Hundreds of Android apps on Huawei’s AppGallery, totaling over 9 million downloads, were found to have a serious information stealer virus, according to malware specialists.
The trojan is a variation of the Cynos spyware named Android, which was discovered by cybersecurity experts at Dr. Web. Cynos.7.origin is a Trojan horse that collects sensitive user information. “Applications that contain Android.”
Users are asked for authorization to make and control phone calls by Cynos.7.origin. As a result, the malware is able to access particular data,” the researchers say.
Surprisingly, several of the games were fully translated into Russian and Chinese, in addition to English players.
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The virus may be embedded into Android applications and use a variety of tactics to monetize them at the cost of the downloader, according to the researchers. The variation available inside AppGallery apps, on the other hand, collects information about users and their devices and shows advertisements.
“A mobile phone number leak may appear to be a minor issue at first look. “However, it has the potential to cause substantial harm to users, particularly considering that children are the games’ primary target demographic,” the researchers warn.
The trojan collected device position based on GPS coordinates or mobile network and WiFi access point data, as well as many mobile network characteristics such as the network code and mobile country code, and much more.
The malware was discovered in 190 distinct Android gaming apps, including simulators, arcade games, shooters, and more. All of the apps operated as claimed, resulting in a large number of downloads.
The researchers informed Huawei of their discovery, and the company quickly uninstalled all 190 harmful applications.
