Brinztech Alert: Database of Saraf Crypto and Trading App on Sale

Dark Web News Analysis

Cybersecurity intelligence from February 18, 2026, has identified a catastrophic data exposure involving Saraf, a prominent Iranian cryptocurrency and trading application. A threat actor on a known hacker forum is marketing a massive multi-layered database that suggests a deep, systemic compromise of the platform’s infrastructure.

The breach is uniquely dangerous because it combines high-volume PII with operational “master keys.” The exfiltrated dataset reportedly includes:

• User & Financial PII: 5 million rows of user data and 6 million rows of linked bank account information.
• Payment Credentials: 32,000 rows of card data and 6,000 precise residential addresses.
• Operational “Master Keys”: Critical Payment Gateway API keys and Crypto Exchange API keys, which allow for direct interaction with liquidity providers and fiat gateways.

The inclusion of these API keys indicates that the attackers moved beyond simple database scraping to achieve a level of persistence that could allow them to manipulate live transactions or drain platform-level wallets.

Key Cybersecurity Insights

The breach of a regional crypto hub like Saraf represents a “Tier 1” threat with significant financial and geopolitical implications:

• Direct Asset Exfiltration via API Abuse: The exposure of crypto exchange API keys is a critical failure. This allows attackers to bypass user-level security to execute trades or withdraw funds directly from the platform’s hot wallets, potentially leading to total insolvency for the provider.
• Industrialized Financial Fraud: With 6 million bank account details and 32,000 card records, cybercriminals have a massive dataset for Identity Cloning and unauthorized SEPA or local banking transfers. The “Address Data” allows them to bypass “Knowledge-Based Authentication” checks common in financial services.
• Geopolitical Ransomware Dynamics: Targeting a major Iranian fintech application often carries broader implications, potentially linked to state-sponsored actors or hacktivists seeking to disrupt regional economic stability or bypass sanctions-related monitoring.
• Compromised “Trust” Architecture: By holding payment gateway keys, the attackers can effectively “ghost” the platform, creating fraudulent transactions that appear legitimate to both the bank and the user, making recovery and forensic accounting exceptionally difficult.

Mitigation Strategies

To protect your digital assets and secure your financial infrastructure following this exposure, the following strategies are urgently recommended:

• Immediate API Revocation and Infrastructure Purge: Saraf must immediately invalidate all exposed Payment Gateway and Crypto Exchange API keys. A full Secrets Rotation must be performed across all production environments, moving keys into a hardware-backed security module (HSM).
• Global Account Freeze and Verification: The platform should temporarily freeze high-volume withdrawals and perform out-of-band verification for all linked bank accounts. Invalidate all stored card data and require users to re-enroll with fresh credentials.
• Mandatory User Credential Reset: Enforce a global password reset and mandate the use of Hardware-based MFA or Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP). SMS-based 2FA should be deprecated immediately due to the risk of SIM-swapping using the leaked phone and address data.
• Enhanced Liquidity Monitoring: Implement real-time monitoring of all exchange-linked wallets for anomalous outbound traffic. Use AI-driven threat detection to flag “Impossible Travel” patterns in API calls that originate from unverified IP ranges.

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