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Google Play Apps With Over 4.3 Million Downloads Stole Pics, Pushed Porn Ads (arstechnica.com) 48

Google has banned dozens of Android apps downloaded millions of times from the official Play Store after researchers discovered they were being used to display phishing and scam ads or perform other malicious acts. Ars Technica reports: A blog post published by security firm Trend Micro listed 29 camera- or photo-related apps, with the top 11 of them fetching 100,000 to 1 million downloads each. One crop of apps caused browsers to display full-screen ads when users unlocked their devices. Clicking the pop-up ads in some cases caused a paid online pornography player to be downloaded, although it was incapable of playing content. The apps were carefully designed to conceal their malicious capabilities. The apps also hid their icons from the Android app list. That made it hard for users to uninstall the apps, since there was no icon to drag and delete. The apps also used compression archives known as packers to make it harder for researchers -- or presumably, tools Google might use to weed out malicious apps -- from analyzing the wares.

Trend Micro researchers discovered another batch of apps that falsely promised to allow users to "beautify" their pictures by uploading them to a designated server. Instead of delivering an edited photo, however, the server provided a picture with a fake update prompt in nine different languages. The apps made it possible for the developers to collect the uploaded photos, possibly for use in fake profile pics or for other malicious purposes. The developers took pains to prevent users from detecting what was happening. "The remote server used by these apps is encoded with BASE64 twice in the code," Wu wrote. "In addition, several of these apps can also hide themselves via the same hidden technique mentioned above."

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Google Play Apps With Over 4.3 Million Downloads Stole Pics, Pushed Porn Ads

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  • by bob4u2c ( 73467 )

    "The remote server used by these apps is encoded with BASE64 twice in the code," Wu wrote.

    Those tricky devils!

  • by Freshly Exhumed ( 105597 ) on Saturday February 02, 2019 @12:09AM (#58058688) Homepage

    Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)

    Package "Label" Installs

    com.beauty.camera.years.pro "Pro Camera Beauty" 1,000,000+
    com.cartoon.art.photo.ygy.camera "Cartoon Art Photo" 1,000,000+
    com.lyrebirdstudio.emoji_camera "Emoji Camera" 1,000,000+
    art.eff.filter.photo.editor "Artistic effect Filter" 500,000+
    art.filter.editor.imge "Art Editor" 100,000+
    com.beauty.camera.project.cloud "Beauty Camera" 100,000+
    com.selfie.camerapro.pro "Selfie Camera Pro" 100,000+
    com.camera.beauty.kwok.horizon "Horizon Beauty Camera" 100,000+
    com.camera.ygysuper.photograph "Super Camera" 100,000+
    com.effects.art.photo.for.self "Art Effects for Photo" 100,000+
    com.solidblack.awesome.cartoon.art.pics.photo.editor "Awesome Cartoon Art" 100,000+
    com.photoeditor.artfilterphoto "Art Filter Photo" 50,000+
    com.photocorner.artfilter.arteffect.prizma "Art Filter Photo Effcts" 10,000+
    com.picfix.cartoonphotoeffects "Cartoon Effect" 10,000+
    com.picsartitude.arteffect "Art Effect" 10,000+
    com.csmart.photoframelab "Photo Editor" 5,000+
    com.wallpapers.nuclear.hd.hd3d.best.live.nuclear "Wallpapers HD" 5,000+
    com.perfectmakeup.magicartfilter.photoeditor.selfiecamera "Magic Art Filter Photo Editor" 5,000+
    appworld.fillartphotoeditor.technology "Fill Art Photo Editor" 1,000+
    com.artflipphotoediting "ArtFlipPhotoEditing" 1,000+
    com.artphoto.artfilter.artpiczone "Art Filter" 1,000+
    com.photoeditor.cartoonphoto "Cartoon Art Photo" 1,000+
    com.photoeditor.prismaeffects "Prizma Photo Effect" 1,000+
    com.cmds.artphotofiltereffect "Cartoon Art Photo Filter" 100+
    com.latestnewappzone.photoartfiltereditor "Art Filter Photo Editor" 100+
    com.livewallpaperstudio.pixture "Pixture" 100+
    app.pixelworlds.arteffect "Art Effect" 50+
    timepassvideostatus.photoarteffect.cartoonpainteffect "Photo Art Effect" 10+
    com.techbuzz.cartoonfilter "Cartoon Photo Filter" 5+

    Package "Label" Installs

  • by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ) on Saturday February 02, 2019 @12:13AM (#58058702) Homepage

    The basic problem (and benefit, sadly) of these wretched App Stores is pretty simple. They put everyone on a level playing field to publish apps. This seems like a good thing, but it's not. Not even close.

    Gone are the days of going to a reputable vendor to acquire software you're interested in. Instead, you search the app store, and reputable and disreputable apps are offered up.

    This is a serious problem and the Achilles heel of App Store, and why I've railed against them for years. They are not a good idea, not even close. We need to go back to the previous way of doing things, where reputable companies are rewarded by customers when they act responsibly, and disreputable companies go out of business cuz no one buys their garbage.

    The App store model short circuits this, and when an App is found to be malicious, the publisher found to be disreputable, they just fold up their junk and republish under a new name, with a new malicious app. This is really broken folks.

    • The problem is the stupid walled garden of "smart" phones. Either you're being fucked by Apple or Google. Take your pick. There's no way around it.
  • How came I never get apps that push porn? I feel somehow cheated.
    • You have to pay extra for that.

      I observe that the compromised apps are all of the variety that apply cute stickers to selfies. I wonder what sort of porn those users are being targeted with? Perhaps deepfakes of themselves.

  • I have Trend micro installed at work, it interferes with the OS, deletes software even code I've written and I'm debugging, locks files, slows down internet access and has annoying popups. I can't delete this junk due to corp policy. I lose hours of productivity every week due to it. Believe me, if you install TM products to deal with the problem of malware, then now you have two problems.
  • Wu wrote. "In addition, several of these apps can also hide themselves via the same hidden technique mentioned above."

    Wait.... Why is that even possible? Every app that is installed should have an icon on the home screen, and if the icon is missing or damaged, the OS should substitute a default icon. Is there some valid/reasonable use for this behavior that I'm missing? If not, it seems like the right fix is to just remove the feature.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Wu wrote. "In addition, several of these apps can also hide themselves via the same hidden technique mentioned above."

      Wait.... Why is that even possible? Every app that is installed should have an icon on the home screen, and if the icon is missing or damaged, the OS should substitute a default icon. Is there some valid/reasonable use for this behavior that I'm missing? If not, it seems like the right fix is to just remove the feature.

      Unfortunately it's not possible due to Android architecture. An APK f

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