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Apps with ad-clicking malware experiencing a massive 1.5m downloads listed inside Play Store

 

Security researchers discovered 2 apps which contained ad-clicking malware and were listed in Google Play, spanning over a year. The said apps apparently practiced shady operations of malicious ad clicking for a huge number of 1.5m Android devices, according to Symantec the cyber-security giant.

 

Idea Note a notepad app as well as Beauty Fitness a fitness app are the dual creations of Idea Master the developer of the apps that remained inside the Store for over 1-yr getting downloaded in approximately 1.5m instances. May Ying Tee software engineer at Symantec believes the two applications remained unfound for such an extended period of time because they used one legitimate packer that made it difficult for any security pro towards comprehending the behavior of the Android suited Package Kit. www.scmagazine.com posted this dated August 29, 2019.

 

Upon downloading any of the 2 apps the user sees a notification on-screen directing to click. When that's done, Toast is utilized for exhibiting an ad.

 

Symantec's May Ying Tee and Martin Zhang discovered that Idea Master utilized notifications from toast for installing the advertisements. That way end-user sees unobtrusive messages namely a note stating some activity had occurred i.e. dispatching of a missive, completion of a download.

 

This tactic, according to the researchers, is also possible for using in installing potentially malicious items onto Android mobiles. Upon loading of the ads, Idea Master's 2 apps would begin clicking ads in an automatic way which then generated funds for him.

And though the ads are invisible to the end-users' eyes, they impact the devices directly such as excess battery usage and slower performance. Costs also rises from higher usage of mobile data as a result of the ghost-click method.

 

For avoiding the above described problems, end-users need to uninstall the applications manually.

 

The Android platform of Google is still being targeted with various kinds of hacks and scams. Previously during August, Google cautioned that many million Android-powered smart-phones were getting released that contained malicious software pre-installed. Subsequently according to a Kaspersky alert, CamScanner an extremely popular app that experienced over 100m downloads actually had malicious software.

 

» SPAMfighter News - 9/5/2019

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