Malware

Roaming Mantis uses new DNS changer in its Wroba mobile malware

Roaming Mantis threat actors were observed using a new variant of their mobile malware Wroba to hijack DNS settings of Wi-Fi routers.

Researchers from Kaspersky observed Roaming Mantis threat actors using an updated variant of their mobile malware Wroba to compromise Wi-Fi routers and hijack DNS settings.

Roaming Mantis surfaced in March 2018 when hacked routers in Japan to redirect users to compromised websites. Roaming Mantis is a credential theft and malware campaign that leverages smishing to distribute malicious Android apps in the format of APK files.

Investigation by Kaspersky Lab in 2018 indicates that the attack targeted users in Asia with fake websites customized for English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. Most of the impacted users were in Bangladesh, Japan, and South Korea.

Over the years, the threat actors targeted users worldwide, including Russia, India, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Vietnam, and Europe.

In September 2022, Kaspersky researchers analyzed the new Wroba variant and discovered that it was designed to target specific Wi-Fi routers mainly used in South Korea.

“Kaspersky has been investigating the actor’s activity throughout 2022, and we observed a DNS changer function used for getting into Wi-Fi routers and undertaking DNS hijacking. This was newly implemented in the known Android malware Wroba.o/Agent.eq (a.k.a Moqhao, XLoader), which was the main malware used in this campaign.” reads the report published by Kaspersky.

Roaming MantisRoaming Mantis

The DNS changer implemented in the new version connects to the hardcoded vk.com account “id728588947” to get the next destination (107.148.162[.]237:26333/sever.ini)”. The “sever.ini” (note the misspelling of server) is dynamically provided the threat actors’ DNS IP addresses.

“Checking the code of the DNS changer, it seems to be using a default admin ID and password such as “admin:admin”. Finally, the DNS changer generates a URL query with the rogue DNS IPs to compromise the DNS settings of the Wi-Fi router, depending on the model” continues the report.

Roaming Mantis threat actors can use the new DNS changer functions to manage all communications from devices using a compromised Wi-Fi router. An attacker can redirect to malicious web pages and interfere with security product updates.

The experts illustrated an attack scenario in which users connect infected Android devices to free/public Wi-Fi. Connecting the infected device to a targeted Wi-Fi model with vulnerable settings, the Wroba Android malware will compromise the router and will target other devices.

“Users with infected Android devices that connect to free or public Wi-Fi networks may spread the malware to other devices on the network if the Wi-Fi network they are connected to is vulnerable.” concludes the report. “Kaspersky experts are concerned about the potential for the DNS changer to be used to target other regions and cause significant issues.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Roaming Mantis)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

Recent Posts

4G Calling (VoLTE) flaw allowed to locate any O2 customer with a phone call

A flaw in O2 4G Calling (VoLTE) leaked user location data via network responses due…

8 hours ago

China-linked UnsolicitedBooker APT used new backdoor MarsSnake in recent attacks

China-linked UnsolicitedBooker used a new backdoor, MarsSnake, to target an international organization in Saudi Arabia.…

14 hours ago

UK’s Legal Aid Agency discloses a data breach following April cyber attack

The UK’s Legal Aid Agency suffered a cyberattack in April and has now confirmed that…

17 hours ago

Sarcoma Ransomware Unveiled: Anatomy of a Double Extortion Gang

Cybersecurity Observatory of the Unipegaso's malware lab published a detailed analysis of the Sarcoma ransomware.…

19 hours ago

Mozilla fixed zero-days recently demonstrated at Pwn2Own Berlin 2025

Mozilla addressed two critical Firefox vulnerabilities that could be potentially exploited to access sensitive data…

1 day ago

Japan passed a law allowing preemptive offensive cyber actions<gwmw style="display:none;"></gwmw>

Japan passed a law allowing preemptive offensive cyber actions, shifting from its pacifist stance to…

2 days ago