Cybersecurity researchers at TrendMicro have identified more than 200 applications on Google Play distributing spyware called Facestealer used to steal user credentials and other sensitive data, including private keys. The worrying thing is that the number and popularity of these types of applications are increasing day by day, with some even being installed over a hundred thousand times.
Some malicious applications that users should uninstall immediately include: Daily Fitness OL, Enjoy Photo Editor, Panorama Camera, Photo Gaming Puzzle, Swarm Photo, Business Meta Manager, and Cryptomining Farm Your Own Coin.
Facestealer, first identified by Doctor Web in July 2021, steals Facebook information from users via malicious apps on Google Play, then uses it to infiltrate Facebook accounts, serving purposes such as scams, fake posts, and advertising bots. Similar to the Joker malware, Facestealer changes its code frequently and has multiple variations.
"Similar to Joker, another piece of mobile malware, Facestealer changes its code frequently, thus spawning many variants," Cifer Fang, Ford Quin, and Zhengyu Dong researchers at Trend Micro stated in a new report. "Since its discovery, the spyware has continuously beleaguered Google Play."
Since being denounced until now, the malicious apps have continuously appeared on Google Play under different guises. For example, Daily Fitness OL is ostensibly a fitness app, but its main goal is to steal Facebook data. Once the application is launched, it will send a request to download the encryption configuration. When the user logs into Facebook, the application opens a WebView browser to load the URL from the downloaded profile.
Subsequently, a piece of JavaScript code is embedded in the web page to get the login data. After the user is successfully logged into the account, the application collects the cookie, then encrypts all the personally identifiable information (PII) and sends it to the remote server.
In addition, TrendMicro researchers unearthed 40 fake cryptocurrency miner apps that are variants of similar apps that they discovered in August 2021. The apps trick users into subscribing to paid services or clicking on advertisements.
To mitigate the risks, users should carefully read reviews from people who have downloaded them before. However, this is also not the optimal solution because many applications will hire highly appreciated services, for example, Photo Gaming Puzzle is rated 4.5 stars, and Enjoy Photo Editor is rated 4.1 stars. Enjoy Photo Editor surpassed 100,000 downloads before Google kicked it out of PlayStore.
