A malware called Autolycos was detected by researchers in computer security in some applications that were in the Play Store and that accumulated, totaled more than 3 million downloads.
According to the available information, the malware once installed caused users to subscribe to premium services without being authorized or there was any warning involved.
The first person to report it was specialist Maxime Ingrao, who said, at least it was present in eight different applications used in the operating system developed by Google.
The list begins with Funny Camera that had more than 500 thousand downloads, continues with Razer Keyboard & Theme that accumulated 50 thousand, Wow Beauty Camera with 100 thousand, Gif Emoji Keyboard that had been installed on up to 100 thousand devices, Freeglow Camera with five thousand and Coco Camera with a thousand.
The compendium closed with two applications that had more than one million downloads: Vlog Star Video Editor and Creative 3D Launcher, which placed them as the most popular in the list of affectations.
According to the specialist, the vulnerability was discovered in June 2021 and was reported to Google instantly, the technology company took up to half a year to remove six of the applications.
The Autolycos virus ran URLs in a remote browser and registered them in HTTP instead of Webview with the aim of making them less noticeable to antivirus, in addition to requesting permission to read the content of text messages when installed, a common feature in applications that usually have hidden intentions according to specialists.
DATUM
Some of the tips to prevent malware from being installed on devices is to monitor the consumption of Internet Data, analyze in which applications in the background the battery is spent and have play protect activated, as well as only insalar the necessary applications.
