ClickFix

2026-07-0610 minCheck Pointcritical

This weekly threat intelligence bulletin covers multiple active ransomware campaigns, four critical vulnerabilities under active exploitation, and emerging AI-driven threats. Notable items include actively exploited RCE flaws in Oracle E-Business Suite and Progress Kemp LoadMaster, a Citrix NetScaler memory disclosure flaw exploited within 24 hours of disclosure, a North Korean supply-chain campaign (PolinRider) deploying 108 malicious packages, and a proof-of-concept browser-native ransomware generated by an LLM abusing Chrome's File System Access API.

Backdoor.Mistic is a new stealthy backdoor deployed in cybercrime intrusions since April 2026, using DLL sideloading via legitimate MpExtMs.exe and masquerading as EndpointDlp.dll. It executes payloads in memory with a self-deleting kill switch, enabling long-term covert access. Mistic is likely linked to Woodgnat (aka KongTuke), an initial access broker whose ModeloRAT toolkit has been used in attacks delivering Qilin ransomware, connecting this backdoor to the broader ransomware ecosystem.

Operation Endgame, a coordinated law enforcement action by Netherlands, Canada, US, and Germany, disrupted TA569's SocGholish web inject infrastructure by taking down over 100 servers and remediating 14,971 compromised websites. TA569 compromises legitimate websites—often WordPress installations—to inject obfuscated JavaScript that presents fake browser update pages to visitors, ultimately delivering GhoLoader malware which can lead to ransomware deployments. The attack chain leverages traffic direction systems (TA2726's Keitaro TDS and ParrotTDS) for victim filtering and uses advanced client-side blob URL construction to evade sandbox detection and network-based download tracing.

2026-07-019 minHuntresshigh

The article details two evolving social engineering techniques: ClickFix, which tricks users into pasting and executing attacker-supplied PowerShell commands via fake prompts, and ConsentFix, which abuses Microsoft 365 OAuth consent flows by manipulating users into dragging a localhost callback link into the browser to capture session tokens. A complete ConsentFix playbook with working code was publicly shared on a Russian cybercrime forum, enabling widespread adoption. Both techniques bypass traditional security controls by exploiting user muscle memory and legitimate platform infrastructure.

2026-06-195 minZscaler ThreatLabzhigh

ThreatLabz identified a supply chain attack where the threat actor SmartApeSG compromised the widely used Okendo Reviews widget to inject malicious JavaScript. The loader employs environment checks, XOR deobfuscation, and staged execution to deliver ClickFix-style social engineering lures, ultimately aiming to deploy RATs and information stealers on desktop endpoints.

2026-06-186 minZscaler ThreatLabzhigh

ThreatLabz identified a ClickFix campaign utilizing AI-generated typosquatting domains to impersonate Brazilian banks and deliver a PowerShell-based banking RAT dubbed SmartRAT. The malware establishes persistence via scheduled tasks or Windows services, communicates over a custom TCP protocol on port 51888, and features advanced capabilities including keylogging, fake banking overlays, and QR code interception for financial fraud.

2026-06-187 minTrend Microhigh

A sophisticated malvertising campaign abused Google Ads to deliver ClickFix social engineering attacks disguised as popular AI developer tools and Mac utilities. The threat actors initially leveraged GitLab Pages before pivoting to weaponize claude.ai's shared chat feature, tricking macOS users into executing terminal commands that deploy the MacSync infostealer.

2026-06-165 minMorphisechigh

Morphisec researchers identified a significantly evolved version of the BabaDeda loader targeting the education and financial sectors. The campaign leverages ClickFix social engineering to trick users into executing PowerShell commands, leading to a complex, multi-stage infection chain involving DLL sideloading, in-memory execution, and external payload storage to deliver DanaBot and SectopRAT.

2026-06-167 minSekoia.iohigh

ErrTraffic is a Malware-as-a-Service framework that compromises WordPress sites and uses malvertising to deliver ClickFix social engineering lures. It leverages EtherHiding via Polygon smart contracts to dynamically resolve C2 infrastructure and distribute infostealers, RATs, and loaders.

An active Microsoft 365 phishing campaign is abusing the OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant flow to achieve account takeover without stealing passwords. The attack utilizes ClickFix-style landing pages with Unicode obfuscation and tricks victims into authorizing an attacker-controlled device via legitimate Microsoft authentication portals, coordinating the flow via a 4-second beaconing mechanism.

