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CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

kaspersky.com

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Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#21

Post by tabjsina »

jimrandomh wrote: post #11

Does anyone have information on affected and unaffected version numbers? I have a version of this installed, but it's an old one, and may not have updated to the malware one because I disabled automatic updates. (Specifically because I was afraid of this, in fact.)

May 22, 2019: 5.10.6.20190522 – safe

June 6, 2019: 5.11.0.20190611 – safe

June 14, 2019: 5.11.3.20190614 – safe

June 16, 2019: 5.11.3.20190616 – unsafe

June 24, 2019: 5.11.5.20190624 – unsafe

July 10, 2019: 5.11.7.20190710 – unsafe

July 23, 2019: 5.12.0.20190723 – unsafe

July 25, 2019: 5.12.0.20190725 – unsafe

July 30, 2019: 5.12.0.20190730 – safe

August 8, 2019: 5.12.3.20190809 – safe

August 14, 2019: 5.12.3.20190814 – safe

August 16, 2019: 5.12.5.20190816 – safe

August 20, 2019: 5.12.5.20190820 – safe

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/cwk0y4/camscanner_...

Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#23

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

sp332 wrote: post #7

Just to clarify the headline: the app didn't have malware when most of the users installed it. A recent update added the malware.

That's not accurate, really. 100M+ users didn't install the thing overnight--they've downloaded it over the course of years. If they had it installed, and they had automatic updates turned on (which most people do), there was a several month window when they had a version of the app that contained malware, even if it was eventually removed.

Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#24

Post by viraptor »

thebruce87m wrote: post #4

Is this just a non issue on iOS? If so, why?

It's not a non-issue: https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Malware_for_iOS

The store rules and moderation is a bit stricter, do that may be one reason we hear less about iOS malware. But it's still out there.

Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#25

Post by 0942v8653 »

thebruce87m wrote: post #4

Is this just a non issue on iOS? If so, why?

I had the CamScanner app on my iPhone for quite some time, then uninstalled when I launched it and saw (IIRC) Chinese text appear. I'm assuming that ownership changed around that time, and if the Android and iOS apps have the same owner, I wouldn't trust it either.

An iOS trojan would have slightly more limited impact, but if (for example) you gave the app "Access to your Photos" in order to save something, the app would still be able to read all of your photos and potentially send them back to home base as it chooses.

Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#26

Post by baroffoos »

sp332 wrote: post #7

Just to clarify the headline: the app didn't have malware when most of the users installed it. A recent update added the malware.

This seems like such a common occurrence, not only with android apps but anything with auto updates. It seems like the only solution right now is to purely limit yourself to apps from f-droid. Not necessarily because open source is resistant to this, but because no spammer would bother attacking such a small group.

Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#27

Post by saagarjha »

baroffoos wrote: post #26
sp332 wrote: post #7

Just to clarify the headline: the app didn't have malware when most of the users installed it. A recent update added the malware.

This seems like such a common occurrence, not only with android apps but anything with auto updates. It seems like the only solution right now is to purely limit yourself to apps from f-droid. Not necessarily because open source is resistant to this, but because no spammer would bother attacking such a small group.

Sounds much like the Chrome Extension Store, where people would hijack/buy popular extensions and add malicious scripts to them.

Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#28

Post by saagarjha »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #8

Rather than disappear it from the Store entirely, it would be nice if Google could leave a placeholder with a warning; at least it would serve an educational purpose. Also, does the Play Store app have a way to notify users of a banned app that is still installed? I decided to check my wife's phone proactively, but I don't think she would otherwise have had a clue of malware (but has been getting weird and annoying p…

> Rather than disappear it from the Store entirely, it would be nice if Google could leave a placeholder with a warning; at least it would serve an educational purpose.

This would also make the Play Store look bad.

Re: CamScanner, a malicious Android app with more than 100M downloads in Google Play

#30

Post by abrookewood »

oh_sigh wrote: post #20
dantheman wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The calendar thing is probably this: https://lifehacker.com/how-to-prevent-spammers-from-infiltra... check your emails

I got hit by this exact one(free iphone X) recently, and couldn't find anything in my email. Surely, that kind of email would just look like spam, so isn't the correct solution for google to just not auto-add calendar events if their source email is spam?

Yep, my wife got exactly the same thing. Apparently those entries will appear in your calendar even if the email was sent to spam. You have to configure gmail to not automatically add the entries.
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