Android users, beware: Security researchers have discovered a new type of trojanized adware targeting devices running Google's mobile operating system.
Mobile security company Lookout this week said it has detected more than 20,000 samples of malware masquerading as legitimate apps like Candy Crush, Facebook, Google Now, NYTimes, Snapchat, Twitter, WhatsApp, and even the two-factor authentication app Okta. The malicious apps, which are being distributed via third-party app stores, function just like normal, with one major difference—they contain malicious code that roots the device.
As soon as you install one of these malicious apps, the malware automatically roots your device, embeds itself as a system application, and becomes "nearly impossible" to remove, Lookout said.
"Adware, which has traditionally been used to aggressively push ads, is now becoming trojanized and sophisticated," Lookout wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "This is a new trend for adware and an alarming one at that."
Chances are, if your device has been infected, you won't even be able to tell. This new auto-rooting adware silently works in the background, unlike varieties in the past that were obvious, constantly prompting you with obnoxious uninstall messages. And the fact that this malware roots your device makes it extra nefarious.
"The act of rooting the device… creates additional security risk," Lookout said. "Usually applications are not allowed to access the files created by other applications, however with root access, those limitation[s] are easily bypassed."

Lookout has discovered three interconnected families of trojanized adware — dubbed Shuanet, Kemoge (or ShiftyBug), and Shedun (aka GhostPush) — responsible for more than 20,000 malicious apps. The researchers believe these apps were created by three different authors or groups, who "have at least heard of each other" and leveraged each other's work. Some variants they discovered have 71 to 82 percent code similarity.
"Getting infected with Shedun, Shuanet, and ShiftyBug might mean a trip to the store to buy a new phone," Lookout said. Worse yet, the company expects this class of torjanized adware to become more popular among cybercriminals and "continue gaining sophistication over time."
As usual, this is another reminder to avoid suspicious third-party apps and app stores.

Google Play

Google Play, originally the Google Play Store or Android Market, is a digital distribution platform operated by Google. It serves as the official app store for the Android operating system, allowing users to browse and download applications developed with the Android SDK and published through Google. Google Play also serves as a digital media store, offering music, magazines, books, movies, and television programs. It previously offered Google hardware devices for purchase until the introduction of a separate online hardware retailer, Google Store, on March 11, 2015.
Applications are available through Google Play either free of charge or at a cost. They can be downloaded directly to an Android or Google TV device through the Play Store mobile app, or by deploying the application to a device from the Google Play website. Many applications can be targeted to specific users based on a particular hardware attribute of their device, such as a motion sensor (for motion-dependent games) or a front-facing camera (for online video calling).
Google Play was launched on March 6, 2012, with the merger of Android Market, Google Music, and Google eBookstore, marking a shift in Google's digital distribution strategy. The services operating under the Google Play banner are: Google Play Music, Google Play Books, Google Play Newsstand, Google Play Movies & TV, and Google Play Games. The Google Play store has reached over 1.43 million apps published and over 50 billion downloads.
An update was applied to the Google Play Store in April of 2013 which had been the changeover from the old, rather cumbersome, Google Play Store, which had been known to be sort of mismatched in the way the information, applications, books etc. were presented. The main change which came with the update of the Google Play Store in 2013 was aesthetics, changing the background of the play store to a lighter background, with many of the features that had previously been available mainly not receiving any sort of changes. Another visual change which had been presented in the update in 2013 had been when a user is searching for an application, the added the three vertical dots next to the application. The main reason for adding the three dots is as an option page which allowed the users to download the application without actually having to visit the page for the application, which would save time for the users. And the final noteworthy change to the Google Play Store was that they had taken the extremely cluttered pages and added a new card presentation of the applications, presenting the user with 4-6 applications at a time rather than 20 applications at a time

