Researchers at ESET have found that the Android/Mapin trojan has been bundled into mobile apps made to look like popular games such as CandyCrush and Plants vs Zombies. The main aim behind the malware is to make adverts full-screen sized on the infected handset, yet the complexity of the trojan is such that it will happily wait for two to three days before activating itself so as to remain unnoticed. In addition to being able to infect Android devices, the malicious app also installs a backdoor which allows attackers to gain access to any device running an older version of Android, including those with no security updates The original apps from the recognised manufacturers are not impacted.
Researchers at ESET have found that the Android/Mapin trojan has been bundled into mobile apps made to look like popular games such as CandyCrush and Plants vs Zombies. The main aim behind the malware is to make adverts full-screen sized on the infected handset, yet the complexity of the trojan is such that it will happily wait for two to three days before activating itself so as to remain unnoticed. Quite who is behind the campaign is far from clear. The original apps from the recognised manufacturers are not impacted.