Security News > 2022 > August > Researchers Find Counterfeit Phones with Backdoor to Hack WhatsApp Accounts

Budget Android device models that are counterfeit versions associated with popular smartphone brands are harboring multiple trojans designed to target WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business messaging apps.

So system library is used by any app, it triggers the execution of a trojan incorporated in libmtd.

If the apps using the libraries are WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business, libmtd.

So proceeds to launch a third backdoor whose main responsibility is to download and install additional plugins from a remote server onto the compromised devices.

"The danger of the discovered backdoors and the modules they download is that they operate in such a way that they actually become part of the targeted apps," the researchers said.

The rogue app, for its part, is engineered to exfiltrate detailed metadata about the infected device as well as download and install other software without users' knowledge via Lua scripts.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/08/researchers-find-counterfeit-phones.html