Saturday, May 24, 2025
HomeMalware7 Malicious Apps Reappeared on the Play Store Using Google Icons

7 Malicious Apps Reappeared on the Play Store Using Google Icons

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

Seven malicious apps reappeared in Play store with slightly different names under a new publisher account.

Those malicious apps are already reported to Google by Symantec researchers and the original apps were already removed. The malware Android.Reputation.1 found hidden at least in seven of apps in the U.S. that offered fun and cool features.

The malware dubbed Android.Reputation.1 appears to be in emoji keyboard additions, space cleaners, calculators, app lockers, and call recorders.

Once it installed to the device it follows a number of methods to stay Persistent on the device, it erases the tracks and disappears.

- Advertisement - Google News

The malware used to wait for a number of number hours to launch malicious activity, so as to avoid getting detected by the user.

It has an ability to change the icon after installation, it uses trusted icons of Google play store and Google maps. Also, the app tries to elevate the privileges and it uses Google Play icon while requesting administrator privileges.

The installed malicious apps push ads through Google Mobile Services, and URLs are launched in the web that redirects the users to the scam pages like “Congratulations, you won

Package Names used by Malicious apps Reappeared

malicious apps reappeared

Common Defences and Mitigations

  • Give careful consideration to the permission asked for by applications.
  • Download applications from trusted sources.
  • Stay up with the latest version.
  • Encrypt your devices.
  • Make frequent backups of important data.
  • Install anti-malware on their devices.
  • Stay strict with CIA Cycle.
Gurubaran
Gurubaran
Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Latest articles

Zero-Trust Policy Bypass Enables Exploitation of Vulnerabilities and Manipulation of NHI Secrets

A new project has exposed a critical attack vector that exploits protocol vulnerabilities to...

Threat Actor Sells Burger King Backup System RCE Vulnerability for $4,000

A threat actor known as #LongNight has reportedly put up for sale remote code...

Chinese Nexus Hackers Exploit Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile Vulnerability

Ivanti disclosed two critical vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2025-4427 and CVE-2025-4428, affecting Ivanti Endpoint Manager...

Hackers Target macOS Users with Fake Ledger Apps to Deploy Malware

Hackers are increasingly targeting macOS users with malicious clones of Ledger Live, the popular...

Resilience at Scale

Why Application Security is Non-Negotiable

The resilience of your digital infrastructure directly impacts your ability to scale. And yet, application security remains a critical weak link for most organizations.

Application Security is no longer just a defensive play—it’s the cornerstone of cyber resilience and sustainable growth. In this webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy (CTO of Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface), will share how AI-powered application security can help organizations build resilience by

Discussion points


Protecting at internet scale using AI and behavioral-based DDoS & bot mitigation.
Autonomously discovering external assets and remediating vulnerabilities within 72 hours, enabling secure, confident scaling.
Ensuring 100% application availability through platforms architected for failure resilience.
Eliminating silos with real-time correlation between attack surface and active threats for rapid, accurate mitigation

More like this

Hackers Target macOS Users with Fake Ledger Apps to Deploy Malware

Hackers are increasingly targeting macOS users with malicious clones of Ledger Live, the popular...

GenAI Assistant DIANNA Uncovers New Obfuscated Malware

Deep Instinct’s GenAI-powered assistant, DIANNA, has identified a sophisticated new malware strain dubbed BypassERWDirectSyscallShellcodeLoader. This...

New Formjacking Malware Targets E-Commerce Sites to Steal Credit Card Data

A disturbing new formjacking malware has emerged, specifically targeting WooCommerce-based e-commerce sites to steal...