2026-06-106 minZscaler ThreatLabzhigh

ThreatLabz has identified MLTBackdoor, a highly obfuscated post-exploitation framework delivered via ClickFix social engineering lures. The malware utilizes Mixed Boolean-Arithmetic (MBA), Control Flow Flattening (CFF), and indirect system calls to evade detection, while maintaining persistence and control through a custom encrypted protocol, a Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA), and a Beacon Object File (BOF) loader.

2026-06-086 minCofensehigh

A recent phishing campaign impersonates Amazon security alerts to deliver a custom remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed HarborWatch Agent. The attack leverages the ClickFix technique, using a fake CAPTCHA page to socially engineer victims into manually executing a malicious PowerShell command via the Windows Run dialog. Once executed, the script downloads the RAT, which collects system information and communicates with a C2 infrastructure managed via a panel called Harbor Sentinel.

2026-06-038 minCheck Pointhigh

Check Point Research uncovered a large-scale malware distribution ecosystem that uses search engine optimization and impersonated open-source project sites to drive traffic to a sophisticated Traffic Distribution System (TDS). The TDS employs click hijacking and strict gating to selectively deliver malware, including the SessionGate loader, RemusStealer, and AnimateClipper, while actively evading automated analysis through one-time key releases and file inflation.

2026-05-267 minTrend Microhigh

Threat actors behind the ClearFake campaign are leveraging EtherHiding to host malicious JavaScript payloads within BNB Smart Chain testnet smart contracts, bypassing traditional URL-based blocking. The attack chain begins with a compromised watering hole site and uses a ClickFix social engineering overlay to trick Windows and macOS users into executing malicious commands. This leads to the deployment of SectopRAT and ACRStealer via WebDAV DLL loading and DLL sideloading, enabling extensive credential and browser session theft.

2026-05-266 minANY.RUNhigh

In May 2026, ANY.RUN observed a surge in sophisticated phishing and malware campaigns utilizing fileless execution, browser-based credential theft, and legitimate workflow abuse. Key threats included Agent Tesla credential harvesting, ClickFix fileless malware, BlobPhish in-memory page generation, and phishing-to-RMM chains bypassing traditional MFA via real-time OTP interception.

2026-05-247 minANY.RUNhigh

Modern social engineering attacks have evolved to closely mimic legitimate business workflows, utilizing techniques like ClickFix, OAuth device code abuse, and in-browser blob phishing. These tactics bypass traditional security controls and create "gray-zone" alerts that require deep behavioral analysis to determine the true scope of compromise, such as credential theft, token abuse, or RMM deployment.

2026-05-147 minSophoshigh

Sophos MDR investigated a macOS infostealer infection attributed to an AMOS (Atomic macOS) variant. The attack leverages ClickFix social engineering to trick users into running a malicious Terminal command, which initiates a multi-stage infection chain. The malware captures the user's system password via a spoofed prompt, evades analysis by checking for virtualized environments, and exfiltrates sensitive data like Keychain and browser credentials before establishing persistence via a LaunchDaemon.

In Q1 2026, vulnerability registrations continued to rise, heavily influenced by AI-assisted discovery tools. Threat actors and APT groups actively exploited a mix of legacy and newly discovered vulnerabilities across Windows, Linux, and Microsoft Office, frequently utilizing C2 frameworks like Metasploit and Sliver to bypass authentication and gain initial access.

2026-05-137 minTrend Microhigh

The InstallFix campaign leverages malvertising to distribute fake Claude AI installation pages, tricking users into executing malicious MSHTA commands. This initiates a multi-stage, fileless infection chain utilizing a ZIP/HTA polyglot, COM object abuse, and AMSI/SSL bypasses to deliver a payload associated with RedLine Stealer. The campaign demonstrates advanced evasion tactics, including the use of victim-unique C2 subdomains derived from machine fingerprints.

2026-05-137 minHuntresshigh

A ClickFix social engineering campaign tricks users into executing a malicious command via a fake CAPTCHA on fraudulent background removal websites. This command uses the legacy finger.exe utility to download CastleLoader, an advanced Python-based loader that employs reflective PE loading and API evasion (such as ReplaceTextW hooking) to deploy NetSupport RAT and a custom .NET stealer (CastleStealer) for credential and data exfiltration.

2026-05-136 minMicrosofthigh

In Q1 2026, Microsoft observed 8.3 billion email-based phishing threats, characterized by a 146% surge in QR code phishing and rapid evolution in CAPTCHA-gated payload delivery. Despite disruption efforts against the Tycoon2FA adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) platform, threat actors quickly adapted their infrastructure, while Business Email Compromise (BEC) remained highly prevalent using conversational social engineering.

