DriveSurge is a newly identified threat actor operating as an Initial Access Broker using a Pay-Per-Install model to supply victim leads to downstream actors. The actor has compromised thousands of websites, injecting malicious code that redirects visitors through zTDS (Traffic Distribution System) to deliver malware via two primary methods: FakeUpdates, which impersonate browser update prompts for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and eight other browsers; and ClickFix, which tricks users into executing malicious PowerShell commands disguised as fixes. DriveSurge leverages sophisticated infrastructure including bulletproof hosting, obfuscated JavaScript injection patterns, and environment-specific targeting including macOS systems. The operation has been active since at least September 2025, utilizing specific technical fingerprints including unique file naming conventions and server configurations that enable detection and tracking of their evolving infrastructure.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence identified an active supply chain attack involving malicious npm packages that employ dependency confusion techniques. Between May 28-29, 2026, a threat actor using three maintainer aliases published malicious packages across nine organizational scopes that mirror real corporate namespaces. The packages execute obfuscated reconnaissance payloads through npm lifecycle hooks, collecting system information, environment variables, and developer credentials. All packages connect to the same command-and-control server and deploy a 17KB JavaScript dropper designed for environment fingerprinting. The campaign includes platform-specific payloads for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with CI/CD detection bypass capabilities. The architecture operates in reconnaissance-only mode but supports server-side toggling for full exploitation. Forensic analysis indicates all three accounts are operated by a single individual, evidenced by shared C2 infrastructure, identical hardcoded authentication toke...
We recently observed a multi-stage macOS intrusion campaign conducted by the North Korean state-sponsored threat group Sapphire Sleet (also tracked as BlueNoroff / UNC1069). The campaign specifically targets macOS environments within high-value financial sectors, including venture capital firms, Web3 developers, and cryptocurrency organizations. By leveraging signed, built-in system applications like the Apple Script Editor and Finder, the malware operates outside traditional macOS security enforcement boundaries, suppresses system security alerts, and executes arbitrary code directly under the guise of an authentic user update. This aligns with broader public reporting on macOS-focused intrusion tradecraft. Initial access relied on targeted social engineering in which victims were instructed to execute a fake Zoom SDK update component, leading to user-assisted execution and follow-on payload delivery.
A supply chain attack targeting the npm ecosystem was identified involving 14 malicious packages published under the alias vpmdhaj. These packages typosquat well-known OpenSearch, ElasticSearch, and DevOps libraries, executing malicious payloads through npm lifecycle hooks during installation. The attack deploys a two-stage credential harvesting operation that targets AWS credentials, HashiCorp Vault tokens, GitHub Actions secrets, and npm publish tokens. The malware queries AWS Instance Metadata Service, ECS task metadata, and enumerates AWS Secrets Manager across multiple regions. Two stager variants were observed: an HTTP-based C2 beacon and a stealthier version abusing the legitimate Bun runtime. The stolen credentials enable cloud lateral movement and downstream supply chain attacks through compromised npm maintainer identities, specifically targeting developers working with cloud and CI/CD infrastructure.
A coordinated smishing operation spanning 19 countries across Europe, the Americas, and the Caucasus has been exposed, originating from fraudulent SMS messages impersonating Romania's government payment portal Ghișeul.ro. Investigation revealed 1,628 malicious URLs linked by a single 128-character campaign identifier, targeting government portals, traffic police departments, postal services including DPD and SEUR, tax authorities, and telecommunications providers like T-Mobile and Vodafone. The infrastructure utilizes 32 backend IP addresses distributed across Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Cloudflare CDN, and ALEXHOST Moldova. Threat actors employ two distinct phishing templates: a Vue.js single-page application and a Bootstrap-based clone, executing a four-stage credential harvesting process that collects complete payment card details through fabricated traffic fines, toll payments, and delivery notifications.
