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Malware Posing As Official Google Play Store Evades Most Security Checks

Posted by timothy on from the ok-ok-using-ios-doesn't-count dept.

DavidGilbert99 (2607235) writes Mobile malware on Android is nothing new, but now security company FireEye has discovered in the Google Play store a sophisticated piece of malware which is posing as....the official Google Play store. Using the same icon but a different name, the malware is not being detected by the vast majority of security vendors, is difficult to uninstall and steals your messages, security certificates and banking details.

7 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Dear submitter,

    Link me to an article. I don't want to search for the company's announcement, and I don't want to just take your word for it.

    1. Re:Link? by DavidGilbert99 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here is the link: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/malwa... I submitted it to Slashdot but it failed to publish it.

  2. You mean the malware isn't Google Play itself by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, with the recent dumbing down of fine-grained authorizations when installing apps, it's Google Play itself that feels like a security liability.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Link? by devjoe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not sure how this brief blurb with no link got posted, but here is a link to an actual story.

  4. Exposes a defect in Android by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative
    According to the article (clickable link for the lazy):
    • The app is titled "googl app stoy". To start with, that's a trademark infringement.
    • If the user can install an app that the same user cannot uninstall, the mechanism allowing the app to do this is a defect in Android.
  5. Re:Uh... by Little_Professor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here is the link to the original blog posting by the security company FireEye http://www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/2014/06/what-are-you-doing-dsencrypt-malware.html

  6. Re:Umm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Citation required

    "Apple manages to keen their app store malware free, why can't Google?"
    -- BasilBrush, Slashdot comment #47273651

    There ya go...