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Mini-games have soared in popularity over the recent years. Millions of users take to them for the thrill of it all. However, some malicious apps have been designed to take advantage of this habit of innocent, unsuspecting, users in such a way that they end up downloading spyware-infected apps on their phones. The security team at Dr. Web have uncovered a spyware module within these apps, which they have named ‘SpinOk’. Dr. Web team says, “Developers can embed it into all sorts of apps and games, including those available on Google Play.”
The danger of this spyware can put your personal information at risk. The report suggests that after being injected into one of the impacted apps, the Trojanized SDK establishes a connection with a remote server to retrieve a roster of websites used for displaying minigames within the apps. The SpinOk module possesses the ability to carry out various malicious operations in the background such as listing files in directories, searching for specific files, uploading files from an infected smartphone, and copying or replacing content from the device’s clipboard.
According to Dr. Web, the mentioned software development kit (SDK) was detected in 101 apps available on Google Play. These apps have been collectively downloaded over 421,290,300 times. However, here are some of the most popular ones among them with maximum downloads.
Check the list of top 10 infected apps found carrying the Android.Spy.SpinOk trojan SDK:
- Noizz: video editor with music
- Zapya – File Transfer, Share (trojan module was present in version 6.3.3 to version 6.4 and is no longer present in current version 6.4.1)
- VFly: video editor&video maker
- MVBit – MV video status maker
- Biugo – video maker&video editor
- Crazy Drop
- Cashzine – Earn money reward
- Fizzo Novel – Reading Offline
- CashEM: Get Rewards
- Tick: watch to earn
What should users do
If you use any of these infected apps, then it is recommended to update it to the latest version to avoid any infected version. If you can’t find the app on Google Play Store, then it is best advised to uninstall them right away. Also, ensure to scan your smartphone with antivirus to detect spyware.
“The safety of users and developers is at the core of Google Play. We have reviewed recent reports on SpinOK SDK and are taking appropriate action on apps that violate our policies,” a Google Spokesperson told BleepingComputer.
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