All Huntress Blog Posts
All Huntress Blog Posts
All things cybersecurity engaging and accessible - so you can stay ahead of hackers and boost your cybersecurity savviness.
Seven Steps to Ransomware: CitrixBleed 2 Weaponized by Initial Access Brokers
Huntress has observed a series of strikingly similar intrusions beginning with CitrixBleed 2 exploitation, employing novel local privilege escalation techniques, and ending in Dragonforce ransomware.
Someone's Hands Are on Your Keyboard Then Your Whole Network. Courtesy of ClickFix, Potemkin, RMMProject and EtherRAT
A ClickFix infection drops Potemkin loader and RMMProject RAT, leading to browser theft, hidden remote desktop, and lateral movement across over 11 hosts.
From Malspam to Fileless .NET Loader
A malspam campaign abusing Google's DoubleClick delivers DesckVB RAT through a five-stage chain that evades detection and blinds Windows telemetry before persisting
ClickFix Removes Your Background but Leaves the Malware
Your background is gone, but malware is here. Huntress breaks down BackgroundFix, a new ClickFix social engineering tactic involving CastleLoader, NetSupport RAT, and CastleStealer. Read the analysis.
Nightmare-Eclipse Tooling Moves From Public PoC to Real-World Intrusion
Huntress observed in-the-wild use of Nightmare-Eclipse tooling, including BlueHammer, RedSun, and UnDefend, in a live intrusion involving FortiGate VPN compromise as the initial access, reconnaissance commands, and likely tunneling activity.
From W-2 to BYOVD: How a Tax Search Leads to Kernel-Mode AV/EDR Kill
Tax season gives attackers a reliable window: millions of users searching under deadline pressure. This malvertising campaign ends with a BYOVD attack that tries to kill your security tools from kernel mode.
Someone Else’s SIEM: A Threat Actor Abuses Another Free Trial
A threat actor exploited SolarWinds Web Help Desk, then ran victim triage from a free Elastic Cloud SIEM trial. The infrastructure they left behind told us everything.
Exorcising Demons: Fake Tech Support Delivers Havoc Command & Control
Fake tech support scams used to end with a gift card. Now they end with a modified Havoc C2 framework in your environment, using indirect syscalls to dodge your EDR.
ClickFix Won't Die. Neither Will Matanbuchus. A New RAT and a Hands-on-Keyboard Intrusion
ClickFix delivered the initial access, Matanbuchus did the loading, and a new RAT handled the rest. This February 2026 intrusion has all the ingredients of a campaign that isn't slowing down.
Employee Monitoring and SimpleHelp Software Abused in Ransomware Operations
Tools built to monitor employees and support remote workers are being repurposed for ransomware operations. Net Monitor for Employees and SimpleHelp are the latest to be abused — here's how.
Active Exploitation of SolarWinds Web Help Desk
Huntress observed active exploitation of SolarWinds Web Help Desk across three customers — with attackers deploying Cloudflare tunnels and Velociraptor for persistence immediately after getting in.
They Got In Through SonicWall. Then They Tried to Kill Every Security Tool
They got in through SonicWall, then deployed a forensic tool's signed driver to kill endpoint security from kernel mode. Huntress disrupted the attack before ransomware deployed. Here's the full breakdown.
Dissecting CrashFix: KongTuke's New Toy
KongTuke built a fake browser extension that tells users their browser crashed and needs a scan. It doesn't. Huntress tracked this campaign back to a threat actor we've been following since 2025.
Reflecting on AI in 2025: Faster Attacks, Same Old Tradecraft
The AI-powered cyberattack apocalypse didn't happen in 2025. What did happen was quieter and more dangerous: attackers got faster and cheaper at the tradecraft they were already running.
The Great VM Escape: ESXi Exploitation in the Wild
An ESXi VM escape exploit appeared in the wild with simplified Chinese development paths and the characteristics of a zero-day. Huntress traced the intrusion from SonicWall VPN all the way through.