'Malware-like' app makes your phone spy on you

A "malware-like" app can turn a smartphone running Google's Android into the ultimate spy tool, by using the phone's hardware to gather vital information.

 

Codenamed DroidWhisper, the app can be hidden as a component within any Android app and run in the background, TechHive.com reported.

 

"Effectively, it turns the Android device into a spy phone," said Kevin McNamee, lab director for Kindsight, a part of Alcatel-Lucent.

 

TechHive.com said McNamee plans to present the espionage tool, a proof-of-concept program, at the Black Hat USA conference.

 

DroidWhisper is capable of tracking the user's location, intercepting messages, recording conversations, and taking pictures, TechHive.com said.

 

"From a control panel on the server, criminals or government spies would be able to control the phone's camera, video and still, and make use of its microphone and recording capabilities. The panel also would be used to collect all the recorded content and images, as well as any personal information on the phone," TechHive.com said.

 

Once installed, it can run when the phone boots and will await instructions from a command-and-control (C&C) server via the Internet or SMS.

 

But a criminal would have to find a way to bypass Android's built-in security features, it added.

 

Once the spyware is run, the next mode of detection for businesses would be in catching the network traffic between the component and the command-and-control servers, it added.

 

Insider attack

 

McNamee said the smartphone is an "excellent platform" for an insider attack against a corporate network or government network.

 

He said modern smartphones have all the capabilities that a spy needs.

 

"It has Internet access over the air, it can take pictures [and] it can record sound—a very powerful surveillance platform," he said.

 

Also, McNamee said the spyware platform could be used to download tools to scan a corporate network for vulnerabilities once one logs into a Wi-Fi network.

 

Spread via games

 

TechHive.com said the most likely ways the spyware could be installed secretly is via a link on an email - or a pirated version of a game.

 

It added that while the Android store Google Play scans for malware, most third-party stores do not.

 

It cited a report from Juniper Networks noting about three in five of stores that do not scan for malware originate in China and Russia.

 

"As of March 2013, more than 90 percent of the mobile malware detected by Juniper targeted the Android platform, nearly double the percentage in 2011," it said. — TJD, GMA News