Threats Tagged 'banana rat'

In March 2026, threat actors leveraged AI-powered website builders to create typosquatting domains impersonating a Brazilian bank. The campaign employed ClickFix techniques, presenting victims with fake CAPTCHA and BSOD screens to trick them into executing malicious PowerShell commands. This delivered SmartRAT, a PowerShell-based banking trojan with capabilities including encrypted C2 communications, remote control of screen/keyboard/mouse, credential theft through keylogging and banking overlays, and QR code interception for transaction fraud. The malware establishes persistence via scheduled tasks and Windows services, and targets Brazilian financial institutions, payment platforms, and cryptocurrency exchanges. The threat actors' C2 panel contained critical authentication flaws allowing client-side bypass, suggesting deployment without adequate security review.

MediumMalwareBrazil#banana rat#fake captcha#smartrat

An MDR investigation successfully mapped the complete operational infrastructure of Banana RAT, a Brazilian banking trojan operated by threat cluster SHADOW-WATER-063. The investigation uncovered both server-side and client-side components, revealing a sophisticated FastAPI-based polymorphic payload generation system that produces hash-unique builds to evade detection. The malware employs layered obfuscation, AES-wrapped payloads, and fileless PowerShell execution. Once deployed, it enables operator-driven fraud through remote input control, keylogging, screen streaming, bank-branded overlays, and Pix QR code interception specifically targeting Brazilian financial institutions. The tooling exclusively targets 16 Brazilian banks and crypto exchanges, with all operator artifacts written in Brazilian Portuguese, indicating a financially motivated actor operating within the Tetrade banking trojan ecosystem.

MediumMalwareBrazil#fastapi#pix qr interception#mekotio