A large-scale smishing campaign has been exposed involving 1,628 malicious URLs linked by a unique 128-character HTML fingerprint. This campaign spans 19 countries and uses infrastructure distributed across multiple cloud providers including Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Cloudflare anycast, and ALEXHOST Moldova. The campaign targets users via SMS phishing (smishing) with URLs designed to deceive recipients. The detection artifact is a consistent metadata hash found on all phishing pages, facilitating identification. There is no information about active exploitation or patches since this is a threat campaign rather than a software vulnerability.
Microsoft exposes a cryptojacking campaign using SEO poisoning and ScreenConnect to target high-performance PCs, with malicious sites also surfaced through AI chatbots. The post From poisoned search results to GPU mining: A cryptojacking campaign abusing ScreenConnect and Microsoft .NET utilities appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog .
SimHub, a popular sim racing dashboard software, appears to silently disable Windows Defender by creating a hidden Group Policy Registry file (ntuser.pol) that enforces multiple Defender disabling policies on every boot. The file is hidden with system and read-only attributes and the associated registry key permissions are modified to deny even administrator write access, requiring Safe Mode intervention to remove. This behavior was observed coinciding with the installation of SimHub 9.11.3 and related screen drivers on a personal, non-domain-joined machine. The user discovered this after about three months of Defender being fully disabled. There is no confirmed official vendor advisory or patch information available. The intent behind this behavior is unclear, and it may be either a negligent side effect of driver installation or deliberate. The user has removed the file and registry keys, re-enabled Defender, and reported the issue to SimHub's GitHub.
TeamPCP now operates across three package ecosystems in parallel, it reached GitHub&#;x26;#;39;s own internal codebase, it trojanized an officially Microsoft-published Python SDK, and it appears to have open-sourced its own framework on GitHub.
A SQL injection vulnerability in Drupal Core was patched recently, but active exploitation attempts began less than 48 hours after the patch release. Approximately 15,000 attack attempts have been recorded targeting around 6,000 sites. The vulnerability allows attackers to perform SQL injection attacks, potentially compromising affected Drupal installations. The patch has been released, but rapid exploitation attempts highlight the urgency for site administrators to apply the update promptly.
Unit 42 details Screening Serpens' use of AppDomainManager hijacking and new RAT variants to target tech and defense sectors in recent campaigns. The post Tracking Iranian APT Screening Serpens’ 2026 Espionage Campaigns appeared first on Unit 42 .
Open-source framework ROADtools is being misused by threat actors for cloud intrusions. Learn how to identify its malicious use. The post Paved With Intent: ROADtools and Nation-State Tactics in the Cloud appeared first on Unit 42 .
A coordinated law enforcement operation led by France and the Netherlands has successfully taken down First VPN, a service extensively used by ransomware operators, fraudsters, and data thieves to conceal their criminal activities. The operation, which took place from May 19-20, resulted in the dismantling of 33 servers, seizure of three domains, and a house search of the administrator in Ukraine. The VPN service had been advertised on Russian-language cybercrime forums for years, accepting anonymous payments and providing infrastructure specifically designed for illicit use. Investigators gained access to the user database, generating 83 intelligence packages shared internationally, information on 506 users distributed globally, and advancing 21 investigations. The service had appeared in almost every major cybercrime investigation supported by Europol in recent years.
Financially motivated eCrime actors are conducting an ongoing infostealer campaign targeting software developers through SEO poisoning techniques. The operation impersonates AI platforms including Gemini CLI and Claude Code, as well as developer tools like Node.js, Chocolatey, and KeePassXC. Attackers position fake domains above legitimate search results, directing victims to malicious installation pages that deliver fileless PowerShell-based infostealer malware. The malware executes entirely in memory, disables Windows Defender telemetry by patching ETW and AMSI, and harvests credentials from browsers, collaboration platforms, VPN clients, and cloud storage. Stolen data includes OAuth tokens, CI/CD credentials, and corporate VPN details, providing direct enterprise network access. The campaign leverages bulletproof hosting infrastructure and over 30 typosquatted domains registered between March and April 2026, primarily targeting users in the United States and United Kingdom.
