Malware on My Android Phone • Hacker News Board

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#231

Post by Can_Not » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:24 AM UTC

Rooster61 wrote: post #165

riphdd2020 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

The ads went away when I uninstalled it and reported it.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#232

Post by Cyykratahk » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 8:59 AM UTC

johnx123-up wrote: post #210

Cyykratahk wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dele…

Curious: How did you do that? (scrape + chart)

Scrolled down until 1000 reviews had loaded.

Used the simplescraper.io Chrome extension (with a little bit of DevTools fiddling) to export a CSV.

Created a pivot table in Excel and charted the results.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#233

Post by craftinator » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 2:50 PM UTC

ladyanita22 wrote: post #222

maxmalysh wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html

TL;DR

"Don't be a dick, because plenty of people are smarter than you, and even people who are not smarter than you can come up with really good ideas and perspectives."

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#234

Post by alex_duf » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 2:56 PM UTC

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…

I went through all the apps I've installed in the past, and the only barcode scanner I've ever installed was this one:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi...

So it might be another completely unrelated app that triggered the issue, or it might be this one, no idea!

I've reset my phone to factory and re-installed only as and when I needed an app and so far no more ads.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#235

Post by captainmuon » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 9:26 PM UTC

> I started by inspecting the list of recurring tasks, but the output was so voluminous that finding anything useful was a dim prospect.

Sometimes I phantasize about a novel computer or phone, where you can "physically" inspect the running (non-OS) applications. On a phone, you'd have a glowing edge where each light or micro display corresponds to one application. You can only ever have 6 or so apps running at the same time. If an app launches a lot in the background, you'd notice it quickly from the new color blinking. On a desktop PC or a server, maybe you'd even have a little door in the case, and behind it a bunch of little OLED displays that replace the task manager. With a click of a physical switch, you could evict an application from memory automatically.

Of course this would be unpractical for a lot of reasons, and you'd have to trust the OS/firmware. But I like both ideas of understanding what the PC is doing, and adding back a tactile element to computing.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#236

Post by fomine3 » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 2:42 AM UTC

prox wrote: post #208

growt wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wouldn’t. Some malware can hide a lot deeper than a factory reset can erase.

Such behavior needs privilege escalation thanks to sandbox. I don't believe crap app can do privilege escalation for constantly updated phone.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#237

Post by samoa42 » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 10:25 AM UTC

teekert wrote: post #109

samoa42 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

yea. really buggers me that there is no native webdav support in ios (at least there is cal-/carddav)