Android users are once again facing new malware that hides in several apps available on the Google Play Store. The bad news is that these apps have already a total of nearly 3 million downloads.
After the terrible banking malware Revive or BRATA, Android users are again facing a new malware, which this time hides in several applications of the Google Play Store. Named “Autolycos”, the malware was recently discovered by Maxime Ingrao, security researcher at Evina.
The malware has so far been detected in at least 8 Android applications available on the Play Store, which have been downloaded almost 3 million times in total. Several of these malicious apps are no longer available on the Play store, but two are still available for download from the Google Store.
Autolycos specialty is to force users to subscribe to premium services. It is precisely against this practice that Microsoft had recently warned users. According to it, this malware is one of the most prevalent threats to Google’s operating system. It typically uses an infected device to connect to the payment pages of a paid service and forces the user to subscribe to paid content and adding the charge to their phone bill.
Gizchina News of the week
A new dangerous malware in Android applications: you should uninstall them immediately!
Among the 8 Android applications that contains the Autolycos malware, two are still available on the Play Store. These include Razer Keyboard & Theme, from developer xcheldiolola , and Funny Camera from KellyTech . Both have got a total of 550,000 downloads. Other malicious applications are:
- Vlog Star Video Editor (com.vlog.star.video.editor) – 1 million downloads
- Creative 3D Launcher (app.launcher.creative3d) – 1 million downloads
- Wow Beauty Camera (com.wowbeauty.camera) – 100,000 downloads
- Gif Emoji Keyboard (com.gif.emoji.keyboard) – 100,000 downloads
- Freeglow Camera 1.0.0 (com.glow.camera.open) – 5,000 downloads
- Coco Camera v1.1 (com.toomore.cool.camera) – 1000 downloads
If you have one of its applications on your smartphone, we advise you to uninstall it as soon as possible. Google has already got a report about them in June 2021, but the American company took more than 6 months to delete them.
