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Windows Phone Link Exploited by CloudZ RAT to Steal Credentials and OTPs
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an intrusion that involved the use of a CloudZ remote access tool (RAT) and a previous undocumented plugin dubbed Pheno with the aim of facilitating credential theft.
“According to the functionalities of the CloudZ RAT and Pheno plugin, this was with the intention of stealing victims’ credentials and potentially one-time passwords (OTPs),” Cisco Talos researchers Alex Karkins and Chetan Raghuprasad said in a Tuesday analysis.
What makes the attack novel is that CloudZ uses the custom Pheno plugin to hijack the established PC-to-phone bridge by abusing the Microsoft Phone Link application, permitting the plugin to monitor for active Phone Link processes and potentially intercept sensitive mobile data like SMS and one-time passwords (OTPs) without the need for deploying malware on the phone.
The findings demonstrate how legitimate cross-device syncing features can expose unintended attack pathways to credential theft and help bypass two-factor authentication. What’s more, it obviates the need to compromise the mobile device itself.
The malware, per the cybersecurity company, has been put to use as part of an intrusion that’s been active since at least January 2026. The activity has not been attributed to any known threat actor or group.
Built into Windows 10 and Windows 11, Phone Link offers a way for users to pair their computer with an Android device or iPhone over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, allowing users to make or take phone calls, send messages, and dismiss notifications.
Unknown threat actors have been observed attempting to leverage the application using CloudZ RAT and Pheno to confirm Phone Link activity on a victim environment and then access the SQLite database file used by the program to store the synchronized phone data.
The attack chain is said to have employed an as-yet-undetermined initial access method to obtain a foothold and drop a fake ConnectWise ScreenConnect executable that’s responsible for downloading and running a .NET loader. The initial dropper also makes use of an embedded PowerShell script to establish persistence by setting up a scheduled task that runs the malicious .NET loader.
The intermediate loader is designed to run hardware and environment checks to evade detection and deploy the modular CloudZ trojan on the machine. Once executed, the .NET-compiled trojan decrypts an embedded configuration, establishes an encrypted socket connection to the command-and-control (C2) server, and awaits Base64-encoded instructions that allow it to exfiltrate credentials and implant additional plugins.
Some of the commands supported by CloudZ include –
- pong, to send heartbeat responses
- PING!, to issue a heartbeat request
- CLOSE, to terminate the trojan process
- INFO, to collect system metadata
- RunShell, to execute shell command
- BrowserSearch, to exfiltrate web browser data
- GetWidgetLog, to exfiltrate Phone Link recon logs and data
- plugin, to load a plugin
- savePlugin, to save a plugin to disk at the staging directory (“C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\whealth\”)
- sendPlugin, to upload a plugin to C2 server
- RemovePlugins, to remove all deployed plugin modules
- Recovery, to enable recovery or reconnection
- DW, to conduct download and file write operations
- FM, to conduct file management operations
- Msg, to send a message to C2 server
- Error, to report errors to C2 server
- rec, to record the screen
“The attacker used a plugin called Pheno to perform reconnaissance of the Windows Phone Link application in the victim machine,” Talos said. “The plugin performs reconnaissance of the Microsoft Phone Link application on the victim machine and writes the reconnaissance data to an output file in a staging folder. CloudZ reads back the Phone Link application data from the staging folder and sends it to the C2 server.”
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Saudi Arabia posts $33.5bn budget deficit amid drop in oil sales | Business and Economy News
Kingdom announces sharp rise in budget shortfall amid the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Published On 6 May 2026
Saudi Arabia has posted a sharp rise in its budget deficit amid declining oil revenues due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The kingdom’s budget shortfall widened to 125.7 billion riyals ($33.5bn) in the first three months of the year as rising government spending coincided with a fall in crude sales, according to the latest budget figures released by the Saudi Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.
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list of 4 itemsend of listTotal government spending rose 20 percent to 386.7 billion riyals year-on-year, while oil revenues fell 3 percent to 144.7 billion riyals, according to the figures.
The budget gap was more than double the shortfall posted during the same period last year, and up nearly one-third from the final quarter of 2025.
The deficit marks a significant departure from the kingdom’s financial outlook for the year.
Saudi officials had in December projected a deficit of 65 billion riyals ($17bn) for the whole of 2026.
By sector, economic resources was responsible for the biggest rise in government spending, increasing 52 percent year-on-year.
Spending on general items rose 46 percent, while the military, infrastructure and transport each saw a 26 percent gain in expenditures.
Non-oil revenues rose by 2 percent, partly offsetting the drop in commodities sales.
As the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia lost a key economic lifeline with the collapse of shipping in the strait, though the kingdom has been able to reroute much of its exports through the Red Sea port of Yanbu via the East-West Pipeline.
Riyadh’s crude and petroleum products’ sales account for more than half of government revenues, generating 606.5 billion riyals for state coffers in 2025.
Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which usually carries about one-fifth of global fuel supplies, has been at a standstill for more than two months amid Iranian threats against shipping in the region.
On Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump suspended his military operation aimed at reopening the strait, dubbed “Project Freedom”, less than 48 hours after it began, citing “great progress” being made towards a peace deal with Iran.
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Ex-Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard praises Trump during White House visit
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Former MLB pitcher Noah Syndergaard, best known for his stint as a young star with the New York Mets, spoke out in support of President Donald Trump while criticizing the president’s critics on Tuesday.
