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TWO SPYWARE SENDING DATA OF MORE THAN 1.5M USERS TO CHINA WERE FOUND IN GOOGLE
PLAY STORE

July 9, 2023  By Pierluigi Paganini




TWO APPS ON THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE WITH MORE THAN 1.5 MILLION DOWNLOADS HAVE BEEN
DISCOVERED SPYING ON USERS AND SENDING DATA TO CHINA.

Researchers from cybersecurity firm Pradeo discovered two malicious apps on
Google Play hinding spyware and spying on up to 1.5 million users.

Both applications are file management apps from the same developer and have been
discovered sending data to multiple servers in China.


00:00/00:00


The first app named “File Recovery and Data Recovery” (com.spot.music.filedate)
has over 1 million installs, and the second one named “File
Manager” (com.file.box.master.gkd) has over 500,000 installs.

“They are programmed to launch without users’ interaction, and to silently
exfiltrate sensitive users’ data towards various malicious servers based in
China. We have alerted Google of the discovery before publishing this alert.”
reads the analysis published by Pradeo.



The two apps have been designed to steal a broad range of information, including
users’ contact lists, media files (Pictures, audio and video contents),
real-time location, mobile country code, network provider name, network code of
the SIM provider, operating system version, device brand, and model.

The researchers noticed that both app perform more than a hundred transmissions
of the collected data, which is unusual for modern spyware.

The two apps have a large number of users but no reviews, a circumstance that
suggests the threat actors used an install farm or mobile device emulators to
fake those numbers to increase the rank of the apps in the store.

 * Media compiled in the application: Pictures, audio and video contents
 * Real time user location
 * Mobile country code
 * Network provider name
 * Network code of the SIM provider
 * Operating system version number, which can lead to vulnerable system exploit
   like the Pegasus spyware did
 * Device brand and model

The two apps have advanced permissions that allow them to hide their icons from
the general view to make their uninstallation harder.

Below are the recommendations provided by the experts:

First, we advise anyone using these applications to delete them.

As an individual

 * Do not download applications that do not have any reviews while thousands of
   users.
 * Read reviews when there are any, they usually reflect the applications true
   nature.
 * Always carefully read permissions before accepting them.

As an organization

 * Sensibilize collaborators on mobile threats.
 * Automate mobile detection and response to offer a secure flexibility to
   users, by vetting applications and preventing their launch when non-compliant
   with your security policy.

The discovery at hand is not an isolated case. Unfortunately, in recent years,
multiple malicious apps have been found available through the official Google
Play Store, highlighting the need to refine the app analysis processes during
the publishing phase and throughout the entire lifecycle within app stores. My
recommendation is to only install applications that we are familiar with,
published by reliable developers, and, most importantly, that we truly need.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Android)


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PIERLUIGI PAGANINI

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and
Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he
is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer.
Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security
expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical
Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that
security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security
blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US.
Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some
major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island,
Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security
magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency
and Bitcoin”.




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