McAfee security experts have discovered critical cleaner apps for Android systems. These can bring malware to your smartphone and hide themselves very successfully.
Most of the apps disguise themselves as “apps with a clean slate”, as little helpers. They ensure that junk is deleted and also that battery performance is optimized or the management of the device is optimized. But they actually bring chaos to smartphones: When installed, they run harmful services, which doesn't even require running the app itself. So no active interaction from the user is necessary.
“You can’t find me!”
What makes malware disguised as cleaner apps particularly sneaky is that they hide. You change their own icon to a commonly known one, such as the “Google Play” icon. The name is also changed - for example to "Google Play" or "Settings", as you can clearly see in the video from McAfee .
So at first glance you don't suspect anything bad, and you probably even overlook it. And with that, the apps have successfully hidden themselves and saved themselves from being deleted.
Aside from the fact that these malicious apps annoy users by constantly displaying advertisements, they also ask you to run apps if you want to install, uninstall or update other apps on your smartphone, for example.
Advertising on Facebook increases trust in malicious cleaner apps
In order for these cleaner apps to become known in the first place, their programmers created serious or official-looking advertising pages on Facebook. A link to Google Play is provided, the advertising drum is spread via legitimate social media, and the way is paved for users to have no doubts that these are helpful apps.
To promote these apps to new users, the malware authors created advertising pages on Facebook. Since it is the link to Google Play distributed through legitimate social media, users will download it without a doubt.
Which apps are affected?
McAfee lists the sneaky apps in its blog post:
- Junk cleaner
- EasyCleaner
- Power Doctor
- Super clean
- Full Clean – Clean Cache
- Fingertip cleaner
- Quick Cleaner
- Keep clean
- Windy Clean
- Carpet Clean
- Cool clean
- Strong clean
- Meteor Clean
If you have these apps installed: delete them immediately.
If you are thinking about using such an app: just don't install it here!
McAfee states that around 1 million users have already downloaded the apps and are therefore affected. Bleeping Computer puts the estimate much higher and speaks of 7 million installations.
Source: McAfee , Bleeping Computer
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