Researchers at Check Point Threat Prevention have detected a malicious application and said to have affected some one million people, which was published twice in the Google Play Store. The malware was packaged within an Android game called “Brain Test”.
According to the researchers, the malware was reported to Google Play twice. Each instance had between 100,000 and 500,000 downloads as per the Google Play statistics. Check Point reached out to Google on September 10, 2015, and the app containing the malware was removed from Google Play on September 15, 2015.
“The malware was first detected on a Nexus 5 smartphone, and although the user attempted to remove the infected app, the malware reappeared on the same device shortly thereafter. Our analysis of the malware shows it uses multiple, advanced techniques to avoid Google Play malware detection and to maintain persistency on target devices, the researchers wrote in a blog post.
Although, the reported the malware to Google, and the company concerned removed the app from the Google Play Store, it manages to bypass malware detection through several sophisticated techniques. It also installs an application similar to itself and so these two monitor the removal of each other and actually protects each other from being removed.
The researchers suggested that in order to prevent yourself from the malware, you must have an up-to-date anti-malware software on your mobile device. It has already infected anyone’s phone, he/she has to re-flash it with an official ROM.
