Malware developers have established a thriving market to add malicious Android apps to Google Play, the official app store for Android, for $2,000 to $20,000, according to a new report by Kaspersky.
The price for these services is negotiated on a case-by-case basis on hacker forums or Telegram channels, allowing cybercriminals to customize malicious Android apps with their own malware or functionality. The malware developers promise to hide malware in legitimate-looking apps that impersonate antivirus programs, cryptocurrency asset managers, QR-code scanners, small games, and dating apps.
These malicious but innocuous-looking apps are published on Google Play, providing a wide base of targets to steal credentials and data, conduct financial fraud, or deliver unwanted advertisements.
The services are offered via Telegram, dark web marketplaces, and hacking forums that allow threat actors to promote their services. Kaspersky reports that apart from Google Play loaders, which sell for an average of roughly $7,000, cybercriminals also sell services like malware obfuscation for $8 to $30 or “clean” Google developer accounts that cost $60.
These services guarantee that the app will remain on Google Play for at least one week, with some developers promising at least 5,000 installs.
Upon installation, the malware loader apps request the user to grant risky permissions like access to the phone’s camera, microphone, or Accessibility Services and prevent access to the app’s main functions until the requests are approved.
Then, the authors of these apps sell access to their loaders to interested buyers and set them to inject additional payloads. To increase the number of malware installations via the Google Play loaders, the cybercriminals may also offer to run Google Ad campaigns on account of their customers.
To defend against these stealthy attacks, Android users should carefully review the requested permissions upon app installation, check user comments on Google Play, and keep the number of installed apps at a minimum.
It’s also important to never install Android APKs from third-party sites, as they are a common distribution method for malware.
