Google faces new round of Android malware

For the second time in 3 months, Google pulled dozens of malware-infected smartphone apps from the Android Market.

The 34 apps were pulled over the weekend of May 28 and 29, and May 31 by Google after security researchers notified the company.

As in the March episode, when Google removed more than 50 apps, the newest round consisted of pirated legitimate programs that had been modified with malicious code and then re-released to the Android Market under false names.

However, there was an important difference to this campaign, said the CTO of Lookout, a firm that specializes in mobile security. “These apps have the ability to fire up a page on the Android Market,” he said, adding that the hackers can send commands to the smartphone telling it what market page to display.

He speculated that the attackers intended the new feature as a way to dupe users into downloading additional rogue apps that would have malicious functions, just as when a hijacked PC is told to retrieve more malware. “They seem to have been designed to encourage people to install additional payloads,” he said.

He said it was impossible to deduce hacker intent from the malicious apps’ code, but he believed the criminals took the new path because social engineered attacks — those that rely on tricking victims into installing malware rather than depending on an exploited vulnerability — are more difficult to defend against.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217178/Google_faces_new_round_of_Android_malware