Trojan Malware Installed On Millions Of Android Devices
More than 9m Android devices have downloaded and installed dozens of games from Huawei that have a trojan malware that is designed to collect vital user data. According to a new report by malware researchers at Dr.Web Anti-virus, Android devices have been infected hit by an info-stealing trojan in a large-scale malware attack originating from Huawei's AppGallery app store.
The Trojan malware can perform all kinds of malicious activities while it is on your device, including spy on your texts and downloading and installing malicious payloads. Cynos, from which this Trojan horse was created.
The Dr.Web report says that the Android.Cynos.7.origin trojan, a modification of the Cynos program module known since 2014, downloads and installs other apps that collect information about users and their devices, as well as display ads and allows the trojan to get access to sensitive data. “This module can be integrated into Android apps to monetise them.... Some of its versions have quite aggressive functionality: they send premium SMS, intercept incoming SMS, download and launch extra modules, and download and install other apps... The main functionality of the version discovered by our malware analysts is collecting the information about users and their devices and displaying ads,” says the report.
The threat actors hid their malware in Android apps pretending to be simulators, games platforms, arcades, strategy, and shooting games for Russian-speaking, Chinese and English language users.
The apps containing the malware asks for permission to make and manage phone calls, which allows the trojan to collect and send information to a remote server, including:
- Mobile phone number.
- Device location and Wi-Fi access point data.
- Various mobile network parameters, such as the network code and mobile country code.
- Various tech specs of the device.
- Various parameters from the trojanised app’s metadata.
The analysts' report found the trojan on 190 games, like simulators, games platforms, arcades, strategies and shooters.
"At first glance, a mobile phone number leak may seem like an insignificant problem. Yet in reality, it can seriously harm users, especially given the fact that children are the games' main target audience," according to a Doctor Web spokesman.
Dr. Web have notified Huawei about the threats and Huawei have now removed the apps containing the trojan from its AppGallery.
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