Transparent Tribe, an alleged Pakistan-aligned advanced persistent threat (APT) group, has been interconnected to an ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting Indian and Pakistani Android users with a backdoor called CapraRAT.
"Transparent Tribe distributed the Android CapraRAT backdoor via trojanized secure messaging and calling apps branded as MeetsApp and MeetUp," ESET said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
It is estimated that up to 150 victims, most of whom have military or political affiliations, were targeted, with the malware (com.meetup.app) available for download from fake websites posing as official distribution centers for these apps.
The targets are believed to have been lured by a honeytrap romance scam in which the threat actor approaches the victims via another platform and persuades them to install malware-laced apps under the guise of "secure" messaging and calling.
The targets are believed to have been lured by a honeytrap romance scam in which the threat actor approaches the victims via another platform and persuades them to install malware-laced apps under the guise of "secure" messaging and calling.
The apps, however, come pre-installed with CapraRAT, a modified version of the open-source AndroRAT that Trend Micro first documented in February 2022 and that exhibits overlap with a Windows malware known as CrimsonRAT.
The backdoor includes a plethora of features that allow it to capture screenshots and photos, record phone calls and surrounding audio, and exfiltrate sensitive data. It can also make calls, send SMS messages, and receive download commands. However, in sequence to use the app's features, users must first create an account by linking their phone numbers and completing an SMS verification step.
As stated by the Slovak cybersecurity firm, the campaign is narrowly targeted and there is no evidence that the apps were available on the Google Play Store.
Transparent Tribe, also known as APT36, Operation C-Major, and Mythic Leopard, was recently linked to another wave of attacks against Indian government organizations using malicious versions of the Kavach two-factor authentication solution.
The research comes just weeks after cybersecurity firm ThreatMon detailed a spear-phishing campaign by SideCopy actors targeting Indian government entities with the goal of deploying an updated version of the ReverseRAT backdoor.
