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Malware on My Android Phone

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Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#101

Post by msravi »

dbrgn wrote: post #95
prof18 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QR Reader are load of everything. I went mad to find one a decent one for my parents’ android phone and apparently it doesn’t exists. So in a weekend I’ve created one without any kind of tracking, ads, permission, whatever. Here it is if you guys need one -> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.prof18.sec...

Just wondering: Since you're using zxing library, why not go for the zxing barcode scanner directly? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi... Another option would be to use Google's MLKit. I think they've added support for scanning QR codes in there. It requires Google Play Services though, which is not ideal.

The reviews on that app don't look encouraging:

> No issues initially but now it will give full screen ads often that either force open your browser to a shady site...

> ...thought I should update it. That's when I started getting full page ads and browser redirects. I don't know who hijacked this app...

> Avoid!! Used to be great. Now opens adware, and pops it over the lockscreen. Goes to great lengths to cover its tracks, calling the process "partners" and removing itself from recent applications. I had to use "popup ad detector" to find it. Appalling behaviour. Very underhanded.

The zxing library is open source and different from the app. So looks like something fishy happened to the app recently. From the description of problems, this might even be the app referred to in the article.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#102

Post by morsch »

morsch wrote: post #84
asiando wrote: post #76

What surprised here is that Android doesn’t have a native QR scanner. I’ve always assumed that iOS was late to the game and that Google Search/Lens handled QRs since 1999. Is that not the case (anymore)?

The versions of Android that vendors ship usually have a QR scanner. For example, Samsung's camera app reacts to them by default. I don't think AOSP has a QR reader, but Lineage OS ships a camera that reads them.

I'll add that even though most phones have some sort of built-in reader, there are many reasons a developer would want to use a standalone reader. The Samsung reader launches URLs (99% of QR codes I encounter), and it understands Text and VCARD as well, but I don't know that it understands all kinds of arbitrary or custom QR codes you might want to define.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#103

Post by dotancohen »

TheChaplain wrote: post #11
pw6hv wrote: post #3

A QR code reader was the problem then... I am an Android user since the dawn of time and I was so surprised when my wife showed me that on her iPhone the QR code reader is embedded in her camera app... I wonder why it is not the same in any version of Android that I have used (now I am on Android One). This plus the native support for CardDav and CalDav are pushing me to try iOS next time I have to change my phone.

For CalDav/CardDav there's DAVx⁵. It's on Play if you want to support the developer, or F-Droid if you don't. There is also ICSx⁵ from the same developer, works against outlook.com. I paid for both, they work great.

I'll vouch for DAVx⁵. Terrific app, I've been using it for years through the name change. I use it to sync contacts and calendar with NextCloud.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#104

Post by scatters »

rozab wrote: post #42
oakwhiz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to recommend the open source "Barcode Scanner" app also known as "zxing" on GitHub. However when looking at the app's page, I noticed that someone seems to be engaging in some kind of review-bombing with that app. There are tons of reviews claiming that it was recently updated and has highly intrusive full page popup ads. But looking at the version info, the app hasn't seen an update for over 2 years and…

If you say "OK Google, scan a QR code", it opens up Google Lens which does the job but only seems to be accessible through voice on my device

You can access it without voice, by opening Assistant (long-press Home, double-press Power, etc.) and then typing "Lens" into the search box.

Ridiculously, there's no way that I can see to get an app shortcut icon to it.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#105

Post by tusharpandey13 »

simonmales wrote: post #86
slezyr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or anything from FDroid. I use Barcode Scanner ( https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.google.zxing.client.andr... ) as it scans even damaged codes.

I believe 'Barcode Scanner' was potentially one of the first barcode scanners on Android. Been using it since Android 1.x on the ADP1. Don't forget it is on the Google Play store too. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi... There was a time when QR Code scanning was better in Android than iOS (native in iOS 11.x). The "Google" way of scanning QR Codes is Google Lens, but it doesn't work offlin…

Beware, the play store version shows full screen ads, auto redirects and needs contacts permissions.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#106

Post by msravi »

prof18 wrote: post #13
pw6hv wrote: post #3

A QR code reader was the problem then... I am an Android user since the dawn of time and I was so surprised when my wife showed me that on her iPhone the QR code reader is embedded in her camera app... I wonder why it is not the same in any version of Android that I have used (now I am on Android One). This plus the native support for CardDav and CalDav are pushing me to try iOS next time I have to change my phone.

QR Reader are load of everything. I went mad to find one a decent one for my parents’ android phone and apparently it doesn’t exists. So in a weekend I’ve created one without any kind of tracking, ads, permission, whatever. Here it is if you guys need one -> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.prof18.sec...

Thanks very much! Just installed and does a great job!

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#107

Post by Daniel_sk »

mackrevinack wrote: post #52
MrDresden wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long time Pixel user here (and an Android dev for that matter) and I had no idea the camera had qr support!

just go into the camera settings and turn on lens suggestions

If you are fine with sending the camera stream to Google for analysis...

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#108

Post by abrookewood »

3pt14159 wrote: post #99
j1elo wrote: post #69

The lesson here is not "oh look the author is stupid because they installed a shitty QR scanner app and didn't notice the obvious mistake". The lesson should be; even very experienced technical people fall onto the malware trap. We all have day-to-day problems, unexpected stuff happening, in short life doing its thing. We'll inevitably end up being victims of a scam that happens just the worst possible day of them al…

I took away another lesson: One of the early developers of Android doesn't replace his phone even after being absolutely certain it had malware. That kinda blows my mind.

That's a pretty extreme and expensive option. I think I would have just gone for a factory reset.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#109

Post by teekert »

samoa42 wrote: post #35
TheChaplain wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For CalDav/CardDav there's DAVx⁵. It's on Play if you want to support the developer, or F-Droid if you don't. There is also ICSx⁵ from the same developer, works against outlook.com. I paid for both, they work great.

so there are a ton of different apps for which you can pay to get a feature that ios has builtin. great

Meh that goes 2 ways. Try getting good WebDAV or third party backup solutions in the Mac ecosystem. You win some, you loose some.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#110

Post by growt »

3pt14159 wrote: post #99
j1elo wrote: post #69

The lesson here is not "oh look the author is stupid because they installed a shitty QR scanner app and didn't notice the obvious mistake". The lesson should be; even very experienced technical people fall onto the malware trap. We all have day-to-day problems, unexpected stuff happening, in short life doing its thing. We'll inevitably end up being victims of a scam that happens just the worst possible day of them al…

I took away another lesson: One of the early developers of Android doesn't replace his phone even after being absolutely certain it had malware. That kinda blows my mind.

That would be reasonable if the phone owner was likely the victim of some targeted attack (beeing politician or something similar). But if it's just regular malware that was installed with a drive by download, I would trust the android security model that much.
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