Android malware campaign hijacks more than 1 million Google accounts
A new malware campaign, dubbed Gooligan by Check Point, has successfully breached more than 1 million Google accounts up to this point according to the company.
About 13,000 new devices are breached every day by the malware campaign. According to Check Point's research, Android 4 and 5 are the main target of the attack which account for a little bit less than 75% of all Android devices out there.
The breach starts with the download of an infected application. Apps like WiFi enhancer, Perfect Cleaner, or Memory Booster are but some of the apps that are infected by Gooligan.
These applications are usually not offered on Google Play, but on third-party application stores or direct links on websites, in emails or messages.
When an infected app is installed on the device, it tries to communicate with a command and control server. It sends data about the device to the server, and gets a rootkit from the server in return. This rootkit exploits several vulnerabilities in Android 4 and 5.
The main issue here is that while patches are available, they may not be available for all devices, or may not have been installed by the user.
The rooting, if successful, gives the attacker full control of the device. Gooligan downloads a new module from the server and installs it on the device. This module is designed to avoid detection by Google Play or Google Mobile Services.
This module, according to Check Point, allows the attacker to steal the user's Google email account and authentication token, install apps from Google Play, and rate these apps, install adware on the device to generate revenue.
One common method of earning revenue on breached phones is to get paid for application installations. Since this is not a issue if the system is under full control, this is one of the easier ways for attackers to make money.
Is your device infected?
Check Point created an online tool that you may use to find out whether your Google account has been breached.
All you need to do is visit the website linked above, enter your Google email address in the form, solve the captcha, and hit the check button afterwards.
If your account has been breached, you need to perform the following operations immediately:
- Do a clean installation of the mobile operating system on your device. How this is done varies but you may find help either on your mobile phone provider's support site, or at the device's manufacturer's site. Either way, you need to flash a clean image to the device. If you have a backup, that is probably your best option provided that it is clean.
- Once done, change your Google account password immediately. You may also want to clean up any comments or ratings left in your name. You can do so on the Google Play website.
Now You: Has your device been affected by Gooligan?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?