Barcode Scanner is an application that possibly many users in Spain have installed on their Android phones. This app contains a Trojan inside it, as Malwarebytes has discovered. The application accumulated more than 10 million downloads in the Play Store, but it has already been removed from the application store.
Android users are asked to have Barcode Scanner installed on their devices have it removed immediately, due to the risks that the application entails. One of the most confusing aspects is that such a popular app has managed to introduce a Trojan and take so long to be detected.
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Barcode Scanner removed for having a Trojan
Barcode Scanner was an app that allowed users to read a QR or barcode code, as well as generate one. It accumulated more than 10 million downloads and had positive ratings. At the beginning of December the application was updated and that is when this malware was detected in it. It was in this update that the Trojan in question was introduced.
In this update added code that was not present in its previous versions. Obfuscation was used so that it could not be detected. In the first instance, the Malwarebytes team considered that adware (which displays a huge number of ads) was introduced into the app, but after checking the update they could see that it was a Trojan horse.
After that update, Barcode Scanner displayed ads within the phone’s browser, in addition to linking to deceptive pages and seeking users to download apps to clean the phone, which were fake and malicious applications. So it could pose a risk to Android users who have it installed.
The Malwarebytes team reported this situation to Google, who removed the app from the Play Store quickly. Furthermore, Google Play Protect already detects it as a malicious application. If you have this app installed on your mobile, it is recommended to remove it as soon as possible.
The entry Uninstall Barcode Scanner from your mobile: a Trojan detected inside it appears first in The Free Android.
