Older versions of Android contained various vulnerabilities that allowed gaining root access to the device. Many malicious programs exploited these to elevate their system privileges and gain persistence. The notorious Triada Trojan also used this attack vector. With time, the vulnerabilities were patched, and restrictions were added to the firmware. Specifically, system partitions in recent Android versions cannot be edited, even with superuser privileges. Ironically, this has inadvertently benefited malicious actors.
While external malware now faces greater permission restrictions, pre-installed malware within system partitions has become impossible to remove. Attackers are leveraging this by embedding malicious software into Android device firmware. This is how one of Kaspersky earlier findings, the Dwphon loader, functioned. It was built into system apps for over-the-air (OTA) updates. In March 2025, Kaspersky research highlighted the Triada Trojan’s evolved tactics to overcome Android’s enhanced privilege restrictions.
Read more…
Source: Kaspersky
Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Loki: a new private agent for the popular Mythic framework
September 9, 2024
In July 2024, Kaspersky researchers discovered the previously unknown Loki backdoor, which was used in a series of targeted attacks. By analyzing the malicious file and open sources, we determined that Loki is a private version of an agent for the open-source Mythic framework. The newly discovered Loki agent is a Mythic-compatible version of the agent for ...
- Disneyland, Disney Cruise guests and employees personal info leaked
September 7, 2024
Over the summer, Disney’s internal communications channels suffered a data breach. We now know that as a result of this breach, guests and employees were affected, with personal information being stolen by hackers. Earlier this summer, a hacker group called “NullBulge” gained access to over 1TB of sensitive data from Disney after infiltrating the company’s internal ...
- Chinese APT Abuses VSCode to Target Government in Asia
September 6, 2024
Unit 42 researchers recently found that Stately Taurus abused the popular Visual Studio Code software in espionage operations targeting government entities in Southeast Asia. Stately Taurus is a Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) group that carries out cyberespionage attacks. This threat actor used Visual Studio Code’s embedded reverse shell feature to gain a foothold in target ...
- CVE-2024-23119: Critical SQL Injection Vulnerability in Centreon
September 6, 2024
The SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team became aware of the threat CVE-2024-23119, assessed its impact and developed mitigation measures for this vulnerability. CVE-2024-23119 is a high-severity SQL Injection vulnerability in Centreon, impacting Centreon Web versions prior to 22.10.17, 23.04.13, and 23.10.5. Centreon is a widely used network, system and application monitoring tool. This issue resides ...
- US Department of Homeland Security looks to infosec testbed to help protect ports
September 6, 2024
The US Department of Homeland Security has outlined plans to enhance cyber security through the Maritime Transport System (MTS).The department’s aim is to protect the system and infrastructure used to ensure safe and free navigation of US waterways. Ports are a vital part of the US economy, contributing $649 to GDP and generating 13 million jobs. ...
- Russian Military Cyber Actors Target U.S. and Global Critical Infrastructure
September 5, 2024
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and National Security Agency (NSA) assess that cyber actors affiliated with the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 161st Specialist Training Center (Unit 29155) are responsible for computer network operations against global targets for the purposes of espionage, sabotage, and reputational harm ...