Tech giant Google removed 22 apps from the Google Play Store that showed malicious behavior. Sophos security researcher has confirmed that these applications are used in fraudulent advertisements. Some of these popular applications, such as Sparkle Flashlight, are downloaded 1 million times. Google removed these apps in the last week of November.
Most of these applications were created in June of this year. Ads are displayed in a hidden browser window where false user interaction with them generated fake ad clicks. This task is performed at any time, regardless of whether you are using the application.
Usually, users will never get know about this. However, if your mobile battery is running out of power or data usage has increased, one of the applications must be installed on your smartphone.
“Andr/Clickr-ad is a well-organized, persistent malware that has the potential to cause serious harm to end users, as well as the entire Android ecosystem. These apps generate fraudulent requests that cost ad networks significant revenue as a result of the fake clicks. From the user’s perspective, these apps drain their phone’s battery and may cause data overages as the apps are constantly running and communicating with servers in the background. Furthermore, the devices are fully controlled by the C2 server and can potentially install any malicious modules upon the instructions of the server,” Sopos said in the blogpost.
Notably, Google recently removed 13 apps from its Play Store. This is because those are malwares that are actually disguised as the applications.
List of 22 Apps Removed by Google from Play Store
1) Sparkle FlashLight
2) Snake Attack
3) Math Solver
4) ShapeSorter
5) Tak A Trip
6) Magnifeye
7) Join Up
8) Zombie Killer
9) Space Rocket
10) Neon Pong
11) Just Flashlight
12) Table Soccer
13) Cliff Diver
14) Box Stack
15) Jelly Slice
16) AK Blackjack
17) Color Tiles
18) Animal Match
19) Roulette Mania
20) HexaFall
21) HexaBlocks
22) PairZap
If you had installed any of these apps from Google Play Store or from any other third party links, we highly recommend you uninstall them as soon as possible.
