Warning ! Google Play Store APK With 42 Malicious Apps
The security researchers of ESET have detected a massive year-long adware campaign where the involved apps were installed on users’ Android devices eight million times from Google Play alone. Slovak internet security company ESET identified 42 apps on Google Play as belonging to the campaign, which had been running since July 2018. Of those, 21 were still available at the time of discovery. The report says that Google Play Store APK apps have been downloaded more than 8 million times.
“If a typical user tries to get rid of the malicious app, chances are that only the shortcut ends up getting removed. The app then continues to run in the background without the user’s knowledge. This stealth technique has been gaining popularity among adware-related threats distributed via Google Play,” the researchers noted.
“We reported the apps to the Google security team and they were swiftly removed. However, the apps are still available in third-party app stores,” said the researchers in a statement on Thursday. Once launched, the “Ashas” adware family app sent “home” key data about the affected device: device type, OS version, language, number of installed apps, free storage space, battery status, whether the device is rooted and Developer mode enabled, and whether Facebook and FB Messenger are installed.
The user must be aware while installing any Applications from play store, before installing you must atleast read the users review and all. And also one thing do not trust any which you directly download from any browser.
According to the team, students at a Vietnamese university may be behind the malicious adware app.
“Due to poor privacy practices on the part of our culprit’s university, we now know his date of birth, we know that he was a student and what university he attended. We retrieved his University ID; a quick googling showed some of his exam grades,” said researchers.
“The malicious developer also has apps in Apple App Store. Some of them are iOS versions of the ones removed from Google Play, but none contain adware functionality,” said Stefanko.
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