Two Android apps that weren't what they seemed got pulled from the Google Play app store this week.
Instead of offering features to up your selfie game and ???? ???? ????? ??????mobile picture-taking, the two apps, Sun Pro Beauty Camera and Funny Sweet Beauty Camera, were pushing adware onto phones.
Researchers at cybersecurity company Wandera discovered the malicious apps only recently, after the Sun Pro app had been available for two years, since Sept. 2017, and seen more than 1 million downloads. The other, Funny Sweet Beauty Camera, was only up since July but had pulled in more than 500,000 downloads, according to ZDNet.
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Both apps could easily access user data and both were bombarding devices with ads that sometimes couldn't even be closed. Sometimes the ads appeared outside the app. Both apps also came packing unusual permissions requests for camera apps – such as asking for access to the microphone, for audio recording – that could have been used maliciously.
In August, Trend Micro found 85 apps with hidden adware on the Google Play store.
Wandera reported these latest two camera apps to Google last week and both are no longer available. If you downloaded the apps, delete them. We reached out to Google for more information about the apps and their removal.
Next step: Stick to camera filters available through trusted apps on your phone. Your selfies aren't worth bricking your device.
Topics Cybersecurity