News hardware Immediately uninstall this Android application from your smartphone

There is no infallible system, it is a reality of the computer world. All that can be done is to make hacking ever more complex for hackers, and to be extremely responsive when they manage to breach security. The more popular we are, the more we will be targeted. Also, no wonder that Android and Windows are the main OS affected by attacks. And while the Play Store is supposed to protect its users, automatic verification can still be tricked.

Computer security experts Pradeo spotted one of those Android apps that managed to slip through the cracks. Called Craftsart Cartoon Photo Tools, it promises its users to transform their photos into drawings of different styles through filters.

But in reality, his behavior is totally different. As soon as the application is launched, it asks to connect to a Facebook account. But this login page is actually a trojan called “Facestealer”, which has the sole purpose of recovering your Facebook credentials for malicious purposes. All of your data is then sent to servers owned by the hackers in Russia.

A 7 year old process

Pradeo has seen that this attack is far from recent. The servers used for it have indeed been active for more than 7 years. The malware itself seems to be one of those that are part of an automated process: hackers retrieve small innocuous applications from the Play Store, and insert this corrupted connection interface into their code. This procedure can even be automated.

Fortunately, Google reacted quickly to the publication of this information and the application was removed from the Play Store a few hours ago. Be careful not to have it installed on your smartphone, and uninstall it if necessary. This case is a good opportunity to remember that we must always be wary of tools that we do not know: they can hide bad intentions.

Source:
Pradeo