Fox-IT specialists found a dangerous virus in popular applications on Google Play
This is reported by The Hacker News, according to the resource’s analysts, the SharkBot malware is disguised in several high-demand Android applications. Specifically, the virus was found in the programs Mister Phone Cleaner and Kylhavy Mobile Security, which have more than 600,000 downloads. Based on this information, the company’s experts believe that the Trojan may have attacked hundreds of thousands of users.
Fox-IT engineers also reported that on August 22, 2022, they discovered a new version of the Trojan in which the virus can analyze cookies and extract from them information about logins and passwords entered by the victim. Also, the program is able to independently respond to messages on behalf of the user, thereby subscribing him to various paid services and stealing money.
„Despite continued efforts by Apple and Google, app stores are vulnerable to inadvertent exploitation to spread viruses,“ the report’s authors concluded. According to experts, these infected apps have already been isolated, but there may be others. Analysts from Sophos confirm the problem, saying that attackers have learned to steal passwords using cookies. According to experts, this method allows bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA).