GhostPoster on DanSec Daily

Cybersecurity Brief – 2026-01-18

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Major Incidents or Breaches

U.S. hackers have reportedly caused a blackout in Venezuela, according to recent reports, indicating a significant cyber operation targeting critical infrastructure.
Nicholas Moore, a Tennessee man, pleaded guilty to repeatedly hacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s filing system and illegally accessing systems belonging to AmeriCorps and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Newly Discovered Vulnerabilities

Wireshark 4.6.3 has been released, addressing 4 vulnerabilities and 9 bugs.

Notable Threat Actor Activity

Ukrainian and German law enforcement have identified two Ukrainian nationals suspected of working for the Russia-linked Black Basta ransomware group. One of the group’s leaders has been added to the EU Most Wanted list and is the subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice.
Malicious Chrome extensions impersonating productivity and security tools have been found stealing authentication credentials from enterprise HR and ERP platforms or blocking legitimate extensions.
Seventeen additional malicious browser extensions linked to the GhostPoster campaign have been discovered in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge stores, with a combined total of 840,000 installations.

Trends, Tools, or Tactics of Interest

Google Chrome now allows users to delete local AI models used for scam detection under the “Enhanced Protection” feature, providing more user control over on-device AI-powered security functions.

Cybersecurity Brief – 2026-01-01

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Major Incidents or Breaches

Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Hack: Trust Wallet disclosed that a supply chain attack involving the Shai-Hulud worm in November 2025 compromised its Chrome extension, resulting in the theft of $8.5 million from 2,520 wallets. The attacker exploited exposed developer GitHub secrets to publish a backdoored browser extension.
Unleash Protocol Hack: The decentralized intellectual property platform Unleash Protocol suffered a loss of approximately $3.9 million in cryptocurrency after an unauthorized contract upgrade enabled asset withdrawals, attributed to a multisig hijack.
European Space Agency Breach: The European Space Agency confirmed that external science servers were compromised and that a hacker is offering to sell stolen data. An investigation is ongoing.
DarkSpectre Browser Extension Campaigns: The threat actor behind previous ShadyPanda and GhostPoster campaigns has been attributed to a third campaign, DarkSpectre, impacting 2.2 million users. In total, the campaigns have affected 8.8 million users worldwide.
Ivanti EPMM Attacks: April/May zero-day exploitations of Ivanti’s mobile device management platform resulted in the compromise of thousands of organisations by a Chinese APT.

Newly Discovered Vulnerabilities

IBM API Connect: IBM disclosed a critical authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2025-13915, CVSS 9.8) in API Connect that could allow remote attackers to access applications. Customers have been urged to patch immediately.
React2Shell Flaw in Next.js: The RondoDox botnet is actively exploiting the critical React2Shell vulnerability (CVE-2025-55182) to breach Next.js servers, deploying malware and cryptominers.

Notable Threat Actor Activity

North Korean Fraudulent Job Applicants: Amazon reported blocking more than 1,800 suspected North Korean job applicants since April 2024, indicating ongoing attempts by North Korean actors to infiltrate Western technology companies.
Shai-Hulud Worm Activity: Researchers have identified a new, modified strain of the Shai-Hulud worm on the npm registry, showing continued evolution and testing of payloads following the Trust Wallet supply chain attack.
RondoDox Botnet: Actively exploiting the React2Shell vulnerability to compromise Next.js servers.

Trends, Tools, or Tactics of Interest

Supply Chain Attacks on Browser Extensions: The Shai-Hulud campaign demonstrates continued targeting of browser extension supply chains, leveraging compromised developer credentials to distribute malicious updates.
Malicious Browser Extensions: Large-scale campaigns such as DarkSpectre, ShadyPanda, and GhostPoster highlight the persistent threat from malicious browser extensions, impacting millions of users globally.
Cryptocurrency Platform Targeting: Both Trust Wallet and Unleash Protocol incidents reflect ongoing targeting of cryptocurrency platforms through supply chain and contract manipulation attacks.
IoT and Cloud Reliance: Reports discuss the risks associated with IoT device dependence on cloud services, with outages causing widespread disruption to connected devices.
AI and Identity Security: Industry predictions for 2026 note increased adoption of agentic AI, expansion of identity governance and administration (IGA) in the mid-market, SOC-identity team collaboration, and identity platform consolidation. Growing skepticism about AI’s ROI and economic sustainability is also noted.

