HOMETHREATSMESSAGETAP
MALWARE FAMILY

MESSAGETAP

Internal ID: elf.messagetap
1
aliases
Last seen:Mar 17, 2026

Intelligence Profile

MESSAGETAP is a 64-bit ELF data miner initially loaded by an installation script. It is designed to monitor and save SMS traffic from specific phone numbers, IMSI numbers and keywords for subsequent theft.

Threat Analysis

MESSAGETAP is a malware family tracked by threat intelligence researchers and catalogued in the Malpedia dataset. It represents a distinct malicious software lineage with identifiable code characteristics, behaviors, and victimology.

External References

→https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0096
→https://go.crowdstrike.com/rs/281-OBQ-266/images/Report2020CrowdStrikeGlobalThreatReport.pdf
→https://intezer.com/blog/linux/elf-malware-analysis-101-linux-threats-no-longer-an-afterthought
→https://securelist.com/an-overview-of-targeted-attacks-and-apts-on-linux/98440/
→https://summit.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/summit/cds-2019/presentations/cds19-executive-s08-achievement-unlocked.pdf
→https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2019/10/messagetap-who-is-reading-your-text-messages.html
→https://www.pwc.co.uk/cyber-security/assets/cyber-threats-2019-retrospect.pdf

Quick Facts

TypeMalware Family
Aliases1

Also Known As

elf.messagetap

Research Links

MITRE ATT&CK VirusTotal Google (news) Twitter/X search
Data sourced from Malpedia, Ransomware.live, RansomLook, and CTIWATCH OSINT collection. Actor attribution is based on available intelligence and may be incomplete.
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