Google Play makes free-of-charge applications available worldwide (except countries under United States embargoes), while paid applications are available in 135 countries. Applications can be installed from the device using the Google Play Store app or through the Google Play website on a PC. According to AppBrain Stats, there are over 1,400,000 applications available as of November 2014, of which over 1,200,000 are free and over 200,000 are paid. Google seems to remove low-quality apps from the store roughly once a quarter, when the number of available apps go down.
As of November 2014, developers in 61 countries were able to distribute paid applications on Google Play. To distribute apps, developers have to pay $25 as registration fee for a Google Play Developer Console account. Google states that this fee is charged to encourage higher quality products on Google Play. Application developers can control which countries an app distributed in, as well as the pricing for the app and in-app purchases in each country. Developers receive 70 percent of the application price, while the remaining 30 percent goes to the distribution partner and operating fees. Revenue earned from the Google Play is paid to developers via Google Wallet merchant accounts, or via Google AdSense accounts in some countries.
Google Play allows developers to release early versions of apps to a select group of users, as alpha- and beta-testing versions. This allows the developer to fix any issues before the app is released widely. Google Play also allows developers to release updates in stages, first to a subset of users and then progressively to larger portions of the userbase, ensuring that the smallest number of users are affected by any issues missed in testing.
Some carriers, such as Sprint, offer direct carrier billing for application purchases. Purchases of unwanted applications can be refunded within 15 minutes of the time of download.
Applications meeting certain design criteria set by Google can be made compatible for Android Wear and Android TV devices, and for the Google Fit platform.
On 17 March 2009, about 2,300 applications were available in Android Market, according to T-Mobile chief technical officer Cole Brodman.On 10 May 2011, during the Google I/O, Google announced that Android Market had 200,000 applications listed and 4.5 billion applications installed.^] In October 2012, Google announced that Google Play had 700,000 apps available to download, matching the number of apps in Apple's App Store. On 24 July 2013, Google announced that the Play Store now had one million applications listed and it had over 50 billion downloads.

Android (operating system)

History

Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California in October 2003 by Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (headed design and interface development at WebTV) to develop, in Rubin's words, "smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences".[13] The early intentions of the company were to develop an advanced operating system for digital cameras. Though, when it was realized that the market for the devices was not large enough, the company diverted its efforts toward producing a smartphone operating system that would rival Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile. Despite the past accomplishments of the founders and early employees, Android Inc. operated secretly, revealing only that it was working on software for mobile phones. That same year, Rubin ran out of money. Steve Perlman, a close friend of Rubin, brought him $10,000 in cash in an envelope and refused a stake in the company.

In July 2005, Google acquired Android Inc. for at least $50 million, whose key employees, including Rubin, Miner and White, stayed at the company after the acquisition. Not much was known about Android Inc. at the time, but many assumed that Google was planning to enter the mobile phone market with this move.At Google, the team led by Rubin developed a mobile device platform powered by the Linux kernel. Google marketed the platform to handset makers and carriers on the promise of providing a flexible, upgradable system. Google had lined up a series of hardware component and software partners and signaled to carriers that it was open to various degrees of cooperation on their part.
Speculation about Google's intention to enter the mobile communications market continued to build through December 2006. An earlier prototype codenamed "Sooner" had a closer resemblance to a BlackBerry phone, with no touchscreen, and a physical, QWERTY keyboard, but was later re-engineered to support a touchscreen, to compete with other announced devices such as the 2006 LG Prada and 2007 Apple iPhone. In September 2007, InformationWeek covered an Evalueserve study reporting that Google had filed several patent applications in the area of mobile telephony.

Eric Schmidt, Andy Rubin and Hugo Barra at a 2012 press conference announcing Google's Nexus 7 tablet