Regulatory or Policy Developments

Disney COPPA Settlement: Disney agreed to pay a $10 million civil penalty to settle claims of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by mislabeling videos and allowing targeted advertising data collection on YouTube.
Age Verification Laws: Enforcement of age checks in 2025 led to widespread internet access issues, with some websites blocking entire countries and users increasingly turning to VPNs to bypass restrictions.
Device Bans at Public Events: The NYC mayoral inauguration explicitly banned Flipper Zero and Raspberry Pi devices, reflecting growing concerns about the use of hacking tools at high-profile events.

Cybersecurity Brief – 2025-12-18

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Major Incidents or Breaches

LKQ, a major auto parts supplier, confirmed a breach involving its Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS), resulting in the compromise of personal information for thousands of individuals.
France arrested a 22-year-old suspect linked to the recent cyberattack on the country’s Ministry of the Interior.
Amazon AWS GuardDuty reported an ongoing cryptomining campaign abusing compromised AWS credentials to hijack EC2 and ECS resources across multiple customer environments.
WhatsApp accounts are being hijacked via abuse of the device-linking feature in attacks dubbed “GhostPairing,” allowing threat actors to take over user accounts.
The NMFTA (National Motor Freight Traffic Association) warned of a surge in sophisticated cyber-enabled cargo theft targeting the transportation sector.

Newly Discovered Vulnerabilities

Cisco disclosed a maximum-severity zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-20393) in AsyncOS used by Secure Email Gateway (SEG) and Secure Email and Web Manager (SEWM) appliances, with active exploitation by a China-linked APT (UAT-9686/Jewelbug).
SonicWall released fixes for CVE-2025-40602 affecting SMA 100 series appliances, which had been actively exploited. A separate zero-day in SMA 1000 Appliance Management Console was also reported as exploited in privilege escalation attacks.
A critical flaw in ASUS Live Update was added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog due to evidence of exploitation in the wild.
Critical vulnerabilities in Fortinet devices are under active attack, with attackers targeting admin accounts, exporting device configurations, and accessing sensitive data.
The React2Shell vulnerability (CVE-2025-55182) is being actively exploited by ransomware groups for rapid initial access and deployment of file-encrypting malware.
Google patched two critical Chrome browser vulnerabilities that could be exploited remotely simply by visiting a malicious website.

Notable Threat Actor Activity

The ForumTroll APT group continues targeted phishing attacks against Russian political scientists and scholars, delivering the Tuoni framework via fake eLibrary emails and malicious plagiarism reports.
Russian state-sponsored APT28 is conducting a sustained credential-harvesting campaign targeting users of the Ukrainian webmail/news portal UKR[.]net.
The China-linked threat actor Jewelbug (also referred to as Ink Dragon) has increased targeting of European government entities since July 2025, using ShadowPad and FINALDRAFT malware, while continuing attacks in Southeast Asia and South America.
The Kimwolf botnet has hijacked at least 1.8 million Android-based TVs, set-top boxes, and tablets, leveraging them for large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
A new campaign, GhostPoster, embedded malware in 17 Firefox add-ons (over 50,000 downloads), hijacking affiliate links, injecting tracking code, and bypassing security controls.
The Cellik Android RAT, available for $150, is being used to remotely control victim devices and generate trojanized apps distributed via the Google Play Store.

Trends, Tools, or Tactics of Interest

Attackers are increasingly abusing legitimate features (e.g., WhatsApp device-linking, AWS IAM credentials) for account hijacking and cryptomining.
Ransomware groups are exploiting critical vulnerabilities (e.g., React2Shell) for rapid deployment of file-encrypting malware.
Malicious browser extensions (e.g., GhostPoster in Firefox) continue to be a vector for affiliate fraud, tracking, and security bypass.
The use of ShadowPad and FINALDRAFT malware by China-linked actors against government targets highlights continued investment in modular, stealthy toolsets.
Surge in cyber-enabled cargo theft demonstrates growing convergence of physical and cybercrime in logistics and transportation sectors.

Regulatory or Policy Developments

Mexico officially launched its first National Cybersecurity Plan, establishing a national framework for digital resilience and cybersecurity policy.
Microsoft announced plans to deprecate the RC4 encryption cipher, historically exploited for administrative authentication attacks in Windows environments.