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Over 60% of Android Malware Hides In Fake Versions of Popular Apps
An anonymous reader writes "Like any popular platform, Android has malware. Google's mobile operating system is relatively new, however, so the problem is still taking form. In fact, it turns out that the larger majority of threats on Android come from a single malware family: Android.FakeInstaller, also known as OpFake, which generates revenue by silently sending expensive text messages in the background. McAfee says that the malware family makes up more than 60 percent of Android samples the company processes."
Meh...
If you are not smart enough to install non-market Android apps, you have no problem.
If you are smart enough to install non-market Android apps, you know what you are getting into.
With great power comes great responsibility. I think these pieces keep surfacing because the Anti-Virus companies desperately need to get into this market. They see it is the future and they want a piece of it.
then there is no need for McAfee and CO. Makes you think!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Thank you Captain Obvious! Who would have thought to hide malware in a known program?
sudo make me a sandwich
Top of article:
End of article:
So in essence this article is a nearly-worthless scare piece. Unless you're downloading "pirated" versions of (presumably) commercial apps from a shady source, this article isn't relevant. But then, it's a McAfee article, so surprise.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
finds libraries of this stuff ready for downlolad with instructions etc....
ive seen it said here so many times ----------> how is this news?
And there is less crime we we force everyone to never go out.
But, you enjoy your shiny toy and take whatever the deem you worthy of having.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Technically, not a problem for Android users who stay in Google's walled garden either. Now, we can debate the merits of walled gardens but the article itself is just trying to gin up business for McAfee and citing running unknown sources as evidence of some malware problem when the issue is the user, not the system, since that is off by default.
Someone help me with that one. So it tricks users into sending an expensive SMS. So how in the world does that enrich the hackers? I pay my SMS fees to AT&T. Are we saying that AT&T is behind these attacks?
You can tell a beat up a mile away when it attacks one thing as the problem when the issue is an attribute shared by many things. The problem here is the stupid app store model. It means you get a core of apps ranked by popularity. It goes out information on which apps to attack. Then it provides a distribution vector for the malware that hides chaff amongst the grain. The problem isn't android, or the stores it uses, or android manufacturers but its the entire app store model. Android or apple or blackberry or Linux, it's a proven problem on all centralized and therefore weak distribution models.
You only have to place the blame on the promoters of such models. I wonder who that would be...
Apple doesn't really have a walled garden... their app submission guidelines are fairly open and transparent, even if they are more strict and more vetting goes on in comparison to Google Play. (And, yes, I am aware that this was NOT true a few years ago, when Apple's app submission guidelines were unpublished and extremely vague.)
Even Google Play does vetting for security issues. The main difference is that Apple forces you to jailbreak if you want to go to 3rd party app sources, while Android does not.
A platform with lots of viruses. How quaint. Android truly is the Windows PC of mobile phones. The answer is a single walled garden.
Actually, the answer is reading comprehension.
But, yes, this is slashdot, so nobody reads TFA, and even fewer comprehend.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
The solution, of course, will be to buy Macafee's Android security offerings.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
The answer is a single walled garden.
Just one iDevice? I expect that someone who feels that a walled garden is the way to go would own at least 3 iDevices.
A platform with lots of viruses. How quaint. Android truly is the Windows PC of mobile phones.
Well, if by that you mean that Android has a vast majority of the market share (>80%), and thus is a much, much bigger target, then yes.
Remember those "PC vs Mac" commercials from way back when, where the "Mac" guy kept droning on and on about not having viruses? Whatever happened to those? Oh, that's right, OSX finally reached a point where it had a less-than-insignificant market share, so it became worthwhile to write malware for the platform.
The answer is a single walled garden.
If the question is, "What's a really good way to keep funneling your customer's money into your own coffers after they've already purchased your stuff," then yea. Otherwise, I'll have to disagree.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
"When a victim requests an application from a fake market"
Guess *you* didn't read it.
It's 2012 - most phones can connect to a mail server over 2G, 3G or wifi.
Why are we still messing around with a 140-character hack that belongs in the 1990s and which requires the recipient to be using a phone?
Just send an e-mail.
wow your retarded.. you know this is all caused by users leaving googles walled garden? I feel sorry for you being stuck in yours...
It has been stated before, if your dumb enough to install from unknown untrusted sources, you get what you deserve... its not the devices fault because the user was stupid..
Android does not have >80% market share. It's something just over 50%. Windows had more than 95% at it's peak. So no, that wasn't the point of similarity. The point of similarity is it's a Typhoid Mary platform.
iOS isn't prone to malware and it's because of it's walled garden and app sandboxes, not because of marketshare.
