Cerberus (bank Android trojan)

2020: The publication of the source code in the Darknet

In the middle of September, 2020 at hacker forums in the Darknet the source code of the most popular bank trojan Cerberus appeared. His creators were going to gain $100 thousand, however the buyer was not.

Within the performance at the summit Kaspersky NEXT 2020, the researcher of Kaspersky Lab Dmitry Galov said that leak of the Cerberus v2 code, poses the increased threat for users of smartphones and the banking sector in general.

Cerberus represents bank Android trojan which is aimed at the covert surveillance, interception of messages, change of functionality of the infected devices, theft of information, including bank credentials. Besides, Cerberus allows to browse the malefactor messages which contain the one-time code and also the code of two-factor authentication. For the first time the activity of Cerberus was noticed in July, 2019.

Source codes of the most popular bank Android trojan Cerberus are published

It is known that in July, 2020 cybersecurity specialists found out that creators of a trojan of Cerberus offered its source code for an auction. This solution was connected with disintegration of a command and desire to find for a virus of the new owner.

The initial cost of the Cerberus v2 virus was $50 thousand, creators were going to gain for it $100 thousand, the packet included the code, the list of clients, servers and also the code for the administrator's panel. According to the statements of founders of Cerberus, the virus can bring monthly income in the amount of $10 thousand. Nevertheless, the auction failed and the source code Cerberus appeared in free access.

According to researchers of Kaspersky Lab after the publication of the source code of a trojan the number of cases of infection of mobile devices in Russia and Europe sharply increased. Marked out Gauls that if earlier clients of Cerberus were not recommended to attack the Russian users, then now the landscape of the attacks changed.

We continue to investigate all found artifacts connected with the code, and we will monitor the related actions. But at the same time the best form of protection which users can accept includes all those security measures which they already should practice on the mobile devices, it concerns also bank security, - Galov commented.[1]

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