Detected apps with more than 8 million downloads on Google Play with aggressive adware

That the Google Play Store, the official store of applications for Android, has become a malware sinkhole is a reality that security researchers have been warning for some time.

In fact, Google itself has added extra security tools, such as Google Play Protect, with which it intends to end the process of filtering and ensure that users are dealing with 100% secure applications.

However, it doesn't seem to be doing just that and users are still exposed to a good number of insecure applications Now a group of Researchers have found evidence that 85 Google Play apps with a whopping 8 million downloads forced users to view full-screen ads.

We are dealing with apps with a very aggressive type of adware

But let's see what kind of apps we're talking about. According to the researchers' report, Rogue apps dressed up as photography and game programs Once installed on users' devices, they displayed on-screen ads complete. Thus, users were forced to watch an ad until the end before being able to close that window and return to the app normally.

Another serious problem with these applications had to do with the frequency of appearance of the ads Since they were displayed nothing more and nothing less than every five minutes. Although this interval could be easily manipulated by those responsible for these apps.

But they used other worse strategies

Watch out, the creators of this adware had very well thought out how to bypass the controls and the user's own boredom. The adware in question is called AndroidOS_Hidenad.HRXH and uses all sorts of tricks to stay crouched on devices.

To avoid detection and removal, just half an hour after being installed, the application would hide its icon and create another shortcut on the home screen of the deviceIn this way, by hiding the icon, those responsible for this adware prevented applications from being uninstalled from the screen, with a procedure as simple as drag and drop.

This could happen in this way on all Android devices that have versions prior to Android 8 Oreo. And to be able to install a shortcut so happily, in this and in higher versions the operating system asks the user for permission before any application does of their own accord.

But there are more tricks that the owners of these apps could use to make their own. The applications, for example, recorded: the system time of the device and the time of the network, useful information to carry out different violations

And there is more. It's called Broadcast Receiver and it's a system that allows applications to send or receive system or application events.In this way, those responsible for these apps can know if the user was using the computer after having infected it.

According to experts from Trend Micro, the company that discovered the adware, the applications would perform several checks before launching. Some of these apps were Super Selfie Camera, Cos Camera, Pop Camera, One Stroke Line Puzzle, downloaded over a million times. Others, such as Background Eraser, Meet Camera, Pixel Blur, Hi Music Play and One Line Stroke each had more than 500,000 downloads. If you want to check the entire list, you can take a look at the Trend Micro report. The apps were removed by Google after learning of the issue.