Mexican financial institutions have become the target of a spear-phishing campaign that employs a modified version of the open-source AllaKore Remote Access Trojan (RAT). The campaign, attributed to an unidentified Latin American threat actor by the BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team, has been ongoing since at least 2021.
It uses lures featuring the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and deploys the AllaKore RAT to steal banking credentials and authentication information for financial fraud. The attacks focus primarily on large companies with revenues exceeding $100 million across various sectors, including retail, agriculture, public sector, and banking.
The infection process initiates with a ZIP file containing an MSI installer, which confirms the victim’s Mexican geolocation and retrieves the modified AllaKore RAT. This RAT, originally spotted in 2015, is capable of keylogging, screen capturing, file manipulation, and remote control.
The upgraded AllaKore RAT includes features for banking fraud, targeting Mexican banks and cryptocurrency platforms, launching reverse shells, and managing clipboard content.
The threat actor shows ties to Latin America through the use of Mexico Starlink IPs and Spanish-language instructions in the malware.
The campaign’s focus on entities reporting to the IMSS suggests a strategic targeting approach. This revelation emerges alongside IOActive’s disclosure of vulnerabilities in Lamassu Douro bitcoin ATMs that could allow attackers to seize control and steal assets.
These vulnerabilities, now patched, highlighted the risks in the ATM’s software update mechanism and QR code reading capabilities, underscoring the growing challenges in cybersecurity across different sectors.