On November 5, 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of technology companies including Google, device manufacturers such as HTC, Sony and Samsung, wireless carriers such as Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, and chipset makers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, unveiled itself, with a goal to develop open standards for mobile devices. That day, Android was unveiled as its first product, a mobile device platform built on the Linux kernel. The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the HTC Dream, released on October 22, 2008.
Since 2008, Android has seen numerous updates which have incrementally improved the operating system, adding new features and fixing bugs in previous releases. Each major release is named in alphabetical order after a dessert or sugary treat; for example, version 1.5 "Cupcake" was followed by 1.6 "Donut". In 2010, Google launched its Nexus series of devices – a line of smartphones and tablets running the Android operating system, and built by manufacturing partners. HTC collaborated with Google to release the first Nexus smartphone,^] the Nexus One. Google has since updated the series with newer devices, such as the Nexus 5 phone (made by LG) and the Nexus 7 tablet (made by Asus). Google releases the Nexus phones and tablets to act as their flagship Android devices, demonstrating Android's latest software and hardware features. From 2013 until 2015, Google offered several Google Play Edition devices over Google Play. While not carrying the Google Nexus branding, these were Google-customized Android phones and tablets that also ran the latest version of Android, free from manufacturer or carrier modifications.
From 2010 to 2013, Hugo Barra served as product spokesperson, representing Android at press conferences and Google I/O, Google’s annual developer-focused conference. Barra's product involvement included the entire Android ecosystem of software and hardware, including Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and KitKat operating system launches, the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 smartphones, the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets, and other related products such as Google Nowand Google Voice Search, Google’s speech recognition product comparable to Apple’s Siri. In 2013, Barra left the Android team for Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. The same year, Larry Page announced in a blog post that Andy Rubin had moved from the Android division to take on new projects at Google. He was replaced by Sundar Pichai who became the new head of Android and Chrome OS, and, later, by Hiroshi Lockheimer when Pichai became CEO of Google.
In 2014, Google launched Android One, a line of smartphones mainly targeting customers in the developing world. In May 2015, Google announced Project Brillo as a cut-down version of Android that uses its lower levels (excluding the user interface), intended for the "Internet of Things" (IoT) embedded systems.

Features

Interface

Notifications are accessed by sliding from the top of the display; individual notifications can be dismissed by sliding them away, and may contain additional functions as seen on this example of the "missed call" notification from an older version of Android.

Android's default user interface is based on direct manipulation,using touch inputs, that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects, and a virtual keyboard. The response to user input is designed to be immediate and provides a fluid touch interface, often using the vibration capabilities of the device to provide haptic feedback to the user. Internal hardware, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and proximity sensors are used by some applications to respond to additional user actions, for example adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented, or allowing the user to steer a vehicle in a racing game by rotating the device, simulating control of a steering wheel.
Android devices boot to the homescreen, the primary navigation and information "hub" on Android devices that is analogous to the desktop found on personal computers. (Android also runs on regular personal computers, as described below). Android homescreens are typically made up of app icons and widgets; app icons launch the associated app, whereas widgets display live, auto-updating content, such as the weather forecast, the user's email inbox, or a news ticker directly on the homescreen. A homescreen may be made up of several pages, between which the user can swipe back and forth, though Android's homescreen interface is heavily customisable, allowing users to adjust the look and feel of the devices to their tastes. Third-party apps available on Google Play and other app stores can extensively re-theme the homescreen, and even mimic the look of other operating systems, such as Windows Phone. Most manufacturers, and some wireless carriers, customise the look and feel of their Android devices to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Applications that handle interactions with the homescreen are called "launchers" because they, among other purposes, launch the applications installed on a device.
Along the top of the screen is a status bar, showing information about the device and its connectivity. This status bar can be "pulled" down to reveal a notification screen where apps display important information or updates, such as a newly received email or SMS text, in a way that does not immediately interrupt or inconvenience the user. Notifications are persistent until read (by tapping, which opens the relevant app) or dismissed by sliding it off the screen. Beginning on Android 4.1, "expanded notifications" can display expanded details or additional functionality; for instance, a music player can display playback controls, and a "missed call" notification provides buttons for calling back or sending the caller an SMS message.
Android provides the ability to run applications that change the default launcher, and hence the appearance and externally visible behaviour of Android. These appearance changes include a multi-page dock or no dock, and many more changes to fundamental features of the user interface.

