Google Removed Popular Malicious Android Apps

Malicious Apps Detection

Google Play Store has been home to several malicious apps and as part of a new discovery, more such apps have been found on Google’s app store. As located by cybersecurity firm WhiteOps, more than 30 popular Android apps have been detected with malware in them that cause security issues for users. The authors of the research paper claim that all apps on Google Play store were developed by the same group of developers.

Read on to know more about these applications.

How did these spiteful apps function on Google Play?

The research points out that the first batch of these apps (21 out of 38) appeared on Google Play in January 2019 and was focused on taking selfies or adding filters to users’ photos. But those were quickly removed from the Google Play store after their malware-like behavior was detected. It is further suggested that the cybercriminals behind these groups of apps launched a new app every 11 days, which were then taken down after 17 days. Despite the short period of listing on the Play Store, the apps gathered an average of 565,833 installs. Furthermore, hackers would remove/add fraudulent app codes to the app to avoid suspicion.

Deleted apps list

We’re listing all of the deleted apps below, which were published by WhiteOps so if you have them installed on your device it’s a good idea to remove them as soon as possible.

• Yoroko Camera (Installs = 100,000)
• Solu Camera  (Installs= 500,000)
• Lite Beauty Camera ( Installs = 1 million)
• Beauty Collage Lite  (Installs = 500,000)
• Beauty & Filters Camera  (Installs = 1 million)
• Photo Collage & Beauty Camera  (Installs = 100,0000)
• Beauty Camera Selfie Filter ( Installs = 10,000)
• Gaty Beauty Camera (Installs = 500,000)
• Pand Selfie Beauty Camera  (Installs = 50,000)
• Selife Beauty Camera and Photo Editor ( Installs = 1,00,000)
• Fog Selife Beauty Camera (Installs = 1,00,000)
• First Selife Beauty Camera and Photo Editor (Installs = 5 million)
• Vanu Selife Beauty Camera (Installs = 1,00,000)
• Sun Pro Beauty Camera (Installs = 1 million)
• Funny Sweet Beauty Camera (Installs = 5,00,000)
• Little Bee Beauty Camera (Installs = 1 million)
• Beauty Camera and Photo Editor Pro (Installs = 1 million)
• Grass Beauty Camera (Installs = 1 million)
• Ele Beauty Camera 1 million Flower Beauty Camera (Installs = 1,00,000)
• Best Selfie Beauty Camera (Installs = 1 million)
• Orange Camera (Installs = 5,00,000)
• Sunny Beauty Camera (Installs = 1 million)
• Pro Selfie Beauty Camera (Installs = 5,00,000)
• Selfie Beauty Camera Pro (Installs = 1 million)
• Elegant Beauty Cam 2019 (Installs = 50,000)

Wrapping up

As mentioned above, these apps displayed out-of-context ads and in some cases, they removed app icons that made it difficult for users to uninstall the app from their Android devices. Although Google has removed these 38 apps from the app store, it is likely that they still are installed on several devices. So, if you have them installed on your device remove them as soon as possible.