed SEO poisoning techniques and introduced MiniFast, a previously undocumented backdoor showing signs of AI-assisted development. The operations leveraged AppDomain hijacking and abused legitimate Zoom installer execution flows for malware deployment. The actor demonstrated rapid adaptation capabilities during wartime conditions, maintaining high operational availability while expanding targeting to US-based aviation companies. Multiple campaign waves were observed from February through April 2026, with persistent infrastructure and evolving techniques.

MediumMalwareUnited StatesAustraliaSaudi Arabia+2#operation epic fury#minifast#minijunk

DarkSword and Coruna are new iOS malware strains that infect devices through zero-click attacks. Learn how these threats operate, which iOS versions are at risk, and how to protect your devices.

MediumBreachChinaSaudi ArabiaTurkey+1#ios

In March 2026, a China-nexus threat actor launched a sophisticated campaign targeting countries in the Arabian Gulf region, exploiting renewed Middle East conflict themes within 24 hours of escalation. The attack utilized Arabic-language lures depicting missile strikes and employed a multi-stage infection chain beginning with weaponized ZIP archives containing malicious LNK and CHM files. The campaign deployed a heavily obfuscated PlugX backdoor variant through DLL sideloading, with components using control flow flattening and mixed boolean arithmetic techniques. The backdoor supports HTTPS command-and-control communications, DNS-over-HTTPS resolution, and multiple plugins for system manipulation. Based on tools, techniques, and procedures including specific RC4 decryption keys and rapid geopolitical weaponization, the activity is attributed with medium confidence to Mustang Panda.

MediumMalwareBahrainKuwaitOman+3#china-nexus#destroyrat#arabian gulf