New Android Malware ‘FluHorse’ Focusing on East Asian Markets with Misleading Techniques

Could 05, 2023Ravie LakshmananCellular Safety / Android

Numerous sectors in East Asian markets have been subjected to a brand new e mail phishing marketing campaign that distributes a beforehand undocumented pressure of Android malware known as FluHorse that abuses the Flutter software program improvement framework.

“The malware options a number of malicious Android functions that mimic official functions, most of which have greater than 1,000,000 installs,” Test Level said in a technical report. “These malicious apps steal the victims’ credentials and two-factor authentication (2FA) codes.”

The malicious apps have been discovered to mimic apps like ETC and VPBank Neo, that are utilized in Taiwan and Vietnam. Proof gathered up to now exhibits that the exercise has been lively since not less than Could 2022.

Cybersecurity

The phishing scheme in itself is pretty easy, whereby victims are lured with emails that comprise hyperlinks to a bogus web site that hosts malicious APK information. Additionally added to the web site are checks that purpose to display victims and ship the app provided that their browser User-Agent string matches that of Android.

As soon as put in, the malware requests for SMS permissions and prompts the consumer to enter their credentials and bank card data, all of which is subsequently exfiltrated to a distant server within the background whereas the sufferer is requested to attend for a number of minutes.

Android Malware

The risk actors additionally abuse their entry to SMS messages to intercept all incoming 2FA codes and redirect them to the command-and-control server.

The Israeli cybersecurity agency stated it additionally recognized a courting app that redirected Chinese language-speaking customers to rogue touchdown pages which might be designed to seize bank card data.

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Apparently, the malicious performance is carried out with Flutter, an open supply UI software program improvement equipment that can be utilized to develop cross-platform apps from a single codebase.

Whereas risk actors are identified to make use of quite a lot of methods like evasion methods, obfuscation, and lengthy delays earlier than execution to withstand evaluation and get round digital environments, using Flutter marks a brand new stage of sophistication.

“The malware builders didn’t put a lot effort into the programming, as an alternative counting on Flutter as a creating platform,” the researchers concluded.

“This method allowed them to create harmful and principally undetected malicious functions. One of many advantages of utilizing Flutter is that its hard-to-analyze nature renders many up to date safety options nugatory.”

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