Aviatrix Threat Research Center
Cloud breaches are accelerating — across identities, workloads, supply chains, and cloud-native services. In the Containment Era, understanding how a breach unfolds is how you architect to stop it.
The Aviatrix Threat Research Center provides security teams with:
- A structured understanding of how breaches unfold — kill chain, ATT&CK techniques, CVEs, and IOCs in a consistent format.
- What attackers exploited, and which enforcement gaps let them move.
- Where workload-level controls would have broken the attack chain — including paths that posture tools and endpoint detection don't model.
Recent Breaches, Security Incidents & Vulnerabilities
AI-Powered Threat Analysis
Agentic AI that analyzes real-world attacks — across security incidents, breaches, and exploited vulnerabilities — to produce structured, actionable intelligence.
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How Google Disrupted the Lighthouse Phishing-as-a-Service Operation in 2024
In early 2024, Google’s Threat Analysis Group identified and disrupted the 'Lighthouse' Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) platform, operated by the Smishing Triad criminal group. Lighthouse enabled large-scale, automated phishing campaigns, leveraging SMS-based lures such as unpaid toll notifications and fraudulent package delivery alerts. Attackers used this kit to collect personal and financial data, facilitating credentials theft across multiple geographies. Google’s intervention included technical disruption, reporting malicious domains, and restricting infrastructure linked to the group, limiting subsequent campaign reach and effectiveness. The Lighthouse case highlights a surge in professionally run phishing platforms offered as a service, making sophisticated cybercrime accessible to less-skilled actors. Organizations face heightened risk from increasingly tailored, high-volume phishing attacks exploiting mobile and digital payment ecosystems, warranting ongoing vigilance and stronger controls.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
CitrixBleed 2: New Zero-Day Storm Hits Identity and Network Gateways
In early 2025, security teams discovered active exploitation of two newly identified zero-day vulnerabilities: CVE-2025-5777 in Citrix NetScaler and CVE-2025-20337 in Cisco Identity Service Engine (ISE). An advanced persistent threat (APT) group rapidly targeted both flaws, focusing on critical infrastructure where identity and access management systems form the backbone of secure connectivity. Attackers leveraged these zero-days to bypass authentication and elevate privileges, enabling lateral movement across east-west network segments and exfiltrating sensitive data. The incident underscores the risks posed by unpatched identity infrastructure in enterprise environments, leading to operational disruptions and an urgent patch response from affected vendors. This breach highlights a surge in sophisticated campaigns targeting the convergence of networking and identity technologies. The focus on identity-driven systems, rapid weaponization of zero-day exploits, and threat actors’ ability to pivot between vendors reinforce the growing challenge organizations face in defending mission-critical services amid a shifting risk landscape.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Coyote & Maverick Banking Trojans: 2024 Banking Attacks Sweep Brazil
In 2024, cybersecurity researchers observed a surge in banking Trojan activity in Brazil, notably from two malware strains named Coyote and Maverick. These Trojans specifically target financial institutions and individual banking customers by using advanced phishing campaigns, malicious email attachments, and fake banking apps to infiltrate devices. Once installed, they deploy credential-stealing modules, monitor browser activity, and intercept authentication data, often leveraging encrypted and east-west network traffic to evade security controls. Maverick is engineered to self-terminate if it detects a target located outside Brazil, indicating a strong geo-targeting component. The campaign’s impact includes stolen banking credentials, financial fraud, and operational disruption for affected users and banks in the region. The continued advancement and targeted nature of these Brazilian banking Trojans demonstrate a significant evolution in threat actor sophistication, especially toward region-specific attacks. Organizations need to heighten their defenses and monitor emerging tactics as financially motivated cybercrime rises across Latin America.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
SmartApeSG Leverages ClickFix Fake CAPTCHA Pages to Spread NetSupport RAT (2024)
In November 2024, the SmartApeSG campaign shifted tactics by leveraging ClickFix-style fake CAPTCHA pages to deliver the NetSupport RAT, a powerful remote access trojan. Threat actors compromised websites by injecting malicious scripts that, under specific conditions, displayed convincing 'verify you are human' prompts. Unsuspecting users, influenced by the fraudulent CAPTCHA, executed clipboard-injected commands that downloaded and ran NetSupport RAT on their Windows systems, establishing persistent access via Start Menu shortcuts. The campaign was notable for its adaptation and the regular rotation of malicious infrastructure. This incident highlights a rising trend of social engineering combined with hands-on-keyboard malware delivery. The use of fake CAPTCHA solutions is proliferating, making traditional email-filter and endpoint controls less effective. Organizations should be aware of evolving attack chains and regularly review user education programs to counter these sophisticated lures.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Breakdown: 2024 FormBook Infostealer Delivered via Multi-Stage Script Obfuscation
