MeridianMeridian

Backblaze Responds in Minutes While reg.ru Delays Action on Banking Trojan Infrastructure

A detailed reverse-engineering report reveals a sophisticated Android banking Trojan distributed via Telegram spam that disables antivirus apps, intercepts SMS one-time codes, and exfiltrates banking credentials. The malware uses AES-encrypted assets, a custom binary protocol over sockets, and multiple modules for screen streaming, keylogging, microphone access, and remote control. Infrastructure analysis traced the payload to an S3-compatible bucket on Backblaze, four command-and-control domains, and a VPS, with the domains registered through reg.ru. Notifications sent to Backblaze resulted in account termination within 11 minutes, while reg.ru responded only after a week with a statement refusing action without a court order. The same signing certificate appears across multiple variants, allowing rapid infrastructure rotation that keeps the campaign active despite takedown attempts. Kaspersky and CERT teams were also notified but produced no visible results within the observed period.

HabrTranslated from Russian

Read at source

A researcher who encountered spam messages promoting a fake VPN application in Telegram chats spent a week analyzing the resulting Android Trojan and documenting how different hosting providers responded to abuse reports.

The malware begins as a heavily obfuscated dropper that requests accessibility services, then installs a second-stage payload retrieved from an S3 bucket hosted on Backblaze. Once active, the Trojan disables network access for security applications including Kaspersky products, Samsung security services, and Google Play Services by routing their traffic through a short-lived VPN tunnel.

Capabilities extracted from the decrypted payload include interception of banking SMS codes, real-time screen streaming via MediaProjection, keylogging, remote camera and microphone access, contact and file theft, and the ability to grant itself additional permissions through accessibility services. The sample also contains routines to hide from the app drawer and resist uninstallation.

Command-and-control traffic is directed to four domains registered through reg.ru. WHOIS records show the domains were created in August 2026 with a two-year registration term and point to a VPS used for data exfiltration. The researcher notified Backblaze, reg.ru, Kaspersky, and Russian CERT channels shortly after discovering the infrastructure.

Backblaze terminated the implicated account within eleven minutes of the report. In contrast, reg.ru replied after nearly a week, stating that it would act only upon a court decision or an official request from an authorized body. No visible action was taken by the Russian registrar or CERT during the observation period, allowing the operators to continue rotating payloads to new buckets and servers.

TelegramKasperskyBackblaze
ShareXFacebookLinkedInReddit
Meridian digestThe week's most consequential security stories, distilled into one briefing.See the digest

More in Malware & Botnets

Yoba Campaign Uses Signed ChatGPT and Claude Binaries for DLL Sideloading and XMRig Deployment
Malware & Botnets

Yoba Campaign Uses Signed ChatGPT and Claude Binaries for DLL Sideloading and XMRig Deployment

Researchers at Check Point Research have uncovered the Yoba malware campaign that distributes fake desktop clients for ChatGPT and Claude through GitHub repositories. The attackers bundle legitimate signed executables from OpenAI and Anthropic with a malicious DLL that gets loaded via classic sideloading. Once executed, the loader establishes persistence using the Windows Task Scheduler and retrieves additional payloads through Telegram, DNS over HTTPS, and the Catbox file hosting service. The campaign ultimately deploys the XMRig cryptominer, which pauses mining activity when user interaction is detected to avoid detection. No compromise of OpenAI or Anthropic infrastructure was found; the attackers simply repurpose the companies' signed binaries and reputation. The operation primarily targets home users and small-to-medium businesses with Windows systems.

AntiMalwareOct 28, 2026Translated from Russian

uCreator Spyware Infiltrates Modified Telegram, WeChat and GCash Builds on Android
Malware & Botnets

uCreator Spyware Infiltrates Modified Telegram, WeChat and GCash Builds on Android

Security researcher Ovi has published a detailed analysis of uCreator, also known as YingGai, a commercial Android spyware platform designed for surveillance and remote app control. The malware intercepts messages, verification codes and account data directly inside legitimate applications without requiring root privileges. Infection vectors include tampered Telegram, WeChat and GCash APKs distributed through unofficial sources, as well as the Onion Box container that launches the target app inside a controlled environment. Once active, uCreator hooks into the host process, reads Telegram’s local message database through client interfaces, captures two-factor authentication passwords and hides its own session from the user. The operation is supported by cloud-based command panels and exposed GitLab repositories that revealed server-side code and development history. Compatibility problems have been noted on Android 17, and the total number of victims remains unknown.

AntiMalwareOct 26, 2026Translated from Russian

Researchers Deploy Cowrie Honeypot Disguised as NVIDIA H100 Server to Study SSH Botnet Tactics
Malware & Botnets

Researchers Deploy Cowrie Honeypot Disguised as NVIDIA H100 Server to Study SSH Botnet Tactics

A cybersecurity team set up a realistic Cowrie honeypot on a fake server equipped with four NVIDIA H100 GPUs, 128 AMD EPYC cores, and terabytes of storage to observe what SSH brute-force bots actually do after gaining access. The trap used a custom StickyAuth module that allowed entry only after several failed attempts and locked in the successful credential pair per IP address. Over the first 12.5 hours the system recorded 1,846 connections from 126 unique IPs, 175 successful logins, and 1,524 commands executed, with the majority of activity traced to a single botnet linked to the Outlaw group. The attackers deployed SSH keys signed mdrfckr, changed the root password, killed competing processes, installed cron jobs, and downloaded a mining archive called dota3 containing an IRC backdoor and its own SSH scanner. The researchers also identified three realism issues in the base Cowrie setup—limited grep flags, outdated filesystem paths in Debian 12, and inconsistent hostname reporting—and patched them to keep sophisticated bots engaged longer. An auxiliary LLM service later summarized each session in Telegram for easier analysis.

HabrOct 25, 2026Translated from Russian