Android banking Trojan asks victims to send a selfie holding their ID card
In the first half of 2016 we noticed that Android banking Trojans had started to improve their phishing overlays on legitimate financial apps to ask for more information. Victims were requested to provide “Mother’s Maiden Name,” “Father’s Middle Name,” “Maternal Grandmothers Name,” or a “Memorable Word.” Attackers used that data to respond to security questions and obtain illegal access to the victims’ bank accounts.
While some payment card companies like Mastercard have switched to selfies as an alternative to passwords when verifying IDs for online payments, hackers have already started taking advantage of this new security verification methods
Recently the McAfee Labs Mobile Research Team found a new variant of the well-known Android banking Trojan Acecard (aka Torec, due to the use of Tor to communicate with the control server) that goes far beyond just asking for financial information. In addition to requesting credit card information and second-factor authentication, the malicious application asks for a selfie with your identity document—very useful for a cybercriminal to confirm a victim’s identity and access not only to banking accounts, but probably also even social networks.
A new Android banking Trojan that masquerades primarily as a video plugin, like Adobe Flash Player, pornographic app, or video codec, and asks victims to send a selfie holding their ID card, according to a blog post published by McAfee.
Like most Android banking Trojans, this threat also tricks users into installing the malware by pretending to be an adult video app or a codec/plug-in necessary to see a specific video:
The banking trojan then overlays itself on top of the legitimate app where it proceeds to ask users for their payment card number and card details such as card holder's name, expiration date, and CVV number.
Targeted apps
Why are Android banking Trojans so popular? One possible reason is the exploit kit GM Bot, whose source code was leaked in February. (IBM SecurityIntelligence blogged about it.)
The Trojan is the most recent version of Acecard that has been labeled as one of the most dangerous Android banking Trojans known today, according to Kaspersky Lab Anti-malware Research Team.
All these pieces of information are more than enough for an attacker to verify illegal banking transactions and steal access to victims' social media accounts by confirming the stolen identities.
So far this version of Acecard Android banking Trojan has impacted users in Singapore and Hong Kong.
This social engineering trick of Trojan obviously is not new, and any tech-savvy users would quickly catch this malicious behavior as there is no reason for Google to ask for your ID card. But the trick still works with non and less technical users.
Android banking Trojans such as Acecard are constantly evolving and improving their social engineering attacks to gain as much sensitive and private information as possible. Attackers want not only a victim’s credit card information and different factors of authentication to financial services, but also a picture of the victim with identity document to remotely access to different systems.
To protect yourselves from this threat, employ security software on your mobile. Since all of these fake apps have been distributed outside of Google Play Store, avoid downloading and installing apps from untrusted sources, and do not trust screens that ask for financial and personal information.
Source: McAfee
While some payment card companies like Mastercard have switched to selfies as an alternative to passwords when verifying IDs for online payments, hackers have already started taking advantage of this new security verification methods
Recently the McAfee Labs Mobile Research Team found a new variant of the well-known Android banking Trojan Acecard (aka Torec, due to the use of Tor to communicate with the control server) that goes far beyond just asking for financial information. In addition to requesting credit card information and second-factor authentication, the malicious application asks for a selfie with your identity document—very useful for a cybercriminal to confirm a victim’s identity and access not only to banking accounts, but probably also even social networks.
A new Android banking Trojan that masquerades primarily as a video plugin, like Adobe Flash Player, pornographic app, or video codec, and asks victims to send a selfie holding their ID card, according to a blog post published by McAfee.
Like most Android banking Trojans, this threat also tricks users into installing the malware by pretending to be an adult video app or a codec/plug-in necessary to see a specific video:
The banking trojan then overlays itself on top of the legitimate app where it proceeds to ask users for their payment card number and card details such as card holder's name, expiration date, and CVV number.
Targeted apps
- com.android.vending
- com.google.android.music
- com.google.android.videos
- com.google.android.play.games
- com.google.android.apps.books
- com.whatsapp
- com.viber.voip
- com.dropbox.android
- com.tencent.mm
- jp.naver.line.android
Why are Android banking Trojans so popular? One possible reason is the exploit kit GM Bot, whose source code was leaked in February. (IBM SecurityIntelligence blogged about it.)
The Trojan is the most recent version of Acecard that has been labeled as one of the most dangerous Android banking Trojans known today, according to Kaspersky Lab Anti-malware Research Team.
All these pieces of information are more than enough for an attacker to verify illegal banking transactions and steal access to victims' social media accounts by confirming the stolen identities.
So far this version of Acecard Android banking Trojan has impacted users in Singapore and Hong Kong.
This social engineering trick of Trojan obviously is not new, and any tech-savvy users would quickly catch this malicious behavior as there is no reason for Google to ask for your ID card. But the trick still works with non and less technical users.
Android banking Trojans such as Acecard are constantly evolving and improving their social engineering attacks to gain as much sensitive and private information as possible. Attackers want not only a victim’s credit card information and different factors of authentication to financial services, but also a picture of the victim with identity document to remotely access to different systems.
To protect yourselves from this threat, employ security software on your mobile. Since all of these fake apps have been distributed outside of Google Play Store, avoid downloading and installing apps from untrusted sources, and do not trust screens that ask for financial and personal information.
Source: McAfee
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