A new type of malware called Infamous Chisel is targeting crypto wallets on Android devices. It extracts data from victims’ phones using the Tor anonymizer network.
The new malware targets directories related to crypto-related apps like the Brave Browser, Coinbase, and Binance. It also checks the Android Keystore system for private crypto keys.
Infamous Chisel Unsophisticated but Still Dangerous
In addition to stealing confidential information, the malware routinely monitors and collects data on the local network. Roughly every two days, it executes a script to ping other devices and monitor hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) ports. HTTP ports connect processes between servers over a network connection.
The code also pulls data from WhatsApp, Mozilla Firefox, Telegram, and PayPal and collects hardware information about the Android device. According to a report by the US National Security Agency, the Canadian Center for Cybersecurity, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre, the Australian Signals Directorate, and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, the product is dangerous but detectable.
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“The Infamous Chisel components are low to medium sophistication and appear to have been developed with little regard to defense evasion or concealment of malicious activity,” said the report.
However, the group suggested the malware may not have needed to conceal its activities since most Android devices do not have a host-based malware detection system. Still, the breadth of information it steals poses a genuine threat.
Investigators suspect Infamous Chisel is the brainchild of Sandworm, a Russian military intelligence agency. The tool was reportedly used to steal data from devices belonging to the Ukrainian military.
An Argument for Non-Custodial Hardware Wallets?
While there have been no reports of crypto theft due to the Infamous Chisel, the malware discovery highlights the need for robust endpoint security in crypto transactions.
It reinforces the importance of key management hygiene and hardware wallets’ advantages. Hardware wallets store the keys necessary to spend your crypto on their memory instead of your computer.
Do you want to learn more about the advantages hardware wallets can offer? Read here to find out.
Recently, researchers discovered Resit, a malware that targets owners of Apple Mac computers who play blockchain games to earn crypto.
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