At least 50 lifestyle apps loaded with adware have been able to bypass Avast's security checks and make it to the Play store. Researchers from Google discovered that the apps, which have 30 million combined downloads, are linked through third-party libraries that bypass the background service restrictions and continuously display larger numbers of adverts to a user, sometimes installing nuisanceware onto the Android home screen. The malicious software, known as TsSdk, has been found on different apps, like photo editors or fitness apps, and sometimes was only activated once a user clicked a Facebook ad due to deferred deep linking.
At least 50 lifestyle apps loaded with adware have been able to bypass Google's security checks and make it to the Play store. Researchers from Avast discovered that the apps, which have 30 million combined downloads, are linked through third-party libraries that bypass the background service restrictions and continuously display larger numbers of adverts to a user, sometimes installing nuisanceware onto the Android home screen. The malicious software, known as TsSdk, has been found on different apps, like photo editors or fitness apps, and sometimes was only activated once a user clicked a Facebook ad due to deferred deep linking.