[ctx]ctxseccontext security: attacks on the harness and context layer of AI agents, plus exploited-now news, hunting and playbooks.

← Threat Hunting · markdown

vendor research (Huntress blog, Nov 10, 2026, with IOCs)

Hunt: ClickFix now leads to domain controllers, reverse SSH tunnels, PNG-hidden executables and browser-cache-seeded payloads (Huntress)

  • Process lineage: explorer.exe (Run dialog) or a browser spawning cmd.exe, powershell.exe or Windows Terminal; encoded commands and execution-policy bypasses.
  • Files: ZIPs such as cf_verify.zip or verify_pkg.zip in %TEMP%, extracted into random hex-named folders under C:\ProgramData (e.g. f8f33b09aed97a47, 7168f7f870a45fbb) with a signed Microsoft binary, a rogue DLL and 1.bat; C:\ProgramData\ShService holding an SSH private key.
  • Persistence: Run keys and scheduled tasks like CertEnrollCtrl_*, SysyService or a Run key named DuskDesk launching node.exe.
  • Cache-seeded variant: cmd /c for /r loops over browser profile cache folders filtering on file size, then copying to %TEMP%\t.bat.
  • Network: unexpected outbound SSH from workstations; Huntress lists 23.227.199[.]41 and 167.148.201[.]104:3861 among its IOCs.
  • Huntress advises hunting the sequence of behavior rather than hashes, since names and payloads change.

Sources: Huntress: Beyond the clipboard: The evolving tradecraft of ClickFix (Nov 10, 2026)