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Malware on My Android Phone

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Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#31

Post by perryizgr8 »

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.

> I wonder why it is not the same in any version of Android that I have used

I've had this on Samsung phones for a long time.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#32

Post by TooCreative »

sloshnmosh wrote: post #27
TooCreative wrote: post #7

Strange article I unlocked my phone and two accidental clicks led me to agree to a dialog that my brain immediately registered as suspicious What type of dialog can pop up on your Android screen after unlocking and install "malware"? What is "malware" here? It looks like they mean an app from the play store? The next day, I picked up my phone and when I launched Chrome, I immediately noticed it was displaying a spamm…

What I believe the author is saying is that he received a push notification to chrome from the malicious app. Coincidentally, I just spent my Saturday evening pouring over malicious JavaScript hosted on Cloudfront that does extensive browser fingerprinting and if a match is made to an Android device a fake Captcha pops up in Chrome which actually enables push notifications and from there a full screen pop-up appears…

    he received a push notification
    to chrome from the malicious app
What does that mean? How does an app send a "push notification" to Chrome?

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#33

Post by oakwhiz »

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.

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 the repository is in maintenance mode, and I nor anybody else that I know has seen a single ad when using it.

I wonder if this is a concerted effort to steer impressionable people away from a "real" FOSS QR code reader app and direct them to a malicious one instead, using scare tactics.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#34

Post by armada651 »

Sounds like it might be related to the reviews for this app?

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

A 2020 review talks about ads appearing after a recent "update", but the app hasn't pushed an update since 2018!

I've always had this app installed and never experienced adware, perhaps those reviews are left by people falling victim to the copycat scam?

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#35

Post by samoa42 »

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.

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

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#36

Post by matsemann »

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.

It wasn't a QR code reader that was the problem, it was a malware posing as a QR code reader. It didn't sound like the author downloaded a QR code reader and happened to get malware. He got malware from some source which installed itself that way.

I had a QR reader in my camera app on some old Androids, around 2011 or so, but maybe it was because I then often was running custom ROMs? Or because back then QR codes were hyped and used for everything? Anyways, in 2019 or so it was included again in the native camera app on all Samsungs.

While I get the allure of "it just works", having a niche feature that's basically never used and easily installed anyway seems like a weird hill to die on.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#38

Post by varenc »

sloshnmosh wrote: post #27
TooCreative wrote: post #7

Strange article I unlocked my phone and two accidental clicks led me to agree to a dialog that my brain immediately registered as suspicious What type of dialog can pop up on your Android screen after unlocking and install "malware"? What is "malware" here? It looks like they mean an app from the play store? The next day, I picked up my phone and when I launched Chrome, I immediately noticed it was displaying a spamm…

What I believe the author is saying is that he received a push notification to chrome from the malicious app. Coincidentally, I just spent my Saturday evening pouring over malicious JavaScript hosted on Cloudfront that does extensive browser fingerprinting and if a match is made to an Android device a fake Captcha pops up in Chrome which actually enables push notifications and from there a full screen pop-up appears…

> fake Captcha pops up in Chrome which actually enables push notifications

Wow, this sounds like a classic clickjacking vulnerability. That’s still possible on modern[ish] Android? Definitely interested in your write up.

Re: Malware on My Android Phone

#39

Post by MrDresden »

Sander_Marechal wrote: post #10
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.

I have a Pixel 2. It scans QR codes with the default camera app just fine. When it detects a QR code you get a little popup you can click. It even works with regular 1D barcodes.

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