Attacks with Malicious Pornography Applications in Android Lock-Screen may Increase

Alex Dubrovsky security researcher with Dell tells about malware authors who've begun one campaign in which data-stealing and/or financially-motivated assaults will soon inundate older Android mobiles with the aid of malware-embedded porn applications.

Android lets device owners load apps which substitute their lock screen as well as equip it with various utilities. It is this service which criminals are exploiting whereby they are tricking end-users into loading lock screen applications that are difficult to remove.

Presently, the applications don't seem as requesting money or stealing data. However according to Dubrovsky, the applications ask for plentiful permissions, especially administrator rights from the devices that once the device owners grant would aid the applications persist on the devices un-removable.

He says that more than 100 separate applications have been discovered which contain the above form of malware and therefore suspicion arises that the perpetrators of such applications have started preparing for one far bigger and more lethal attack. Scmagazineuk.com posted this, May 16, 2016.

SonicWall presents another explanation i.e. attackers aren't running remote code alternatively compromising an end-user's Android device, but, if the app begins to run, data that's encoded gets dispatched to several domains without displaying any sign.

Interestingly, there isn't any ransom demand made, as well as that given victims are free from this provides certain indication that this form of exploitation mayn't be fully enforced.

Only, users' mobiles remain inoperable being inside lock screen that stops the infected users from gaining admission into system settings followed with encountering inability to operate their mobiles.

According to SonicWall researchers, currently, the only unusable thing is System Settings, nonetheless, besides that the mobile operator is free to operate it as normal. Moreover, given such a huge number of malevolent applications as part of the current assault, one can easily say that the assault may imbibe a far larger scale soon with elements that are up-to-date. Expectedly, there'll be another kind of lock-screen image which would even demand ransom, the researchers reported.

Meanwhile, the impacted devices are Android 4.4 KitKat, while according to Dubrovsky; the malware can be doused utilizing Android Debug Bridge.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/20/2016