How an innocuous app morphed into a trojan – Week in security with Tony Anscombe – Source: www.welivesecurity.com

ESET research uncovers an Android app that initially had no harmful features but months later turned into a spying tool

This week, ESET malware researcher Lukas Stefanko revealed how an initially legitimate Android app morphed into a malicious trojan that could steal users’ files and record surrounding audio from the device’s microphone and then exfiltrate it. The app, named iRecorder – Screen Recorder, was first listed in the Google Play Store in September 2021, with the malicious code added almost a year later. ESET research named the malware AhRat and it is a customization of the open-source AhMyth remote access trojan (RAT). The app was downloaded 50,000-plus times before it was detected by ESET and removed from the Android store by Google.

For a technical writeup, head over to our blogpost: Android app breaking bad: From legitimate screen recording to file exfiltration within a year

Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.