The Joker malware won’t go away: more than ten infected apps are found on Google Play

Joker is one of the most recurrent Android malware, to such an extent that Google came to recognize that it forces it to constantly reinforce its defenses to keep it at bay. Still, the Joker finds his way back to Google Play again and again, as the security analyst has made clear Tatyana Shishkova on his Twitter.

Tatyana has discovered almost 20 apps on Google Play with the Joker malware And while some of them have barely been downloaded, there are some on the list with more than 50,000 downloads. Fortunately, they have already been removed from Google Play, but if you have any of them installed, you should uninstall them as soon as possible.

Joker found on Google Play … again

EmojiOne is one of the most popular infected apps. Had over 50,000 downloads

Joker is a malware with a funny name but to be taken seriously. As soon as you install it, it starts spy on your mobile, copying your SMS messages and contacts. As if this were not enough, Joker’s main objective is to steal money from you by various methods.

Initially, the creators of Joker obtained your money after making the mobile phone would automatically subscribe to Premium SMS services no interaction on your part, just by opening the application. Over time, Google strengthened the SMS front, so the creators of Joker modernized their malware with a system from the early days of mobile telephony: WAP billing.

Joker has become one of the most recurrent Android malware in general and Google Play in particular. The latest batch of applications infected with Joker on Google Play is thirteen applications, as of August. They are as follows:

The good news is that none of them are already available on Google Play. However, if you installed any of them before it was removed from Google Play, your phone would still be exposed to potential spying and malware fraud. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you do not open and uninstall them.

An endemic malware

Since 2017, Google has been trying to improve its malware detection system to take down Joker, but they seem to have met his match. The team behind Joker he modifies it frequently to get around the Google Play Protect controls. In addition, according to Google, it is a very prolific team, capable of sending dozens of infected applications to the Google store in a single day.

The detection of Joker has other difficulties, and it is that applications are submitted to Google Play for review “clean”, and it is not until later when they are updated with the “viral load”, either as updates to Google Play or as an update as soon as the application is opened. All this trying to stand out in the app store through fake reviews and / or incentivized downloads in other apps.

The result is a perfect storm in which the most accurate thing is not to say that the Joker returns, but that he has never left. In the arms race between Google and Joker, the bad guys seem to be winningWell, we’ve seen it back on Google Play over and over again. Google is capable of filtering a good part of the malware (last year they claimed to have killed more than 1,000 applications with the malware), but the villain continues to appear, time and time again.

Without tighter control of the Android ecosystem and a more thorough review of the apps before and after they hit the store, it looks like Joker is going to have a good season with us. However, it is estimated that almost 4,000 applications are uploaded every day new to Google Play, so the percentage of infection remains low, although never zero.

Via | Twitter

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The Joker malware won’t go away: more than ten infected apps are found on Google Play

was originally published in

Engadget Android

by Iván Ramírez.