12,000 potentially screwed-up Android apps

According to a recent study, Google's PlayStore has been infiltrated by several malware, infecting more than 12,000 applications.

These applications would contain backdoors that allow hackers to access users' terminals.

This article will also interest you: These android apps on PlayStore corrupt that jeopardize our computer security

Despite Google's security system, Play Protect, the system to protect and control apps hosted on the PlayStore as well as users of potential malware via the same apps, sometimes some applications get through the cracks. But this is probably better, or better to limit yourself to the PlayStore than to download applications on unofficial sites. As the applications offered outside the Google store, is out of service official store presents a great risk to the security of your terminal

Following a joint study conducted by 3 universities, two American and German institutions, on more than 100,000 applications, all very popular on Google's PlayStore but on top of that, about 20,000 more on other legal download platforms or those preinstalled by manufacturers on their smartphones. According to Zdnet, to conduct their studies, "Researchers have developed a special tool to analyze the form fields of more than 150,000 applications. ». The researchers concluded after their studies that: "The evaluation revealed a worrying situation. We've identified 12,706 apps containing a variety of backdoors such as secret access keys, administrator passwords and secret commands." In this way, the identified backdoor would allow individuals to take certain actions to the detriment of users.This could be theft of sensitive data or espionage, where the installation of malware for other illegal purposes.

And that's not all, the researchers will also notify this fact: "By manually examining several mobile applications, we discovered that a popular remote control application (10 million installations) contains a primary password that can unlock access even if the phone owner locks it remotely in case of loss of the device."

After the study, the researchers said they had contacted the publishers of these applications to expose the flaws discovered. If he has not yet received a return from them, he claims to have informed them. Google for its part has not yet made a statement on this subject, but if there is a problem, its reaction will not be long.

In terms of pre-installed applications, this issue has already been raised several times. Some NGOs have even asked Google to have more control over its operating system in this regard. Because applications are increasingly dedicated to exposing users and infringing on their privacy. But the issue is still turning and so far no action has been taken against or good this direction.

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