Android | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Germany's Federal Office of Information Security (BSI) has announced that it has disrupted a malware operation called BADBOX that came preloaded on at least 30,000 internet-connected devices sold across the country. In a statement published earlier this week, authorities said they severed the communications between the devices and their command-and-control (C2) servers by sinkholing the domains in question. Impacted devices include digital picture frames, media players, and streamers, and likely phones and tablets. "What all of these devices have in common is that they have outdated Android versions and were delivered with pre-installed malware," the BSI said in a press release. BADBOX was first documented by HUMAN's Satori Threat Intelligence and Research team in October 2023, describing it as a "complex threat actor scheme" that involves deploying the Triada Android malware on low-cost, off-brand Android devices by exploiting weak supply chain links...

The Russia-linked state-sponsored threat actor tracked as Gamaredon has been attributed to two new Android spyware tools called BoneSpy and PlainGnome , marking the first time the adversary has been discovered using mobile-only malware families in its attack campaigns. "BoneSpy and PlainGnome target former Soviet states and focus on Russian-speaking victims," Lookout said in an analysis. "Both BoneSpy and PlainGnome collect data such as SMS messages, call logs, phone call audio, photos from device cameras, device location, and contact lists." Gamaredon , also called Aqua Blizzard, Armageddon, BlueAlpha, Hive0051, Iron Tilden, Primitive Bear, Shuckworm, Trident Ursa, UAC-0010, UNC530, and Winterflounder, is a hacking group affiliated with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). Last week, Recorded Future's Insikt Group revealed the threat actor's use of Cloudflare Tunnels as a tactic to conceal its staging infrastructure hosting malicious payload...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a sophisticated mobile phishing (aka mishing ) campaign that's designed to distribute an updated version of the Antidot banking trojan. "The attackers presented themselves as recruiters, luring unsuspecting victims with job offers," Zimperium zLabs Vishnu Pratapagiri researcher said in a new report. "As part of their fraudulent hiring process, the phishing campaign tricks victims into downloading a malicious application that acts as a dropper, eventually installing the updated variant of Antidot Banker in the victim's device." The new version of the Android malware has been codenamed AppLite Banker by the mobile security company, highlighting its abilities to siphon unlock PIN (or pattern or password) and remotely take control of infected devices, a feature recently also observed in TrickMo . The attacks employ a variety of social engineering strategies, often luring targets with the prospect of a job opp...

A Russian programmer accused of donating money to Ukraine had his Android device secretly implanted with spyware by the Federal Security Service (FSB) after he was detained earlier this year. The findings come as part of a collaborative investigation by First Department and the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab . "The spyware placed on his device allows the operator to track a target device's location, record phone calls, keystrokes, and read messages from encrypted messaging apps, among other capabilities," according to the report. In May 2024, Kirill Parubets was released from custody after a 15-day period in administrative detention by Russian authorities, during which time his phone, an Oukitel WP7 phone running Android 10, was confiscated from him. During this period, not only was he beaten to compel him into revealing his device password, he was also subjected to an "intense effort" to recruit him as an informant for the FSB, or else risk fac...

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. ...