Threat reportPhishingTL-2026-3544

Balonx Sistema: Mexican Banking PhaaS with BankProtect Android RAT and CallFlow AI Vishing

highACTIVE

Balonx Sistema (TL-2026-3544), also tracked as Balonx Sistema, is a high-severity phishing campaign, first published 2026-10-14. It is attributed to Balonx (Mexico) with medium confidence, affects Mexican financial institutions (20+) Online banking customers (Banamex, maps to 13 MITRE ATT&CK techniques (T1095, T1111, T1417.001), and is covered by 9 detection rules and 22 indicators of compromise.

Severity
HIGHAssessed severity
CVEs
0None referenced
Techniques
13MITRE ATT&CK
Actors
1Balonx
Detection rules
9SPL · KQL · Sigma
IOCs
22Indicators of compromise

Key facts for TL-2026-3544

Threat ID
TL-2026-3544
Also known as
Balonx Sistema, BankProtect, CallFlow, Aclaraciones Bancarias
Severity
HIGH
Status
ACTIVE
Category
PHISHING
First published
Last reviewed
Attribution
Balonx
Attribution confidence
MEDIUM
Nation-state nexus
Mexico
Motivation
FINANCIAL
Target sectors
finance, banking
Target regions
mexico, Latin America
Detection rules
9
Indicators of compromise
22

Malware and tooling in Balonx Sistema

Malware and tooling: BankProtect, Spyroid, telegram, CallFlow, ElevenLabs, FreePBX

How Balonx Sistema works

Balonx Sistema is a subscription-based Phishing-as-a-Service platform targeting over 20 Mexican financial institutions. It combines WebSocket-controlled real-time credential and OTP interception, the BankProtect Android RAT (Spyroid-based, package sacred.explosion), and CallFlow, an AI-driven voice fraud module. Group-IB reports 1,100+ credentials harvested since October 2025 and live C2 infrastructure at publication.

Balonx Sistema is an industrialized Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) operation aimed at customers of more than 20 Mexican financial institutions (Banamex is the one specifically named in the public reporting). It descends from an earlier 'Aclaraciones Bancarias' campaign whose domain registrations date back to 2019; Group-IB links 350+ domains to the two campaigns. Development activity appears in a GitHub repository from June 2025, a commercial launch date of 4 October 2025 is hardcoded, and Group-IB reports 1,100+ user credentials harvested since October 2025. All phishing domains are backed by a single central Neon PostgreSQL database, so victim data, live sessions and affiliate accounts survive domain takedown and re-registration.

The platform is sold by subscription: an Individual tier (3,000 MXN/week, 2 devices) and an Office tier (6,000 MXN/week, 8 Executive sub-accounts), with payments integrated with the Bitso API. Affiliates register through a Telegram bot, require approval from the SuperAdmin account 'balonx', and Executives authenticate with one-time Telegram passwords; an 'allowedBanks' permission field controls which banks each Executive may target. Group-IB estimated roughly 1,728,000 MXN (about USD 99,385) of observed proceeds across 12 steady users. The service is advertised in Facebook groups such as 'Base de Datos' and 'Bases de datos Negocios Serios'. Victims are lured with phishing links distributed over Telegram and WhatsApp that pose as bank clarification/cancellation/support requests; sessions are hosted at a single domain with folio-style paths (for example /12345).

The phishing portal uses a persistent WebSocket endpoint (/ws, present on all active Balonx phishing domains) that gives the operator live operator-in-the-middle control. The operator watches the victim's input, relays credentials to the genuine banking portal, receives the MFA challenge, and pushes a SCREEN_CHANGE to the victim (for example CODIGO) asking for the same OTP before it expires. Fourteen screen types are used: FOLIO, VALIDANDO, LOGIN, CODIGO (SMS OTP), NIP (ATM PIN), TARJETA (card number/expiry/CVV), SMS_COMPRA (purchase authorization OTP), CANCELACION_RETIRO (cardless withdrawal codes), ESCANEAR_QR (physical card QR scan), PROTECCION_BANCARIA (APK distribution), PROTECCION_SALDO (balance capture), VERIFICACION_ID (ID/selfie capture through the camera to bypass KYC), MENSAJE (custom operator message) and CANCELACION (completion). 'Personal Flows' pre-script per-bank screen sequences that advance on a timer or on data submission. The admin panel exposes GraphQL, REST and token-auth endpoints under panelbalonxfs[.]xyz/admin/api/api/.

