Security News > 2024 > February > New ‘Gold Pickaxe’ Android, iOS malware steals your face for fraud
A new iOS and Android trojan named 'GoldPickaxe' employs a social engineering scheme to trick victims into scanning their faces and ID documents, which are believed to be used to generate deepfakes for unauthorized banking access.
The new malware, spotted by Group-IB, is part of a malware suite developed by the Chinese threat group known as 'GoldFactory,' which is responsible for other malware strains such as 'GoldDigger', 'GoldDiggerPlus,' and 'GoldKefu.
Group-IB says the Android version of the trojan performs more malicious activities than in iOS due to Apple's higher security restrictions.
It is essential to clarify that while GoldPickaxe can steal images from iOS and Android phones showing the victim's face and trick the users into disclosing their face on video through social engineering, the malware does not hijack Face ID data or exploit any vulnerability on the two mobile OSes.
New Xamalicious Android malware installed 330k times on Google Play.
Google tests blocking side-loaded Android apps with risky permissions.
News URL
Related news
- SpyNote, BadBazaar, MOONSHINE Malware Target Android and iOS Users via Fake Apps (source)
- SuperCard X Android Malware Enables Contactless ATM and PoS Fraud via NFC Relay Attacks (source)
- Google Rolls Out AI Scam Detection for Android to Combat Conversational Fraud (source)
- BadBox malware disrupted on 500K infected Android devices (source)
- North Korea’s ScarCruft Deploys KoSpy Malware, Spying on Android Users via Fake Utility Apps (source)
- BADBOX 2.0 Botnet Infects 1 Million Android Devices for Ad Fraud and Proxy Abuse (source)
- New Android malware uses Microsoft’s .NET MAUI to evade detection (source)
- APT36 Spoofs India Post Website to Infect Windows and Android Users with Malware (source)
- Android Malware Exploits a Microsoft-Related Security Blind Spot to Avoid Detection (source)
- New Crocodilus malware steals Android users’ crypto wallet keys (source)