The Google Play Store always finds a reason to stay on the news, warning about malicious applications that pose a threat to users.
The last person on the long list was the Strandhogg vulnerability, which targets banking apps on Android smartphones and puts your money at risk. Promon security researchers have discovered the Strandhogg vulnerability, which allows malicious applications to impersonate you and provide hackers with access to private SMS messages and photos, steal login credentials, track users' movements, record telephone conversations and spy on people. through the phone’s camera and microphone.
Promon said in a blog post that the new vulnerability affected all versions of Android, including the latest version of Android 10.
The company said that all 500 of the most popular applications are at risk due to this vulnerability. It is noteworthy that hackers do not need root access to use this vulnerability on Android devices. By gaining access to these vulnerable devices, hackers can get all the data, and even remotely.
Malicious applications using this flaw included variants of the BankBot banking trojan, which was noticed back in 2017 and is one of the most common banking trojans. Promon believes this malware sample has been dropped into dropper applications or hostile downloaders on the Google Play Store.
In response to these findings, Google claims to have removed malicious applications from its Play store.
“We value the work of researchers and suspended the work of potentially dangerous applications that they identified,” said a statement from Google to the BBC. “Google Play Protect detects and blocks malicious applications, including those using this technique. In addition, we are continuing the investigation to improve the ability of Google Play Protect to protect users from such problems, ”the tech giant added.
We asked Futureinapps IT Director Ayrat Galiullin to comment on the situation:
"Note that Google stopped the application only after third-party researchers paid attention to them. So Google does not have enough resources to protect its system. Shouldn't Google shut it down as much as Apple? only advise against using dubious applications from unverified sources, as hacker attacks will continue. "