A sophisticated Android malware campaign has been identified conducting carrier billing fraud through premium SMS abuse across Malaysia, Thailand, Romania, and Croatia. The operation comprises nearly 250 malicious applications that selectively target users based on their mobile operators, silently subscribing victims to premium services without consent. The malware demonstrates advanced capabilities including precise regional targeting with hardcoded SIM operator validation, automated subscription workflows using WebView manipulation and JavaScript injection, OTP interception via abuse of Google's SMS Retriever API, and Telegram-based exfiltration of device metadata. The campaign impersonates popular applications including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Minecraft, and Grand Theft Auto to lure victims. Active from March 2025 through January 2026, the operation employs three distinct variants with increasing levels of sophistication, utilizing distributed command and control infrastructure and systematic refer...
Microsoft identified an active supply chain attack targeting the @antv npm package ecosystem. A threat actor compromised an @antv maintainer account and published malicious versions of widely used data-visualization packages, affecting libraries like echarts-for-react with over 1 million weekly downloads. The attack propagates through dependency chains into CI/CD pipelines and cloud workloads. A 499 KB obfuscated JavaScript payload executes silently during npm install, specifically designed to steal credentials from GitHub Actions environments. Key capabilities include multi-platform credential theft (GitHub, AWS, HashiCorp Vault, npm, Kubernetes, 1Password), GitHub Action Runner process memory scraping, privilege escalation, dual-channel data exfiltration, and SLSA provenance forgery. The payload targets CI/CD environments deliberately, with over 2,200 compromised repositories observed. GitHub responded by removing 640 malicious packages and invalidating 61,274 npm tokens.
An increasing number of data brokers operating in Chinese-speaking dark web forums and Telegram channels are advertising large volumes of allegedly stolen data from organizations worldwide. Analysis reveals these datasets primarily consist of fabricated information and data compiled from previous breaches, particularly the Facebook 2021 leak containing 553 million user records. Five prominent sources were identified: Exchange Market (Deepmix), Chang'An Sleepless Night dark web forums, and Telegram channels Aiqianjin, Yiqun Data, and Phoenix Overseas Resources. These brokers typically post hundreds to thousands of messages monthly, claiming to sell data in multiples of ten thousand records. Validation of sample datasets shows inconsistent fields, mistranslated column names, and cross-compiled information from unrelated breaches including Facebook 2021 and Eatigo 2020 leaks. This activity represents a significant diversion of analytical resources from legitimate threats.
A long-running typosquatting campaign impersonated the widely used shopspring/decimal Go library by publishing github.com/shopsprint/decimal, differing by a single character. Active since November 2017, the package remained benign through seven releases until being weaponized in August 2023 with version v1.3.3. This version introduced a malicious init() function that executes automatically on import, establishing a DNS TXT record-based command and control channel to dnslog-cdn-images.freemyip.com. The backdoor polls every five minutes and executes arbitrary commands returned via TXT records. Although the GitHub repository and owner account have been deleted, the malicious module remains permanently cached and accessible through Go's module proxy system, continuing to pose a supply chain risk to developers who mistype the package name.
A sophisticated supply chain campaign targeting the open source developer ecosystem has emerged, compromising NPM packages in the @antv namespace, GitHub Actions including actions-cool/issues-helper, and the VSCode extension nrwl.angular-console. The malware initiates multi-stage infection chains using GitHub-hosted infrastructure and orphaned commits to deploy payloads via bun. It harvests extensive credentials including GitHub tokens, SSH keys, cloud credentials, and browser secrets, exfiltrating data through attacker-controlled public GitHub repositories. The campaign establishes persistence through a Python backdoor that polls GitHub for signed commands containing specific trigger strings, enabling remote code execution. Infrastructure analysis and operational patterns indicate moderate confidence attribution to the threat actor TeamPCP.
Since the last update, the TeamPCP supply chain campaign produced its loudest stretch since the March Trivy disclosure: an officially confirmed Checkmarx Jenkins plugin compromise and a new self-spreading Mini Shai-Hulud worm across npm and PyPI.
