Android | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

As many as 77 banking institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges, and national organizations have become the target of a newly discovered Android remote access trojan (RAT) called DroidBot . "DroidBot is a modern RAT that combines hidden VNC and overlay attack techniques with spyware-like capabilities, such as keylogging and user interface monitoring," Cleafy researchers Simone Mattia, Alessandro Strino, and Federico Valentini said . "Moreover, it leverages dual-channel communication, transmitting outbound data through MQTT and receiving inbound commands via HTTPS, providing enhanced operation flexibility and resilience." The Italian fraud prevention company said it discovered the malware in late October 2024, although there is evidence to suggest that it has been active since at least June, operating under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) model for a monthly fee of $3,000. No less than 17 affiliate groups have been identified as paying for access to the offering. ...

A previously undocumented threat activity cluster dubbed Earth Minotaur is leveraging the MOONSHINE exploit kit and an unreported Android-cum-Windows backdoor called DarkNimbus to facilitate long-term surveillance operations targeting Tibetans and Uyghurs. "Earth Minotaur uses MOONSHINE to deliver the DarkNimbus backdoor to Android and Windows devices, targeting WeChat, and possibly making it a cross-platform threat," Trend Micro researchers Joseph C Chen and Daniel Lunghi said in an analysis published today. "MOONSHINE exploits multiple known vulnerabilities in Chromium-based browsers and applications, requiring users to update software regularly to prevent attacks." Countries affected by Earth Minotaur's attacks span Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the U.S. MOONSHINE first came to light in September 2019 as part of cyber attacks targeting t...

Serverless environments, leveraging services such as AWS Lambda, offer incredible benefits in terms of scalability, efficiency, and reduced operational overhead. However, securing these environments is extremely challenging. The core of current serverless security practices often revolves around two key components: log monitoring and static analysis of code or system configuration. But here is the issue with that: 1. Logs Only Tell Part of the Story Logs can track external-facing activities, but they don't provide visibility into the internal execution of functions. For example, if an attacker injects malicious code into a serverless function that doesn't interact with external resources (e.g., external APIs or databases), traditional log-based tools will not detect this intrusion. The attacker may execute unauthorized processes, manipulate files, or escalate privileges—all without triggering log events. 2. Static Misconfiguration Detection is Incomplete Static tools that check ...

Google has introduced a new feature called Restore Credentials to help users restore their account access to third-party apps securely after migrating to a new Android device. Part of Android's Credential Manager API , the feature aims to reduce the hassle of re-entering the login credentials for every app during the handset replacement. "With Restore Credentials, apps can seamlessly onboard users to their accounts on a new device after they restore their apps and data from their previous device," Google's Neelansh Sahai said . The tech giant said the process occurs automatically in the background when a user restores apps and data from a previous device, enabling apps to sign users back into the respective accounts without requiring any additional interaction. This is accomplished by means of what's called a restore key, which, in reality, is a public key that's compatible with FIDO2 standards such as passkeys. Thus when a user signs in to an app that...

Google appears to be readying a new feature called Shielded Email that allows users to create email aliases when signing up for online services and better combat spam. The feature was first reported by Android Authority last week following a teardown of the latest version of Google Play Services for Android. The idea is to create unique, single-use email addresses that forward the messages to the associated primary account, thereby preventing the need for providing the real email address when filling out forms or registering for new services online. The idea of email aliases for improved privacy is not new. Back in 2021, Apple introduced a similar feature called Hide My Email that allows iCloud+ subscribers to generate random burner email addresses. It can also be used to set up new ones in Safari, Mail, and Apple Pay wherever email addresses are required. Other providers like Bitwarden and DuckDuckGo have since also released an analogous feature. It's worth noting that...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added a now-patched critical security flaw impacting Palo Alto Networks Expedition to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-5910 (CVSS score: 9.3), concerns a case of missing authentication in the Expedition migration tool that could lead to an admin account takeover. "Palo Alto Expedition contains a missing authentication vulnerability that allows an attacker with network access to takeover an Expedition admin account and potentially access configuration secrets, credentials, and other data," CISA said in an alert. The shortcoming impacts all versions of Expedition prior to version 1.2.92, which was released in July 2024 to plug the problem. There are currently no reports on how the vulnerability is being weaponized in real-world attacks, but Palo Alto Networks has since revised its original adviso...

