Authored by Dexter Shin 

Instagram has become a platform with over a billion monthly active users. Many of Instagram’s users are looking to increase their follower numbers, as this has become a symbol of a person’s popularity.  Instagram’s large user base has not gone unnoticed to cybercriminals. McAfee’s Mobile Research Team recently found new Android malware disguised in an app to increase Instagram followers. 

How can you increase your followers or likes? 

You can easily find apps on the internet that increase the number of Instagram followers. Some of these apps require both a user account and a password. Other types of apps only need the user to input their user account. But are these apps safe to use? 

Figure 1. Suspicious apps in Google Images

Many YouTubers explain how to use these apps with tutorial videos. They log into the app with their own account and show that the number of followers is increasing. Among the many videos, the domain that appears repeatedly was identified. 

The way the domain introduces is very simple. 

Log in with user account and password. 
Check credentials via Instagram API. 
After logging in, the user can enjoy many features provided by the app. (free followers, free likes, unlimited comments, etc.) 
In the case of free followers, the user needs to input how many followers they want to gain.  

Figure 2. A screenshot to increase the number of followers by entering in 20 followers.

When you run the function, you can see that the number of followers increases every few seconds. 

Figure 3. New follower notifications appear in the feed.

How does this malware spread? 

Some Telegram channels are promoting YouTube videos with domain links to the malware. 

Figure 4. Message being promoted on Telegram

We have also observed a video from a famous YouTuber with over 190,000 subscribers promoting a malicious app. However, in the video, we found some concerning comments with people complaining that their credentials were being stolen. 

Figure 5. Many people complain that their Instagram accounts are being compromised

Behavior Analysis in Malware 

We analyzed the application that is being promoted by the domain. The hidden malware does not require many permissions and therefore does not appear to be harmful. When users launch the app, they can only see the below website via the Android Webview.  

Figure 6. Redirect to malicious website via Android Webview

After inspecting the app, we observe the initial code does not contain many features. After showing an advertisement, it will immediately show the malicious website. Malicious activities are performed at the website’s backend rather than within the Android app. 

Figure 7. Simple 2 lines of initial code

The website says that your transactions are carried out using the Instagram API system with your username and password. It is secure because they use the user’s credentials via Instagram’s official server, not their remote server. 

Contrary to many people’s expectations, we received abnormal login attempts from Turkey a few minutes after using the app. The device logged into the account was not an Instagram server but a personal device model of Huawei as LON-L29. 

Figure 8. Abnormal login attempt notification

As shown above, they don’t use an Instagram API. In addition, as you request followers, the number of the following also increases. In other words, the credentials you provided are used to increase the number of followers of other requesters. Everyone who uses this app has a relationship with each other. Moreover, they will store and use your credentials in their database without your acknowledgement. 

How many users are affected? 

The languages of most communication channels were English, Portuguese, and Hindi. Especially, Hindi was the most common, and most videos had more than 100 views. In the case of a famous YouTuber’s video, they have recorded more than 2,400 views. In addition, our test account had 400 followers in one day. It means that at least 400 users have sent credentials to the malware author. 

Conclusion 

As we mentioned in the opening remarks, many Instagram users want to increase their followers and likes. Unfortunately, attackers are also aware of the desires of these users and use that to attack them. 

Therefore, users who want to install these apps should consider that their credentials may be leaked. In addition, there may be secondary attacks such as credential stuffing (=use of a stolen username and password pairs on another website). Aside from the above cases, there are many unanalyzed similar apps on the Internet. You shouldn’t use suspicious apps to get followers and likes. 

McAfee Mobile Security detects this threat as Android/InstaStealer and protects you from this malware. For more information, visit McAfee Mobile Security. 

Indicators of Compromise 

SHA256: 

e292fe54dc15091723aba17abd9b73f647c2d24bba2a671160f02bdd8698ade2 

6f032baa1a6f002fe0d6cf9cecdf7723884c635046efe829bfdf6780472d3907 

Domains: 

https[://]insfreefollower.com 

The post Instagram credentials Stealers: Free Followers or Free Likes appeared first on McAfee Blog.

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Authored by Dexter Shin 

McAfee’s Mobile Research Team introduced a new Android malware targeting Instagram users who want to increase their followers or likes in the last post. As we researched more about this threat, we found another malware type that uses different technical methods to steal user’s credentials. The target is users who are not satisfied with the default functions provided by Instagram. Various Instagram modification application already exists for those users on the Internet. The new malware we found pretends to be a popular mod app and steals Instagram credentials. 

Behavior analysis 

Instander is one of the famous Instagram modification applications available for Android devices to help Instagram users access extra helpful features. The mod app supports uploading high-quality images and downloading posted photos and videos. 

The initial screens of this malware and Instander are similar, as shown below. 

Figure 1. Instander legitimate app(Left) and Mmalware(Right) 

Next, this malware requests an account (username or email) and password. Finally, this malware displays an error message regardless of whether the login information is correct. 

Figure 2. Malware requests account and password 

The malware steals the user’s username and password in a very unique way. The main trick is to use the Firebase API. First, the user input value is combined with l@gmail.com. This value and static password(=kamalw20051) are then sent via the Firebase API, createUserWithEmailAndPassword. And next, the password process is the same. After receiving the user’s account and password input, this malware will request it twice. 

Figure 3. Main method to use Firebase API

Since we cannot see the dashboard of the malware author, we tested it using the same API. As a result, we checked the user input value in plain text on the dashboard. 

Figure 4. Firebase dashboard built for testing

According to the Firebase document, createUserWithEmailAndPassword API is to create a new user account associated with the specified email address and password. Because the first parameter is defined as email patterns, the malware author uses the above code to create email patterns regardless of user input values. 

It is an API for creating accounts in the Firebase so that the administrator can check the account name in the Firebase dashboard. The victim’s account and password have been requested as Firebase account name, so it should be seen as plain text without hashing or masking. 

Network traffic 

As an interesting point on the network traffic of the malware, this malware communicates with the Firebase server in Protobuf format in the network. The initial configuration of this Firebase API uses the JSON format. Although the Protobuf format is readable enough, it can be assumed that this malware author intentionally attempts to obfuscate the network traffic through the additional settings. Also, the domain used for data transfer(=www.googleapis.com) is managed by Google. Because it is a domain that is too common and not dangerous, many network filtering and firewall solutions do not detect it. 

Conclusion 

As mentioned, users should always be careful about installing 3rd party apps. Aside from the types of malware we’ve introduced so far, attackers are trying to steal users’ credentials in a variety of ways. Therefore, you should employ security software on your mobile devices and always keep up to date. 

Fortunately, McAfee Mobile Security is able to detect this as Android/InstaStealer and protect you from similar threats. For more information visit  McAfee Mobile Security 

Indicators of Compromise 

SHA256: 

238a040fc53ba1f27c77943be88167d23ed502495fd83f501004356efdc22a39 

The post Instagram credentials Stealer: Disguised as Mod App appeared first on McAfee Blog.

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