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Malware on My Android Phone

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Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#161

Post by drewmol »

3pt14159 wrote: post #154
r1ch wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you don't fear as a binary then threat assessment and mitigation cost may be a factor. Could be a closet ios user.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#162

Post by rjmunro »

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 issue is that some malware installed itself with the name QR scanner, not that Android does or doesn't have a QR scanner. Most Android camera apps (each phone comes with its own) will recognise QR codes fine, although the UI is sometimes annoying.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#163

Post by christophilus »

Daniel_sk wrote: post #100
simonmales wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice tip!

It will probably be not good enough, many banking apps are using Google Safety Net to detect rooted or not Google certified devices with Google Play installed indirectly. AFAIK it's now quite difficult to break. I sort of understand the bank decision on this. There is a lot of malware on Android and users are easily tricked into installing some side-loaded APKs, and there is also a lot of hidden malware on Google Pla…

I wonder if it would be possible to have something like qubes or maybe like docker that could run a full-fledged, sandboxed Android instance for a single app, while running FOSS like a sane person as your primary ecosystem.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#164

Post by aembleton »

underlines wrote: post #16
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.

Xiaomi's Android distro MIUI has QR code scanning in the Camera app by default. Most asian target markets do that, because QR codes are more common here.

MIUI also allows you to sort apps by installation time

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#165

Post by Rooster61 »

riphdd2020 wrote: post #128
alex_duf wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the same issue as the author of the post. The barcode scanner wasn't any shitty app, it was the one that was recommended a long time ago by Google authenticator. I had left it installed on my phone and it must had had the dodgy update that got it banned from the app store.

> the one that was recommended a long time ago by Google authenticator That's where I remember it from, thanks! However I think there's some confusion here: the one the blog mentions is not https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi... (github based, relatively trustworthy looking, recommended by Google Authenticator back in the day), it's the now removed qrcodescanner app: https://webcache.googleus…

Hang on a second, something is fishy here. I had an issue that the mirrors what was happening on the zxing reviews. I was getting a full page ad every 15 minutes or so after unlocking my phone.

The rub? It wasn't this app. It was another one that was also called barcode scanner. It was also beginning to garner negative reviews, which the developer (had a Ukranian email address) had begun responding to saying the app was perfectly legal because it was serving ads only inside the app itself.

I'm wondering if that deluge of bad reviews is directed at the wrong app? I'll look to see if I can still find the google play page for the one I had.

Also, I had that app for a LONG time before it started displaying this kind of behavior just last month, which also corresponds to the bad reviews starting on the zxing app.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#166

Post by aembleton »

c_prompt wrote: post #156

> 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 >…

That shows you the most recent app used, but he needed the most recent one installed.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#167

Post by prox »

abrookewood wrote: post #108
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.

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

I had an attack that kept the Malware after a factory reset, and I contacted Lenovo about it. They confirmed it was indeed still intact.

We even did a low-level reset (a representative guided me through it) but to his own surprise the malware was still there.

I was out of warranty and I had to pay a sum to get it fixed, which was more expensive than buying a new tablet.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#168

Post by Garvey »

aembleton wrote: post #166
c_prompt wrote: post #156

> 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 >…

That shows you the most recent app used, but he needed the most recent one installed.

Play Store > My Apps and Games > Installed, and then change the sort order to "Last Updated".

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#169

Post by userbinator »

goldcd wrote: post #140
Shivetya wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not use an Android phone, is there an easy means to restore one to factory condition? Is there a simple process to save and restore your phone to your PC/Mac similar to how Apple does it? (my father has an android phone and now I suddenly find myself curious about save/restore and how to find malware on his phone)

Yes - it's very easy to do a factory reset on your phone. No - There is no 'easy' way to store/restore the entire phone as I believe Apple does. (I had a miserable day doing this, when my old Pixel started playing up and had to migrate across to a replacement) - and this was best case when I had the two phones next to each other. Core 'google' stuff seems fine - either all tied to your account (e.g. contacts) or goog…

Older Mediatek platform phones let you read/write the entire internal flash (eMMC) directly, which is AFAIK the full extent of persistent writable storage.

That is the true "factory reset", as it's how they were first loaded with software in production. I believe the more widely-known and generic Android reset is merely restoring from an internal partition.

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