Research Saturday

Today we are joined by ⁠Subhajeet Singha⁠, Senior Security Researcher at ⁠Acronis⁠ Threat Research Unit, discussing their work on "Red Heron exploits Gitea n-day flaw in multinational campaign, exposing new Linux rootkit." A Chinese-speaking threat actor tracked as Red Heron exploited a critical Gitea remote code execution vulnerability, CVE-2026-60004, within days of its public disclosure, compromising organizations across five countries and stealing source code, credentials, and sensitive infrastructure data.

The campaign involved deploying persistent backdoors and a newly identified Linux implant called JITTERLY, which contains an undocumented rootkit, SIXZUT, capable of hiding files, processes, and network connections while protecting the malware from removal. Acronis assesses with moderate confidence that Red Heron operates within a PRC-linked context, highlighting how quickly attackers can weaponize newly disclosed vulnerabilities and turn exposed development platforms into gateways for broader network compromise.

The research and executive brief can be found here:

⁠⁠⁠⁠Red Heron exploits Gitea n-day flaw in multinational campaign, exposing new Linux rootkit⁠

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Today we have Damon Rouse, Threat Intelligence from Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, discussing their work on "The infrastructure quartermaster: inside a China-nexus state enablement model." Black Lotus Labs identified a China-nexus cyber infrastructure provider, dubbed a “quartermaster,” that supplies reconnaissance, proxy routing, and obfuscation services to Chinese cyber espionage actors.

Its interconnected systems, including QScan and Fast Labyrinth, help identify high-value targets, conceal malicious traffic, and support potential exploitation of government, military, research, and critical infrastructure networks. Researchers warn that this shared infrastructure makes traditional IP-based defenses less effective and recommend following CISA and NCSC guidance, reducing external attack surfaces, and keeping routers, firewalls, and IoT devices updated.

The research and executive brief can be found here:

The infrastructure quartermaster: inside a China-nexus state enablement model

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Dan Lisichkin, AI Security Researcher from Pillar Security, discussing their work on "A WIF Of Fresh Access, How a GitHub Issue on Gemini-CLI Led to GCP Project Compromise." Researchers at Pillar Security uncovered a vulnerability in Google’s Gemini CLI workflows that could allow an attacker to turn a malicious GitHub issue into remote code execution and gain elevated access to a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project.

The exploit chain combined a misconfigured tool allowlist that allowed unrestricted command execution with exposed Workload Identity Federation credentials and overly broad service account permissions, potentially enabling attackers to impersonate privileged accounts. Google promptly addressed the issues by tightening tool restrictions, blocking the agent’s access to credential files, and limiting service account impersonation permissions, highlighting the risks of connecting AI agents to untrusted input and sensitive infrastructure.

The research and executive brief can be found here:

⁠A WIF Of Fresh Access: How a GitHub Issue on Gemini-CLI Led to GCP Project Compromise

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Adam Meyers, Head of Counter Adversary Operations at CrowdStrike, is discussing their work on "PhantomRaven, An LLM-Generated Information Stealer Developed for Bug Bounty Hunting." PhantomRaven, a JavaScript-based information stealer distributed through malicious npm packages by a financially motivated threat actor posing as a bug bounty hunter.

The malware targets system information and continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) environment variables, likely seeking credentials, with analysis suggesting its code was generated using a large language model. The report explores how AI-generated tools may lower the barrier to cybercrime and outlines steps organizations can take to mitigate risks, including restricting package installation scripts, using private npm registries, and monitoring dependencies.

The research and executive brief can be found here:

PhantomRaven: An LLM-Generated Information Stealer Developed for Bug Bounty Hunting

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Today we are joined by Jean-Pierre Mouton, Senior Threat Intelligence Consultant at GuidePoint Security, discussing their work on "How Play Achieves Encryption." Play ransomware, also known as PlayCrypt, continues to target organizations across multiple sectors using a consistent double-extortion playbook that combines data theft with widespread encryption. A recent investigation details how the group gained access through a SonicWall VPN, moved laterally using tools such as Mimikatz and PsExec, exfiltrated sensitive data, and used the victim’s own SentinelOne uninstallation utility to disable endpoint protection. The findings highlight several behavioral indicators defenders can monitor, including tool staging through SYSVOL and SystemBC for command and control, event log clearing, and suspicious WinSCP activity.

The research and executive brief can be found here:

⁠⁠⁠⁠How Play Achieves Encryption

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