In November 2024, a sophisticated email campaign delivered the FormBook infostealer via a series of obfuscated scripts. Attackers distributed malicious ZIP email attachments containing an obfuscated VBS file, which initiated multiple layers of PowerShell-based deobfuscation and payload retrieval. The staged infection successfully bypassed standard detection tools by employing complex anti-analysis techniques, eventually injecting FormBook into a legitimate process and establishing command and control through a remote server. Impacts included potential credential theft, session hijacking, and risk of lateral movement within affected organizations. This incident highlights the increasing use of multi-stage script-based delivery vectors and advanced obfuscation in commodity malware campaigns. Detection challenges are heightened as attackers combine legacy script formats and cloud hosting services to evade conventional endpoint security controls and deliver persistent infostealing payloads.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
OpenAI’s Sora 2 Release Fuels New Deepfake Security Risks in 2024
In late 2024, OpenAI released Sora 2, a powerful AI-powered video generation model, without the robust guardrails needed to prevent deepfake abuse. Within weeks, numerous instances emerged of Sora 2 being used to create convincing disinformation, impersonate public figures, and generate unmoderated content, despite minimal or easily removable watermarking. The lack of initial safeguards—such as restrictions on political figures or copyrighted content—and insufficient content provenance led to viral circulation of malicious deepfakes and nonconsensual depictions, raising significant operational, reputational, and regulatory risks for both OpenAI and affected individuals. This incident highlights a critical phase in AI/ML risk management: rapid technology advancement is outpacing the establishment and enforcement of ethical and technical controls. Growing regulatory and societal scrutiny underscores the need for defensible guardrails, provenance tracking, and collaborative risk governance to address the threats posed by generative AI deepfakes.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Google Takes Legal Aim at Lighthouse Smishing Syndicate in 2024
In June 2024, Google initiated a civil lawsuit targeting the perpetrators of the 'Lighthouse' phishing-as-a-service operation, believed to be managed by individuals based in China. These actors used large-scale SMS phishing (smishing) campaigns, often spoofing Google and other trusted brands, to lure victims into divulging personal and financial information by clicking fraudulent links. Over a short period, the attackers deployed hundreds of thousands of fake sites and reportedly victimized more than one million people worldwide, resulting in significant financial losses and the compromise of millions of payment cards—primarily in the United States. The group’s abuse of Google’s trademarks also led the company to seek legal and technical disruption measures, including the removal of malicious domains. This case illustrates the growing impact and reach of phishing-as-a-service kits, which democratize sophisticated techniques for broader criminal use. The prevalence of smishing, coupled with international threat actor networks, reinforces the need for proactive legal and technical responses, as well as multi-stakeholder legislative and public awareness initiatives.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Amazon Detects APT Group Exploiting Cisco & Citrix Zero-Days in 2024
In summer 2024, Amazon’s threat intelligence team identified that an advanced persistent threat (APT) group exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in Cisco Identity Services Engine (CVE-2025-20337) and Citrix NetScaler (CVE-2025-5777), months before official patches were released. The attackers leveraged custom malware with advanced evasion capabilities, demonstrating a deep understanding of enterprise Java and network edge products. Exploitation was detected as early as May, prior to vendor disclosure, allowing the threat actor prolonged access to target environments for likely espionage purposes. Massive exploitation attempts followed public disclosure, impacting thousands of organizations globally. This incident underscores the increased speed and sophistication with which threat groups are identifying and weaponizing zero-day vulnerabilities in critical network and identity infrastructure. The trend poses escalating risks for organizations relying on edge devices, making timely patching and layered defenses more crucial than ever.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Operation Endgame 2024: Global Law Enforcement Strikes Down Major Malware Networks
In November 2024, a coalition of law enforcement agencies from 11 countries coordinated Operation Endgame, a major crackdown disrupting some of the most prolific malware networks globally. The operation targeted Rhadamanthys infostealer, VenomRAT remote access trojan, and the Elysium botnet—malware that collectively infected hundreds of thousands of computers and enabled the theft of millions of credentials. Authorities arrested the principal VenomRAT suspect in Greece, searched 11 sites across Europe, and dismantled more than 1,000 criminal servers and 20 illicit domains. With assistance from 30-plus cybersecurity companies, the operation also notified thousands of victims and exposed users of these illicit services, mitigating ongoing criminal campaigns. Operation Endgame underscores the rapidly evolving, cross-border nature of malware infrastructure and the growing need for coordinated responses by both public and private sectors. As attackers innovate and leverage distributed networks to evade law enforcement, regular collaborative enforcement actions and heightened detection capability are now critical to cybersecurity defenses worldwide.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Rhadamanthys Infostealer Brought Down: Lessons from a Major Malware Disruption
In June 2024, law enforcement and security vendors successfully disrupted the Rhadamanthys infostealer operation, a prominent 'malware-as-a-service' offering used by cybercriminals to harvest sensitive data from infected devices. The takedown resulted in many malware operators reporting loss of access to their command-and-control servers, crippling active campaigns and rendering stolen data inaccessible. This disruption impacted both the malware's customers and the broader illicit ecosystem that depended on Rhadamanthys for credential theft, data exfiltration, and distribution of stolen information for financial gain. The incident highlights growing law enforcement coordination targeting infostealer infrastructure and criminal-as-a-service marketplaces. As infostealers proliferate with new evasion methods, their disruption remains a critical priority for organizations and defenders seeking to reduce exposure to credential theft and secondary breaches.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Synnovis 2024 Ransomware Breach: UK Healthcare Services and Patient Data Exposed
