Despite a drop in malware activity, September saw a surge in Android apps displaying intrusive ads on Google’s Play Store.
Security software publisher Dr Web has published a report on “viral activity on mobile devices in September 2023 “. The latter tells us in particular that the most widespread malware last month on Android smartphones is nicknamed HiddenApps. It is a “Trojan horse designed to display intrusive advertisements”. According to the company’s researchers, this type of adware is distributed through popular and seemingly harmless apps on the Android app store, despite Google’s security measures to protect the Play Store.
Four Android apps in particular helped spread this malware. Hackers have thus integrated HiddenApps into:
- Super Skibydi Killer – which totals already 1 million downloads on the Play Store
- Agent Shooter — downloaded 500,000 times
- Rubber Punch 3D – 500,000 downloads
- Rainbow Stretch — 50,000 users
Hackers use these mobile applications to generate money through your Android smartphone
Between them, these apps have already been downloaded by more than 2 million potential victims, because not only do they display unwanted advertisements, but they also make themselves almost impossible to detect, “by hiding their icons in the home screen menu, for example”, and therefore to uninstall. Although not the most dangerous category of malware, “those apps that run in the background on your phone to run ads on the browser to make money,” but they have the power to frankly spoil the user experience, everything using smartphone resources for malicious purposes.
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Dr Web emphasizes that despite theemergence of these malware disguised as gameshacker activity appears to have slowed down in September 2023. According to analysts, other fake apps from the FakeApp family were distributed as apps for stock trading or for home accounting, when in reality their main purpose was to load fraudulent sites where potential victims were encouraged to invest in fake cryptos, for example.