Joker malware apps still stealing money and contacts in Google Play store

Joker malware apps nevertheless stealing money and contacts in Google Play store

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

It's baaaaack. The notorious and persistent Joker malware has infected some other 17 apps in the Google Play Shop. The estimated 120,000 people who installed those apps may have been fraudulently signed up the to premium services without their permission and had their contact lists and SMS text letters stolen.

All the Joker-infected apps have been removed from Google Play, and Google has remotely disabled the apps on users' phones. Just if you lot downloaded any of these apps, you'll nevertheless need to manually delete them from your devices.

Nasty Android malware steals passwords from over 200 apps — what to do
Plus: Pixel five toll only leaked — from Google itself
Only in: Chromecast with Google TV leaks early — and you can buy it at present

These 17 apps were spotted past Zscaler ThreatLabZ, which put upwards a weblog mail service nearly its finding concluding week and said virtually of the apps were PDF scanners, messaging apps or photo editors. I of the apps was listed twice past Zscaler, which could mean two dissimilar apps had the same name.

All Good PDF Scanner
All Good PDF Scanner
Bluish Scanner
Care Message
Desire Translate
Directly Messenger
Hummingbird PDF Converter - Photo to PDF
Meticulous Scanner
Mint Foliage Message-Your Private Message
One Sentence Translator - Multifunctional Translator
Paper Physician Scanner
Office Message
Private SMS
Manner Photograph Collage
Talent Photo Editor - Blur focus
Tangram App Lock
Unique Keyboard

All of these malicious apps are detected by the best Android antivirus apps, and so please install and apply ane of these if you lot aren't doing so already.

"We recommend paying close attending to the permission list in the apps that you install on your Android device," Zscaler'southward Viral Gandhi wrote in the ThreatLabZ blog post. "E'er picket out for the risky permissions related to SMS, call logs, contacts, and more than. Reading the comment or reviews on the app folio aslo helps identify compromised apps."

How Joker gets the last laugh

Joker isn't the worst Android malware out there, only information technology does effort to put a substantial paring in your wallet and your privacy. Information technology evades Google Play's security screening past presenting itself equally a harmless app, and doesn't really do annihilation malicious until some after information technology's first installed on a user's device.

Simply once the malicious function is up and running, Joker will sign you up for costly subscriptions that use the outmoded Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) billing mechanism, which dates back to the early 2000s when few mobile phones could load websites.

The play a trick on with WAP billing is that you don't see the bills right away. They're not charged to your credit bill of fare. Instead, charges are tacked on your telephone bill, where you might not notice a few extra bucks over the usual corporeality.

Joker also steals your phone's contact listing, doubtless to spam itself out to even more people, and might also have a await at your saved text messages.

If this sounds familiar, it's because Google removed another six Joker-infected apps from the Play Store before this month. Another 11 apps were booted from Google Play in July. And but over a year ago, a full two dozen Joker-harboring apps were purged in the malware's k debut.

That makes 58 different Joker-infected apps that accept appeared in Google Play since the beginning of 2019. They won't be the last.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom'south Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He'due south been rooting around in the information-security space for more than 15 years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom's Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random Tv news spots and even chastened a panel discussion at the CEDIA home-applied science conference. You tin follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.