In a research report, Kaspersky warned against a virus called Sparkcat, capable of stealing the recovery sentences of Crypto Wallets. How does this Trojan horse work and how to protect yourself?
Sparkcat: Kaspersky identifies a virus thief of Crypto portfolio recovery sentences
This week, Kaspersky researchers have published a detailed report On a virus they named Sparkcat, specializing in the flight of Seed Portfolio Phrases Crypto. According to their research, this malicious program hidden in apparently harmless applications would have been downloaded at least 242,000 via services like Google Play and App Store in Europe and Asia.
Among the compromised applications mentioned by Kaspersky, we find examples like Comecomome, Chatai or Wetink. Where the operating mode is vicious, is that the domains covered are not limited to Crypto applicationsbut notably present themselves as messaging, artificial intelligence or food delivery applications.
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In order not to arouse attention, Sparkcat requests the necessary authorizations only at certain key moments. That said, the program is then able to read the images stored on the device of its target, to detect a possible photo or a screen copy which would be similar to a recovery sentence of a Wallet Crypto, thanks to a recognition technique called OCR.
The “obfuscation” techniques used to camouflage the code also make this virus difficult to detect, which allowed it to pass the download services mentioned above:
The Trojan horse is particularly dangerous, because nothing reveals the malicious implant within the application: the authorizations it requires can be used in the main functionality of the application or may seem harmless at first glance, And malware operates in a fairly secret way.
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In order to protect yourself from such a malicious program, it is necessary to recall a essential rule in terms of security: Do not take a picture of your recovery sentence. This also applies to screenshots, while it is important to book Cryptos Wallets on smartphone for low -value operations and store most of its cryptocurrency assets via really secure solutions.
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Source: Kaspersky
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Since 2021, I have devoted my free time to seriously train myself on cryptocurrencies in order to acquire maximum knowledge and credibility. I often have the opportunity to carry out interviews with influential personalities from the blockchain industry. I also conduct in -depth analyzes on web3 themes to offer exclusive content to cryptoast readers.
Vincent Mayor
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