Security News > 2023 > May > New AhRat Android malware hidden in app with 50,000 installs
ESET malware researchers found a new remote access trojan on the Google Play Store, hidden in an Android screen recording app with tens of thousands of installs.
While first added to the store in September 2021, the 'iRecorder - Screen Recorder' app was likely trojanized via a malicious update released almost a year later, in August 2022.
The app amassed over 50,000 installations on the Google Play Store, exposing users to malware infections.
The malware in question, named AhRat by ESET, is based on an open-source Android RAT known as AhMyth.
Upon closer examination, ESET found that the malicious screen recording app itself only used a subset of the RAT's capabilities as it was used only to create and exfiltrate ambient sound recordings and to steal files with specific extensions, hinting at potential espionage activities.
ESET also published details in 2019 on another AhMyth-trojanized app that tricked Google's app-vetting process twice by masquerading as a radio streaming app.