According to the recent reports, Google has recently removed 85 applications from its Play Store. The action took place after Trend Micro’s security researchers found mainly irritating adware hiding inside.
The mobile threat engineer at Trend Micro, Ecular Xu, mentioned this in a blog post on Friday, “We found another example of adware’s potential real-life impact on Google Play. Trend Micro detects this as AndroidOS_Hidenad. HRXH. Apart from displaying advertisements that are difficult to close, it employs unique techniques to evade detection through user behaviour and time-based triggers.”
As per the organization, the majority of the mobile applications that were exposed were found to be masked as photography and gaming apps. Moreover, they were downloaded more than eight million times.
Pop Camera, Super Selfie, One Stroke Line Puzzle, and Cos Camera were the most admired among the 85 applications that were revealed by Trend Micro as being adware-infected. Apart from this:
SPORT TV
Prado Parking Simulator 3D
TV WORLD
City Extremepolis 100
American Muscle Car
Idle Drift
Offroad Extreme
Remote Control
Moto Racing
TV Remote
A/C Remote
Bus Driver
Trump Stickers
Love Stickers
TV EN ESPAÑOL
3d Monster Truck
ITALIA TV
Vietnam TV
Movies Stickers and more.
If the reports to be believed, the applications were listed on the Play Store via dissimilar developer accounts as well as were marked by diverse digital certificates, however; they showcased analogous behaviors & shared the similar code.
Information of Adware Applications of Google Play Store
As per a blog post by Trend Micro, market researchers discovered that these applications would veil their icon and then build a shortcut on the home screen around 30 minutes installation. It would make it tricky for users to uninstall them merely by throwing or dragging to the bin. The applications would even make use of something known as Java reflection. This permitted these applications to examine or adapt the behavior of any given application. After these applications noticed that the user had not closed the Smartphone, they would begin showcasing full-screen ads.
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Moreover, these apps permitted users to shut the program once they viewed the whole ad. The blog post even explored that people behind these applications could also distantly modify the properties of these applications. Digging deeper, securityresearchers noticed the “AndroidOS_Hidenad.HRXH” adware in these applications.
Researchers mentioned that “AndroidOS_Hidenad.HRXH” wasn’t like any other usual adware; the features of this adware are complexity in detection, time-based triggers, and closing the ads. According to the Researchers, the adware was less probable to be efficient on the latest Samsung devices.
Trend Micro’s examination establishes that’s less or more how the 85 applications operated. After opening one of the applications, users are provoked to push buttons in the application, such as “next” or “start”, throughout which time ads are showcased on the device.
Trend Micro’s Ecular Xu write, “However, after a few seconds, the app disappears from the user’s screen and hides its icon on the device. The fake app still runs in a device’s background after hiding itself. Though hidden, the adware is configured to show a full-screen ad every 15 or 30 minutes on the user’s device.”