Syndergaard said he’s always been a fan of Trump and met him for the first time at the White House on Tuesday for an event celebrating the Presidential Fitness Test.
“It’s a dream come true, I’m riding this bliss in this moment,” Syndergaard said of meeting Trump during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle.”
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New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning of a baseball game in Atlanta on Oct. 3, 2021. (Ben Margot/AP)
“I really just don’t quite understand the negativity or the pessimism he gets from the media and some of the population of this nation because he’s just such a patriotic guy and he cares so much everybody and the health of this nation and the health of this world.”
Syndergaard went on to say he was “envious” of Trump’s mental energy at age 79.
“I‘m envious of the mental energy that this guy has, the sharpness he has, the comedic nature of everything he says. He’s just a joy to be around,” Syndergaard said.
WORLD SERIES CHAMP JOHNNY DAMON UNCONCERNED WITH FAN FLAK OVER TRUMP SUPPORT: ‘I KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT’
Noah Syndergaard of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws a pitch during the second inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 30, 2023. (Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
Syndergaard was one of Trump’s athlete guests at the White House Tuesday for the event celebrating Trump’s plan to bring annual fitness tests back to school in the United States.
“Professional baseball pitcher, Noah Syndergaard, sometimes known as Thor, and he looks like Thor to me,” Trump said to Syndergaard during the ceremony. “That is a man that I wouldn’t want to get in a fight with.”
Syndergaard said he is a staunch supporter of the fitness testing, recounting his own experience with the tests as a child.
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Starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws against the Minnesota Twins during the first inning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 15, 2023. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
“It just kind of hits home to me because I just remember doing all these tests throughout elementary school, intermediate school. And from a kid that, if you would have told me, I’d be sitting here talking to you, talking about the Presidential Fitness Council when I was, I don’t know, 10 years old, I would have called you, you’re crazy. And as a kid, I kind of, I grew up as a, what we’d call a late bloomer or a husky kid,” Syndergaard said.
“It’s important to be healthy and to be active and get out and compete and just expose yourself to as many sports and activities as you possibly can. I mean just the interaction I had with all the kids today, getting able to throw a couple of grounds balls, do some pull ups, just get out in the sunshine and the White long was just an amazing experience.”
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US military releases video of strike on alleged drug boat | News
The US military has released video of what it says is a strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which killed three people onboard. At least 22 people have been killed since April in similar strikes reported by US Southern Command.
Published On 6 May 2026
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ADL finds deadly antisemitic weapon assaults at ‘historic high’ in 2025
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Antisemitic violence escalated in 2025, with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noting in its annual audit that attacks with deadly weapons surged, even as overall incidents declined.
The organization recorded 6,274 antisemitic incidents in 2025, an average of about 17 every day, including 203 assaults, 32 of which involved a deadly weapon, a 39% increase from 2024. Additionally, the ADL recorded 4,003 instances of antisemitic harassment and 2,068 acts of vandalism. While the attacks occurred across the country, the states that saw the most incidents were New York (1,160), California (817) and New Jersey (687), according to the ADL.
The number of incidents in 2025 represented a 33% decrease from 2024, when the ADL recorded 9,354 incidents across the U.S. However, the ADL said that the number of incidents remains “considerably higher” than it was in the years before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. The organization said that 2025 was ranked as the third-highest year for antisemitic incidents after 2023 and 2024.
BROOKLYN ATTACK LEAVES 3 INJURED, SUSPECT WEARING IRANIAN FLAG SHIRT ARRESTED BY NYPD
People gather to light candles at a makeshift memorial outside the White House in Washington on May 22, 2025, honoring Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were killed after leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)
College and university campuses saw the sharpest decline in antisemitic incidents as activity tied to anti-Israel protests declined, according to the ADL. In 2025, the ADL recorded 583 antisemitic incidents on college campuses, a 66% decrease from 2024, when 1,694 incidents were recorded. The ADL has also pushed colleges and universities to address antisemitism and released new report cards evaluating campus responses.
Less than half of antisemitic incidents in 2025, about 45%, were related to Israel or Zionism, according to the ADL. That marked a notable drop from 2024, when roughly 58% of incidents were tied to Israel. Additionally, antisemitic incidents occurring at or near anti-Israel protests dropped by 67% in 2025, but still totaled 856 cases.
Mohamed Soliman throws an incendiary device into a group of pro-Israel supporters in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025. He was later arrested by police. (Alex Osante)
ELISE STEFANIK REVEALS HER VIRAL GENOCIDE QUESTION WASN’T EVEN THE ONE SHE PREPARED
Despite this decrease in the number of incidents, the ADL reported a “historic high” in antisemitic assaults and attacks with deadly weapons in 2025, noting a 39% increase. This included the deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2025, in which Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were killed. Days later, on June 1, 2025, a firebombing attack left 82-year-old Karen Diamond severely injured. Diamond later died as a result of the attack.
“Our 2025 audit, which shows it was one of the most violent years for American Jews on record, is a reminder of how dramatically the threat landscape has shifted. Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened.”
Israeli flags hung on a railing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are stained with red by Palestinian supporters during a protest on campus. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe)
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“Even as overall incidents declined, the surge in physical assaults is a stark reminder that a historically high level of antisemitism puts Jewish lives at risk,” ADL Senior Vice President for Counter-Extremism and Intelligence Oren Segal said in a statement.
The ADL’s findings reveal a troubling trend: even as antisemitic incidents decline, they are becoming increasingly dangerous.
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