Prilex PoS Malware Evolves to Block Contactless Payments to Steal from NFC Cards

The Brazilian menace actors behind an state-of-the-art and modular point-of-sale (PoS) malware acknowledged as Prilex have reared their head after yet again with new updates that permit it to block contactless payment transactions.

Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky reported it detected a few variations of Prilex (06.03.8080, 06.03.8072, and 06.03.8070) that are able of targeting NFC-enabled credit rating playing cards, using its felony plan a notch greater.

Having advanced out of ATM-concentrated malware into PoS malware above the years considering that heading operational in 2014, the risk actor steadily incorporated new functions that are built to aid credit rating card fraud, such as a method named GHOST transactions.

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While contactless payments have taken off in a massive way, in section because of to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fundamental motive powering the new operation is to disable the element so as to pressure the person to insert the card into the PIN pad.

To that finish, the latest version of Prilex, which Kaspersky found out in November 2022, has been found to implement a rule-primarily based logic to identify no matter if or not to seize credit card data together with an alternative to block NFC-primarily based transactions.

“This is thanks to the truth that NFC-based mostly transactions usually produce a exceptional ID or card number valid for only 1 transaction,” researchers explained.

Ought to this sort of an NFC-dependent transaction be detected and blocked by the malware installed on the infected PoS terminal, the PIN pad reader displays a faux mistake message: “Contactless mistake, insert your card.”

This leads the target to use their bodily card by inserting it into the PIN pad reader, correctly permitting the threat actors to dedicate fraud. Another new characteristic extra to the artifacts is the potential to filter credit score playing cards by segments and craft regulations personalized to all those tiers.

“These procedures can block NFC and capture card data only if the card is a Black/Infinite, Company or an additional tier with a superior transaction limit, which is a great deal additional interesting than standard credit score playing cards with a reduced stability/limit,” the researchers noted.

“Considering the fact that transaction facts generated throughout a contactless payment are ineffective from a cybercriminal’s point of view, it is easy to understand that Prilex requirements to drive victims to insert the card into the infected PoS terminal.”

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