Bad apps infected with Malware Which User subscription to premium services Unbeknownst to them, it has been downloaded more than three million times from the Google Play Store.
As I mentioned Computer (Opens in a new tab)a new family of malware dubbed “Autolycos” has been discovered in eight popular Android apps by security researcher Maxime Ingrao of cybersecurity firm Evina.
Although Ingrao first found these malicious apps in June of last year and reported its findings to Google, it took the search giant six months to remove six of the apps in question, and the last two were only recently deleted.
When bad apps escape Google’s defenses
All malicious apps detected by Ingrao tempt users to download them by providing additional functionality for their camera or keyboard. Combined, it has been downloaded more than three million times.
Although all these bad apps have now been removed from the Play Store, if you have any of them installed on your Android smartphone, it is possible that they will still run in the background and sign you up for premium subscription services. Many of them also request access to read your SMS messages, which some users may have allowed.
Here is the complete list of applications infected with Autolycos malware along with the number of times they have been downloaded:
- Vlog Star Video Editor – 1 million +
- 3D creative launcher – 1 million +
- funny camera – 500,000+
- wow beauty camera – 100,000+
- Gif Emoji Keyboard – 100,000+
- Razer keyboard and theme – 50000+
- Freeglow Camera 1.0.0 – 5000+
- Coco Camera v1.1 – 1000+
Surprisingly, the creators of Autolycos also paid for a number of ad campaigns on a variety of social media platforms in order to promote their malicious apps. For example, there have been 74 different ad campaigns on Facebook promoting the Razer Keyboard & Theme app alone, according to Ingrao.
How to stay safe from malicious Android apps
Even with Google working around the clock to Rid the Play Store of bad appsSome still manage to slip through the cracks. For this reason, you should always be careful when downloading new apps, even when they come from official sources like Play Store, Amazon App Store or Samsung Galaxy App Store. This gets even worse when you download and install apps as APK files from unofficial sources.
While looking at reviews is something you should always do before downloading any app, they can be misleading, especially if they are written by bots. In the case of apps infected with Autolycos, popular apps had more negative reviews than real users, while those with fewer downloads still had high ratings due to bots.
Then, you should always review and think carefully about when Grant permissions for Android applications. Not every app needs access to local storage, your contacts, or your messages. Fortunately, Google now automatically removes permissions for apps you haven’t used in a while to help keep you safe.
Finally, you want to enable google play for protection And keep it active on your Android smartphone as the service scans your device for potentially malicious apps and scans each app for malware and suspicious activity before you download it.
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