In June 2024, Synnovis, a leading UK pathology services provider, suffered a significant ransomware attack that led to operational disruption and the exposure of sensitive patient data. The attack, attributed to Russian-speaking threat actor group Qilin, resulted in widespread IT outages across London hospitals, delaying critical healthcare procedures and temporarily halting diagnostic services. Investigations revealed that attackers were able to steal files containing patient information before encrypting core systems, underscoring the vulnerability of healthcare organizations to ransomware campaigns targeting their critical infrastructure. This incident is emblematic of a surge in highly targeted ransomware attacks against the healthcare sector globally. With a marked increase in double-extortion tactics and operationally disruptive attacks, this event highlights escalating cyber risk, increasing regulatory oversight, and the urgent need for robust cyber-resilience in healthcare.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Citrix & Cisco Face 2025 Zero-Day Onslaught: Custom Malware Targets Network Cores
In early 2025, a sophisticated threat actor leveraged zero-day vulnerabilities—CVE-2025-5777 ('Citrix Bleed 2') in NetScaler ADC/Gateway and CVE-2025-20337 in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)—to gain initial access into targeted enterprise environments. Exploiting these flaws before vendor patches were available, attackers deployed custom malware to establish persistent command-and-control and facilitate lateral movement, affecting sensitive east-west and outbound network traffic. The advanced nature of this attack enabled the evasion of traditional security controls, resulting in unauthorized access to confidential data and business operations disruptions. This breach highlights a critical evolution in adversary tradecraft: coordinated and simultaneous exploitation of zero-day flaws in widely deployed network infrastructure. With threat actors increasingly chaining vulnerabilities to maximize impact, proactive threat detection and effective segmentation are more essential than ever for organizations seeking resilience against such rapid exploitation campaigns.
8 months ago
Kill Chain
Security Research & Insights
Security Research & Insights with human-led deep dives into campaigns and cloud-native TTPs
The Edge Device Isn't Your Last Line of Defense. It's Their First Target.
AI Trust Abuse: A Detection Engineer's Field Guide to Agent-Abuse Attacks
Aug 18, 2026
OpenAI Lost Control of Its Models. Then Anthropic Did Too. That Is Not a Coincidence.
Market Perspectives
Market Perspectives offering expert commentary and select breach analysis from industry leaders
What Could Have Stopped the 2023 MGM Breach? A Study in the Power of Embedded Zero Trust
The Zero Trust Gap: Only 8% of US Enterprises Use Zero Trust Architectures
HITRUST CSF Compliance in the Cloud—How Aviatrix Secures Healthcare Data
How CNSF Protects Cloud Workloads
Cloud attackers don’t rely on a single exploit — they rely on paths.
Once inside, attackers move laterally between workloads, establish command-and-control through egress paths, and exfiltrate data through legitimate cloud services — often before detection tools generate an alert. These paths exist because most security architectures enforce at centralized inspection points, not at every workload. The paths that matter most are the ones that never reach a central firewall.
Aviatrix Cloud Native Security Fabric (CNSF) contains attacks by enforcing policy at every workload communication path — containing blast radius, blocking lateral movement, and cutting off egress before data leaves the environment.
With CNSF, enterprises can:
- Contain attack paths at runtime
Gain visibility into east-west and egress workload communication and apply controls that limit lateral movement, unauthorized egress, and uncontrolled trust expansion.
- Eliminate blind spots in workload-to-workload traffic
Observe traffic across VPCs/VNets, regions, and cloud providers using cloud native telemetry — including paths that posture tools and point controls don’t model.
- Secure modern and AI-driven workloads
Understand how agents, services, and workloads communicate at runtime, and enforce policy to reduce the risk of misuse, over-privileged access, or unintended data flows.
- Apply consistent Zero Trust controls without slowing teams
Enforce segmentation, egress control, and encryption centrally across clouds — without agents, application changes, or developer friction.
See Your Attack Paths. Close the Gaps with CNSF.
Blast radius starts where your enforcement stops.
Most security architectures enforce at centralized inspection points. Attackers move between workloads on paths that never reach those points — building blast radius invisibly until detection tools fire, often too late.
Your assessment delivers:
The Aviatrix Workload Attack Path Assessment (WAPA) analyzes real workload communication using cloud native telemetry to uncover attack paths already present in your environment — and shows how Cloud Native Security Fabric (CNSF) can break those paths with runtime enforcement.
The threat landscape has changed.
Has your question changed with it?
In March 2026, TeamPCP proved that detection-first architectures cannot contain attacks that move through trusted code, not around defenses. Today’s threat actors don’t break in — they log in, blend in, and expand silently. This command center tracks the evolving threat landscape and helps you measure your Blast Radius — the architectural metric that defines resilience in the Containment Era.
This command center tracks 8 active campaigns and measures your Blast Radius: what an attacker can reach once inside your environment.
Contain the Blast Radius
See the attack paths already present in your environment — and where CNSF containment controls would break them.
