
Show Notes
Ismael Valenzuela, Vice President of Labs, Threat Research and Intelligence at Arctic Wolf, sits down with Dave to discuss their work tracking Anubis. Arctic Wolf Labs details a series of 2026 Anubis ransomware intrusions, revealing affiliates using stolen VPN credentials and exploiting CitrixBleed 2 to gain initial access.
Attackers then blended into legitimate IT activity by deploying RMM tools, using RDP and PsExec for lateral movement, stealing credentials, and establishing tunnels and proxies for persistence and exfiltration. The research highlights a repeatable attack chain defenders can disrupt before encryption, from suspicious remote access and unauthorized RMM deployment to credential theft, security-tool tampering, and ransomware execution.
The research and executive brief can be found here:
From CitrixBleed 2 to Cloudflared: The Tools and Techniques Behind Anubis Ransomware Attacks
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Research Saturday
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.
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.
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.
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.
Today we are joined by Ensar Seker, VP of Research and CISO at SOCRadar, discussing their work on "Exposing AnonyMousKIT: AI-Powered PhaaS Supply Chain." An investigation into AnonyMousKIT reveals an AI-powered Phishing-as-a-Service platform designed to steal Apple credentials and disable Activation Lock on stolen devices.