Fake cryptocurrency wallets continue to creep their way into Google’s application store for Android aficionados, as one researcher has recently discovered.
Using his personal website, independent researcher Lukas Stefanko sounds the alarm over four new fake cryptocurrency wallets that trick users either into giving away their credentials, or impersonate legitimate cryptocurrency wallets.
“These threats imitate legitimate services for NEO, Tether and MetaMask. I reported these apps to Google security team and they were promptly removed,” writes Stefanko.
All four apps were built with the same ultimate purpose in mind, but they are of two distinct categories:
Phishing – where the malicious app requests the user’s private key and wallet password after launch (i.e the MetaMask app)
Fake wallets – Stefanko found two relatively identical NEO Wallet apps that fit into this category, as well as one Tether Wallet app
The post includes a detailed disclose of two of the fake wallets, a demonstration of the apps’ functionality, an example of legitimate VS fake wallets, a bit of code analysis and some tips on how to stay safe out there.
The more intriguing find, in Stefanko’s opinion, was the tool used to create these malicious applications.
“What concerns me the most is that these fake wallets were created using Drag-n-Drop app builder service without any coding knowledge required,” he writes, adding that “literally anyone can ‘develop’ [a] simple but effective malicious app either to steal credentials or impersonate [a] cryptocurrency wallet.”
The post also shows indicators of compromise (IoC) in the form of package names and hashes, as well as wallet addresses and the cryptocurrency associated with the respective address (Tether, NEO, NEO QR).
