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Showing posts with label Malware in Google Play. Show all posts

Japanese Payment System Attacked By Fake Security App

A new malware has been observed by the Research team at McAfee Corp. This malware is found to be attacking NTT DOCOMO customers in Japan. 

The malware that is distributed via the Google Play Store pretends to be a legitimate mobile security app, but in reality, it is a fraud malware designed to steal passwords and abuse reverse proxy focusing on NTT DOCOMO mobile service customers. 

The McAfee Cell Analysis team informed Google regarding the notoriety of the malware. In response, Google has made the application unavailable in Google Play Store and removed known Google Drive files that are associated with the malware. In addition to this, Google Play Shield has now alerted the customers by disabling the apps and displaying a warning. 

The malware publishes malicious fake apps on Google Play Store with various developer accounts that appear like some legitimate apps. According to a tweet by Yusuke Osumi, a Security Researcher at Yahoo, the attacker lures the victims into installing the malware in their systems by sending them an SMS message with a Google Play Store link, reportedly sent from overseas. Additionally, they entice the users by displaying a requirement to update their security software. 

This way, the victim ignorantly installs the fraudulent app from Google Play Store and ends up installing the malware. The malware asks the user for a community password but cleverly enough, it claims the password is incorrect, so the user has to enter a more precise password. It does not matter if the password is incorrect or not, as this community password can later be used by the attacker for the NTT DOCOMO fee services and gives way to online funds. 

Thereafter, the malware displays a fake ‘Mobile Security’ structure on the user’s screen; the structure of this Mobile Security structure interestingly resembles that of an outdated display of McAfee cell security. 

How does the malware function

A native library called ‘libmyapp.so’ written in Golang, is loaded through the app execution. When the library is loaded, it attempts to connect with C&C servers utilizing an Internet Socket. WAMP (Internet Software Messaging Protocol) is then employed to speak and initiate Distant Process Calls (DPC). When the link is formulated, the malware transmits the community data and the victim’s phone number, registering the client’s procedural commands. The connection is then processed when the command is received from the server like an Agent. Wherein, the socket is used to transmit the victim’s Community password to the attacker, when the victim enters his network password in the process.

The attacker makes fraudulent purchases using this leaked information. For this, the RPC command ‘toggle_wifi’ switch the victim’s Wi-Fi connection status, and a reverse proxy is provided to the attacker through ‘connect_to’. This would allow connecting the host behind a Community Handle Translation (NAT) or firewall. With the help of a proxy, now the attacker can ship by request through the victim’s community network. 

Along with any other methods that the attackers may use, the malware can also use reverse proxy to acquire a user’s mobile and network information and implement an Agent service with WAMP for fraudulent motives. Thus, it is always advised by Mobile Security Organizations to be careful while entering a password or confidential information into a lesser-known or suspicious application.

100 Million Android Users Warned Against Using this "Very Dangerous" VPN App


Millions of Android users are being cautioned against using a popular Android VPN that was removed by Google from its Play store. The action was taken by Google after Researchers found vulnerabilities in 'SuperVPN' that could leave devices open to malware attacks and allow attackers to redirect victims onto malicious servers.

As of now, the app has around 100 million downloads, however, in the year 2016 when the risks associated with the app surfaced for the first time ever in related research, it only had a total of 10,000 downloads.

While testing, security researchers identified three main issues with the app:

1. Unencrypted HTTP traffic: The communications can be intercepted by the attackers, it has been said that transferring highly sensitive information over HTTP is not secure at all.

2. Hardcoded encryption keys: The app has inbuilt decryption keys that can easily decrypt the information in an encrypted format.

3. Payload including EAP credentials: EAP credentials are being used by the VPNs therefore users outside the app can not connect to the same server. Hence, EAP credentials sent in the unencrypted payload in a way defeats the purpose.

Notably, SuperVPN was also listed as one of the top 5 VPN in Google Play Store's search results before it was taken down by the authorities. As per the findings by researchers, it contained vulnerabilities that allowed attackers to carry out man-in-the-middle attacks, also known as MITM attacks. It could expose communication that took place between the user and provider letting hackers have access to everything the user is doing online, be it browsing tabs in Chrome, making video calls or loading up apps – all of that sensitive data including passwords, private texts, and voice messages is being made available to the attackers.

Other occasions where SuperVPN drew negative remarks include the app being ranked third by the Australian researchers in an examination of the most malware-rigged VPN apps. The researchers pointed out that the app had been posing risks since it appeared on the Play Store.

While explaining more about the issues, Jan Youngren, Security Researcher at VPNPro told, "SuperVPN used a wide range of shady techniques to help it rank highly in Google, as well as to hide who actually owns the app, where it’s located, and the other apps from the same developer that may have similar issues."

"But lastly, and most importantly, it seems that the entire time the app was on the Play store, it had critical vulnerabilities in one way or another, either by being a vehicle for malware in 2016 or allowing for MITM attacks just before being removed."

