[dropping-elephant]

June 21, 2026

• Rapid7 detailed Dropping Elephant delivering an in-memory RAT via a China-themed loader chain; Nextron tied 44 samples to one continuous LNK-loader line spanning May 2023 to June 2026, each a shortcut posing as a PDF that fires a hidden PowerShell stager with sandbox/debugger checks before self-deleting (Nextron). · Threat Intelligence

in FortiBleed Exposes 86,000 FortiGate Devices as North Korea's Sapphire Sleet Poisons the Mastra npm Catalog

June 20, 2026

FortiBleed Burns 86,000 FortiGate Devices as Novo Nordisk Loses 1.3TB — Including AI Models — to a Leaked GitHub Token

FortiBleed has compromised ~86,644 internet-facing FortiGate devices in a credential-harvesting campaign, while a leaked GitHub token gave FulcrumSec access to Novo Nordisk, exfiltrating 1.3TB including unreleased drug formulas and internal AI models. Mastra npm packages were trojanized by Sapphire Sleet (North Korea–nexus), and multiple AI infrastructure flaws emerged: SearchLeak (CVE-2026-42824) in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Pickle in the Middle in Google Vertex AI, and vulnerabilities in LiteLLM. Ransomware gangs including Qilin, Gentlemen, and DragonForce continue dominating the threat landscape with EDR-killing tradecraft and cloud-based C2 abuse.

June 19, 2026

• Dropping Elephant has run one continuous China-themed LNK loader line for three-plus years (44 samples, 2023–2026) delivering an in-memory RAT via PDF-masquerading shortcuts and hidden PowerShell stagers (Rapid7, Nextron); SideCopy (APT36) swapped in a "Minutes Of Meeting" double-extension .lnk lure dropping a .NET RAT with HKCU Run persistence (Nextron). · Nation-State & APT

in FortiBleed Burns 70,000+ Fortinet Edge Devices While a Leaked GitHub Token Guts Novo Nordisk