Your app might be pretending to be ChatGPT to steal your data

Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity company, has discovered a recent increase in Android malware that is pretending to be the popular AI Chatbot ChatGPT.

The malware emerged after the release of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, and it targets users who are interested in using the ChatGPT tool.

A Meterpreter Trojan disguised as a “SuperGPT” app and a “ChatGPT” app are found to send premium-rate text messages, resulting in charges for the victims that are pocketed by threat actors.

Considering that Android users can download applications from various sources other than the official Google Play store, there is potential for users to obtain applications that have not been vetted by Google.

The digital code-signing certificate used in the malware samples is associated with an attacker identified as “Hax4Us.” The certificate has been used across multiple malware samples.

A cluster of malware samples, masquerading as ChatGPT-themed apps, sends SMS messages to premium-rate numbers in Thailand. These numbers incur charges for the victims, facilitating scams and fraudulent activities.