Google Android’s fight against Malware
Google wants to make Android safer for its users, for this it has removed more malware-infected applications from its Android Market. This action was done in response to the report of Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor in computer science at North Caroline State University.
Jiang had published a malicious code, dubbed “Plankton” recently in a blog post. “Plankton” has the capacity to remotely access a command-and-control (C&C) server for instructions, and upload additional payloads. Once a person installs the fake app, Plankton has the capacity to call in other files from the hacker-controlled server and this would exploit one or more un-patched Android bugs.
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A total of 10 apps have been pulled by Google. Many of these apps were not affected by the malware but were helping in the delivery of Plankton. “Angry Birds” was the game being used by the malware.
On June 5th, Google Apps were infected with “DroidKungFu” which works on the same bases as “DroidDream” which was the first malware to hit the Android Market. It is connected to an unauthorized Chinese App stores, two days later “YZHCMS”, a Trojan horse was reported, it was sending hidden text messages.
We see that malicious apps are causing a lot of problem to Google Android since the last few months. In March Google had to pull down more than 50 programs which were able to compromise phones and remotely issue commands.
Around two weeks ago Google was forced to suspend nearly three dozen malicious apps from the market. “Droid Dream Light” was the cause for it and was connected to the March Campaign.