Google Play Store malware installed on 1.5 million Android devices
Google's Play Store is the go-to store for most Android users when it comes to installing new apps and games for the operating system.
Like Google's Chrome Web Store, which is the place to install Chrome extensions, Google's Play Store has had its fair share of malicious apps and games that were offered to users.
Just recently, it became known that malicious authenticator apps were listed on the official store. Back in 2022, researchers discovered apps with malware that were downloaded 500,000 times by users, and just last month, security researchers discovered a malicious SDK in a number of apps.
Security researchers at Pradeo have discovered two spyware applications on Google Play that were downloaded more than 1.5 million times by Android users. The applications, File Recovery & Data Recovery (com.spot.music.filedatecom.spot.music.filedate) and File Manager (com.file.box.master.gkd), disguised themselves as file management applications. Their main purpose of them was to send as much user data as possible to servers in China.
File Recovery & Data Recovery was downloaded more than 1 million times from Google Play, File Manager more than 500,000 times. Both applications listed fake Data Safety information on Google Play, claiming that they were not collecting any data.
Data Safety is mandatory information that app developers need to provide about their apps. The information that developers submit is not verified manually by Google.
Both applications had a relatively large number of downloads but no reviews. The researchers suggest that the developers of the app could have enhanced downloads artificially, for example, by using installation farms or mobile device emulators.
Pradeo researchers discovered that the two applications were busy as a bee collecting data from devices they were installed on. Data included:
- The contact lists from the device and from connected accounts, e.g., email accounts, social networking accounts.
- Media, such as pictures, audio or video.
- Real-time user location data.
- Mobile country code.
- Network provider name.
- Network code of the SIM provider.
- Version of the operating system.
- Device brand and model
The installed applications performed "more than a hundred transmissions of the collected data", which, the researchers write, is "so large it is rarely observed".
The applications in question are no longer listed on Google Play at the time of writing. Android users may want to check the list of installed programs to uninstall the apps, if they are still installed on their devices.
Pradeo notes that both applications hid their application icon on the home screen to make the uninstallation difficult. Android users have to open Settings > Apps to get a list of all installed applications and uninstallation options.
Now You: do you vet apps before you install them?
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?