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New 'Herodotus' Android Banking Trojan Mimics Human Typing to Evade Detection as Campaigns Hit Italy and Brazil

Researchers say the MaaS, tied to 'K1R0', remains under development with likely wider use.

Overview

  • ThreatFabric confirms active device‑takeover campaigns in Italy and Brazil using smishing droppers that push Accessibility abuse and hide permission steps behind opaque overlays.
  • A built‑in “humanizer” splits text into single characters with randomized 0.3–3 second delays to bypass timing‑based behavioral anti‑fraud checks during remote input.
  • Operators receive full remote‑control tooling, including credential‑stealing overlays, SMS interception for 2FA, keylogging, screen capture, and a web control panel.
  • Command‑and‑control relies on MQTT over the domain google-firebase.digital, with seven active subdomains; observed lures include “Banca Sicura” (af45kfx) in Italy and “Modulo Seguranca Stone” (g24j5jgkid) in Brazil.
  • Analysts report code and obfuscation overlap with Brokewell, recovered overlays for targets in the US, UK, Turkey, and Poland, and assess the service is likely to expand as it evolves.