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Android App Mutates Source Code, Spreads Virally and Enables Mesh Networks (thestack.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-alive dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from the Delft University of Technology have developed a self-replicating, mutating Android app which can create on-the-fly mesh networks in the event of an infrastructural disaster, or the enabling of internet kill switches by oppressive regimes. The app's source is available at GitHub, and the app itself requires no root privileges to propagate. It can self-compile while it mutates — for example, from a game to a calculator — in transit from one Android device to another, and compatibility with iOS and Windows phones is anticipated.

4 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. I've seen this movie. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

    If I recall, this is how SkyNet gets started ...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  2. i don't think that word means what you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It seems like by "mutation" they mean that the end user can change the app's icon and apparent purpose via a menu. By "virus" they mean that the user can send the app to another phone so that another user can install it (by sideloading). There are no genetic algorithms or hanky self-propogations here.

    1. Re:i don't think that word means what you think by nickweller · · Score: 3

      Technical facts don't count, what they've managed to do is get self-replicating virus and Android into the one sentence.

  3. Re:and how does it get on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It doesn't. The summary makes this app sound like some kind of worm or trojan but it is neither. This is "propagated" by deliberate peer to peer transfer via Android Beam or sideloading. The purpose is to provide killswitch-proof and jackboot-resistant mesh networking for hippies/activists/terrorists.