Some of the legitimate apps at the legitimate app store have messed up policies as well:
Mass Effect Infiltrator: needs to be able to change network connectivity, modify system settings, read phone status and ID and be able to read my contacts. Why?
Order & Chaos online: needs to be able to edit text msgs, read txt msgs, receive txt msgs, change network connectivity incl connecting+disconnecting from wi-fi, disable my screen lock, send SMS messages, read phone status and ID, and run at startup. Why?
I skipped buying either of these even when they were priced at $0.25 because of the bizarre permission policies.
get all puffed up over this one
Okay, idroid, I'll bite. Android sales are 8.4:1 over iPhones. That's 84 android devices sold for every iPhone. The iPhone has lost and no amount if fudging figures like that to be merely 'over 50%' will hide the fact the iPhone has been relegated to the place of the 1997 macintosh.
There's certainly less crime if you live in a decent neighbourhood, with police who can take action against the occasional wrong-doing.
Android is living in a ghetto.
[quote]"Like any popular platform, Android has malware. Google's mobile operating system is relatively new, however, so the problem is still taking form. [/quote]
Code user base size doesn't have any effect for amount of malware in software, because the amount of malware is about code quality.
If you have perfect code, you can not write anykind malware code against it.
Now in Android case, what by the way isn't operating system but a software system what uses the Linux operating system, the problem is on trojans, what works exactly like every application is allowed to work, by the user.
The problem is like with kitchen knive, most used "weapon" in murders in most countries because it is accessible. Still, it doesn't matter is it a kitchen knife or butchers knife, because those who want to stab someone, they will find a knive.
Kitchen knive isn't used in kills because it is best or easiest to use kill someone. It is only used because someone abuses other person rights to be safe and other abuse its rights to kill the offensive person. The knife doesn't have anything to do with it, but the people have.
Wrong people, wrong reasons and problem exist.
If you have a Android application what gets permission from user to make a calls, send SMS and record virtual keyboard and full internet access, it is just stupid to allow such application to be installed and run its program in first place.
It is like invating someone to your home, gather all stuff what you have in your home and take them away. And then when they do so, you call police and you say they are thiefs.
Which one was stupid one, the house owner or the honest thief?
Most (nearly all) Android malware abuses person rights, by tricking them with fancy things so people would install their product without watching what permissions app asks.
Very few actually cracks Android security and those are the real problems.
I wish that Open Handset Alliance would improve Android by the way that none of the applications can not read anything from contact list unless user especially gives permission for specific contacts by typing personal code.
And none of the phone calls or SMS can be sent to any other number than what contact list has. So if wanted to make quick calls for taxi, user itself needs to include that number to contact list, give application permission to read that contact information and then give permission to call/sms for that number. And even give permission of amount per month.
Google will clamp down on app approval and everyone on Slashdot will cheer Google as the savior, yet these same people will hypocritically bash Apple for taking the correct approach all along.
Rooting an iphone and installing apps from strange sources in Android are both like living in the ghetto. Using an unrooted iPhone is like living in a jail (mmm, I wonder where I got this analogy from.). Using Android and installing apps only from Play Store, Amazon store, and app you write/your friends write, is the real equivalent to living in a decent neighborhood.
Android is living in a ghetto.
Honest question:
Does describing Android this way make you feel better about your iPhone purchase?
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Okay, idroid, I'll bite. Android sales are 8.4:1 over iPhones. That's 84 android devices sold for every iPhone. The iPhone has lost and no amount if fudging figures like that to be merely 'over 50%' will hide the fact the iPhone has been relegated to the place of the 1997 macintosh.
Just curious, what's your source on this, and does it include iPhone 5 sales?
wow your retarded.. you know this is all caused by users leaving googles walled garden? I feel sorry for you being stuck in yours...
It has been stated before, if your dumb enough to install from unknown untrusted sources, you get what you deserve... its not the devices fault because the user was stupid..
The irony, it burns!
Are there grammar apps in the Google Play store or do you have to sideload them?
would you rather have a door with a lock, or a brick wall protecting you from the outside? clear enough?
... their app submission guidelines are fairly open and transparent, ...
That is simply not true. Apple submission guidelines are ambiguous and their official interpretation of it is a secret. Once you are refused you have no way of knowing why or how to fix it. There are plenty of examples in the media of developers who, after having an app rejected, try in vain to get an answer from Apple on why exactly the app was refused. Most of those cases the developer simply loses all hope and abandon the app, losing months of development.
