ESET researchers have discovered over 80 malicious applications that are "masquerading" as mods for Minecraft, measuring almost millions of installations in the official application store.
Some time ago Minecraft was associated with a scareware campaign, and again today, ESET researchers report another case of abuse of the popular application.
As stated in the official analysis at σελίδα Welivesecurity.com by ESET, there are 87 fake Minecraft mods on Google Play, which target players of this game using the Android platform, harassing them with aggressive ads and scams. So far, around 990.000 users have installed these fake mods.
ESET researchers have divided the malicious activity associated with fake mods for Minecraft into two κύριες κατηγορίες: στα downloaders, που εμφανίζουν διαφημίσεις και ανιχνεύονται από την ESET ως Android/TrojanDownloader.Agent.JL, και στις ψεύτικες εφαρμογές, που ανακατευθύνουν τους χρήστες σε scam websites, and are detected by ESET as Android/FakeApp.FG.
As for Android / TrojanDownloader.Agent.JL, ESET reports 14 fake mods that are dressed in mods for Minecraft, having recorded up to 80.000 facilities. As these fake mods applications are only responsible for displaying aggressive ads, bad reviews are common.
As for Android / FakeApp.FG, ESET reports 73 cases with redirects to scam websites, counting 910.000 installations, between January and March 2017. Once installed, apps display a screen with a download button. Clicking on the button does not remove any mod, instead, the user is redirected to a web page that opens in a browser and displays each type of annoying content.
"To avoid being cheated by fake apps and malware, you always choose officially app download stores" reminds users Closeš Štefanko, researcher Malware of ESET.
“Be especially careful when downloading apps from third-party manufacturers that offer additional features to existing apps. It also helps to check how popular an app is by install numbers, ratings and, most importantly, the content of the ratings – in the case of these apps, low ratings and angry ones. comments that should have been a pretty good indicator of their unreliability."
Η complete analysis of fake mods for Minecraft on Google Play is available at WeLiveSecurity.com.
