ESET disclosed CallPhantom, a campaign of 28 fraudulent Android apps on Google Play that promised to reveal call histories, SMS records, and WhatsApp call logs for any phone number. Combined downloads: 7.3 million. After payment (weekly, monthly, or annual subscriptions up to $80), users receive fabricated phone numbers and names hardcoded into the apps. Targeting was India-focused (apps came pre-set with +91 country code and UPI integration via Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm) plus broader Asia-Pacific. Some apps embedded direct credit card forms, violating Play policy and making refunds harder. Google removed the 28 apps after ESET's report.
Update on the Head Mare campaign we covered April 28: Kaspersky now reports that BO Team (also known as Black Owl) and Head Mare appear to be coordinating cyber operations against Russian organizations, sharing command-and-control infrastructure on the same compromised hosts. The likely division of labor: Head Mare phishes for initial access, then BO Team takes over for malware deployment. BO Team has shifted from destructive attacks to covert espionage, and in Q1 2026 hit 20 Russian organizations across manufacturing, telecoms, and oil and gas. The group uses BrockenDoor and Remcos backdoors. Earlier BO Team campaigns hit a Russian drone supplier and the federal digital signature authority.
Researchers disclosed TCLBANKER, an Android banking trojan that adds worm-style self-propagation: once installed, it abuses Accessibility Services to read the victim's WhatsApp and Outlook contact lists and then send malicious download links to every contact as if from the victim. The malware targets banking and crypto-wallet apps with overlay screens that capture credentials, plus SMS-interception modules that grab one-time passcodes. Self-spreading via the victim's own messaging history defeats traditional URL-reputation controls. The campaign concentrates in Brazil, Spain, and Italy banking apps initially. Operators are renting access on Telegram for $1,500-3,000/month.
Ivanti disclosed Wednesday that attackers are exploiting a zero-day in Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) to gain admin-level remote code execution on enterprise MDM servers. CVE-2026-6973. Successful exploitation gives the attacker control over the MDM platform that pushes apps and configurations to managed mobile fleets - a foothold that can pivot into managed devices and the corporate identity layer. CISA added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog the same day with a federal patch deadline next week. Ivanti products have a long history of zero-day exploitation.
BleepingComputer and The Hacker News disclosed a new credential-stealing worm called PCPJack that hunts and removes the well-established TeamPCP malware family before installing itself - the first observed case of one cybercrime operation systematically displacing another at scale. PCPJack exploits five separate vulnerabilities to spread worm-like across cloud and Linux environments, then steals SSH keys, AWS credentials, GitHub tokens, and other secrets. Operators replace TeamPCP files in place rather than just disabling them, suggesting an attempt to inherit TeamPCP's existing victim base. The pattern signals a maturing cybercrime market.
BleepingComputer reports a fake Claude AI website is delivering a previously undocumented Windows malware called Beagle. The site impersonates Anthropic's Claude with a near-perfect clone of the official UI; visitors who click 'Download for Windows' get a Beagle installer rather than the legitimate Claude desktop app (Anthropic distributes Claude through claude.ai and the Mac App Store, not standalone Windows installers). Beagle harvests credentials from browsers, cryptocurrency wallets, Discord tokens, and SSH keys. Distribution is via Google Ads on Claude-related search terms - the same paid-placement abuse pattern hitting GoDaddy ManageWP, AWS, and Notion.
Polish intelligence service ABW announced Wednesday that hackers attacked the industrial control systems at multiple Polish water treatment plants. The Record reports the targeting profile is consistent with state-aligned activity - patient reconnaissance, careful access, no data destruction. Polish authorities have not formally attributed the attack but the timing (alongside Russia-Ukraine conflict and Russia's interest in Polish infrastructure as a NATO frontline state) is unmistakable. Similar incidents have been reported in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands over the past 12 months. No service disruption was reported, but the access establishes pre-positioning.
ScarCruft (also called APT37 or Reaper) built a fake online gaming platform in Korean to spread BirdCall, a previously undocumented Android malware aimed at ethnic Koreans living in China. The Record reports the platform impersonated legitimate Korean-language game communities. BirdCall harvests device information, contacts, SMS, call logs, photos, and microphone audio - capabilities consistent with surveillance of diaspora communities rather than financial gain. ScarCruft has historically targeted North Korean defectors and journalists with similar Android malware lures.
Palo Alto Networks confirmed Wednesday that attackers are exploiting a zero-day in its firewall login portal to run code as root on PA-Series and VM-Series firewalls. CVE-2026-0300 (CVSS 9.3) is a buffer overflow in the User-ID Authentication Portal (Captive Portal) that lets unauthenticated attackers send crafted packets and execute code without any login. Palo Alto Unit 42 attributed the activity to CL-STA-1132, a likely state-sponsored cluster that started probing on April 9 and achieved RCE a week later. Attackers deploy tunneling tools and enumerate Active Directory using the firewall's service account. First patches arrive May 13. Shadowserver counts 5,800+ exposed VM-Series firewalls.
vm2 maintainers disclosed a fresh batch of a dozen sandbox-escape vulnerabilities yesterday, including CVE-2026-43997, CVE-2026-44005, and CVE-2026-44006 - all CVSS 10.0. The library is used by 1.3 million weekly downloads worth of Node.js projects to run untrusted JavaScript inside a supposedly safe sandbox - online code runners, chatbots, automation tools, and SaaS platforms with user scripts. Each bug breaks the sandbox in a different way: prototype pollution, sandbox escape via inspect functions, allowlist bypass to reach child_process. vm2 was deprecated in 2023 over similar issues, then resurrected last October. Over 20 documented sandbox-escape bugs - the maintainer himself recommends Docker isolation instead.
TrustStrike Labs