Applications

See also: Android software development and Google Play

Applications ("apps"), which extend the functionality of devices, are written using the Android software development kit (SDK) and, often, the programming language that has complete access to the Android APIs. Java may be combined with C/C++, together with a choice of non-default runtimes that allow better C++ support; the Go programming language is also supported since its version 1.4, which can also be used exclusively although with a restricted set of Android APIs. The SDK includes a comprehensive set of development tools,^] including a debugger, software libraries, a handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Initially, Google's supported integrated development environment (IDE) was Eclipse using the Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin; in December 2014, Google released Android Studio, based on IntelliJ IDEA, as its primary IDE for Android application development. Other development tools are available, including a native development kit (NDK) for applications or extensions in C or C++, Google App Inventor, a visual environment for novice programmers, and various cross platform mobile web applications frameworks. In January 2014, Google unveiled an framework based on Apache Cordova for porting Chrome HTML 5 web applications to Android, wrapped in a native application shell.
Android has a growing selection of third-party applications, which can be acquired by users by downloading and installing the application's APK (Android application package) file, or by downloading them using an application store program that allows users to install, update, and remove applications from their devices. Google Play Store is the primary application store installed on Android devices that comply with Google's compatibility requirements and license the Google Mobile Services software. Google Play Store allows users to browse, download and update applications published by Google and third-party developers; As of July 2013, there are more than one million applications available for Android in Play Store. As of May 2013, 48 billion applications have been installed from Google Play Store and in July 2013, 50 billion applications were installed. Some carriers offer direct carrier billing for Google Play application purchases, where the cost of the application is added to the user's monthly bill.
Due to the open nature of Android, a number of third-party application marketplaces also exist for Android, either to provide a substitute for devices that are not allowed to ship with Google Play Store, provide applications that cannot be offered on Google Play Store due to policy violations, or for other reasons. Examples of these third-party stores have included the Amazon Appstore, GetJar, and SlideMe. F-Droid, another alternative marketplace, seeks to only provide applications that are distributed under free and open source licenses.

Memory management

Since Android devices are usually battery-powered, Android is designed to manage memory (RAM) to keep power consumption at a minimum, in contrast to desktop operating systems which generally assume they are connected to unlimited mains electricity. When an Android application is no longer in use, the system will automatically suspend it in memory; while the application is still technically "open", suspended applications consume no resources (for example, battery power or processing power) and sit idly in the background until needed again. This brings a dual benefit by increasing the general responsiveness of Android devices, since applications do not need to be closed and reopened from scratch each time, and by ensuring that background applications do not consume power needlessly.
Android manages the applications stored in memory automatically: when memory is low, the system will begin killing applications and processes that have been inactive for a while, in reverse order since they were last used (oldest first). This process is designed to be invisible to the user, so that users do not need to manage memory or the killing of applications themselves. Lifehacker reported in 2011 that third-party task killers were doing more harm than good.

Hardware

Development

Android green figure, next to its original packaging

Android is developed in private by Google until the latest changes and updates are ready to be released, at which point the source code is made available publicly. This source code will only run without modification on select devices, usually the Nexus series of devices. The source code is, in turn, adapted by OEMs to run on their hardware. Android's source code does not contain the often proprietary device drivers that are needed for certain hardware components.

In 2007, the green Android logo was designed for Google by a graphic designer Irina Blok. The design team was tasked with a project to create a universally identifiable icon with the specific inclusion of a robot in the final design. After numerous design developments based on science-fiction and space movies, the team eventually sought inspiration from the human symbol on restroom doors and modified the figure into a robot shape. As Android is open-sourced, it was agreed that the logo should be likewise, and since its launch the green logo has been reinterpreted into countless variations on the original design.

