Malware Found Pre-Installed on Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo Phones [pdf]

Post by dogma1138 » Tue, Sep 08, 2015, 2:35 PM UTC

est wrote: post #9

geographomics wrote: post #3

This seems to be the report referred to in the linked article: https://public.gdatasoftware.com/Presse/Publikationen/Malwar...

Keyword: com.facebook.katama Android.Monitor.Gsyn.B Android.Trojan.Andup.D 1-AP6YWG This is mostly false report because at least Xiaomi don't have any Facebook app pre-installed. Just bunch of MIUI crapware. Affected models are Huawei G510, Lenovo S860, Xiaomi MI3 (and 18 other ignored models not mentioned in title) which dates back to as early as 2012, in Android 4.0 age I assume. Pretty good craigslist deal to get…

Different phones, different regions, different vendors.

Could just as easily be a supply chain issue where a reseller decided to make some money on the side, could censorship relted crap mandated by the Chinese government for local usage leaking into exports phones, could be some one on craigs list, could be completely fabricated.

However the fact that some phones didn't come with it doesn't mean much either.

As far as the facebook App goes

AVG has some reports on it http://www.avgthreatlabs.com/ww-en/android-app-reports/app/c...

Mentioned in Google Groups https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/ugs-support/katam...

Was removed from Google Play http://www.bestappsmarket.com/p/app?appId=1588222&title=com-...

Someone with a Xiaomi MI3 phone complaining that that app takes up 22% of his battery http://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=872251

Questions about it dating to 2014 http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Facebook-app-package-name-in...

Seems that the original code name for the facebook app was Katana so using katama instead is akin to registering www.worldofworcraft.com for you phishing domain.

So while this whitepaper might be overblown and pure marketing it seems that there's some truth behind this.

Post by Rudism » Tue, Sep 08, 2015, 5:51 PM UTC

gcb0 wrote: post #15

Rudism wrote: post #14

When I worked for a company that distributed malware (mostly desktop, but trying to break into mobile), we had relationships with a few people who would buy up android devices in bulk and then charge money to companies like ours to have our apps pre-installed. You could pay extra to have the app baked into a custom rom to make it non-removable. The business model from our end is we'd find app developers who are willi…

instead of paying 10? 30% of your sleazy revenue to the middle man, why not offer one payment to QA manager at the factory? ironically, the same economics that make it worthwhile to manufacture in country X, also makes it very cheap to bribe in country X (e.g. the guy that would drive to eastern europe to buy pez dispensers at the factory for collectors)

That's the kind of suggestion that would get you ahead quickly at a company like that (assuming you were also willing to personally follow through with it).

Re: Malware Found Pre-Installed on Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo Phones [pdf]

Re: Malware Found Pre-Installed on Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo Phones [pdf]