ZeroFox Daily Intelligence Brief - January 8, 2026
|by Alpha Team
ZeroFox Daily Intelligence Brief - January 8, 2026
ZeroFox Intelligence collects, curates, and analyzes information derived from open and proprietary sources. Here is today’s daily roundup to give you and your clients an advantage over the adversary.
Brief Highlights
- NoName057(16)’s DDoSia Campaign Run by Volunteer Program
- AI-Generated Server Configurations Fuel GoBrut Credential-Spraying Attacks
- Gas Station Operator Data Breach Exposes 377,000 Records
NoName057(16)’s DDoSia Campaign Run by Volunteer Program
What we know: A recent report has detailed the operations of Russian state linked hacktivist group NoName057(16)’s distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, stating that it operates the attack campaigns as a “community operation” rather than a covert botnet.
Context: The hacktivist group’s DDoS project, known as DDoSia, is operated via a volunteer model where they receive the target list and technical settings from command-and-control infrastructure. Volunteers are assigned attack types based on the capabilities of their systems. It even operates an internal leaderboard providing incentives and gamifying the attack campaigns.
Analyst note: NoName057(16) strategy to tailor attack types to volunteer capabilities likely enables the campaign to operate more efficiently across participating devices and sustain pressure on target systems.
AI-Generated Server Configurations Fuel GoBrut Credential-Spraying Attacks
What we know: An ongoing wave of GoBruteforcer (GoBrut) botnet activity is targeting exposed servers (FTP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, phpMyAdmin) linked to cryptocurrency and blockchain projects. Researchers have observed more than 50,000 internet-facing servers that are possibly vulnerable to GoBrut attacks.
Context: The botnet reportedly exploits servers configured using AI-generated setup guides that reuse predictable usernames, such as “appuser,” “myuser,” and “operator,” leaving services protected with weak default credentials. It then launches credential-spraying attacks to gain unauthorized access.
Analyst note: Attackers gaining footholds on one server are likely to pivot to other connected systems, increasing the risk of further access across blockchain exchanges disrupting operations and transaction processes.
Gas Station Operator Data Breach Exposes 377,000 Records
Source: https://hackread.com/data-breach-us-gas-stations-company/
What we know: A Texas-based operator, Gulshan Management Services, operating over 150 gas stations has suffered a data breach affecting more than 377,000 individuals.
Context: Threat actors gained unauthorized access to an external system in September 2025, with the breach remaining undetected for at least 10 days. Exposed data includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, government-issued IDs, and financial information.
Analyst note: Threat actors are likely to use the stolen data to access and establish persistence in victim accounts to carry out long term identity theft, financial and insurance fraud, and tax and benefits scams.
DEEP AND DARK WEB INTELLIGENCE
BreachForums user kitcat: A threat actor, named "kitcat," has claimed to leak documents classified as confidential allegedly belonging to French intelligence agency Direction du Renseignement Militaire (DRM) on BreachForums. The document allegedly details French weapons sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), both involved in the conflict in Yemen. The alleged confidential documents shared by kitcat already exist in open source, as mentioned by kitcat. The threat actor is very likely politically inclined as they are promoting information of geopolitical importance and resharing the documents to gain attention and positive reputation on BreachForums.
VULNERABILITY AND EXPLOIT INTELLIGENCE
CVE-2026-21858: This is an unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in N8N workflow automation platform having a maximum severity score. It enables attackers to take control of local instances of N8N. Successful exploitation is likely to enable threat actors to access sensitive information and compromise downstream systems or entities.
Affected products: N8N versions before 1.121.0
Tags: DIB, tlp:green