Banking Malware Is Now Hijacking Your WhatsApp to Gain Complete Remote Control of Your PC

Banking malware hijacking WhatsApp and remote desktop — New banking malware bundles WhatsApp takeover, credential theft, and one-click remote control into a single kill chain.

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TL;DR: A new wave of banking malware abuses WhatsApp Desktop session hijacking + browser credential theft and then drops a remote-control backdoor (RAT). Goal: capture UPI/online-banking sessions, authorize payments, and socially engineer victims via their own WhatsApp threads. Treat as high-severity for finance, healthcare, government, manufacturing and SMBs.

How the attack works

Lure — phishing email/DM/SEO-poisoned site offers “invoice”, “bank KYC”, “GPU driver”, or “WhatsApp backup viewer”.
Dropper — signed or sideloaded installer unleashes info-stealer + RAT; modifies startup and AV exclusions.
WhatsApp takeover — steals/abuses %AppData%\WhatsApp Desktop session artifacts to read chats and send messages as the victim (no phone in hand required once paired).
Banking pivot — steals cookies/passwords/auto-fill from Chrome/Edge/Brave/Firefox; injects web overlays to capture OTP/UPI PIN; leverages remote control to complete transfers.
Monetization — fast wire/UPI, crypto cash-out, and resale of access to brokers; spreads to contacts via trusted WhatsApp replies.

Who’s at risk?

US/EU/UK/AU/IN enterprises with finance/AP teams using WhatsApp Desktop or WhatsApp Web on Windows/macOS.
Banking, fintech, retail, media agencies, and MSPs with BYOD or mixed personal/business messaging on workstations.
High-net-worth individuals, founders, and executives (VIP targeting + deepfake chat lures).

Immediate actions

Block unknown installers via App Control / Windows Defender Application Control, and allow-list only trusted publishers.
Force sign-out of old WhatsApp sessions from mobile: WhatsApp > Linked Devices > Log out all; re-pair only after EDR scan.
Reset browsers (clear cookies, remove unknown extensions) and rotate banking, email, and password-manager credentials.
Enforce MFA + transaction signing on corporate banking; prefer app-based signing over SMS OTP where possible.
EDR sweep for persistence keys, RAT beacons, and credential-stealer artifacts (see detections below).
Network: isolate infected host, block known C2 TLDs/IPs, and enable TLS inspection for suspicious WhatsApp Web traffic patterns.

Detections you can deploy fast

# Windows — hunt for WhatsApp Desktop session grabs + suspicious RATs

# 1) Unusual access to WhatsApp Desktop profile
Get-ChildItem "$env:APPDATA\WhatsApp" -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-3) } |
  Select FullName,Length,LastWriteTime | Sort LastWriteTime -Desc

# 2) Common persistence points used by stealers/RATs
reg query HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
reg query HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
schtasks /query /fo LIST /v | findstr /i "AppData Temp WhatsApp Chrome Update"

# 3) Browser credential store scraping (look for sudden read bursts)
Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName="Security"; Id=4656} -MaxEvents 2000 |
  Where-Object {$_.Message -match "chrome|Login Data|cookies.sqlite|keychain"}

Hardening checklist (DevSecOps)

Package WhatsApp Desktop via MDM with hardened policies (auto-lock, disable link previews for unknown senders, block external file types via OS policies).
Enforce browser password manager off for corporate profiles; mandate enterprise password manager with phishing-resistant MFA.
Block execution from %TEMP% and user-writable paths using ASR rules or WDAC.
Deploy WAF/anti-fraud rules on banking portals used by employees (bot detection, device binding, OTP replay defense).
DNS sinkhole suspicious TLDs; use EASM to discover fake support domains and report for takedown.

Executive briefing (90 seconds)

What changed: Banking malware now uses trusted messaging (WhatsApp) to speed social engineering and bypass user suspicion.
Business impact: unauthorized bank transfers, invoice fraud, customer data exposure, and brand damage via compromised corporate WhatsApp accounts.
Decision: approve emergency controls (session reset, EDR containment, password rotation) and mandate secure messaging policy immediately.

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