Quote:An Android malware called TangleBot has weaved its way onto the cyber-scene: One that researchers said can perform a bouquet of malicious actions, including stealing personal info and controlling apps and device functions.
 
According to Cloudmark researchers, the newly discovered mobile malware is spreading via SMS messaging in the U.S. and Canada, using lures about COVID-19 boosters and regulations. The goal is to social-engineer targets into clicking on an embedded link, which takes them to a website. The site tells users they need an “Adobe Flash update.” If they click on the subsequent dialog boxes, TangleBot malware installs.
 
In propagation and theme, TangleBot resembles other mobile malware, such as the FluBot SMS malware that targets the U.K. and Europe or the CovidLock Android ransomware, which is an Android app that pretends to give users a way to find nearby COVID-19 patients. But its wide-ranging access to mobile device functions is what sets it apart, Cloudmark researchers said.
 
“The malware has been given the moniker TangleBot because of its many levels of obfuscation and control over a myriad of entangled device functions, including contacts, SMS and phone capabilities, call logs, internet access, [GPS], and camera and microphone,” they noted in a Thursday writeup.