SpiCall | Artemide | Spartacus : Possible initiator of Exodus Android and iOS Spyware Campaign

Reversing of the C2C SpiCall | Artemide | Spartacus | Possible initiator of Exodus Android and iOS Spyware Campaign

Preamble

This a project created for Malware Analysis and Research purpose, and is the last step of a standard procedure aimed to research threat techniques and develop defenses.

This Mass Surveillance Spyware campaing is named “SpiCall | Artemide | Spartacus” from the details present into the extracted electronic certificate (please refer to images at page bottom).

This repository was (somehow) linked to the Exodus mobile malware campaing because:

• The package name of the malicious app (that was supposed to be no longer) included in the on-line store was “it.nv.wat” -This identifier was immediately associated to a number of apps flagged as malicious, and promptly removed from the store since the end of March 2019 (possibly also by the developer itself) because probably associated to Exodus spyware family
• Match / Correlation performed by hash and developer API value(s) confirmed the malicious nature of the App
  • Developer token (restricted due to privacy) was associated to illegitimate / malicious behaviours as well
  • MD5 checksum of the analysed App was already fingerprinting the spyware via the following hash: edeea0b34d3f1298a6930e3970401d82

Unexpectedly

At the moment of the update of this README file (11 APR 2019), another spy-app with the same package name (“it.nv.wat”), same fingerprints but (of course) different MD5 checkusum (e0d5e0b626183e13c97d2719383c5dd7) it’s again available at the following address (hopefully it will be removed soon): hXXps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.nv.wat

Legitimate question

Why this (spy)App and similar ones are still / again available as a public resource?

Did the developer(s) publish it again after the so called “Exodus” wave?

Stated that, we think that those repositories are meaningful because everyone can understand how a privacy leak works:

Discover it yourself

• See how (e.g.) WhatsApp is intercepted on a phone:

  https://github.com/PresidentWarfield/SpiCall_Artemide_Exodus/search?p=2&q=whatsapp&unscoped_q=whatsapp
  

• See how (e.g.) C2C commands are executed on a phone:

  https://github.com/PresidentWarfield/SpiCall_Artemide_Exodus/search?q=CMD_NAME&unscoped_q=CMD_NAME
  

Truncated for Privacy

Some piece of the code are truncated to avoid enticing unauthorized or unethical actions, but in any case the understanding of the code remains unchanged.

Public Domain

The contents included into this repository have been released into the public domain since the original working application has been deliberately made public without restrictions (as a method of mass infection) through app stores.

General Consideration

The code is a potpourri of already known instruction sets*, but has exposed both the producer and the victim to very high privacy risks.

(*) The App reversed into this repo looks very similar to another one we analyzed (wondering why a stock viewer App needs to record your voice): hXXps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.accadia.android but with part of the instruction set well localized in Italian language.

Peculiarity

The MQTT protocol to manage the C2C operations

For Governments

It would be enough to backtrack or simply use:

• App-Store / Developer token
  • To know the real email address / identity of the developer(s)
• The built in RSA key
  • That gives consistent “tips & tricks” about remote authentication mechanisms on resources where all the data collected are stored indiscriminately
• The Fabric / CrashLytics credentials
  • To see which devices are / were infected

At present many C2C servers are still up togheter with several stolen data repositories (some of those shows TCP activity on port TCP 60129 - Darktrack RAT / Dropbear SSHd)

Conclusion

Cyber criminals play tricks creating confusion over expired and promptly renewed domain names, app names, etc..

Exodus was just a clumsy and miserably failed attempt to copy the “Multilevel Business Model of Mass Surveillance Market” explained here:

Where they failed at point 3 of the workflow, while playing the role of the actor that within intelligence investigations is called “The Mule”.

That’s it.

---

---

https://presidentwarfield.github.io/SpiCall_Artemide_Exodus/