CERT-In's Crafty Falcon Advisory: Eight Fixes for Payment API Teams

CERT-In Crafty Falcon advisory for fintechs and NBFCs

On 4 November 2026, CERT-In published advisory CIAD-2026-0058 about a threat actor it calls Crafty Falcon. The group uses AI-assisted tools to get into exposed test servers, move into production, and then misuse payment and disbursement APIs. The twist is that the company's own systems end up sending the money. CERT-In calls the campaign active and ongoing.

How the attack chain works

  • Way in: internet-facing UAT or staging servers, file-upload and deserialisation flaws, hardcoded API tokens, and services without MFA.
  • Into production: credentials, tokens or network paths shared between test and live systems.
  • Past app controls: calling APIs directly from reverse-engineered apps, and routing traffic through trusted third-party IP ranges.
  • Cash-out: a Rs 1 test transfer first, then large transfers to mule accounts, often on weekends and holidays.

Where to start this week

  • Cut every shared credential and route between test and production.
  • Validate each transaction on the server and stop trusting IP allow-lists alone.
  • Scan repos and CI/CD pipelines for hardcoded secrets and rotate them.
  • Add a fraud rule for a small transfer to a new beneficiary followed by a large one.

Not a fintech? The same entry points show up in any business with customer apps, payment integrations or cloud workloads.

Read the full advisory breakdown and all eight steps here: CERT-In Crafty Falcon Alert: What Fintechs Must Fix Now

Published by Affix Center, a Mumbai-based IT services company. See our cybersecurity services.

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