[Update] On September 21, Google reached out to us and shared an official response, noting that there are no RatHat-infected apps on the Google Play Store. The statement is below, and the original story follows:
“Based on our current detection, no apps containing this malware are found on Google Play. Android users are automatically protected against known versions of this malware by Google Play Protect, which is on by default on Android devices with Google Play Services.”
I’ve heard people using AI to improve and speed up their work. But this is the first time I’m hearing of malware taking real-time directions from an AI chatbot as it does its bad business.
All thanks to the research team at Zimperium, we know about this new kind of advanced malware. It’s called RatHat, and it uses an AI chatbot to understand what’s on the target device’s screen.
So, how does RatHat actually use AI?
RatHat primarily spreads through smishing texts and malvertising. It sends victims to fake download pages that look legitimate at first but sit outside of the Google Play Store. Once you sideload the malware onto your phone, things get a lot more interesting.
In simple terms, the malware abuses Android’s accessibility settings to enable Developer Options and Wireless Debugging, then pairs itself with the phone’s own debugging bridge (I’m talking about shell-level control). After that, the AI part comes in.
The malware then sends a live map of what’s happening on your phone’s screen to what the report calls “one of the world’s most popular generative AI assistants,” which I’m guessing is already available to everyone.
It then asks the chatbot to identify what’s on the screen, including what a particular button does and the text on the screen. Basically, the AI acts like a pair of eyes and hands for the malware, helping it find out what to do next.
Why deleting the app might not fix anything
All of this, by the way, happens through a fake app the victim installed. The actual damage, however, starts with fake login overlays on banking and crypto apps. It can also record your screen and intercept one-time codes. That is how the malware accesses the sensitive information.
Beyond using AI, RatHat runs a separate, persistent background process that runs a hardware-level keylogger. By reading raw touch-input coordinates directly from the kernel’s touchscreen driver, it matches your finger movements against stored keypad layouts to determine lock-screen PINs and patterns.
And simply uninstalling the app won’t necessarily remove it. RatHat shows a fake Play Store error to make you think the uninstall failed, and even after deletion succeeds, a hidden background process quietly brings it back, with its permissions still intact.
Zimperium’s advice is pretty ordinary, but it’s worth repeating: skip sideloaded apps, be suspicious of any accessibility permission request, and leave Play Protect scanning on. However, if your device is already affected, you’ll probably have to clean it manually via Android Debug Bridge or factory reset it.
