Threats tagged 'closedquorum'

A social engineering campaign targeting security professionals uses fake consultancy offers and job opportunities to exploit trust. Attackers create sparse social media profiles claiming to be consultants, offering $300 for simple consultations on topics like digital transformation. The initial phone call serves as screening to identify targets with valuable access or knowledge. If successful, targets are asked to provide increasingly sensitive information through written reports, requiring them to abuse trusted access, probe internal systems, or leverage professional relationships. Similar variants include fake recruiters offering prestigious positions while requiring installation of trojanised software. These attacks exploit professional flattery and overconfidence, manipulating security practitioners into compromising their most valuable asset: professional integrity and trusted relationships within the industry.

A Windows malware called CLOSEDQUORUM is built to take orders from a vote of up to four AI models instead of an attacker's server, Cisco Talos said on September 22. The models can choose to steal Windows credentials, saved browser passwords, and crypto wallet data. Talos has not seen this setup work from start to finish, and the public version of the malware does not work as it is.

CLOSEDQUORUM is a Windows malware binary representing the first documented implant utilizing autonomous AI-driven command and control. Discovered through Cisco Talos' CAIRN project, it delegates tactical decisions to a panel of commercial large language models including DeepSeek, Qwen, Mistral, and Google Gemini. The system operates through plurality voting among AI models to select actions for credential harvesting and crypto wallet theft, eliminating the need for continuous human operator involvement. The 16.4MB Go-compiled executable employs structured JSON schema to constrain LLM responses to executable attack choices. While containing placeholder credentials in public distribution, development builds demonstrate compile-time injection of operator-specific API keys and Discord webhooks. This architecture represents a significant shift toward effort displacement in cyber operations, where entire attack phases execute autonomously without human bottlenecks, though introducing new dependencies on commerci...