Google bans 11 applications from the Play Store for injecting malware, details here

Google has pulled 11 applications from its marquee Play Store for injecting malware into users’ smartphones. se mobile apps have been associated with Joker malware, which emerged last year. A team of researchers at cybersecurity firm Check Point has revealed that a new variant of Joker Dropper and Premium Dialer spyware was discovered hiding inside legitimate applications in Google Play Store.

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Check Point has released a statement saying that ir team has found a new variant of Joker Dropper and Premium Dialer spyware which hides in applications that appear to be legitimate. It also ded new version of Joker was able to downlo ditional malware into phone which would subscribe to premium services without user’s consent or kwledge.

11 apps banned by Google

Here’s a list of all 11 mobile applications banned by Google:

• com.imcompress.android
• com.relax.relaxation.androidsms
• com.cheery.mess.sendsms (two instances)
• com.peason.lovinglovemess
• com.contact.withme.texts
• com.hmvoice.friendsms
• com.file.recovefiles
• com.LPlocker.lockapps
• com.remindme.alram
• com.training.memorygame

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Check Point has explained that  Joker malware was able to get past security and vetting barriers set by Google Play with help of few changes to its code. It also said that  malware was using an old technique from conventional PC threat landscape which helped it avoid detection by Play Store. new variant of this malware makes use of two main components to subscribe app users to premium services. two components include tification Listener service and dynamic dex file loed from C&C server.

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Joker is among  most frequently found malware on Android devices, and this isn't first time that it has me its way to applications on Google Play Store. Earlier this year, Google h removed more than 1,700 apps that contained a malware called Bre, also kwn as Joker.

Vim Kotov and Alec Guertin from  Android Security & Privacy Team h stated in a blog post that Google’s security team h been working to identify and track such malware since 2017. malware was previously used for SMS fraud, however, with updated security checks, it h to be modified for billing fraud.

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Im credits: Google