Owners of Android phones and/or tablets should be careful. 16 applications available in the Google Play Store hide a Trojan horse. The latter may contain advertising malware (adware) called HiddeAds or Joker malware.
It is Dr.Web researchers who are sounding the alarm in a report published online.
They identified 16 malicious applications circulating in the Google Play Store catalog for Android devices.
Most of these applications are games, but there are also financial applications.
These applications are believed to be infected with three types of malware. Some contain the HiddenAds adware malware. Others hide the Android.FakeApp malware and finally some hide the malware called Joker.
The list of 16 infected applications
As the name suggests, HiddenAds software is malware advertising. Its mission is to flood us with advertising while remaining hidden.
This is how hackers extort money from these advertisements without anyone noticing.
It’s just that our phone’s battery suffers!
Here are the 4 Android applications that would hide HiddenAds software:
- Super Skibydi Killer (1 million download)
- Agent Shooter (500,000 downloads)
- Rainbow Stretch (50,000 downloads)
- Rubber Punch 3D (500,000 downloads)
Once these applications are installed on our phone, the Trojan horse distributes and installs other Chrome-like applications to remain unnoticed.
The aim of the applications infected with the Android.Fake.Apps malware is to redirect us to a fraudulent website in order to steal our money.
Here are the 10 Android apps that allegedly hide Android.Fake.Apps malware:
- Fire Fruits (10,000 downloads)
- Financial Vault (500 downloads)
- FinancialFusion (1000 downloads)
- Eternal Maze (50,000 downloads)
- Stellar Secrets (10,000 downloads)
- Jungle Jewels (10,000 downloads)
- Enchanted Elixir (10,000 downloads)
- Cowboy’s Frontier (10,000 downloads)
- GazEndow Economic (1000 Downloads)
- MoneyMonitor (less than 500 downloads)
Finally, on the infected Joker software applications page, they try to sign us up for fake monthly subscriptions without our knowledge in order to steal our money.
Here are the 2 Android apps that would hide the Joker malware:
- Beauty Wallpaper HD (1,000 Downloads)
- Love Emoji Messenger (50,000 downloads)
How to protect yourself from malware on Android?
Needless to say, if you have any of its applications installed, you must quickly uninstall it.
To remove the installed malware, you need to use a good antivirus program.
It is also the best way to protect ourselves at all times from the various threats that threaten us.
You should not wait for signs of infection before thinking about installing it. You need to plan ahead and install it before the damage occurs!