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Showing posts from July, 2025

Silent Withdrawals: How ToxicPanda Turns Your Phone into a Banking Accomplice

Silent Withdrawals: How ToxicPanda Turns Your Phone into a Banking Accomplice You ever see malware so smooth it doesn’t even need root?” I asked a friend over coffee this morning because that’s exactly what I ran into.  July 31, 2025. While combing through Android logs for a red team project, I came across ToxicPanda  a slick new variant of the TgToxic banking trojan. Unlike typical Android malware, this one doesn’t scream for attention. It slides in quietly, uses On-Device Fraud (ODF) techniques, and hijacks banking sessions without needing elevated privileges or tripping alarms.First spotted in late 2024, it’s now peaking with over 4,500 infections , especially across Portugal and Spain. And as a penetration tester, what caught my eye wasn’t just the scale it was the precision. ToxicPanda blends trusted overlays, permission abuse, and session hijacking into a seamless experience.This isn’t just a threat it’s a playbook. So let’s break it down from a hacker’s lens and explor...

Vendor-to-Victim: What Nokia’s Supply Chain Breach Reveals About DevSecOps Gaps

    Vendor-to-Victim: What Nokia’s Supply Chain Breach Reveals About DevSecOps Gaps It didn’t take a zero-day or deep exploit just an exposed SonarQube instance, and suddenly, Nokia’s secrets were for sale. In late 2024, threat actor IntelBroker claimed responsibility for breaching a third-party contractor tied to Nokia, siphoning off internal source code, SSH/RSA keys, Bitbucket credentials, SMTP configs, hardcoded passwords , and more. The data now allegedly listed on BreachForums for $20,000  includes samples suggesting access to real Nokia infrastructure.As an independent blogger and part-time penetration tester , I see this as more than a one-off supply-chain breach. This is a blueprint. Access to internal build pipelines , secure credentials, and developer operations doesn’t just threaten IP,it opens the door to tailored firmware manipulation , reverse engineering , and multi-vector telecom attacks .While Nokia has stated that no direct internal systems or custome...

Modern Infostealers Go Viral: Raven Stealer’s Telegram Ops Through a Pen Tester’s Lens

Modern Infostealers Go Viral: Raven Stealer’s Telegram Ops Through a Pen Tester’s Lens In a recent report from Cybersecurity News, the emergence of Raven Stealer an infostealer using Telegram bots for C2 and exfiltration marks a significant pivot in commodified malware strategy . This threat illustrates how attackers are increasingly leveraging trusted platforms to evade detection and scale attacks. As a penetration tester , I approach such developments from a dual vantage: analyst and practitioner. Understanding how Raven Stealer operates helps shape our own pen test scenarios and defensive simulations. It informs the next level of real‑world attack modeling and mitigation strategy aligned with enterprise realities. Why Raven Stealer Matters for Penetration Testing Raven Stealer reflects a broader trend: AI‑driven cyberattacks and state‑level sophistication are now accessible to commodity tool operators. This malware combines stealth, ease-of-use, and rapid execution-making it a val...

Trust Broken in the Dark: Inside the Leak Zone Forum's Data Exposure Nightmare

Trust Broken in the Dark: Inside the Leak Zone Forum's Data Exposure Nightmare A recent disclosure revealed that Leak Zone , a “leaking and cracking” dark‑web forum, left an Elasticsearch database publicly exposed  no password, no barrier capturing over 22 million login records with IP addresses and timestamps . As a penetration tester, this incident illustrates vividly how even malicious infrastructures can fail basic hygiene, and what real threat actors expose about shared cloud misconfigurations. What Happened: Leak Zone's Cloud Misstep Leak Zone, with more than 109,000 users, hosts stolen credentials and hacked data. Researchers at UpGuard discovered on July 18, 2025 that the exposed server still updated records in real time including whether a login was via VPN or proxy  . The exposures dated back to June 25 . This isn’t theory it's documented misconfiguration in the threat ecosystem. Real‑World Threat Surface from Failed OpSec Attackers often survey hacker infras...

The Facebook Phishing Blueprint: What Every Ethical Hacker Should Know

The Facebook Phishing Blueprint: What Every Ethical Hacker Should Know In May–June 2025, security researchers detected a high‑scale phishing operation impersonating Facebook support messages, warning users of supposed violations or copyright claims. These campaigns leveraged legitimate infrastructure such as Salesforce and Google AppSheet to send deceptive emails that trick victims into providing login credentials and multi‑factor authentication codes . As a penetration tester, I see this as a watershed threat: credential harvesting through trusted brand abuse demands that our pen testing practices evolve. Latest Cybersecurity Events and Attack Overview Cybercriminals are sending custom-crafted Facebook-themed emails that appear authentic—claiming policy violations and urgent account suspension . Victims are redirected to polished fake login pages hosted on trusted domains, some via AppSheet or Salesforce, where they’re prompted to enter credentials and sometimes OTPs. The attackers ...

Digital Deceit: How ACRStealer Hacked the Trust Behind Google Docs

Digital Deceit: How ACRStealer Hacked the Trust Behind Google Docs In February 2025, researchers uncovered a sophisticated new infostealer known as ACRStealer , which is abusing trusted platforms like Google Docs, Steam, and telegraph as covert command-and-control (C2) channels . As a pen tester, this signals a stark evolution: adversaries are now weaponizing legitimate services to slip past traditional defenses. Here’s an in-depth breakdown, and why real-world pentesting methods must adapt. 🚨 What Is ACRStealer , And Why It Matters ACRStealer is a credential-thieving malware that uses stolen or cracked software installers to infect victim systems. Once inside, it deploys a multi-stage payload to harvest: Browser credentials and cookies Cryptocurrency wallets and FTP/VPN credentials Text files, chat logs, email, remote-access tokens Password manager vaults and database credentials   It then compresses the stolen data and exfiltrates it to attacker infrastructu...

ToolShell Rising: The Critical SharePoint Exploit Changing the Rules of Red Teaming.

ToolShell Rising: The Critical SharePoint Exploit Changing the Rules of Red Teaming. A CISA emergency alert on July 20 flagged an urgent threat: a zero-day SharePoint Server vulnerability  dubbed "ToolShell" is actively exploited in the wild . Attackers can execute unauthenticated arbitrary code, exposing file systems, admin controls, and connected services like OneDrive and Teams. As a pen tester working regularly with internal enterprise systems, I recognize how sweeping this is: one misstep, and the breach spans hybrid environments. What Is ToolShell? The ToolShell campaign merges two critical flaws: CVE‑2025‑49704 : RCE code injection CVE‑2025‑49706 : Spoofing via Referer header These yield an unauthenticated code execution vector through the POST on /ToolPane.aspx . CISA warns this flaw grants full SharePoint system control—file access, configuration tweaks, and persistent backdoor creation . Scale of the Attack Eye Security, Palo Alto Unit42, and CIS...