Autolycos malware is now available on the Google Play Store

Maxime Ingrao, a security researcher at Evina, has discovered a new family υ λογισμικού που μπορεί να μολύνει εφαρμογές Android μέσω του Play.

android malware

It's called (Autolykos) — from the eponymous Greek mythological figure, known for her mastery of and cheating. This is exactly what malware does.

Since June 2021, Ingrao has identified eight infected apps on the Play Store — which have been downloaded more than three million times.

How does Autolycos work?

According to Evina's report, the Autolycos malware's main goals are to enroll users in premium Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) services, without their knowledge or consent.

See how Autolycos can access a verification code reading a phone's notifications:

autolykos

The way the malware works makes it difficult for Google to distinguish infected apps from normal ones. This is also the reason why it has not been detected for so long.

To scam as many users as possible, the scammers behind Autolycos promote the apps on Facebook and Instagram pages.

Ingrao identified 74 ad campaigns for one of the infected apps: the Razer Keyboard & Theme app.

Traces of the malicious app have been found in Asia and various European countries including Spain, Austria, Poland and — which points to a very alarming expansion.

What are the infected apps?

Evina and Ingao provided a list of the eight known apps that contain the malware:

Razer Keyboard & Theme — 10.000+ downloads
Vlog Star Video Editor — 1.000.000+ downloads
Funny Camera — 500.000+ dowloads
Coco Camera — 1.000+ downloads
Creative 3D Launcher — 1.000.000+ downloads
GIF Keyboard — 100.000+ downloads
Freeglow Camera — 5.000+ downdoads
Wow Camera — 100+ downloads

Interestingly, Ingao notified Google in June 2021. The company acknowledged the problem, but it took six months to remove the first six apps. This prompted the researcher to post the apps on Twitter.

On July 13, Google removed the last two: Funny Camera and Razer Keyboard & Theme.

Read more in Evira's PDF.

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Written by giorgos

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