If you need to hack an Android device, try a remote administration tool. Known more familiarly as a RAT, there are open-source RATs that are bare bones and exorbitantly priced RATs that are more polished. There are also low-cost and polished RATs that aren’t intended to be RATs at all, such as Cerberus, an anti-theft solution available right on Google Play.
Cerberus is marketed as an anti-theft program so that you or the police (with your assistance) can track down your Android phone if it’s ever lost or stolen. However, while phone users see an anti-theft tool, hackers see a RAT that only costs 5 euros a year (about $5.80). That’s a helluva lot cheaper than the $21.99 per month RAT that Tyrell Wellick used in Mr. Robot, and they have the same feature set.
As an anti-theft tool, Cerberus offers all the features that we’ve come to expect of a good RAT, including locating the device, backing up (aka stealing) data, locking or changing the PIN, wiping data, and taking photos. All of this and more can be done from any web browser or by sending special SMS text commands.
Aside from the super cheap cost, there are also other benefits. For one, it’s available in the Google Play Store. And two, root is not required to make this tool work, though, root can be useful for certain functions like rebooting and wiping data.
However, Cerberus is an aboveboard company, so one must assume they log everything. Hackers should go through steps to ensure anonymity when accessing the service and targeted device. For example, using Tor, a VPN, and a spoofed MAC address from a public internet connection can help protect your identity.
Using Cerberus to Hack Android
If you’re a white hat, pentester, or other security professional following this guide, it’s a good idea to do this on your own device first for two reasons.
It’s good practice. You want to be as fast as possible when you have the target’s device in hand to minimize the chances of getting caught.
For whatever reason, the Cerberus team decided that installing the app should be the only way to create an account. So doing this on your own device will allow you to skip the account creation part during an attack and to make sure you have your subscription successively set up.
The first time you create an account, you’ll automatically get a free seven-day trial that lets you try out the features of the app before you pay. Also, if you’re only interested in a target for a one-time specific event, you can save a few bucks and just use the trial. There’s no need to pay if you don’t need to do this more than once.
1. Access & Unlock the Target Device
First, you need to gain physical access to the target Android phone. Without this, you can’t install the app without knowing the login credentials for the user’s Google account. If you do manage to hack the user’s Google account info, you can install the app to the device from the Play Store online, but that doesn’t change the fact that you will need to have access to the unlocked phone for future steps, like for logging into your Cerberus account.
If you don’t have the user’s Google credentials handy, you’ll need to gain physical access to the device and unlock it. Let’s take a look at a couple of scenarios that could help in both gaining access and unlocking:
The easiest and most often overlooked way is to simply tell the target some of what you’re doing. Put a little spin on the story. If the target is part of your family or extremely close, play it as if you’re putting an anti-theft app on everyone’s phone. Neglect to mention that you can use that very same app to spy on them. If they’re prone to losing their phone or paranoid about it getting stolen, you might actually be helping them out.
If the target is not closely related, you could spin it as if you got X number of devices with your subscription plan and have some extras. Offer one of those extras to target. You might even get them to pay you for it. That’s the beauty of Cerberus being an anti-theft app — plausible deniability. And, if you ever get caught spying on them, it’s much easier to play it off as if you were simply worried about them or didn’t realize what you were doing.
Assuming those options didn’t work, you’ll need to establish whether or not they have a lock on their phone and, if so, what kind. If it’s a password or PIN, be diligent, and over time, remember and write it down. If the target is using a pattern, do the same, but you don’t necessarily have to get it perfect as you can try several different variations pretty quickly. You can also analyze the screen smudges under a bright light, then line them up with the dots that appear for the pattern lock.
Note: Use temporary email ids to get as many free trials as
you want from here.