Judy Android Malware: Checkpoint security researchers claim they have perhaps discovered the biggest Google Play Store malware campaign that has already infected about 36,5 million Android devices with ad-click software.
Checkpoint blogged over 41 Android apps from a Korean company on the Google Play Store that are reportedly earning money for their creators by generating fake ad clicks from the infected devices.
All malicious applications, developed by Korea-based Kiniwini, were released under the name ENISTUDIO Corp and contained an adware program called "Judy" by researchers. Judy, as we mentioned earlier, was used to generate false clicks aimed at generating advertising revenue.
In addition, researchers also uncovered some other apps, which were published by other developers in the Google Play Store, and inexplicably contain the malware itself.
The link between the two campaigns remains unclear, though the researchers believe it is possible that one programmer borrowed the code from the other, "knowingly or unknowingly".
"It is very unusual to find an organization behind a malware campaign, as most of them are developed purely by malicious (standalone) users," say CheckPoint researchers.
Apps available on the Play Store do not contain malicious code to bypass Google Bouncer protection.
Once downloaded and installed though, the app implicitly registers the user's device to a remote control server and receives the actual malware as a response load (Judy Android Malware) που περιέχει ένα JavaScript which initiates the actual malicious process.
Malicious apps appear to be really legitimate games, but at background they act as a bridge to connect the victim's device to the adware server.
Once the connection is established, malicious applications corrupt the user agents of the browser to "play" the browser to open pages and generate clicks.
The following is a list of malicious applications developed by Kiniwini (click on "Malicious Applications" to open the list). If you have any of these installed on your device, remove it immediately:
Google has already removed the above apps containing Judy Android Malware from the Play Store, but since Google Bouncer did not recognize them as a malicious thing at the outset, it would be to watch what you downloaded.