Shattering the Dream – When a Job Offer Becomes a Zero-Day Attack
Check Point Research has tracked a resurgence of the Operation Dream Job campaign since early 2026, which primarily targets the defense sector with focus on aerospace and aviation companies. The threat actors distribute modified PDF viewers that execute malicious payloads embedded in specially crafted files, using fake job offers as a social engineering vector. This campaign demonstrates how threat actors exploit industry-specific targeting and trusted application types to deliver zero-day exploits against critical infrastructure sectors.
Researchers have identified iAuthFlow V2, a phishing toolkit that exploits passkey authentication by registering attacker-controlled passkeys to maintain persistent access to compromised accounts. This capability allows attackers to retain access even after victims reset their passwords or revoke active sessions, representing a significant evolution in phishing attack sophistication that targets modern authentication mechanisms.
Researchers at Allure Security discovered a widespread scam operation leveraging a cheap website template to create hundreds of fraudulent bank domains designed to deceive victims. The investigation began when a suspicious domain mimicking a legitimate financial services client was found hosting an unrelated bank's branding, ultimately revealing a coordinated scheme to build phantom banking sites for scamming purposes. The $25 template appears to have been a key tool enabling scammers to rapidly deploy deceptive financial websites at scale.
Russian threat actors are incorporating OAuth abuse tactics into their targeted phishing campaigns, leveraging legitimate authentication mechanisms to compromise victims. The attacks specifically impersonate State Department communications, making them particularly credible to government and diplomatic personnel.
Attackers are exploiting trusted enterprise collaboration tools to conduct identity phishing and steal credentials from organizations. Unit 42 provides analysis of these attack techniques and outlines key defensive strategies to mitigate the threat.