16 January 21, 10:33
Quote:Google has removed 164 apps, downloaded a total of 10 million times, from its Google Play marketplace because they were delivering “disruptive” ads, considered malicious.
Last year, the tech giant banned apps that delivered this type of advertising, called out-of-context ads. But the problem continues to plague Google despite numerous efforts by the company to prevent “malicious developers” from submitting their apps to its Google Play marketplace.
Researchers discovered the offending apps mimicking legitimate apps to garner downloads, “only to then trick the user into seeing a whole bunch of unexpected ads,” researchers Gabi Cirlig, Michael Gethers, Lisa Gansky and Adam Sell wrote in a report published by WhiteOps Satori Threat Intelligence Team.
WhiteOps identified the 164 apps, calling them CopyCatz apps, because bulk of those identified attempted to mimic the functions of other popular apps – and spewed the obnoxious ads.
Google has struggled with bad apps delivering adware and other malware on Google Play for years, and has made significant strides to prevent threat actors from sneaking their rogue apps on Google Play.
Last February, Google deleted 600 apps for displaying the same type of behavior as the latest raft of apps that were deleted, and subsequently banned them from the store. However, some threat actors didn’t get the memo and still have been able to sneak these type of apps through, Satori researchers found.
So called CopyCatz apps, which serve up out-of-context ads, bombard users with ads regardless of whether the host app is active or not. Typically, the ads are considered obnoxious and can often contain disingenuous marketing messages. The Satori team discovered 164 apps containing the underlying code capable of displaying out-of-context ads. Linking the apps was the “com.tdc.adservice package”, they wrote.
Read more: https://threatpost.com/google-boots-164-...ay/163091/