FinSpy is an extremely effective software tool for targetedsurveillance that has been observed stealing information from international NGOs, governments and law enforcement organizations all over the world. Its operators can tailor the behavior of eachmalicious FinSpyimplant to a specifictargetor group of targets.
The basic functionality of the malwareincludes almost unlimited monitoring of the device’s activities: such asgeolocation, all incoming and outgoingmessages, contacts, media stored on the device, and data from popular messaging serviceslike WhatsApp, Facebook messenger or Viber. All the exfiltrated data is transferred to the attacker via SMS messages or the HTTP protocol.
The latest known versions of the malware extend the surveillance functionality to additional messaging services, including those considered‘secure’, such as Telegram,Signal or Threema. They are also more adept at covering their tracks.For instance, the iOS malware,targeting iOS 11 and older versions can now hide signs of jailbreak, while the new version for Android contains an exploitcapable of gaining root privileges – almost unlimited, complete access to all files and commands – on an unrooted device.
Based on the information available to Kaspersky,in order to successfully infect both Androidand iOS-based devices, attackers need either physical access to the phone or an alreadyjailbroken/rooted device. For jailbroken/rooted phones there are at least three possible infection vectors:SMS message, email, or pushnotifications.
According to Kaspersky telemetry, several dozen mobile devices have been infected over the past year.
“The developers behind FinSpy constantly monitor security updates for mobile platforms and tend to quickly change their malicious programs to avoid their operation being blocked by fixes. Moreover, they follow trends and implement functionality to exfiltrate data from applications that are currently popular.We observe victims of the FinSpy implants on a daily basis, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the latest platform updates and install them as soon as they are released.Because, regardless of how secure the apps you use might be, and how protected your data, once the phone is rooted or jailbroken,it is wide open to spying,” said Alexey Firsh, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.