Over 1,500 Android devices have been infected by a new strain of Android banking malware called ToxicPanda that allows threat actors to conduct fraudulent banking transactions. "ToxicPanda's main goal is to initiate money transfers from compromised devices via account takeover (ATO) using a well-known technique called on-device fraud ( ODF )," Cleafy researchers Michele Roviello, Alessandro Strino, and Federico Valentini said in a Monday analysis. "It aims to bypass bank countermeasures used to enforce users' identity verification and authentication, combined with behavioral detection techniques applied by banks to identify suspicious money transfers." ToxicPanda is believed to be the work of a Chinese-speaking threat actor, with the malware sharing foundational similarities with another Android malware dubbed TgToxic , which can steal credentials and funds from crypto wallets. TgToxic was documented by Trend Micro in early 2023. A majority of the com...

Google has warned that a security flaw impacting its Android operating system has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-43093, has been described as a privilege escalation flaw in the Android Framework component that could result in unauthorized access to "Android/data," "Android/obb," and "Android/sandbox" directories, and their respective sub-directories, according to a code commit message . There are currently no details about how the vulnerability is being weaponized in real-world attacks, but Google acknowledged in its monthly bulletin that there are indications it "may be under limited, targeted exploitation." The tech giant has also flagged CVE-2024-43047, a now-patched security bug in Qualcomm chipsets, as having been actively exploited. A use-after-free vulnerability in the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Service, a successful exploitation of the security flaw could lead to memory corrupti...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of a well-known Android malware family dubbed FakeCall that employs voice phishing (aka vishing) techniques to trick users into parting with their personal information. "FakeCall is an extremely sophisticated Vishing attack that leverages malware to take almost complete control of the mobile device, including the interception of incoming and outgoing calls," Zimperium researcher Fernando Ortega said in a report published last week. "Victims are tricked into calling fraudulent phone numbers controlled by the attacker and mimicking the normal user experience on the device." FakeCall, also tracked under the names FakeCalls and Letscall, has been the subject of multiple analyses by Kaspersky, Check Point , and ThreatFabric since its emergence in April 2022. Previous attack waves have primarily targeted mobile users in South Korea. The names of the malicious package names, i.e., dropper apps, bearing the ma...

A suspected Russian hybrid espionage and influence operation has been observed delivering a mix of Windows and Android malware to target the Ukrainian military under the Telegram persona Civil Defense. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Mandiant are tracking the activity under the name UNC5812 . The threat group, which operates a Telegram channel named civildefense_com_ua , was created on September 10, 2024. As of writing, the channel has 184 subscribers. It also maintains a website at civildefense.com[.]ua that was registered on April 24, 2024. "'Civil Defense' claims to be a provider of free software programs designed to enable potential conscripts to view and share crowdsourced locations of Ukrainian military recruiters," the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Should these programs be installed on Android devices that have Google Play Protect disabled, they are engineered to deploy an operating system-specific commodity malware alo...

New variants of an Android banking trojan called TrickMo have been found to harbor previously undocumented features to steal a device's unlock pattern or PIN. "This new addition enables the threat actor to operate on the device even while it is locked," Zimperium security researcher Aazim Yaswant said in an analysis published last week. First spotted in the wild in 2019, TrickMo is so named for its associations with the TrickBot cybercrime group and is capable of granting remote control over infected devices, as well as stealing SMS-based one-time passwords (OTPs) and displaying overlay screens to capture credentials by abusing Android's accessibility services. Last month, Italian cybersecurity company Cleafy disclosed updated versions of the mobile malware with improved mechanisms to evade analysis and grant itself additional permissions to perform various malicious actions on the device, including carrying out unauthorized transactions. Some of the new varia...

Qualcomm has rolled out security updates to address nearly two dozen flaws spanning proprietary and open-source components, including one that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-43047 (CVSS score: 7.8), has been described as a user-after-free bug in the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Service that could lead to "memory corruption while maintaining memory maps of HLOS memory." Qualcomm credited Google Project Zero researcher Seth Jenkins and Conghui Wang for reporting the flaw, and Amnesty International Security Lab for confirming in-the-wild activity. "There are indications from Google Threat Analysis Group that CVE-2024-43047 may be under limited, targeted exploitation," the chipmaker said in an advisory. "Patches for the issue affecting FASTRPC driver have been made available to OEMs together with a strong recommendation to deploy the update on affected devices as soon as possible." ...

