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Malware on My Android Phone

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Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#151

Post by Cyykratahk »

georgyo wrote: post #62
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...

I've been using this one since the Android 1.0: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi... What's interesting, is that despite the app not being updated since 2018, open source, and containing no ads or tracking the reviews are saying it recently became adware. Searching for barcode scanner in the app store brings you to a horrible sea of ad supported crap ware, and it seems like that crap ware w…

Yeah, something's fishy.

I scraped the latest 1000 reviews (coincidentally almost exactly 12 months worth).

The "adware" reviews are all very recent with large amounts of votes.

They seem to start on December 18, with 162 1-star reviews in the following 25 days -- more than all the 1-star reviews in the 6 months prior.

I wouldn't be surprised if these reviews are not only automated spam, but are constantly being deleted and reposted to keep them "fresh", and at the top of the "relevant reviews".

Charts: https://imgur.com/a/QUyHcHu

CSV of review data: https://pastebin.com/ZanYgd5Y

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#152

Post by MrDresden »

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

Well actually I just tried this with the normal camera and it worked fine without activating lens (or having given it any permissions).

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#153

Post by toper-centage »

timdaub wrote: post #40

FYI: I created a website that quickly scans QR codes so that you won't have to download or open any ads-filled QR code apps anymore: - https://scan.lol The code is open source too: https://github.com/TimDaub/scan.lol

I just use Firefox. There's a QR button on the URL bar

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#154

Post by 3pt14159 »

r1ch wrote: post #127
3pt14159 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doing so would mean you don't trust the Android security model. No app can be granted permission to affect the OS or other apps unless the phone is rooted and you give it root.

I mean, I don't trust as a binary. I have continuums of trust from very little to very much. I know that people are capable of privilege escalation and persistence. I've seen it with my own eyes. I know it's unlikely that that specific piece of malware was able to get persistent root, but it could have and it also could have exfiltrated cryptographic keys or certificate or bearer tokens while it was on there. Better to just get a new phone if you're such an experienced software developer that you literally helped build Android.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#155

Post by neotek »

Mo3 wrote: post #116
timdaub wrote: post #40

FYI: I created a website that quickly scans QR codes so that you won't have to download or open any ads-filled QR code apps anymore: - https://scan.lol The code is open source too: https://github.com/TimDaub/scan.lol

Doesn't work for me, fyi. iPhone 11, white blank screen

You may know this already, but just in case: the iOS camera app has a QR reader built in, just point the camera at a valid code and it’ll automatically display a tooltip containing the URL which will open in Safari if you tap it.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#156

Post by c_prompt »

> Listing the apps installed on my phone should give me the option to sort them by “Latest installed”. I am pretty sure that if I had had this option and I had seen a QR Code Scanner installed just a few days ago, it would have immediately grabbed my attention. As it is, the way Android lists the installed apps is pretty useless for this purpose.

I was able to find it pretty quickly by going to:

Settings > Battery > Usage Details > Battery Usage Since Full Charge

This showed me the most recent app used. As I hadn't used the QR scanner app in quite some time, it seemed a reasonable place to look first.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#158

Post by ocdtrekkie »

nodamage wrote: post #71

> Google Play Protect was also completely unhelpful, which was a big disappointment. Google Play Protect performs notoriously poorly compared to dedicated malware apps: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/google-play-protect

Yeah, looking at the AVTEST.org results, it has generally appeared Google would've been better off buying a no-name competitor's app rather than trusting their own engineers to implement security software: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/mobile-devices/android/...

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#159

Post by rjmunro »

simonmales wrote: post #113
tusharpandey13 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ah, looks like mine installation is actually from FDroid, and never realised.

I've installed from Google Play, and never seen any ads. It has contacts permission, but that's because sharing contacts with a QR code is something I use it for frequently (it can generate codes as well as scan them).

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#160

Post by wwn_se »

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.

Samsung phones have qr reading in the camera app since a few years at least. Google also has Lens but that does not work offline (?)
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