PROMPTFLUX, meanwhile, is a dropper that uses a decoy installer to hide its activity; it prompts the Gemini API to rewrite its source code, saving new obfuscated versions to the Startup folder to establish persistence. The malware can also copy itself to removable drives or mapped network drives.
Interestingly, the malware’s “thinking robot” module periodically queries Gemini to obtain new code to let it evade antivirus software, and a variant module known as “Thinging” instructs the Gemini API to rewrite the malware’s entire source code on an hourly basis to avoid many signature-based detection tools. The goal is to create a “metamorphic script that can evolve over time,” the researchers note.
Other tracked malware includes FRUITSHELL, a reverse shell that establishes a remote connection to a command-and-control (C2) server so that attackers can issue arbitrary commands on a compromised system; experimental PROMPTLOCK ransomware written in Go that uses LLMs to create and execute malicious scripts and perform reconnaissance, data exfiltration, and file encryption on Windows and Linux systems; and QUIETVAULT, which steals GitHub and npm tokens.
