Spyware From Google Play as a Legitimate Android Apps That Infected 196 Country Users

Dangerous spyware apps discovered form the Google play store that posed as legitimate apps and almost 100,000 users downloaded and affected these malicious apps from 196 countries.

Based on the Current mobile-based attacks, Android Platform is one of the biggest Target for Cyber Criminals to spying and Steal the personal information around the globle.

There are 6 malicious Android apps are discovered from play store including the famous game and other following apps.

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• FlashLight
• HZPermis Pro Arabe
• Win7Launcher
• Flappy Bird
• Win7Launcher 
•  Flappy Birr Dog

Researchers detected this Spyware as ANDROIDOS_MOBSTSPY that is capable of stealing various sensitive information such as user location, SMS conversations, call logs and clipboard items.

There are more than 190 countries were affected by this spyware including
Other countries affected include Mozambique, Poland, Iran, Vietnam, Algeria, Thailand, Romania, Italy, Morocco, Mexico, Malaysia, Germany, Iraq, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Argentina, Cambodia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, United Republic of Hungary, etc

Spyware Information Stealing Process

Initially Once the Malware launched then its checks the device’s network availability and later it parse an XML configure file with the help of C&C server.

Later the malware start collects the some of personal information device information such as the language used, its registered country, package name, device manufacturer.

Once the collection process done then it start communicate with its Command & control server and share the complete collected data.

The attacker will pass command to the malware to collect futher sensitive information such as steal SMS conversations, contact lists, files, and call logs

This Malware also capable of performing phishing attacks in order to steal the credentials by pushing the fake Facebook and Google pop-ups.

Once users fill the fake Facebook phishing page, it will just throw the failed Popup reality it will send the credentials to the attacker.

According to Trend Micro researchers, Part of what makes this case interesting is how widely its applications have been distributed. Through our back-end monitoring and deep research, we were able to see the general distribution of affected users and found that they hailed from a total of 196 different countries.

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