Android smartphone users get frequent updates about new malware threats, and now they’ve got a new one to bother them. Malware called Autolycos has been found in about eight apps on the Google Play Store, two of which are still active.
Security researcher named Maxim Ingrao in it report goodmentioned that all of these have already been installed 3 million times, which may seem like a small figure, but from a threat perspective, the risks are related.
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Apps discovered with Autolycos malware
vlog star video editor
Creative 3D Launcher
wow beauty camera
GIF Emoji Keyboard
FreeGlow Camera 1.0.0
Coco Camera v1.1
‘Funny Camera’ by Kelytech
Razer Keyboard and Theme’ rxcheldiolola. By
All of these apps have 3 million installs in total, putting more than 3 million smartphone users at risk. The good news is that Google has already taken over six of these apps, and the other two have also been removed from the Play Store.
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Autolycos Malware: How Can It Attack Your Smartphone?
Ingrao has found malware to perform stealth operations, including executing a website URL on a remote browser and appending it to HTTP requests. This way the users find it difficult to detect any intrusion and allow the malware to carry out malicious activities.
In fact, the malicious app is even able to request permission to read the SMS text on the device, giving it access to messages you receive. There is a possibility that malware ends up paying for premium services and you are not able to detect such activities.
So, it’s good that Ingrao discovered these malicious apps and reported them to Google, who responded by taking action on these apps and removing them from the Play Store. Google has made some progress with app screening but episodes like these clearly suggest more work needs to be done.
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