It all starts with apps that seem perfectly normal: QR code scanners, expense managers, health apps, wallpapers... In short, nothing to worry about. Except that some of them have had their code modified after being validated on the Play Store, in order to slip malicious content into them. Once installed, they even disappear from the home screen, making their deletion much more complicated.
Ordinary apps... on the surface
And that's not all. These apps are capable of displaying full-screen ads at any time, even when they're not running in the background. Worse still, some redirect users to phishing pages, with fake Facebook or YouTube logins to steal their credentials. Fake banking forms have also been spotted, aimed at extracting credit card information. Suffice it to say, this is serious business.
Scammers have no shortage of ideas for slipping under the radar. Rather than integrating the malware directly into the app as soon as it is published, they wait until it is validated by Google before sending an update containing the virus. This well-established method allows them to bypass automatic controls.
Another trick is to exploit Android functions normally reserved for smart TVs. Thanks to this, apps are able to superimpose full-screen ads without authorization and prevent users from closing them. Another discovery: some apps go so far as to change their name and icon to resemble an official Google app, making their removal even more complicated.
Bitdefender researchers point out that the Play Store is regularly targeted by cybercriminals looking to bypass existing protections. Although Google regularly cleans up, hackers always find new vulnerabilities to come back. It's a constant game of cat and mouse, and for now, the crooks don't seem ready to give up.
Google eventually reacted and removed the reported apps, but at the time of publication of the report, around fifteen were still online. A reminder that you shouldn't always trust apps offered on the Play Store. Before downloading, it's best to take a look at reviews and avoid unknown publishers. And if an app starts displaying strange ads or disappears from the home screen, it's probably a bad sign!
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