Google claims Hermit malware was installed on Android and iOS via ISPs

• Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are helping a sophisticated spyware operation fool people into installing harmful programmes.
• Hermit can capture audio, make and intercept phone conversations, and root an Android smartphone.
• The malware disguises itself as a cell carrier or messaging app to infect phones.

Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG), ISPs are helping a sophisticated spyware operation fool people into installing harmful programmes (via TechCrunch). This confirms prior discoveries by Lookout, which tied Hermit to RCS Labs.

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Lookout believes RCS Labs sells commercial malware to government organisations including NSO Group, the firm behind Pegasus. Lookout believes Kazakhstan and Italy have deployed Hermit. Google has identified victims in both countries and will tell them.

Hermit may download extra capabilities from a C2 server, according to Lookout’s assessment. This lets malware access a victim’s call history, location, photographs, and text messages. Hermit can capture audio, make and intercept phone conversations, and root an Android smartphone, giving it complete OS control.

The malware disguises itself as a cell carrier or messaging app to infect Android and iPhones. Some attackers collaborated with ISPs to turn off a victim’s mobile data, according to Google researchers. Bad actors would appear as a victim’s cell carrier through SMS and deceive consumers into downloading a dangerous programme. If attackers couldn’t cooperate with ISPs, they posed as real chat applications, Google claims.

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Lookout and TAG say Hermit applications were never in Google Play or Apple App Store. By joining Apple’s Developer Enterprise Program, attackers might distribute malicious iOS apps. This allowed unscrupulous actors to avoid the App Store’s usual screening procedure and get a certificate that “satisfies all of the iOS code signing requirements on any iOS devices.”

Apple informed The Verge it had terminated the threat’s accounts and credentials. Google has also sent a Google Play Protect upgrade to all users.