Google has revealed the various security guardrails that have been incorporated into its latest Pixel devices to counter the rising threat posed by baseband security attacks. The cellular baseband (i.e., modem) refers to a processor on the device that's responsible for handling all connectivity, such as LTE, 4G, and 5G, with a mobile phone cell tower or base station over a radio interface. "This function inherently involves processing external inputs, which may originate from untrusted sources," Sherk Chung and Stephan Chen from the Pixel team, and Roger Piqueras Jover and Ivan Lozano from the company's Android team said in a blog post shared with The Hacker News. "For instance, malicious actors can employ false base stations to inject fabricated or manipulated network packets. In certain protocols like IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), this can be executed remotely from any global location using an IMS client." What's more, the firmware powering the...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious Android app on the Google Play Store that enabled the threat actors behind it to steal approximately $70,000 in cryptocurrency from victims over a period of nearly five months. The dodgy app, identified by Check Point, masqueraded as the legitimate WalletConnect open-source protocol to trick unsuspecting users into downloading it. "Fake reviews and consistent branding helped the app achieve over 10,000 downloads by ranking high in search results," the cybersecurity company said in an analysis, adding it's the first time a cryptocurrency drainer has exclusively targeted mobile device users. Over 150 users are estimated to have fallen victim to the scam, although it's believed that not all users who downloaded the app were impacted by the cryptocurrency drainer. The campaign involved distributing a deceptive app that went by several names such as "Mestox Calculator," "WalletConnect - DeFi &...

Google has revealed that its transition to memory-safe languages such as Rust as part of its secure-by-design approach has led to the percentage of memory-safe vulnerabilities discovered in Android dropping from 76% to 24% over a period of six years. The tech giant said focusing on Safe Coding for new features not only reduces the overall security risk of a codebase, but also makes the switch more "scalable and cost-effective." Eventually, this leads to a drop in memory safety vulnerabilities as new memory unsafe development slows down after a certain period of time, and new memory safe development takes over, Google's Jeff Vander Stoep and Alex Rebert said in a post shared with The Hacker News. Perhaps even more interestingly, the number of memory safety vulnerabilities tends to register a drop notwithstanding an increase in the quantity of new memory unsafe code. The paradox is explained by the fact that vulnerabilities decay exponentially, with a study finding ...

Altered versions of legitimate Android apps associated with Spotify, WhatsApp, and Minecraft have been used to deliver a new version of a known malware loader called Necro. Kaspersky said some of the malicious apps have also been found on the Google Play Store. They have been cumulatively downloaded 11 million times. They include - Wuta Camera - Nice Shot Always (com.benqu.wuta) - 10+ million downloads Max Browser-Private & Security (com.max.browser) - 1+ million downloads As of writing, Max Browser is no longer available for download from the Play Store. Wuta Camera, on the other hand, has been updated (version 6.3.7.138) to remove the malware. The latest version of the app, 6.3.8.148, was released on September 8, 2024. It's currently not clear how both the apps were compromised with the malware in the first place, although it's believed that a rogue software developer kit (SDK) for integrating advertising capabilities is the culprit. Necro (not to be confused w...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of an Android banking trojan called Octo that comes with improved capabilities to conduct device takeover ( DTO ) and perform fraudulent transactions. The new version has been codenamed Octo2 by the malware author, Dutch security firm ThreatFabric said in a report shared with The Hacker News, adding campaigns distributing the malware have been spotted in European countries like Italy, Poland, Moldova, and Hungary. "The malware developers took actions to increase the stability of the remote actions capabilities needed for Device Takeover attacks," the company said . Some of the malicious apps containing Octo2 are listed below - Europe Enterprise (com.xsusb_restore3) Google Chrome (com.havirtual06numberresources) NordVPN (com.handedfastee5) Octo was first flagged by the company in early 2022, describing it as the work of a threat actor who goes by the online aliases Architect and goodluck. It has been assessed...

The GSM Association (GSMA), the governing body that oversees the development of the Rich Communications Services (RCS) protocol, on Tuesday, said it's working towards implementing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to secure messages sent between the Android and iOS ecosystems. "The next major milestone is for the RCS Universal Profile to add important user protections such as interoperable end-to-end encryption," Tom Van Pelt, technical director of GSMA, said . "This will be the first deployment of standardized, interoperable messaging encryption between different computing platforms, addressing significant technical challenges such as key federation and cryptographically-enforced group membership." The development comes a day after Apple officially rolled out iOS 18 with support for RCS in its Messages app, which comes with advanced features like message reactions, typing indications, read receipts, and high-quality media sharing, among others. RCS, an impro...