Skip to main content

Google Play Store has removed popular apps with 20 million downloads: Heres why

Google Play has removed apps with more than 20 million downloads because they were using excessive mobile data and draining batteries, says a report.

According to a report by McAfee, it identified new Clicker malware that sneaked into Google Play. In total, 16 applications that were previously on Google Play have been confirmed to have the malicious payload with an assumed 20 million installations.

"Once the application is opened, it downloads its remote configuration by executing an HTTP request. After the configuration is downloaded, it registers the FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) listener to receive push messages," McAfee wrote in a blogpost.

"At first glance, it seems like well-made Android software. However, it is hiding ad fraud features behind, armed with remote configuration and FCM techniques," it added.

The security researchers notified Google that all the identified apps are no longer available on Google Play. Users are also protected by Google Play Protect, which blocks these apps on Android.

The malicious code was found on useful utility applications like Flashlight (Torch), QR readers, Camera, Unit converters, and Task managers.

The FCM message has various types of information and that includes which function to call and its parameters.

(Except for the headline and cover image, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.



from Apps News https://ift.tt/wW2JCpd

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

YouTube Music Season Recap 2022: How to View the Spring Recap

YouTube is a jump ahead of Spotify with its Season Rewind playlist feature. Well, besides playlists, the service offers you a list of your most played artists, songs, albums, etc in the previous season. It will be a recurring thing and is poised to come out every season. Meanwhile, its biggest competitor Spotify’s Wrapped is a bop every time it lands but is limited to annual appearance. There in lies one big difference between the two approaches. Let’s see what else you could expect out of the new YouTube Music feature. YouTube Season Recap: How it works Source: u/DecentSizedTurd (Reddit) Like the YouTube Recap 2021, this one too would share personalized listening stats. YouTube calls this “an exploration of your top artists, songs, albums and playlists over the last season”. To view it, you just need to go to music.youtube.com/recap or the landing page on the YouTube Music app for Android and iOS. Right now, only some users have got the spring Youtube Music playlist. But the...