The PROTECCION_BANCARIA screen shows a fake bank security alert that pushes victims to install a 'protection' app. This is BankProtect, an Android RAT built on the commercial Spyroid RAT (Spyroid.net), package name sacred.explosion, main class bxelllolzxqfmaszk1049. Its C2 is hardcoded as Base64 strings (ClientHost MTk2LjI1MS44NC4xMQ== = 196.251.84.11, ClientPort Nzc3MQ== = 7771) and it uses a persistent raw TCP socket (setSoTimeout(0)) with a ConnectionKey. Capabilities reported: real-time keylogging and screen capture, SMS interception, social-media account hijacking, full remote device control and monitoring of banking app activity. The C2 at 196.251.84.11:7771/TCP was live at publication.

CallFlow is the third pillar: an automated outbound vishing module (callbalonx[.]info) that impersonates a bank agent named 'Carolina'. It uses OpenAI GPT-4o-mini for dialogue, ElevenLabs (voice 'carolina') as primary TTS with OpenAI voice 'echo' as fallback, and OpenAI Whisper for speech recognition, on a FreePBX (17.0.4.31 / 17.0.28) PBX with 30 default SIP channels. The SIP server was observed at 85.31.235.109:5160/TCP, the FreePBX backend/UCP at panelbalonxfs[.]xyz, and manager accounts can use Asterisk ChanSpy to listen to live calls. Together these remove the need for human call-centre operators and allow large-scale simultaneous vishing. No CVEs are associated; CVSS is not applicable. BeaconBeagle returned no beacon records for the two IPs (404) and no config matches for balonx.online at the time of research.

MITRE ATT&CK techniques used in TL-2026-3544

Command and Control

T1095 Non-Application Layer Protocol

Credential Access

T1111 Multi-Factor Authentication Interception; T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie; T1557 Adversary-in-the-Middle

Collection

T1417.001 Keylogging; T1513 Screen Capture; T1636.004 SMS Messages

Initial Access

T1566.002 Spearphishing Link; T1660 Phishing

Resource Development

T1583.001 Domains; T1585.001 Social Media Accounts

Reconnaissance

T1598.003 Spearphishing Link

Defense Evasion

T1684.001 Impersonation

Affected products and versions in Balonx Sistema

  • Mexican financial institutions (20+) — Online banking customers (Banamex named specifically)
    Vulnerable versions: Customers of targeted banks
  • Google — Android devices (BankProtect RAT sideloaded APK)
    Vulnerable versions: Devices that sideload the sacred.explosion APK

Remediation for Balonx Sistema

Immediate actions

  • Block and monitor 196.251.84.11 (TCP/7771) and 85.31.235.109 (TCP/5160) at the perimeter and mobile threat defense
  • Block callbalonx.info, panelbalonxfs.xyz, balonx.online, aclaraciones-digital.online and soporte-aclaracion.xyz
  • Hunt for Android package sacred.explosion on managed and BYOD devices
  • Add 'Aclaraciones'/'Balonx' keyword watchlists to domain-registration and certificate monitoring

Workarounds

  • Verify bank calls by calling back the number printed on the card
  • Never install apps prompted by phone calls or unverified banking websites

Longer-term hardening

  • Move high-value customers to FIDO2/hardware-bound authentication, which resists WebSocket operator-in-the-middle OTP relay
  • Detect abnormal WebSocket (/ws) patterns and redirect chains (Google Translate abuse, open redirects) on email and web gateways
  • Educate customers that banks never request ATM PINs, CVVs, card scans or app installs through web forms or phone calls

Timeline of Balonx Sistema

  • Earliest domain registrations tied to the predecessor 'Aclaraciones Bancarias' campaign (source gives the year 2019 only)
  • Development activity observed in a GitHub repository holding Balonx source code (source gives June 2025 only)
  • Hardcoded commercial launch date of the Balonx Sistema PhaaS
  • 1,100+ user credentials harvested from October 2025 onward (start date approximate; source says October 2025)
  • BankProtect C2 196.251.84.11:7771 and CallFlow SIP server 85.31.235.109:5160 live at publication; 350+ related domains identified
  • Group-IB publishes analysis of Balonx Sistema, BankProtect and CallFlow

Sources cited for Balonx Sistema

Detection coverage for TL-2026-3544

As of 2026-10-14, Threadlinqs Intelligence publishes 9 detection rule(s) for TL-2026-3544 across Splunk SPL, Microsoft KQL and Sigma, covering 22 indicator(s) of compromise. The whole corpus is readable without an account; a free account unlocks full detection query text in Splunk SPL, Microsoft KQL and Sigma; paid tiers add raw indicator values, correlation and the MCP server. Threadlinqs MCP server · View plans.

9 detection rules (Splunk SPL, Microsoft KQL, Sigma) · Blue and above. Compare plans
22 indicators of compromise · Red and above. Compare plans

Community OSINT corroboration for TL-2026-3544

1 of this threat's indicators have also been reported by the open-source security community. Community sightings are unverified and are kept separate from Threadlinqs' curated indicators. Indicator values, reporters and campaign linkage are available to authenticated Red-tier users.

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