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T1512 Video Capture

An adversary can leverage a device’s cameras to gather information by capturing video recordings. Images may also be captured, potentially in specified intervals, in lieu of video files.

Malware or scripts may interact with the device cameras through an available API provided by the operating system. Video or image files may be written to disk and exfiltrated later. This technique differs from Screen Capture due to use of the device’s cameras for video recording rather than capturing the victim’s screen.

In Android, an application must hold the android.permission.CAMERA permission to access the cameras. In iOS, applications must include the NSCameraUsageDescription key in the Info.plist file. In both cases, the user must grant permission to the requesting application to use the camera. If the device has been rooted or jailbroken, an adversary may be able to access the camera without knowledge of the user.

Item Value
ID T1512
Sub-techniques
Tactics TA0035
Platforms Android, iOS
Version 2.1
Created 09 August 2019
Last Modified 20 March 2023

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S1061 AbstractEmu AbstractEmu can grant itself camera permissions.22
S0655 BusyGasper BusyGasper can record from the device’s camera.8
S0426 Concipit1248 Concipit1248 requests permissions to use the device camera.5
S0425 Corona Updates Corona Updates can take pictures using the camera and can record MP4 files.5
S0301 Dendroid Dendroid can take photos and record videos.12
S0505 Desert Scorpion Desert Scorpion can record videos.14
S0320 DroidJack DroidJack can capture video using device cameras.3
S0405 Exodus Exodus Two can take pictures with the device cameras.24
S0408 FlexiSpy FlexiSpy can record video.2
S0535 Golden Cup Golden Cup can take pictures with the camera.20
S0551 GoldenEagle GoldenEagle has taken photos with the device camera.7
S0421 GolfSpy GolfSpy can record video.16
S0544 HenBox HenBox can access the device’s camera.19
S0407 Monokle Monokle can take photos and videos.23
S0399 Pallas Pallas can take pictures with both the front and rear-facing cameras.13
S0316 Pegasus for Android Pegasus for Android has the ability to take pictures using the device camera.11
S0295 RCSAndroid RCSAndroid can capture photos using the front and back cameras.25
S0549 SilkBean SilkBean can access the camera on the device.7
S0327 Skygofree Skygofree can record video or capture photos when an infected device is in a specified location.4
S0324 SpyDealer SpyDealer can record video and take photos via front and rear cameras.17
S0328 Stealth Mango Stealth Mango can record and take pictures using the front and back cameras.21
S1069 TangleBot TangleBot can record video from the device camera.10
S0558 Tiktok Pro Tiktok Pro can capture photos and videos from the device’s camera.15
S0418 ViceLeaker ViceLeaker can take photos from both the front and back cameras.18
S0506 ViperRAT ViperRAT can take photos with the device camera.9
G0112 Windshift Windshift has included video recording in the malicious apps deployed as part of Operation BULL.26
S0489 WolfRAT WolfRAT can take photos and videos.6

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1006 Use Recent OS Version Android 9 and above restricts access to the mic, camera, and other device sensors from applications running in the background. iOS 14 and Android 12 introduced a visual indicator on the status bar (green dot) when an application is accessing the device’s camera.1

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0041 Application Vetting Permissions Requests
DS0042 User Interface System Settings

References

  1. Android Developers. (, January). Android 9+ Privacy Changes . Retrieved August 27, 2019. ↩

  2. Actis B. (2017, April 22). FlexSpy Application Analysis. Retrieved September 4, 2019. ↩

  3. Viral Gandhi. (2017, January 12). Super Mario Run Malware #2 – DroidJack RAT. Retrieved January 20, 2017. ↩

  4. Nikita Buchka and Alexey Firsh. (2018, January 16). Skygofree: Following in the footsteps of HackingTeam. Retrieved September 24, 2018. ↩

  5. T. Bao, J. Lu. (2020, April 14). Coronavirus Update App Leads to Project Spy Android and iOS Spyware. Retrieved April 24, 2020. ↩↩

  6. W. Mercer, P. Rascagneres, V. Ventura. (2020, May 19). The wolf is back… . Retrieved July 20, 2020. ↩

  7. A. Kumar, K. Del Rosso, J. Albrecht, C. Hebeisen. (2020, June 1). Mobile APT Surveillance Campaigns Targeting Uyghurs - A collection of long-running Android tooling connected to a Chinese mAPT actor. Retrieved November 10, 2020. ↩↩

  8. Alexey Firsh. (2018, August 29). BusyGasper – the unfriendly spy. Retrieved October 1, 2021. ↩

  9. M. Flossman. (2017, February 16). ViperRAT: The mobile APT targeting the Israeli Defense Force that should be on your radar. Retrieved September 11, 2020. ↩

  10. Felipe Naves, Andrew Conway, W. Stuart Jones, Adam McNeil . (2021, September 23). TangleBot: New Advanced SMS Malware Targets Mobile Users Across U.S. and Canada with COVID-19 Lures. Retrieved February 28, 2023. ↩

  11. Mike Murray. (2017, April 3). Pegasus for Android: the other side of the story emerges. Retrieved April 16, 2017. ↩

  12. Marc Rogers. (2014, March 6). Dendroid malware can take over your camera, record audio, and sneak into Google Play. Retrieved December 22, 2016. ↩

  13. Blaich, A., et al. (2018, January 18). Dark Caracal: Cyber-espionage at a Global Scale. Retrieved April 11, 2018. ↩

  14. A. Blaich, M. Flossman. (2018, April 16). Lookout finds new surveillanceware in Google Play with ties to known threat actor targeting the Middle East. Retrieved September 11, 2020. ↩

  15. S. Desai. (2020, September 8). TikTok Spyware. Retrieved January 5, 2021. ↩

  16. E. Xu, G. Guo. (2019, June 28). Mobile Cyberespionage Campaign ‘Bouncing Golf’ Affects Middle East. Retrieved January 27, 2020. ↩

  17. Wenjun Hu, Cong Zheng and Zhi Xu. (2017, July 6). SpyDealer: Android Trojan Spying on More Than 40 Apps. Retrieved September 18, 2018. ↩

  18. GReAT. (2019, June 26). ViceLeaker Operation: mobile espionage targeting Middle East. Retrieved November 21, 2019. ↩

  19. A. Hinchliffe, M. Harbison, J. Miller-Osborn, et al. (2018, March 13). HenBox: The Chickens Come Home to Roost. Retrieved September 9, 2019. ↩

  20. R. Iarchy, E. Rynkowski. (2018, July 5). GoldenCup: New Cyber Threat Targeting World Cup Fans. Retrieved October 29, 2020. ↩

  21. Lookout. (n.d.). Stealth Mango & Tangelo. Retrieved September 27, 2018. ↩

  22. P Shunk, K Balaam. (2021, October 28). Rooting Malware Makes a Comeback: Lookout Discovers Global Campaign. Retrieved February 6, 2023. ↩

  23. Bauer A., Kumar A., Hebeisen C., et al. (2019, July). Monokle: The Mobile Surveillance Tooling of the Special Technology Center. Retrieved September 4, 2019. ↩

  24. Security Without Borders. (2019, March 29). Exodus: New Android Spyware Made in Italy. Retrieved September 3, 2019. ↩

  25. Veo Zhang. (2015, July 21). Hacking Team RCSAndroid Spying Tool Listens to Calls; Roots Devices to Get In. Retrieved December 22, 2016. ↩

  26. The BlackBerry Research & Intelligence Team. (2020, October). BAHAMUT: Hack-for-Hire Masters of Phishing, Fake News, and Fake Apps. Retrieved February 8, 2021. ↩