Android games contain malware

Symantec is reporting that 13 Android apps are infected with malware. The download figures for the apps in question suggest that many hundreds of thousands of smartphones and tablets may be affected. The affected applications are games from iApps7 Inc, Ogre Games and redmicapps and are infected with a trojan called Counterclank which Symantec says is a modified version of last year's Tonclank trojan. The apps request unusually extensive permissions during installation, such as access to the bookmarks list, browser history, location data, telephone status and identity information.

Symantec say this wallpaper app, still on the Android Market, also contains the CounterClank trojan Affected devices can be identified by the presence of a service named apperhand and in some cases by the appearance of a search icon on the home screen. According to Symantec, the malware reads data such as bookmarks, device information, IMEI and SIM card numbers and modifies the browser's start page. The criminals behind the malware make their money by displaying unsolicited ads. The malware is relatively easy to remove and can be uninstalled under Settings ➤ Applications ➤ Manage applications. Some of the apps listed by Symantec are apparently still available in the Android Market.

(djwm)