Wednesday , June 25 2025
phone

ESET RESEARCH
“eXotic” spyware espionage campaign targets India and Pakistan

ESET researchers found a spying campaign targeting Android users. The campaign uses fake messaging apps that include XploitSPY malware. The campaign, called eXotic Visit, has been active from November 2021 to the end of 2023.

Malicious Android apps were distributed through targeted campaigns using dedicated websites and the Google Play store. These apps had a low number of installs on Google Play and have since been removed.

WhatsApp banned on all US House of Representatives devices

The U.S. House of Representatives has banned congressional staff from using WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns, as...
Read More
WhatsApp banned on all US House of Representatives devices

Kaspersky found “SparkKitty” Malware on Google Play, Apple App Store

Kaspersky found a new mobile malware dubbed SparkKitty in Google Play and Apple App Store apps, targeting Android and iOS....
Read More
Kaspersky found “SparkKitty” Malware on Google Play, Apple App Store

OWASP AI Testing Guide Launched to Uncover Vulns in AI Systems

OWASP has released its AI Testing Guide, a framework to help organizations find and fix vulnerabilities specific to AI systems....
Read More
OWASP AI Testing Guide Launched to Uncover Vulns in AI Systems

Axentec Launches Bangladesh’s First Locally Hosted Tier-4 Cloud Platform

In a major milestone for the country’s digital infrastructure, Axentec PLC has officially launched Axentec Cloud, Bangladesh’s first Tier-4 cloud...
Read More
Axentec Launches Bangladesh’s First Locally Hosted Tier-4 Cloud Platform

Hackers Bypass Gmail MFA With App-Specific Password Reuse

A hacking group reportedly linked to Russian government has been discovered using a new phishing method that bypasses two-factor authentication...
Read More
Hackers Bypass Gmail MFA With App-Specific Password Reuse

Russia detects first SuperCard malware attacks via NFC

Russian cybersecurity experts discovered the first local data theft attacks using a modified version of legitimate near field communication (NFC)...
Read More
Russia detects first SuperCard malware attacks via NFC

Income Property Investments exposes 170,000+ Individuals record

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered an unsecured database with 170,360 records belonging to a real estate company. It contained personal...
Read More
Income Property Investments exposes 170,000+ Individuals record

ALERT (CVE: 2023-28771)
Zyxel Firewalls Under Attack via CVE-2023-28771 by 244 IPs

GreyNoise found attempts to exploit CVE-2023-28771, a vulnerability in Zyxel's IKE affecting UDP port 500. The attack centers around CVE-2023-28771,...
Read More
ALERT (CVE: 2023-28771)  Zyxel Firewalls Under Attack via CVE-2023-28771 by 244 IPs

CISA Flags Active Exploits in Apple iOS and TP-Link Routers

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has recently included two high-risk vulnerabilities in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)...
Read More
CISA Flags Active Exploits in Apple iOS and TP-Link Routers

10K Records Allegedly from Mac Cloud Provider’s Customers Leaked Online

SafetyDetectives’ Cybersecurity Team discovered a public post on a clear web forum in which a threat actor claimed to have...
Read More
10K Records Allegedly from Mac Cloud Provider’s Customers Leaked Online
     Source: ESET

The eXotic Visit campaign seems to focus on specific Android users in Pakistan and India. It is not known which group is behind this campaign, but we are monitoring the threat actors and calling them Virtual Invaders.

Apps with XploitSPY can get contact lists, files, GPS location, and file names from specific directories related to the camera, downloads, Telegram, and WhatsApp. Certain filenames can be further extracted from these directories by a command from the control server. The chat function in XploitSPY is unique and believed to be developed by the Virtual Invaders group.

     Source: ESET

The malware uses a native library commonly used in Android app development to hide important information, such as C&C server addresses. This makes it difficult for security tools to analyze the app.

The apps mentioned below were removed from Google Play after ESET, as a Google App Defense Alliance partner, discovered that they contained harmful code. The low number of installations suggests that they were used in a targeted manner. The “eXotic Visit” apps were identified as part of this campaign, and the Technical analysis section examines the XploitSPY code present in these apps. Click here to read out the full report.

Check Also

170000

Income Property Investments exposes 170,000+ Individuals record

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered an unsecured database with 170,360 records belonging to a real …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *