Symantec Identifies Android Trojans That Mutate With Every Download

angry tapir writes "Symantec researchers have identified a new premium-rate SMS Android Trojan that modifies its code every time it gets downloaded in order to bypass antivirus detection. This technique is known as server-side polymorphism and has already existed in the world of desktop malware for many years, but mobile malware creators have only now begun to adopt it."

Comments

Re:Avast runs fine thanks...

[hairyfeet]

Except if anybody actually followed your advice we wouldn't have desktop viruses either now would we? We've been handing out that same fucking advice for 30 damned years and it STILL DON'T WORK because all the malware writer has to do is wave the right cookie in front of their faces true story:

For the first time ever I had to throw someone out of my shop and threaten to call the cops if he didn't GTFO, all because a machine I had sold him was infected not 24 hours later and he was demanding i replace it for free. So did I hand him a machine with no updates? No AV protection? Nope he wanted when he was looking at the machines for me to install "the new limewire" and I told him "Look man, that program hasn't existed in a couple of years, the feds shut it down and that whole network is nothing but viruses and pornbugs now. If you'd like me to install a Bittorrent client there are several to choose from and I'll download you a tutorial video so you can learn how to use it" but he passed. So what did he do? The SECOND he got home he Googled "the new limewire" and when the AV wouldn't let him install it first he disabled it then when he couldn't disable it enough to let the malware run he uninstalled the AV. His last words when I threw his dumbass out of my shop were "Its says new limewire right there, you make it work!" stupid fuck. His "new limewire" was a trojan downloader that not only turned it into a spambot but landed over 150 viruses and malware which were doing everything from fighting with each other to infect every file on his system to clickjacking.

And THAT is why your idea won't work friend, because it requires common sense that sadly is so rare nowadays it might as well be a damned superpower. They could have placed the .exe for "the new limewire' in the middle of a life size picture of Goatse with "here it is LOL dumbass" written right above it and it wouldn't have mattered, he wanted limewire and no feds or common sense was gonna keep him away from having it dammit! All you have to do is replace limewire with porn codec, cool screensaver,letter from a Nigerian price, chance to win an iPad/iPod, and voila! You will have a HUGE section of the population that will happily ignore your common sense and will in fact be quite hostile to it.