'Adult video' malware hits Android users in Japan

A new malware that promises gaming and anime-adult videos but steals their contact data is victimizing Japanese users of Android devices, a security firm said over the weekend.

 

McAfee said the Trojan is in the Google Play market, and displays a video downloaded from the Internet only if sensitive information is sent to a remote server.

 

"The malicious applications are designed for Japanese users and display 'trailers' of upcoming video games for Android... or anime/adult Japanese videos," it said.

 

It said that when the application is about to be installed, two suspicious permissions – read contact data and read phone state and identity – are requested.

 

Neither is needed for the principal purpose of the application, which is to display a video from the Internet, McAfee noted.

 

McAfee said the malware seeks to extract the user's Android ID, a 64-bit number that is randomly generated on the device’s first boot and should remain constant for the lifetime of the device.

 

It also seeks to get the phone number, and contact list on the phone.

 

Once the information is obtained, the malicious application sends it to a remote server in clear text.

 

"If the data was sent successfully, the application requests a specific video to the same server and displays it using a VideoView component. If the malware fails at its background theft (for example, the device does not have an Internet connection), a message in Japanese says that an error has occurred and the video has not loaded," McAfee said.

 

15 apps

 

So far, McAfee said 15 apps had been discovered from two developers. The apps had been downloaded by at least 70,000 users, it added.

 

"Due (to) the privacy risk that these applications represent to Android customers, all of them have been removed from the market," it noted.

 

It added McAfee Mobile Security products detect these threats as Android/DougaLeaker.A. — TJD, GMA News