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Hackers observed injecting legitimate banking apps with malicious code

Date:
Fri, 05 Dec 2025 14:50:00 +0000

Description:
Poisoned apps are lurking on the internet, so make sure to double-check your
sources before downloading anything.

FULL STORY

Hackers are tricking people into downloading poisoned mobile banking apps,
stealing their login credentials, monitoring their activity, and in many 
cases - enabling financial fraud. 

This is according to cybersecurity researchers Group-IB who, in a recent
report, said that the group is most likely GoldFactory, known for stealing
facial recognition data and targeting companies and consumers in the
Asia-Pacific region. 

The first stage of the process is to decompile a legitimate banking app. This
allows the attackers to add code of their own, usually a remote-accessed
trojan or a form of backdoor . Then, they recompile the app, and create a
landing page that, in most respects, is identical to the authentic one. 

Sophisticated banking fraud

From there, they engage in targeted social-engineering campaigns,
impersonating local governments, or different service providers, the
researchers said. In other words, the attackers create convincing phishing
lures, tricking people into visiting fake government and service provider
websites, and sideloading these poisoned applications. 

The worst part is that the app, on the surface, behaves as it is supposed to,
convincing the victims and making them oblivious to what is happening in the
background. 

GoldFactory uses a suite of advanced hooking malware families  including
SkyHook, FriHook, PineHook and Gigabud variants  to bypass app-integrity
checks, hide malicious activity, and take full control of infected devices.
These tools allow attackers to capture sensitive data, automate on-screen
actions, and even remotely view and operate the victims phone, Group-IB
explained. 

While the focus so far is on Asia-Pacific, the approach enabled rapid
deployment across countries, it was said. Tens of thousands of users, and
dozens of financial institutions, are therefore exposed to high-impact 
banking fraud. 

Craig Jones, former Cybercrime Director at Interpol, recently spoke about
GoldFactory on an episode of Masked Actors, and said its modus operandi is
sophisticated banking fraud. 

 TechRadar Pro first reported on GoldFactory in mid-February 2024, when
Gold-IB discovered GoldPickaxe , a trojan that steals biometric data and uses
it to generate convincing deepfakes which can later be used to break into
mobile banking applications. 

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/hackers-observed-injecting-legitimate-b
anking-apps-with-malicious-code

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