Android does not have >80% market share. It's something just over 50%.
Whoop, you're (kinda) right, shoulda RTFA'd my own link:
— Android (Google Inc.) — 104.8 million units, 68.1 percent share (46.9 percent a year earlier)
— iOS (Apple Inc.'s iPhone) — 26.0 million units, 16.9 percent share (18.8 percent a year earlier)
— BlackBerry (Research in Motion Ltd.) — 7.4 million units, 4.8 percent share (11.5 percent a year earlier)
— Symbian (mostly used by Nokia Corp.) — 6.8 million units, 4.4 percent share (16.9 percent a year earlier)
— Windows (Microsoft Corp.) — 5.4 million units, 3.5 percent share (2.3 percent a year earlier)
— Linux — 3.5 million units, 2.3 percent share (3.0 percent a year earlier)
— Others — 0.1 million units, 0.1 percent share (0.5 percent a year earlier)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/android-market-share-q3-2012_n_1893292.html
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Did you mistype the ratio? 8.4:1 would be 84 android devices for every 10 iPhones.
Your comment is false. Apple has clearly stated the vast majority of their app rejections are due to quality issues (bugs, mostly). And their guidelines are published, as GP stated (me, actually, just didn't bother to log in at the time).
Controversial cases, like you suggest, are actually rare and in those cases we almost never publicly receive Apple's POV.
"The answer is a single walled garden" is the part that amazes me. Walled gardens, or peer reviewed software are good answers, but a single one? I'm utterly amazed that people will voluntarily pay a lot of money to be locked into a single software market on hardware from a single supplier. It very rarely ends in a happy consumer in the long run. Why not allow alternative markets? Make people *want* to use your software market, don't force them to.
60% of the malware they find is from a certain malware family and it steals your money. That statistic is 100% pure FUD and useless for anything. They specifically choose to include that tidbit and put it in the headline to get the 60% number out there. 60% sounds big, it catches your eye. Why didn't they put out numbers that shows how many apps they "scanned" and how many are actually infected. My guess is the number is VERY small and it would not make headlines. That would be a useful number that people could use to assess if they need to use an antivirus tool or not. Mcafee marketing ain't that stupid, if the number of actual malware out there was high, they sure as hell would be letting you know about it.
People who are stupid and cheap catch the majority of malware?! WHAT?! That's a new concept in the technology world apparently, lol.
As I said before, their guidelines are published, but their interpretation of the guidelines are not. So that is not an open and transparent process.
It would be the equivalent of a country having public laws, but having all case records and jurisprudence sealed for everyone but the judge and the prosecutor. Then, if you lose in court, they just say “you lost” without giving you details, so you have no base to mount your appeals.
Once you are refused you have no way of knowing why or how to fix it.
Actually, once you are rejected, usually you get a pretty straightforward explanation of why, and how to fix it. You just don't hear of those. You hear about the tiny fraction where something went wrong.
IOS 6 users received close to the 197 security patches when/if they upgraded to iOS6( http://www.zdnet.com/apple-provides-197-security-reasons-to-upgrade-to-ios-6-7000004535/) You and jo_ham and your counterparts anon and anon have nothing to fear. Just keep following your(suspiciously)similar Apple roadmaps. Using your new Apple 3D magic carpet ride mapping app of course. Be confident--you never have to check for security updates. After all, your in your new magical garden. It will magically stop all security vulnerabilities. No need to follow any security news. Apple has done it again. I'm sure they've already patented this magical walled garden approach, because it's such a monumental breakthrough in security it must have just been cooked up in their magical walled kitchen. Of course, they can close that kitchen now because, as you have pointed out, it is 'the' answer to the security problems surrounding mobile products. And I'm sure they won't, for the same reason, need to issue security patches so there's probably going to be a few layoffs in Cupertino--well enough said. You know what I'm talking about. Being right--all_the_time. Updates when updating to iOS 7=0. No need to even check. EVER.
Yeah, I feel like I'm living in a jail.... whatever the fuck that's suppose to mean. Not everyone feels the need to fuck with their device. I have the apps I want and the phone works. I know too many retards who've bricked their smartphones or put on some shit OS. I just love the fucktard who was all proud of his modded phone OS while admitting it took him down to about a third of his normal battery life. Fucking G4 generation.
Not exactly. Cydia is fairly safe providing you stick to the default repos. I know it's just specifics, but for equality's sake I'd rephrase that as "downloading apps from strange sources on an iphone and downloading apps from strange sources on an android are both like living in the ghetto". Regardless, to iOS users, just having android is ghetto enough ;)
Many of the applications I need are labeled as "not available in your country"! or falsely labeled "incompatible with your phone".
