In June, Google removed over 50 apps from its Play Store, after discovering they contained a malicious adware which could leave Android devices unusable.
A cyber security firm has now revealed a further 25 malicious apps which have been banned by Google, and is advising Android users to remove them from their devices.
The apps allow hackers to target Facebook users and steal their personal details. In total the 25 malicious apps have been installed over 2.3 million times.
These apps were mostly offered services like file managers, wallpaper management, screenshot editor and weather. These apps came with a malware which used to steal your Facebook login details when you launched them on your phone.
Explaining how these malicious apps function, Evina said in its blog post, “When an application is launched on your phone, the malware queries the application name. If it is a Facebook application, the malware will launch a browser that loads Facebook at the same time. The browser is displayed in the foreground which makes you think that the application launched it. When you enter your credentials into this browser, the malware executes javascript to retrieve them. The malware then sends your account information to a server.”
“It’s a fraudulent technique that points out the danger and reflects how important it is to protect yourself. It can not be identified by Facebook as the malware displays in front of the legit app when it is launched,” said Lionel Ferri, CTO, Evina.
Recently, Google has recently removed at least 106 Chrome extensions that were identified as a threat to user privacy after being caught collecting sensitive user data. Cybersecurity firm Awake Security had identified 111 Chrome extensions and alerted Google about the same and out of these 111 extensions, Google took down 106.
These extensions reportedly posed as tools to improve web searches and had the ability to take screenshots, read the clipboard, harvest authentication cookies or grab user keystrokes to read passwords and other confidential information.
