Research Saturday

This week we are joined by Dr. Renée Burton, Vice President of Infoblox Threat Intel, discussing "Parked Domains and Direct Search: An Underreported Security Risk." Parked domains are no longer harmless ad pages — new research finds that in today’s “direct search” or zero-click parking ecosystem, more than 90% of visits to certain parked lookalike domains lead to scams, malware, or deceptive content, often hidden behind layers of traffic distribution systems and device fingerprinting.

The report details three previously unpublished domain portfolio actors who weaponize typosquatting, DNS manipulation — including rare “double fast flux” techniques highlighted in a 2025 advisory from Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — and even misconfigured name server records to evade detection and funnel real users toward malicious advertisers. Beyond malvertising, some parked lookalike domains collect misdirected email, fuel business email compromise, and exploit outdated links — including those surfaced by generative AI — underscoring how a simple typo can expose users and enterprises to significant risk.

The research can be found here:

Parked Domains Become Weapons with Direct Search Advertising

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Today we have Tomer Bar, VP of Security Research at SafeBreach Labs, discussing their work on "Prince of Persia: A Decade of Iranian Nation-State APT Campaign Activity under the Microscope". In this first installment of SafeBreach’s deep dive into the Iranian-linked APT known as “Prince of Persia,” originally exposed by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, researchers reveal that the group never truly went dark after 2022—but instead evolved.

Led by Tomer, the investigation uncovers new variants of Foudre and Tonnerre malware, expanded campaign scale, active C2 infrastructure through late 2025, and a shift toward Telegram-based command-and-control. The research provides rare, sustained visibility into nearly a decade of Iranian nation-state cyber operations, offering fresh indicators of compromise and insight into how the group continues to refine its tooling, obfuscation, and targeting.

The research can be found here:

Prince of Persia, Part 1: A Decade of Iranian Nation-State APT Campaign Activity under the Microscope

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Today we have Ziv Mador, VP of Security Research from LevelBlue SpiderLabs discussing their work on "SpiderLabs IDs New Banking Trojan Distributed Through WhatsApp." Researchers at LevelBlue SpiderLabs have identified a new Brazilian banking Trojan dubbed Eternidade Stealer, spread through WhatsApp hijacking and social engineering campaigns that use a Python-based worm to steal contacts and distribute malicious MSI installers.

The Delphi-compiled malware targets Brazilian victims, profiles infected systems, dynamically retrieves its command-and-control server via IMAP email, and deploys banking overlays to harvest credentials from financial institutions and cryptocurrency platforms. The campaign reflects the continued evolution of Brazil’s cybercrime ecosystem, combining WhatsApp propagation, geofencing, encrypted C2 communications, and process injection to maintain stealth and persistence.

The research can be found here:

SpiderLabs IDs New Banking Trojan Distributed Through WhatsApp

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Piotr Wojtyla, Head of Threat Intel and Platform at Abnormal AI, is discussing their work on "InboxPrime AI: New Phishing Kit Fueling Scalable, AI-Powered Cybercrime." A new AI-powered phishing kit called InboxPrime AI is rapidly gaining traction in underground forums, automating the creation and delivery of highly believable phishing emails that mimic legitimate business communications and leverage Gmail’s web interface to evade detection.

First spotted in October 2025, the kit combines AI-generated content, template variation, sender identity spoofing, and built-in spam checks to maximize inbox placement and dramatically lower the barrier to running large-scale phishing campaigns. Its shift to a one-time $1,000 purchase and growing user base underscore the industrialization of phishing and highlight how quickly AI-driven attack tools are outpacing legacy email defenses.

The research can be found here:


⁠⁠⁠InboxPrime AI: New Phishing Kit Fueling Scalable, AI-Powered Cybercrime

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Muhammad Danish, University of New Mexico lead author and cybersecurity researcher, discussing his team's work on "Private Links, Public Leaks: Consequences of Frictionless User Experience on the Security and Privacy Posture of SMS-Delivered URLs". This paper examines how the push for frictionless user experiences has led many services to rely on SMS-delivered, single-click URLs—an inherently insecure channel that can be intercepted or leaked.

Analyzing more than 322,000 unique URLs from 33 million messages, the researchers found widespread security failures, including exposed PII across 701 endpoints at 177 services due to weak, token-based authentication that treats possession of a link as sufficient authorization. The study also identified low-entropy tokens enabling mass URL enumeration and data overfetching issues, though disclosures prompted 18 services to fix flaws, improving privacy protections for at least 120 million users.

The research can be found here:


⁠Private Links, Public Leaks: Consequences of Frictionless User Experience on the Security and Privacy Posture of SMS-Delivered URLs

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