Google announced Play Protect, a user-friendly security screening process for apps. It scans the apps you install, the comparison is made against known malware components and tells you if any risks are found.
Checkpoint noticed a “packed” malware and called it Expensive wall. The malware registered victims to premium services without their knowledge and send fake messages and charge their accounts. Like this, malware creators earn profits by scamming users. The potential of these kinds of messages can’t be underestimated as guys at the back can also steal the data.
Applications with expensive wall request the SMS permissions to join to a server at regular intervals. They run what is sent by the server in a fixed webview. According to checkpoint, play protect conformed to detect this malware before, but currently, it’s been “packed” to deceive the existing checks.
Obfuscation is another name for packing. It is a method used by malware developers to hide the purposeful function of a software. It was remarkable enough to fool the automatic system in Google Play Protect. It tuned 5 to 20 million spreading across of all the affected apps on Google Play.
So here we think that the huffy applications will be removed. Play Protect will be upgraded to catch the “packed” malware. It’s is just a matter of time.
