Experts discovered surveillance tool EagleMsgSpy used by Chinese law enforcement

Chinese law enforcement uses the mobile surveillance tool EagleMsgSpy to gather data from Android devices, as detailed by Lookout.

Researchers at the Lookout Threat Lab discovered a surveillance tool, dubbed EagleMsgSpy, used by Chinese law enforcement to spy on mobile devices. The researchers analyzed multiple samples of the malware and gained access to internal documents obtained from open directories on attacker infrastructure. These documents suggest the existence of an iOS conversion of the spyware that has yet to be uncovered.

The surveillance tool family has been active since 2017, the experts highlighted that it requires physical access to the target device to initiate operations. The surveillance software is composed of an installer APK, and a surveillance client that runs headlessly on the device when installed. Law enforcement would use the installer component to deploy the headless surveillance module, which collects sensitive data. Neither the installer nor the payload has been found in app stores like Google Play.

“EagleMsgSpy is a lawful intercept surveillance tool developed by a Chinese software development company with use by public security bureaus in mainland China.” reads the report published by Lookout. “Early samples indicate the surveillance tool has been operational since at least 2017, with development continued into late 2024.”

The surveillance tool, likely used by multiple customers, collects extensive data from victim devices, including messages from various apps (QQ, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, WeChat), screen recordings, screenshots, audio, contacts, call logs, GPS coordinates, and more. The tool encrypts data before exfiltrate it to a command-and-control server. The tool is actively maintained, with increasing use of obfuscation to evade detection.

The IP address of one of the C2 servers used by the surveillance tool has been linked to Wuhan Chinasoft Token Information Technology Co., Ltd., a Chinese tech company founded in 2016 with fewer than 50 employees. Lookout believes the company developed and maintains the tool, which is being used by several public security bureaus in mainland China.

The researchers also reported that EagleMsgSpy shares infrastructure with other Chinese surveillance tools, including PluginPhantom and CarbonSteal, used in campaigns linked to other APT groups. The IP address 202.107.80[.]34 linked to PluginPhantom, and 119.36.193[.]210 tied to CarbonSteal, has been used in campaigns targeting minorities in China. Overlap in infrastructure and code has been observed across these tools, including Silkbean, HenBox, and DarthPusher.

“EagleMsgSpy is a lawful intercept surveillance tool developed by Wuhan Chinasoft Token Information Technology Co., Ltd. (武汉中软通证信息技术有限公司) used by public security bureaus in mainland China. The malware is placed on victim devices and configured through access to the unlocked victim device.” concludes the report. “Once installed, the headless payload runs in the background, hiding its activities from the user of the device and collects extensive data from the user. Public CFPs for similar systems indicate that this surveillance tool or analogous systems are in use by many public security bureaus in China.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, China)