Good morning. This is your security briefing for Monday, January 12, 2026. We analyzed 10 articles covering attack techniques, security tools, and nation-state threats. All attribution is by the article authors. All article analysis is automated.
ITRESIT SOLUCIONES INFORMΓTICAS has documented SinkVPN, a post-exploitation technique that abuses user-mode VPN tunnels to redirect and drop cloud telemetry from endpoints without requiring administrative privileges. Attackers establish VPN connections routing traffic through controlled gateways, selectively dropping connections to EDR software, patch infrastructure, MDM policies, and DLP/CASB telemetry across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms.
m4nbat has published a KQL-based threat detection analytic for identifying file masquerading, where a process runs with a filename differing from its original name. This technique is employed by numerous advanced threat actors including Akira, Carbanak, Turla, Bumblebee, FIN7, Volt Typhoon, APT1, APT28, APT29, and APT41, and the detection method uses Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's DeviceProcessEvents data source.
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Accenture, has released the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 report analyzing how AI adoption, geopolitical fragmentation, and cyber inequity are reshaping the threat landscape. The report indicates attacks are becoming faster and more complex, with uneven distribution affecting organizations and governments globally.
InterceptSuite has released ProxyBridge, an open-source universal proxy client for Windows and macOS that enables transparent redirection of TCP and UDP traffic from applications through SOCKS5 or HTTP proxies. The tool uses kernel-level packet interception to route traffic from proxy-unaware applications on a per-application basis, allowing security professionals to redirect application traffic through analysis tools like Burp Suite for testing purposes.
robert-mcdermott has released an AI-powered knowledge graph generator tool that transforms unstructured text documents into interactive visualizations using Large Language Models to extract Subject-Predicate-Object triplets. While not directly security-focused, the tool could be utilized by security researchers for analyzing complex threat intelligence documents and mapping relationships between entities.
Bert-JanP has released ListBrowserExtensions.ps1, a PowerShell-based incident response tool that enumerates installed browser extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. The script operates with user-level permissions and helps investigators detect potentially malicious or unwanted browser extensions that could be used for data theft, phishing, or other malicious purposes.
Michael Haag has released ADTrapper, an open-source Active Directory security analysis platform that enables cybersecurity professionals to analyze Windows authentication logs for threats. The tool provides over 54 detection rules for identifying brute force attacks, password spraying, privilege escalation, and ADCS attacks through interactive visualizations and SharpHound integration, deploying via Docker and using PowerShell scripts to collect authentication events.
x86byte has released Obfusk8, a C++17 header-only obfuscation library for Windows binaries that employs compile-time and runtime techniques including VM-based instruction execution, control flow flattening, bogus control flow insertion, and anti-debugging measures. While designed for legitimate code protection, the library's capabilities can be exploited by malware authors to evade detection and hinder reverse engineering efforts by security analysts.
Red Asgard's threat research team has uncovered the Command and Control infrastructure used by the North Korean Lazarus Group in their Contagious Interview campaign. The threat actor targets organizations hiring freelance developers on platforms like Upwork for cryptocurrency and Web3 projects, delivering malware through VSCode auto-execution, backend RCE via Function.constructor, and cookie-based payload delivery.
That concludes today's briefing.