A New Wave of Stalkerware Apps

Zscaler researchers identified and analyzed multiple Android stalkerware apps (e.g., Android Monitors, Russ City, Spy Phone, Wi‑Fi Settings, Data Controller, Auto Forward) that masquerade as legitimate utilities or parental-control tools. The report documents their spying capabilities (keylogging, SMS/call/photo/GPS capture, screenshots, audio recording), persistence mechanisms, insecure data exfiltration to C2 servers (including plaintext/HTTP transfers and basic Base64 uploads), and provides hashes, domains, and an IP address as IOCs while recommending mitigation steps for affected users.