2026-05-134 minHuntresshigh

Huntress details the operational benefits of unifying EDR and ITDR to combat infostealers and rapid credential abuse. A highlighted incident demonstrates a ClickFix social engineering attack leveraging WebDAV and rundll32.exe to execute a remote payload, which was mitigated by automatically isolating the host and revoking associated Microsoft 365 identity sessions.

2026-05-139 minArctic Wolfcritical

Arctic Wolf Labs identified a highly targeted campaign by the DPRK-nexus threat actor BlueNoroff against the Web3 sector. The attackers utilize sophisticated social engineering, including AI-generated deepfakes and stolen webcam footage, to lure victims into fake Zoom or Teams meetings. Once engaged, a ClickFix clipboard injection attack deploys a fileless PowerShell C2 implant, leading to the theft of cryptocurrency wallets, browser credentials, and Telegram sessions.

2026-05-136 minANY.RUNhigh

Lazarus Group is conducting a new ClickFix campaign targeting macOS users in high-value sectors via Telegram. The attackers trick victims into executing a terminal command that deploys 'Mach-O Man,' a multi-stage Go-based malware kit designed to steal credentials, browser data, and macOS Keychain secrets, exfiltrating the data via Telegram.

2026-05-137 minWithSecurehigh

Threat actors are leveraging social media platforms, SEO poisoning, and AI agent responses to distribute ClickFix-style attacks disguised as tech tips. Victims are socially engineered into executing malicious PowerShell commands that initiate a fileless infection chain, bypassing traditional security controls to deploy information stealers like Vidar on their endpoints.

2026-05-136 minRecorded Futurehigh

Insikt Group identified five distinct threat clusters utilizing the ClickFix social engineering technique to trick users into manually executing malicious commands via native system tools. This living-off-the-land approach bypasses traditional browser security to deliver payloads like NetSupport RAT and macOS infostealers across both Windows and macOS environments.

2026-05-137 minSophoshigh

North Korean threat group NICKEL ALLEY is targeting technology professionals and Web3 developers through fake job interviews and malicious code repositories. The group employs social engineering, the ClickFix tactic, and malicious VS Code tasks to deliver remote access trojans like PyLangGhost RAT and BeaverTail, primarily aiming for cryptocurrency theft and potential supply chain compromise.

2026-05-135 minZscaler ThreatLabzhigh

SnappyClient is a newly discovered C++ C2 framework implant delivered via HijackLoader, primarily designed for cryptocurrency theft and remote access. It utilizes advanced evasion techniques such as AMSI patching, Heaven's Gate, and transacted hollowing to bypass security controls, including Chromium's App-Bound Encryption, while communicating over a custom ChaCha20-Poly1305 encrypted protocol.

2026-05-134 minRecorded Futurehigh

The 2025 Identity Threat Landscape Report highlights a massive surge in credential theft driven by infostealer malware, with LummaC2 leading the ecosystem. A critical finding is the widespread theft of active session cookies, which allows attackers to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and directly access high-value corporate systems, VPNs, and cloud platforms.

2026-05-136 minSophoshigh

Threat actors are evolving 'ClickFix' social engineering campaigns to target macOS users with the MacSync infostealer. Recent iterations bypass traditional security controls by tricking users into executing obfuscated terminal commands that deploy fileless, API-gated AppleScript payloads designed to harvest credentials, browser data, and cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases.

2026-05-137 minTrend Microhigh

Trend Micro MDR uncovered an ongoing campaign by the KongTuke threat group utilizing compromised WordPress sites and fake CAPTCHA lures to trick users into executing malicious PowerShell commands. The attack leverages living-off-the-land binaries like finger.exe to deploy a Python-based backdoor known as modeloRAT, which focuses on enterprise environments for potential lateral movement and establishes persistence via scheduled tasks and registry keys.

AI Weaponization and Developer Supply Chain Attacks Redefine the Perimeter Attackers are aggressively targeting the software development process because compromising a single developer tool can unlock thousands of corporate networks. In parallel, artificial intelligence is collapsing the cost of attacks, allowing criminals to build convincing deepfakes and automated phishing campaigns in minutes. As a result, traditional security like multi-factor authentication is increasingly bypassed using tricks that steal active login sessions rather than passwords. These trends together suggest that relying on perimeter defenses and basic hygiene is no longer enough, as attackers hide inside trusted cloud services and legitimate software updates. This matters because organizations are losing visibility into where their sensitive data actually lives, especially as AI tools create hidden pathways into company systems. Defenders must shift their focus to monitoring user behavior after login and securing the automated systems that build their software. Watch for unusual activity in your developer tools and implement stricter checks on third-party software.