2026 Cybersecurity Predictions: How Attackers Will Weaponize Your Own Tools & More

Contributor: Archana Manoharan

About the CyberProof 2026 Cybersecurity Predictions Series:

As we look toward the 2026 threat landscape, the data from the past year has made one thing clear: the strategies that protected us yesterday are no longer enough for tomorrow. This article is part of a dedicated 2026 Cybersecurity Predictions series featuring exclusive insights from CyberProof Threat Researchers and leading voices across the security industry. Throughout this series, we explore the critical shifts in the digital battlefield, providing expert analysis on the top threats to prepare for in 2026 and the proactive defenses necessary to stay ahead of an increasingly agile adversary.

2025 Top Take-aways

This year the biggest and most persistent risk continues to be unpatched, internet-facing systems. Threat actors continuously scan the internet for exposed endpoints running vulnerable software from Apache Log4j to Fortinet, Citrix, Atlassian, VMware, and Ivanti. For example, Confluence RCE flaws were exploited by state-sponsored groups (including China-nexus APTs) for webshell deployment and persistent access and Ransomware crews in 2025 continued using old ESXi RCE vulnerabilities against Manufacturing companies. Once these weaknesses are identified, attackers exploit them. This trend reinforces a simple truth: as long as critical systems remain unpatched, they will continue to be prime targets for compromise. 

2025 also highlighted how credential theft remains one of the most persistent and impactful threats. Stolen usernames, passwords, session cookies, and MFA tokens continued to circulate among threat actors long after the original compromise. For example, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) attack, threat actors leveraged stolen third-party credentials (such as Jira and VPN logins) and combined them with unpatched SAP NetWeaver flaws to gain deep access. Threat groups such as Scattered Spider showed how previously stolen credentials can be reused to gain stealthy access, bypass MFA protections, and move laterally within networks often without deploying any traditional malware. This makes detection harder and increases the potential impact of even a single credential leak. 

Another trend that stood out was the rise of ClickFix techniques, where attackers trick users into interacting with legitimate browsers or system dialogs that quietly execute malicious actions. Combined with the rapid growth of modern infostealers, attackers now have multiple ways to harvest credentials and escalate access with minimal technical effort. 

Finally, 2025 reinforced that supply-chain attacks are becoming more sophisticated. Instead of directly attacking organizations, threat actors increasingly target developer ecosystems, third-party dependencies, CI/CD pipelines, and software update mechanisms. This shift allows them to compromise organizations indirectly and at scale, making supply-chain security more critical than ever. For example, BMW Financial Services was involved in a third-party data breach via a vendor called AIS and CrowdStrike was not breached internally, but its NPM package namespace was targeted during the Shai-Hulud supply-chain attack. This means attackers attempted to weaponize packages associated with CrowdStrike to distribute malicious code.

Top Cybersecurity Trends for 2026

1. Expansion of Supply Chain Attacks:
   Supply-chain compromise will remain one of the most impactful threats. Attackers are increasingly targeting package managers (NPM, PyPI, NuGet), build systems, CI/CD pipelines, and SaaS integrations to distribute malicious dependencies at scale. This makes detection harder and significantly broadens potential impact. 
2. Infostealers
   Infostealers are expected to remain one of the most common ways attackers gain their first foothold. Stealers like Lumma, Vidar, and Rhadamanthys enable adversaries to rapidly harvest passwords, cookies, SSH keys, cloud credentials, and crypto wallets at scale. These stolen credentials are then reused for secondary actions such as ransomware deployment, business email compromise, session hijacking, and covert data theft, making infostealers a critical precursor to larger breaches. 
3. RMM(Remote Monitoring and Management) Abuse
   Tools such as ScreenConnect, AnyDesk, SimpleHelp, TeamViewer, Atera, Syncro, and ConnectWise are increasingly being used not just by IT teams but by attackers who weaponize them for stealthy post-exploitation. In the February 2024–2025 LockBit/Black Basta campaigns, attackers used ScreenConnect for hands-on-keyboard operations after exploiting vulnerable public-facing infrastructure. Similarly, the Scattered Spider 2025 identity-driven intrusions leveraged AnyDesk and TeamViewer after credential theft to maintain persistence while avoiding endpoint detection. 
4. Rise of ClickFix Phishing Techniques 
   Social engineering will become more sophisticated, with attackers weaponizing legitimate browser prompts to trick users into executing harmful commands. These techniques bypass traditional security controls by shifting the “execution” step to the user. 
5. Growth in Protocol Abuse and LOLBIN-Driven Intrusions 
   Threat actors are increasingly abusing legitimate system utilities and legacy protocols to stay under the radar, reducing their dependence on traditional malware. In 2026, we can expect a continued rise in LOLBIN driven intrusions. Adversaries are leveraging trusted tools such as certutil.exe for malware retrieval, powershell.exe with encoded or obfuscated commands, curl.exe combined with TOR proxies for anonymous downloads, and node.exe to execute malicious JavaScript payloads. In parallel, attackers are exploiting legacy and overlooked protocols, including the Finger protocol for covert reconnaissance and Outlook macro abuse to deliver payloads without triggering typical email security controls. 
6. Credential Replay and MFA Token Theft 
   Stolen passwords, session cookies, and MFA tokens will remain a major driver of high impact intrusions. Instead of deploying malware, adversaries increasingly rely on replaying previously harvested authentication data to authenticate as legitimate users, move laterally across networks, and maintain long-term, stealthy access without triggering traditional detection mechanisms. 

Final Thoughts

The 2026 landscape is defined by context. It is no longer enough to have visibility; you need to understand the intent behind legitimate-looking credentials and tools. As we look ahead, the winners will be those who move from static defense to continuous exposure management.

See more from the 2026 Cybersecurity Predictions series:

• 2026 Cybersecurity Predictions:  We Don’t Have a Malware Problem… We Have an Inventory & Identity Problem
• 2026 Cybersecurity Predictions: The Cyber Horizon… From Cloud to AI
• Our Push to Reshaped the Modern SOC in 2025…  And What’s Next for 2026 
• 2026 Cybersecurity Predictions:  The Blurred Lines Between Legitimate & Malicious Activity