This is very bad news for users of the Google OS. Researchers have revealed that several million Android smartphones natively contain malware.
As Google prepares to deploy its next OS, Android 14, the bad news keeps coming. Several dozen applications available on the Store, although very popular, are full of malware. McAfee has also drawn up a complete list of infected applications. But a new study suggests that a large number of Android phones contain malware ex-factory.
The manufacturers indeed delegate certain tasks to firmware vendors. This outsourcing would therefore allow malicious actors to infect the products with malicious codes at the time of their delivery. One type of plugin, proxy plugins, allows criminals to “rent” devices for a maximum of about five minutes, which gives them plenty of time to infect smartphones.
Android: nearly 9 million infected devices
This method of inserting malware started when the price of mobile phone firmware dropped. Competition among firmware distributors has become so fierce that vendors have reportedly turned to less and less expensive companies.
And, according to Fyodor Yarochkin, principal researcher at Trend Micro, “There is nothing for free“. He thus explains that because of this situation of fierce competition, firmwares began to come with an unwanted feature: silent plugins. The researcher scanned dozens of firmware for malware. This one found more than 80 such plugins.
Malware turns devices into proxies which are used to steal and sell SMS messages, take control of social media and online email accounts. Researchers have estimated that there are at least millions of infected devices worldwide, but are concentrated in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. This study also claims that the malicious actors themselves declared that the number of infected devices amounted to about 8.9 million.
Source : theregister
