Here’s a scary thought: Mobile devices may soon come with pre-installed malware on required system apps. While it might sound like a grim foretelling, pre-installed mobile malware is an unfortunate reality of the future.
In the past, we’ve seen pre-installed malware with the notorious
Adups threat, among
others. “Pre-installed” means the malware comes already installed on a device at the system level, thus, it cannot be removed; only disabled. However, remediating these iterations of pre-installed malware is possible by using a work-around to uninstall apps for the
current user. This method involves connecting the mobile device to a PC and using the
ADB command line tool. Follow our guide,
removal instructions for Adups, to find out more.
Although this method is a bit tedious, it works to remediate the malware. In contrast, remediating newer versions of pre-installed malware has become much more difficult. We are now seeing malware authors target system apps that are required for the device to function properly. By injecting malicious code within these necessary apps, threat actors have reshaped the landscape of pre-installed malware for the worse.