Update schedule

Google provides major incremental upgrades to Android every six to nine months, with confectionery-themed names, which most devices are capable of receiving over the air. The latest major release is Android 6.0 "Marshmallow".
Compared to its primary rival mobile operating system, iOS, Android updates typically reach various devices with significant delays. For devices not under the Nexus brand, updates often arrive months from the time the given version is officially released, if at all. This is partly due to the extensive variation in hardware of Android devices, to which each upgrade must be specifically tailored, as the official Google source code only runs on their flagship Nexus devices. Porting Android to specific hardware is a time- and resource-consuming process for device manufacturers, who prioritize their newest devices and often leave older ones behind. Hence, older smartphones are frequently not updated if the manufacturer decides it is not worth their time, regardless of whether the phone is capable of running the update. This problem is compounded when manufacturers customize Android with their own interface and apps, which must be reapplied to each new release. Additional delays can be introduced by wireless carriers who, after receiving updates from manufacturers, further customize and brand Android to their needs and conduct extensive testing on their networks before sending the upgrade out to users.
The lack of after-sale support from manufacturers and carriers has been widely criticized by consumer groups and the technology media. Some commentators have noted that the industry has a financial incentive not to upgrade their devices, as the lack of updates for existing devices fuels the purchase of newer ones, an attitude described as "insulting".The Guardian has complained that the method of distribution for updates is complicated only because manufacturers and carriers have designed it that way. In 2011, Google partnered with a number of industry players to announce an "Android Update Alliance", pledging to deliver timely updates for every device for 18 months after its release; however, there has not been another official word about that alliance since its announcement.
In 2012, Google began decoupling certain aspects of the operating system (particularly core applications) so they could be updated through Google Play Store, independently of Android itself. One of these components, Google Play Services, is a closed-source system-level process providing APIs for Google services, installed automatically on nearly all devices running Android version 2.2 and higher. With these changes, Google can add new operating system functionality through Play Services and application updates without having to distribute an upgrade to the operating system itself. As a result, Android 4.2 and 4.3 contained relatively fewer user-facing changes, focusing more on minor changes and platform improvements.

Linux kernel

Android's kernel is based on one of the Linux kernel's long-term support (LTS) branches. Since April 2014, Android devices mainly use versions 3.4 or 3.10 of the Linux kernel. The specific kernel version depends on the actual Android device and its hardware platform; Android has used various kernel versions since the version 2.6.25 that was used in Android 1.0.
Android's variant of the Linux kernel has further architectural changes that are implemented by Google outside the typical Linux kernel development cycle, such as the inclusion of components like Binder, ashmem, pmem, logger, wakelocks, and different out-of-memory (OOM) handling. Certain features that Google contributed back to the Linux kernel, notably a power management feature called "wakelocks", were rejected by mainline kernel developers partly because they felt that Google did not show any intent to maintain its own code. Google announced in April 2010 that they would hire two employees to work with the Linux kernel community, but Greg Kroah-Hartman, the current Linux kernel maintainer for the stable branch, said in December 2010 that he was concerned that Google was no longer trying to get their code changes included in mainstream Linux. Some Google Android developers hinted that "the Android team was getting fed up with the process," because they were a small team and had more urgent work to do on Android.
In August 2011, Linus Torvalds said that "eventually Android and Linux would come back to a common kernel, but it will probably not be for four to five years". In December 2011, Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the start of Android Mainlining Project, which aims to put some Android drivers, patches and features back into the Linux kernel, starting in Linux 3.3. Linux included the autosleep and wakelocks capabilities in the 3.5 kernel, after many previous attempts at merger. The interfaces are the same but the upstream Linux implementation allows for two different suspend modes: to memory (the traditional suspend that Android uses), and to disk (hibernate, as it is known on the desktop). Google maintains a public code repository that contains their experimental work to re-base Android off the latest stable Linux versions.
The flash storage on Android devices is split into several partitions, such as /system for the operating system itself, and /data for user data and application installations.In contrast to desktop Linux distributions, Android device owners are not given root access to the operating system and sensitive partitions such as /system are read-only. However, root access can be obtained by exploiting security flaws in Android, which is used frequently by the open-source community to enhance the capabilities of their devices, but also by malicious parties to install viruses and malware.
Android is a Linux distribution according to the Linux Foundation, Google's open-source chief Chris DiBona, and several journalists. Others, such as Google engineer Patrick Brady, say that Android is not Linux in the traditional Unix-like Linux distribution sense; Android does not include the GNU C Library (it uses Bionic as an alternative C library) and some of other components typically found in Linux distributions.

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Saturday, November 7, 2015

Trojanized Adware Invades Third-Party Android App Stores

Google Play

Android (operating system)

History