Tag Archive for: transforms

Legitimate Android app transforms into data-snooping malware

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ESET researchers have discovered a trojanized Android app named iRecorder – Screen Recorder. It was available on Google Play as a legitimate app in September 2021, with malicious functionality most likely added in August 2022. During its existence, the app was installed on more than 50,000 devices.

iRecorder

Trojanized iRecorder app

The malicious code that was added to the clean version of iRecorder is based on the open-source AhMyth Android RAT (remote access trojan) and has been customized into what ESET named AhRat. The malicious app is capable of recording audio using the device’s microphone and stealing files, suggesting it might be part of an espionage campaign.

Besides the Google Play Store, ESET Research has not detected AhRat anywhere else in the wild. However, this is not the first time that AhMyth-based Android malware has been available on the official store; ESET previously published research on such a trojanized app in 2019. Back then, the spyware, built on the foundations of AhMyth, circumvented Google’s app-vetting process twice, as a malicious app providing radio streaming. However, the iRecorder app can also be found on alternative and unofficial Android markets, and the developer also provides other applications on Google Play, but they don’t contain malicious code.

“The AhRat research case serves as a good example of how an initially legitimate application can transform into a malicious one, even after many months, spying on its users and compromising their privacy. While it is possible that the app developer had intended to build up a user base before compromising their Android devices through an update or that a malicious actor introduced this change in the app; so far, we have no evidence for either of these hypotheses,” explains ESET researcher Lukáš Štefanko, who discovered and investigated the threat.

The remotely controlled AhRat is a customization of the open-source AhMyth RAT, which means that the authors of the malicious app invested significant effort into understanding the code of both the app and the back end, ultimately adapting it to suit their own needs.

Aside from providing legitimate screen recording functionality, the…

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Local invention transforms students into computer programmers

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MADISON, Ala. – Technology invented in Madison is transforming public school kids into computer programmers across the nation.

The new technology is making it easier for rural schools to teach IT and computer science – starting as early as third grade.

“We build products that make it easy and accessible for a teacher who has no background in computer science to be able to bring computer science into the classroom,” said Geri Ewing with Firia Labs.

Geri and David Ewing developed the computer programming technology at their labratories in Madison.

Thanks to a private grant, they’re now able to teach 100 school teachers – more than half of those in Alabama, how to apply the technology in classrooms.

“They are absolutely on fire,” Geri Ewing said. “We even had one particular teacher after the training, sent to us, she says, ‘you know Geri, I was so overwhelmed, even my principal knew that I was just on the brink of basically falling apart and here you guys come along and show me what I can do, she says, ‘I can now turn the corner.’”

Many rural schools don’t have access to teaching computer science, Ewing said.

With their equipment, students are able to program various devices from scratch.

The knowledge will likely lead to students getting high paying jobs out of high school, said Alesia Doran, an AP computer science teacher at Priceville High School.

“It is very important because computer science touches all of our everyday lives from being able to scan objects in the grocery store to being able to calculate the trajectory of rockets into space,” Doran said. “It touches every aspect. We’re all concerned about cyber security and protecting our health and personal information.”

Doran has been teaching computer science at Priceville High School for four years. She says the technology has been helpful in expanding her curriculum. “They’re very important because students need to have the visual feedback through the microbits because they can hear sounds and see images, program games and get feedback with them,” Doran said.

Firia Labs have implemented their technology in 32 states and six countries.

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