Android.Counterclank Found in Official Android Market

Tom172

Level 1
Thread author
Feb 11, 2011
1,009
Symantec has identified multiple publisher IDs on the Android Market that are being used to push out Android.Counterclank. This is a minor modification of Android.Tonclank, a bot-like threat that can receive commands to carry out certain actions, as well as steal information from the device.

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Android.Counterclank writeup
 

Jack

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 24, 2011
9,377
This again..... The Android users have most of the guilt when they fall for this scams however Google could very easily charge the developers with a small fee and hiring a team to pre-approve this apps..... you know... like Apple does....
To be honest I agree with Chris DiBona when he says that security developers are over reacting however this everyday campaign against user affects the Android image .... ;)
 

Tom172

Level 1
Thread author
Feb 11, 2011
1,009
I agree it's easy to avoid jack, but only for people who are aware. Take a look at alot of Windows users who are getting infected. They can easily research an application or scan it first before installing, or just completely avoid something they're unsure about, we we know what happens. Same story with alot of Android users who are unaware of these types of threats. A few of my friends were unaware malware even exists on the Android platform until I told them recently. Sad but true.
 

Jack

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 24, 2011
9,377
So after analyzing this apps the guys from Lookout found out that this Android.Counterclank is not a malicious app , instead it could be considered at most a Potential Unwanted Application.

Lookout said:
Today, news came out that claimed a particular family of malware, termed ‘Android.Counterclank’, had infected 5 million users. We disagree with the assessment that this is malware, although we do believe that the Apperhand SDK is an aggressive form of ad network and should be taken seriously.

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Sophos said:
Android Counterclank is (not) malware

One recent example was a bit controversial. Several popular apps, published by at least three developers - iApps7 Inc, Ogre Games and Redmicapps, have been identified by Symantec as malicious and the original story was pushed by the Symantec PR department.

The claim was later disputed by the team from Lookout in a blog post that gives more details about the functionality of an advertising framework included with the offending apps.

It turns out that the Apperhand framework is related to an advertising framework used more than half a year ago by the Plankton app. I previously wrote that it is not clear whether this framework is malicious or not.

Indeed, we have to go back several years, to the birth of Potentially unwanted applications (PUA) on Windows, which would probably be the best way to describe the applications reporting to Apperhand.com. They are not inherently created with malicious intent.

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Several popular apps, published by at least three developers - iApps7 Inc, Ogre Games and Redmicapps, have been identified by Symantec as malicious and the original story was pushed by the Symantec PR department.
Have to love this part.......
 

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