Latest Android malware sneakily installs rogue apps, but Play Store users need not worry

Quick heads-up on a vulnerability you might learn about soon. The folks at Palo Alto stumbled across a major security vulnerability within Android that could allow malicious apps to hijack an app install. Before you freak out and hook your phone up to a chemo machine to rid it of any impurities, stop — there’s almost nothing to be worried about here:

• Google has already patched it ahead of this report being released


• The initial bug was reported to Google as early as January 2014. We suspect Google kept it under wraps this long to make sure no-gooders wouldn’t try to target exposed devices


• The vulnerability only affects sideloaded apps or apps downloaded from third-party app stores


• It only affected Android versions prior to 4.4


• For devices not on 4.4 or higher, Palo Alto worked with top manufacturers like Samsung to patch this fix in with their most recent software updates. Amazon also updated their Appstore to patch the vulnerability

So what does it do? According to them, since a side-loaded APK is installed from an unprotected source such as an SD card, an app could hijack the process of installing the app by Android’s package installer. It’d do this by replacing the legit APK with one that would most likely contain some sort of malware and other nasty stuff, and it would all happen without the user even knowing.

The dirty (but full) details can be found in the report published here, but the reality is that most folks with a phone made within the past couple of years are probably safe. Still, if you’re the oddball who still as a Nexus One on Android 2.3 and might be using a third-party app store over Google Play, you’ll be glad you know about it.

Palo Alto made a neat app that will check your phone to see if it is vulnerable. If it’s not, you’re good to go. If it is? Well, you should definitely try to download a ROM based on at least Android 4.4, or use this as a good excuse to finally get that new phone you’ve been eying. Be safe friends, and try not to download anything outside of Google Play unless you absolutely have to.

Google cut down Android malware by 50% in 2014

A common and over-used criticism of Android is malware. People love to point to malware as a reason why Android is unsecure and shouldn’t be used. Of course, the malware problem that people love to talk about is not much of a problem at all. Google made that clear with their latest Android Security State of the Union address.

Google published a very lengthy 44-page report that you can read right here, but there are a few bullet points of importance.

• Over 1 billion devices are protected with Google Play which conducts 200 million security scans of devices per day.


• Fewer than 1% of Android devices had a Potentially Harmful App (PHA) installed in 2014. Fewer than 0.15% of devices that only install from Google Play had a PHA installed.


• The overall worldwide rate of Potentially Harmful Application (PHA) installs decreased by nearly 50% between Q1 and Q4 2014.


• SafetyNet checks over 400 million connections per day for potential SSL issues.


• Android and Android partners responded to 79 externally reported security issues, and over 25,000 applications in Google Play were updated following security notifications from Google Play.

As you can see, Android malware is an exaggerated issue. Fewer than 1% of a billion devices had potentially harmful apps installed. In devices that only install apps from the Play Store than number drops to 0.15%. The moral of the story is the same that has been said for years, and it can be said for users on any platform: if you install trusted apps from trusted sources you will have no issues. It’s only when you start downloading from sketchy places that you will run into problems.

[via Google]