, 10 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
Now on the Green Room at #VB2019, @eldracote @anshirokova will present "Geost botnet. The discovery story of a new Android banking trojan from an OpSec error", a work also done with @MaryJo_E !
The Geost botnet was found by investigating the traffic of a different botnet: #htbot also known as proxyback. This htbot botnet offers a proxy service for users in the underground.
The Geost operators were using htbot to access the command and control servers from Geost (thinking they were hiding themselves).
Geost was targeting just 5 banks. Interestingly small.
The key to infection by Geost is the fact that targeted users are used to download applications from websites as the play store may not always be available.
A huge number of victims! Mostly in Russia.
A lot of work by @anshirokova analyzing a chat log of the operators/workers behind Geost: "They are just people" 👈🏽
According to the researchers, Geost may be just one thing the operators work on. They found signs of other techniques for making money, such as redirects and Spam sending among others.
1 installation is roughly 20 rubles, which is 0.3 USD. How profitable is it? 🤔
The #opsec errors lead to this finding:
1. Use of Htbot
2. No encryption in the traffic
3. Hired devs with low opsec
4. Leaked chat log
5. No chat encryption
6. They didn't separate personas

OpSec is hard, as @thegrugq always says.
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to _Veronica_
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!