A new variant of the Android banking trojan named Xenomorph has surfaced in the wild, the latest findings from ThreatFabric reveal.
Named “Xenomorph 3rd generation” by the Hadoken Security Group, the threat actor behind the operation, the updated version comes with new features that allow it to perform financial fraud in a seamless manner.
“This new version of the malware adds many new capabilities to an already feature-rich Android banker, most notably the introduction of a very extensive runtime engine powered by Accessibility services, which is used by actors to implement a complete ATS framework.”
Xenomorph first came to light a year ago in February 2022, when it was found to target 56 European banks through dropper apps published on the Google Play Store.
ThreatFabric said it detected samples distributed via Discord’s Content Delivery Network (CDN), a technique that has witnessed a surge since 2020. Two of the Xenomorph-laced apps are listed below –
“Xenomorph v3 is deployed by a Zombinder app ‘bound’ to a legitimate currency converter, which downloads as an ‘update’ an application posing as Google Protect,” ThreatFabric explained.
Zombinder refers to an APK binding service advertised on the dark web since March 2022, wherein the malware is delivered via trojanized versions of legitimate apps. The offering has since been shut down.
Targets of the latest campaign go beyond its European focus (i.e., Spain, Italy, and Portugal) to include Belgian and Canadian financial entities.
source: thehackernews.com
