Android malware GriftHorse infected over 10 million devices

Zimperium experts 發現 Android malware GriftHorse, which has been active since November 2020 and subscribes its victims to paid SMS services. It has already infected more than 10 million devices in 70 countries around the world, and GriftHorse operators are believed to “earn” between $ 1.5 million and $ 4 million a month.

The versions of GriftHorse noticed by experts were distributed through the official Google Play application store and third-party application catalogs, as a rule, masking as other harmless applications.

If the user installs such an application, GriftHorse begins to bombard him with pop-ups and notifications, which offer various prizes and special offers. If the victim clicks on one of these notifications, it is are redirected to a page where they are asked to verify their phone number, ostensibly to access the offer.

講真, here users subscribe to paid SMS services, the cost of which sometimes exceeds 30 euros per month. This money ends up going into the pockets of the GriftHorse operators.

Subscribe to paid SMS service

Zimperium researchers, who tracked the malware for several months, write that this isone of the largest campaigns witnessed by the zLabs team in 2021.

It is emphasized that the creators of GriftHorse have worked hard to improve the quality of their malicious code, and use a wide range of sites, malicious applications and developer personalities to avoid detection.

The level of sophistication, the use of new techniques and the determination shown by the attackers allowed them to go unnoticed for several months. In addition to using a large number of applications, their distribution was very well planned: applications were distributed in many different categories, expanding the circle of potential victims, experts write. – This campaign has been actively developed for several months starting in November 2020 and the last update is dated April 2021. This means that one of their first victims, if she has not yet turned off the fraudulent subscription, has already lost more than € 200 at the time of writing [this report].

Distribution of infected applications by category
Distribution of infected applications by category

A list of over 200 applications infected with GrifThorse can be found at the end of the researchersreport.

Let me remind you that I also talked about the fact that Doctor Web has discovered a new family of banking Trojans for Android named Android.BankBot.Coper (hereinafter Coper).

黑尔加·史密斯

我一直對電腦科學感興趣, 尤其是數據安全和主題, 而家被稱為 "數據科學", 由我十幾歲開始. 在進入病毒清除團隊擔任主編之前, 我曾喺多傢公司擔任網絡安全專家, 包括亞馬遜嘅承包商之一. 另一種體驗: 我在雅頓大學同雷丁大學任教.

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