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'Fee-Deduction' Malware On Android Spotted In the Wild
wiredmikey writes "New malware has been discovered embedded in more than 20 Android applications circulating via various forums on the Internet which auto-dials phone numbers to incur high user fees. Dubbed BaseBridge, the malware can be embedded in legitimate applications, and during the application's installation, the malware prompts the user to upgrade. If the user chooses to upgrade, the malware is installed on the Android device under the name 'com.android.battery'. Then, another prompt would pop up to ask the user to restart the app to run it, and the malware is formally activated upon restart. Once activated, the malware can activate three malicious services — AdSmsService, BridgeProvider and PhoneService, to communicate with a control server, from which it will download a configuration file to read related information and dial calls or send out SMS messages, incurring fees for users."
It would be nice to see a list of the Apps. If there are "over 20" the list is probably not too large to post.
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
I know you're being facetious, but ironically in this case you're probably indirectly right. Windows Phone 7 has such a small market share that it's not worth bothering with from a malware author's perspective, while iOS and Linux (Android) are huge targets. Funny how the table's turned.
Better known as 318230.
Android is secured by default by disallowing the use of Unknown Sources. If you attempt to enable Unknown Sources for applications it will warn you about risking security. In addition you must know what you're doing to install the Unknown Source APK by either: using 'adb install', or downloading the APK to your SD card and use a file manager application to install it. So yes, Android is just as secure as iOS by default.
Trojans in software downloaded from sketchy websites? GTFO!
A user with root explicitly installing a program IS NOT A HOLE.
Good-bye
If only there were a setting to allow sideloading. One that's disabled by default to protect unsavvy users, but is easily enabled by people who know what they're doing/willing to accept the risks. Oh, hey, look! There it is! "Unknown Sources: Allow installation of non-market applications."
Good to know that the iphone has a similar setting, that was a good move on Apple's part. Oh, wait, it doesn't? You have to exploit security holes to enable sideloading? Huh. How about that.
Not always. The best ones set up quite a low rate and don't make the malware call it more than once or twice. If someone gets a 50 charge on their telephone bill, then they are unlikely to query it. If they do, then the phone company will probably just give them a refund and eat the cost - they probably charge more than 50 for the call to their support line anyway. 50 doesn't sound like much, but if you get a couple of million infections then that's a huge amount of money. Ideally, they'll register a few hundred premium rate numbers and have the malware dial a random one.
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In my day, we called that "installing" a program. Sideloading? Really? What has the world come to? DRM-ified nonsense.
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I am not sure 100% that this is the answer but I think it is high time that we use digital signatures to verify the authenticity of the code. In the open source community this is done all of the time with utilities like GNUPG. Just simply use the author's public key to verify the authenticity of the code. If there is a discrepancy, then there should be a provision to discard the downloaded app. That should, at least, put a severe curb on wrapping malware in legitimate applications.