Urgent Microsoft warning for Android users over dangerous Google Play Store apps

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A number of malicious apps have been detected on the Google Play Store, with Microsoft’s threat intelligence team urgently warning Android users they are at risk. The compromised apps, which share a security weakness, have been cumulatively downloaded more than four billion times. The security flaw, which the tech giant calls “dirty stream”, can be exploited by malicious actors, allowing them to target the way apps communicate with each other such as when files and data are sent between apps.

The malicious app can overwrite settings “causing the vulnerable app to communicate with an attacker-controlled server” which can expose an Android user’s sensitive information. Valsamaras called the “worst-case scenario” a “not-so-uncommon” possibility — the target app can be manipulated into opening a channel that taps into its highly-protected libraries. “In this case, the malicious application can overwrite a native library with malicious code,” Valsamaras said.

 

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