Cheap Chinese Android phones ship with trojanized WhatsApp and Telegram clones hiding crypto clippers, active since June 2024.
Since June 2024, Doctor Web researchers found cheap Android phones preloaded with fake WhatsApp and Telegram apps designed to steal crypto via clipping.
These clippers swap copied wallet addresses with the attackers’ own. The campaign targeted low-end phones mimicking famous models, using altered system info to trick users. Attackers infiltrated the supply chain, embedding malware in pre-installed apps.
Doctor Web warns that the attackers gained access to the supply chain of a number of Chinese manufacturers of Android-based smartphones. The experts found malware-laced applications pre-installed on the phone.
“It should be noted that in most cases the compromised devices were low-end and had names similar to the models of well-known brands: S23 Ultra, Note 13 Pro, P70 Ultra, and so on. At the same time, their actual technical specifications were far from what their product page claimed. The threat actors used an application that allowed them to easily spoof all of the technical information displayed not only on the About Device page but also in the reports of such popular applications as AIDA64 and CPU-Z.” reads the report published by Doctor Web. “In addition, although the About Device page claimed that the phones have the latest version of Android 14 installed on them, all of the devices were actually running the same build of Android 12. A third of the models listed below are manufactured under the SHOWJI brand. “
Attackers spoofed device specs to make cheap phones appear as Android 14 with better hardware, fooling users and apps like AIDA64.
Attackers used the LSPatch tool to trojanize WhatsApp, adding a hidden module that hijacks updates, replaces crypto wallet addresses in messages, and exfiltrates chat data. The malicious code also scans device folders for wallet recovery phrases saved as images, enabling full crypto theft. Backup attacker wallet addresses are used if the C2 server is unreachable.
The malware injected via LSPatch into ~40 legitimate-looking apps, including messengers and QR scanners, is dubbed dubbed Shibai.
“This trojan has been given the unique name Shibai in the Doctor Web virus database due to the string Log.e(“”, “——————-SHIBAI-释放————“) contained in its code. We assume that this is a reference to the name of another crypto coin.” continues the report.
Researchers warn that the crypto-stealing campaign has rapidly expanded, using over 60 C2 servers and 30 domains to spread malware. One attacker wallet earned $1M in 2 years, another $500K, while about 20 others held up to $100K each. The full scope remains unclear as wallets change frequently.
“It is impossible to get a complete picture of the profitability of this campaign, as the wallet addresses are obtained from the server of the attackers, and they may be different from time to time.” concludes the report that includes indicators of compromise (IoCs). To protect yourself from such attacks, our virus analysts recommend installing Dr.Web Security Space antivirus for mobile devices, shunning smartphones with features that clearly do not match their price, downloading applications only from trusted sources, such as Google Play, RuStore and AppGallery, and not storing on their devices screenshots with mnemonic phrases, passwords, and keys in unencrypted form.”
In September, security researchers from G DATA discovered more than two dozen Android mobile phones from different manufacturers already infected by pre-installed malware.
The kits analyzed by the company are commercialized by many manufacturers including Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi.
It is not a first time that smartphones come with pre-installed malware, earlier 2015, the security firm Bluebox discovered a preinstalled malware, many malicious apps, and a series of security holes on the Xiaomi Mi 4 smartphone.
In June 2014 security experts at G Data discovered that a popular Chinese Android Smartphone, Star N9500 was commercialized with a pre-installed spyware, meanwhile in April, the Chinese TV station, CCTV, reported some cases of smartphones compromised by pre-installed malware before selling them on to unwitting customers.
In December 2014, researchers from Palo Alto Networks discovered that the software installed on many of Coolpad high-end Android phones includes a CoolReaper backdoor.
The problem of pre-installed malware is serious security issues for end-users and despite the effort of manufacturers threat actors still succeed to compromise devices worldwide.
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Pierluigi Paganini
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Chinese Android phone)