The only solution is to find a copy from elsewhere on the internet, some of which are bundled with malaware. I am not talking about pirated apps. I am talking about free apps. Many paid apps are also not available but their free counterpart is.
Opensource my ass. Android is the swiss cheese of security and not much different from the old Windows OS in that sense. Add to that that moronic reigon/country based market and you have a haven for malaware developers.
LOL, enjoy paying twice as much for the same thing. Same apps, half the cost -- cause they all know they can fleece you. =)
Pre maybe had it best. Konami code for outside market. LOL
Well...
I'm on a boat with no WiFi and no admin to tether via USB. I could plug in an access point and get myself in trouble but I'd rather not. There's a similar problem when travelling in general.
I'd like to be able to go to Google Play, get the .apk, scan it online or using a PC rather than using battery power on the phone itself and transfer it across to my phone. Google make it difficult to do that.
So then we look at alternative app stores but how safe are they?
Then, finally we cave and after finding it off Google use a rapidshare link and hope for the best. Why do we give in? Well, usually it's because we are weak. But what if your phone has crashed and you really need Google Authenticator or to read some vital info encrypted with an app? That's when you realise it's good to read the docs and see just how open and accessible the method of encryption is.
A blog I run for the wealth
You can't have it both ways. You can't cite the multiple stores of Android as an advantage, and then say that it's the user's fault they get viruses when they use these multiple stores.
Be confident--you never have to check for security updates. After all, your in your new magical garden. It will magically stop all security vulnerabilities. No need to follow any security news.
It's rather amusing that what you meant as sarcasm is actually literally correct. Sysops for enterprise systems need to follow security news and check for security updates. But there is something seriously wrong with a phone platform that would require you do do that. For phones, security improvements should be just rolled up in OS updates, and those should be got on to the users phones in the most trouble free way possible. That's exactly what happens with iOS.
But all that is parallel to the major security protection, which is the single store of vetted apps.
I would never buy a phone that required me to worry about malware. That's one of the reasons I would never buy an Android phone.
Hmm... IDC market share stats are improving. As a one time Symbian engineer, I've followed mobile market share for over a decade, and found Canalys to be much more reliable than IDC. But this time the stats are very, very similar.
http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/stellar-growth-sees-china-take-27-global-smart-phone-shipments-powered-domestic-vendors
If the majority of people catching malware are cheap bums who wanted pirated versions and end up paying much more in background messaging, , then it's all good, as far as I'm concerned.
Some say they first try the pirated versions for any problems before buying the real ones... Here's the thing:
- most Android apps don't cost more than a cup of coffee. Pretty cheap, considering the long hours of work needed to get some type of decent software on that platform.
- at Google Play, you can try an app for 15 minutes before getting an automatic cancel of your order.
http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134336
15 minutes is plenty of time to check if everything works as intended on your particular phone. If you discover a bug later on, you can always contact the developers who will be more than happy to make their app better on the next version.
I can't feel sorry for cheaters who get malware . Piracy is one reason (among others) why most Android developers can't make a living selling apps. It's already hard enough when you're not a big company and can't afford the advertising, and find your app on page # 120 on app search...
When criminals break in, do they come in through the locked door, or through the wall?
Answer: Almost always they smash down or pick the lock of the door.
Conclusion, the wall is safer than the door.
It's a store, not a national justice system. How many stores make public their deliberations about what products to stock? The Apple App Store is exceptional in having a published list of reasons for rejection, and an individual reason for rejection given to each developer who's product was rejected.
For sure it's not easy to engage them in an email dialog on the finer points of what's acceptable and what's not on the fringe of the rules. But they are still pretty much the most open and transparent store in the world as regards reasons why they will and will not accept products.*
(* Excluding of course those stores that have no rejection process whatsoever, and will stock anything submitted.)
The old market share argument again. The same argument the 'doze fanbois have been using for over a decade to explain away MS's crappy security on the desktop.
The truth is any platform that allows users to install whatever, whenever from wherever will have issues with trojans. Linux on the desktop avoids this via a walled garden (package managers) as well as distro diversity (what will work on Ubuntu might not on Fedora, so it's hard to write code to target all distros at once). iOS does the same on smart phones (which is why, like with desktop Linux, malware is almost unheard of).