"The only thing unclear now is whether these vulnerabilities are due to mistake, or intention. Nonetheless, there are millions of users right now with a dangerous app on their phone. If you’re one of those users, we implore you to delete SuperVPN immediately." He further added.

Google removes 16 apps infected by 'Agent Smith' malware

Every now and then, Android keeps getting visited from deadly malware attacks that put user and their data at lots of risks. This time, it's a new malware called Agent Smith and like its name, this malware is sneaky in what it's designed to do - bombard your phone with ads. Agent Smith also has properties to stick to other apps installed on the phone and ensure that the malware infection stays the same. The malware was first detected by Check Point and after working with Google, the infected apps have been removed from Google Play Store.

After it was informed of the infection, Google has identified and removed 16 apps from the Play Store that are known to be infected by Agent Smith. These apps are no longer available for download from the Play Store and there won't be further updates for these apps via the Play Store. However, Google can only remove the app from the Play Store but it can't wipe these apps from an individual's Android phone. Hence, if you have the following apps installed on your Android phone, you should uninstall them immediately.

Ludo Master - New Ludo Game 2019 For Free

Sky Warriors: General Attack

Color Phone Flash - Call Screen Theme

Bio Blast - Infinity Battle Shoot virus

Shooting Jet

Photo Projector

Gun Hero - Gunman Game for Free

Cooking Witch

Blockman Go: Free Realms & Mini Games

Crazy Juicer - Hot Knife Hit Game & Juice Blast

Clash of Virus

Angry Virus

Rabbit Temple

Star Range

Kiss Game: Touch Her Heart

Girl Cloth Xray Scan Simulator

However, Agent Smith can cling on to other popular apps and make it difficult for users to identify which app has been affected by it. Two most popular apps in India include WhatsApp - through which it has infected 1.5 crore Android phones, and Flipkart.

Play Store Gaming Apps Infected with Malware

An android malware named “AdultSwine” has attacked children-friendly gaming apps in the play store. Over 60 apps have been pulled by Google after recognizing the malware.

The malware causes pornographic content to show on the devices while the infected app is running, aside from trying to get users to install fake security apps and charging for unregistered premium services. The malware reportedly has the ability to steal user credentials.

The malware was discovered by researchers at Checkpoint and the affected apps have since been pulled by Google, and the developers’ accounts banned.

The affected apps have been downloaded as much as 3 to 7 million times, according to Play Store data.

A comprehensive list of affected apps and related research can be found on Checkpoint’s research blog. Google will continue to send notifications to phones that have the affected apps installed.

Android SMS malware hosted on Google Play infects 1.2 Million users


Experts often suggest to download android apps only from Google Play to avoid malware infection.  But, it doesn't mean that we can trust all of the apps hosted on Google.  

Security researchers from Panda security has found more than five malicious apps being hosted on Google play.

The apps in question appear to be targeting users in Spain.  Name of the apps are in Spanish: “Peinados Fáciles” (Easy Hairdos), “Dietas para Reducir el Abdomen” (Abs Diets), “Rutinas Ejercicios para el Gym” (Workout Routines) and “Cupcakes Recetas” (Cupcake Recipes).

The apps obtain phone number of the infected device from WhatsApp and uses it to sign the victim up to a premium rated SMS subscription services.

Researchers say that each of these apps have been downloaded by between 50k and 100k users. It means that between 300k and 1.2 Million users might have affected this malware.

“The truth is that fraudsters are making insane amounts of money from these premium services. A conservative estimate of, let’s say, €20 paid by each user would result in a huge sum of 6 to 24 million euros stolen from victims”, said Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs.

Android font installing apps install iKno spyware


Security researchers from Webroot have come across few font installing apps hosted on Google Play that install Android spyware called "iKno".

The apps look like a legitimate font app and allow users to install new font on their android device.

The researcher analyzed the app and identified malicious code that downloads and executes ikno.apk file from a website.



iKno is android spyware developed by Technoreap solutions that monitors call logs, text messages, location.


It appears the malicious apps and developer's account have been removed from the Google play.

Android malwares hosted in Google Play by 'apkdeveloper'

android malware
List of malicious apps hosted by apkdeveloper

Once again, Malicious android apps have been found in Google Play.  A developer named "apkdeveloper" hosted a number of android malware in the Google Play.

The malware author used popular app names for his malicious apps by adding "super" at the end of the name . He also posted fake reviews to lure innocent users into downloading the malware .

"Obviously faked from the app either by asking people to give 5 stars to unlock the game (quite a common trick) or the people that made the app have found a way to publish reviews to the play store automatically. Wouldn't surprise me to be honest." One of the Reddit user's comment reads.

According one of the Reddit comment, the fake apps asked permissions for 'approximate location', 'percise location', 'full network access', 'read phone calls', 'mod or delete data on your sd card', 'find accounts', 'control vibration', ladies, 'run at startup', 'test access to protected storage'.

The malware author has been banned from google Play, after a Reddit post drew attention to the malware infested apps.

We are not sure how many users have been affected by this malicious app. Make sure you didn't install one of these malicious app.