Critical Bug in Android Antivirus Exposes Address Books

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://threatpost.com/critical-bug-android-antivirus/146927/

Comprehensive testing of 21 free Android antivirus apps revealed big security vulnerabilities and privacy concerns; especially for AEGISLAB, BullGuard, dfndr and VIPRE.

A slew of popular free Android antivirus apps in recent testing proved to have security holes and privacy issues – including a critical vulnerability that exposes user’s address books, and another serious flaw that enables attackers to turn off antivirus protection entirely.

According to an analysis from Comparitech of 21 Android antivirus vendors, three of the apps tested (from VIPRE Mobile, AEGISLAB and BullGuard) had serious security flaws, and seven apps couldn’t detect a test virus. In total, 47 percent of the vendors tested failed in some way.

Read the rest here: Critical Bug in Android Antivirus Exposes Address Books
Original article: We tested 21 Android antivirus apps and found these serious vulnerabilities - Comparitech

 

[Nightwalker]

Antivirus on Android does much more harm than good; just install apps from Google Play Store, pay attention to app's permissions/reputation, keep the system up to date (thats the hard part) and with Play Protect you wont need a third party antivirus.

 

[Venustus]

Never used on any of my android devices...Never had a problem

 

[HarborFront]

Comparitech spent weeks testing popular free Android antivirus apps. We looked for flaws in the way each vendor handles privacy, security, and advertising. The results were eye-opening.

In many cases, you’re not getting what was promised in the Play Store. A lot of apps can’t accurately detect a virus. Almost all of them are tracking you. And we found a handful of serious security flaws, including a critical vulnerability that exposed user’s address books, and another that enabled attackers to turn off antivirus protection entirely.

Android antivirus test results

Comparitech’s senior security researcher, Khaled Sakr, is responsible for the active testing. He looked at the application itself, its effectiveness, the web management dashboard, and all backend services involved. We also analyzed dangerous permissions and trackers embedded in each mobile antivirus app.

Our testing

In mid-June 2019, we looked at 21 Android antivirus vendors. We found serious security flaws in three of the apps we tested, and found seven apps that couldn’t detect a test virus. In total, 47% of the vendors we tested failed in some way.

Article too long to post. Please read below link

We tested 21 Android antivirus apps and found these serious vulnerabilities - Comparitech

Android antivirus apps claim to protect your device, but we found a ton of security holes and privacy risks -- one of them even exposes your address book

www.comparitech.com