That means users will have to remove the app themselves.
So far, however, Google has yet to use its Google Play Protect tool to remove the app from devices that had it installed. Google removed the app after Collier privately notified the company. Because of its malign intent, we jumped past our original detection category of Adware straight to Trojan, with the detection of Android/. To verify this is from the same app developer, we confirmed it had been signed by the same digital certificate as previous clean versions. Furthermore, the added code used heavy obfuscation to avoid detection. No, in the case of Barcode Scanner, malicious code had been added that was not in previous versions of the app. As Collier was able to establish from the code itself and a digital certificate that digitally signed it, the malicious behavior was the result of changes made by the developer. Some SDKs, unbeknownst to developers, end up pushing the limits. Was this the scheme all along, to have an app lie dormant, waiting to strike after it reaches popularity?”Ĭollier said that adware is often the result of third-party software development kits, which developers use to monetize apps available for free. “It is baffling to me that an app developer with a popular app would turn it into malware.
#BARCODE READER APP ANDROID UPDATE#
“It is frightening that with one update an app can turn malicious while going under the radar of Google Play Protect,” Collier wrote. The researcher said an update delivered in December included code that was responsible for the bombardment of ads.
Eventually, Collier identified the culprit as the Barcode Scanner. None of the customers had recently installed any apps, and all the apps they had already installed came from Play, a market that despite its long history of admitting malicious apps remains safer than most third-party sites. Malwarebytes mobile malware researcher Nathan Collier was at first puzzled. Then in late December, researchers with security firm Malwarebytes began receiving messages from customers complaining that ads were opening out of nowhere on their default browser.
#BARCODE READER APP ANDROID UPGRADE#
A benign barcode scanner with more than 10 million downloads from Google Play has been caught receiving an upgrade that turned it to the dark side, prompting the search-and-advertising giant to remove it.īarcode Scanner, one of dozens of such apps available in the official Google app repository, began its life as a legitimate offering.
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