Windows has never had the concept of a central package authority, thus one of the reasons trojans and malware are such an issue. Android is taking this same approach as Windows -- allowing users to install whatever, whenever from wherever. This is fine for geeks who know what they're doing, but not so good for grandma or your kid sister.
Android's approach is a mistake, but it has little to do with market share and everything to do with the choice not to utilize some sort of walled garden. If Apple took the same approach Android, they would have malware issues on iOS too. Code is code. If you allow suspicious code to execute, it doesn't matter what platform you're on, you could be owned.
In any case, AV software is not the solution -- it is snake oil. The walled garden approach is the best for Joe Average point and clicker. Advanced users should have the option to bypass the garden if they choose, but it shouldn't be obvious or easy.
You do know that Android *is* Linux right? So why are they in two separate categories? Perhaps the Huff Post should have said "Linux (non-Android)" instead of just "Linux."
Firefox's new smartphone OS is going to use Linux too. MeeGo used Linux. Tizen (successor to MeeGo) is also going to be Linux based. (I think I may hold out and get a Tizen phone -- it looks pretty sweet).
So much for the 'Doze fanbois who say "no one uses Linux." Yeah, it just dominates the server and smartphone/tablet market.
Actually, it's what you are saying that isn't true. It's clear you have never been an iOS developer.
I've had apps rejected 3 times. Once it was a crasher bug that the reviewer spotted that I hadn't. (Mea culpa). Once was a wording issue. And one was a button that in a certain edge case should have been disabled and wasn't.
In each case the problem was spelled out clearly. Clearly I had to stop that crash, disable that button in that certain circumstance, and change the wording. Now of clearly they didn't tell me what wording I had to use - that's my job. They just told me what was wrong with the wording I'd originally used.
Apple App Store has 700,000 apps on it. Most of those apps have had several revisions. Each and every revision of those apps has been through the app review process. The examples you've read stories about are a handful. A process gets it right hundreds of thousands of times more often than it gets it wrong doesn't sound broken. Especially when there's opportunities for resubmission and appeal.
We should replace all sports with nerf guns and hide-and-seek. You can't cite improving body and mind as advantage, and then say it's the sportsman's fault when they fall down a ravine/crash in a car/get hit by a ball.
The phone company knows who they are paying this fraudulent payment to. If they get more than a few customers saying "I was the victim of a scam" then they should block SMS access to that company. We of course know why they won't, but they are complicit in participating in fraud.
He has to justify it somehow, obviously it can be based on some deep-seeded insecurity where his self-worth is tied to his choice of device - which is strange given the amount of people with exactly the same device - or through pure stupidity in that sticking to the reputable app stores on either platform is a much safer prospect than venturing to shady alternatives.
Taking personal offence - as he does - to the choices of others where they do not have an effect on him is extremely narcissistic and evidence of a socially malformed individual. Further evidence is here where he defends his choice even in the context of a rather shaky analogy, in which he would rather be sealed in than have the option to leave.
You can't cite the multiple stores of Android as an advantage
He didn't, but nice strawman anyway :P
The examples you've read stories about are a handful.
Just like those of Android malware infections, but don't let that stop your emotionally-charged ranting. I suppose you're intellectually incapable of coming up with solutions to problems and instead just abandon them, you could have suggested users take the walled garden approach on Android by not enabling alternative sources however this would conflict with your emotional attachment to Apple's products so you instead suggest iOS and then leap to the defense of iOS when others point out holes in the platform. Are you seeking validation from someone by suggesting the solution to 3rd party app store malware is the elimination of choice?
ACs don't bother. You're filtered. I don't even know you're there.
You can probably remove that, we've seen plenty of examples to know this is a lie. You only employ that as justification for not replying when you know your arguments have been thoroughly dismantled and proven false.
It's rather amusing that what you meant as sarcasm is actually literally correct.
And with that it seems fanboys have reached a new level, Steve Jobs has actually convinced them that things that happen with Apple devices do so through magic!
I would never buy a phone that required me to worry about malware. That's one of the reasons I would never buy an Android phone.
So you bemoan the malware issue because of the ability to step out a walled garden and love the platform that denies you the ability to step out of a walled garden, which of course simply means you have no self-control and need to be restrained from doing something stupid because if you were presented with the ability to do something stupid you lack the cognitive function to stop yourself from doing it.
Wait... who's trying to feel better about their purchase here? Belittling someone to make your relative stature taller doesn't work. Android IS a ghetto. ANY developer can scrape your information - what you're looking at, what you're buying, where you are, who you're near - no thanks. The whole platform is malware.
At least iOS devices get updates.