Newly Discovered ChineseVirus for Android Sends PrivateData via SMS

NetQin Mobile, one of the
leading mobile security software
providers has just announced
that it has recently identified a
new virus on Android devices.
According to NetQin, the virus
known as “MSO.PJApps” is said
to be causing private data leaks
and to secretly subscribe users to
paid services.
It seems that the virus was
repackaged into some of the
most popular mobile applications
available for download from an
application download site in
China.
As soon as the user installs the
application containing the virus
on his mobile device,
“ MSO.PJApps” will connect to
certain sites and start sending
text messages containing the
mobile device's IMEI number, as
well as other data to designated
numbers controlled by a remote
server,
Besides the above mentioned
actions, the virus receives
commands from the remote
server to download and install
software without user's
permission, which may lead to
unintended service subscription
charges.
According to NetQin, “the
"MSO.PJApps" virus is injected
into legitimate mobile
applications and modifies the
application entry in Manifest.xml
to add certain modules. It is
activated in the background with
a change in signal and when the
relevant program starts
automatically. ”
“It encrypts the domain names of
the site which is connected to.
The virus author disguises the
malicious URLs as being
encrypted with BASE64, while the
URLs are actually encrypted with
an algorithm designed by
himself,” concluded the Mobile
Security Center of NetQin Mobile
Inc.
The mobile software security
developer that identified the virus
also found a solution to the
threat within 12 hours and
updated its virus database to
ensure that Android device users
are protected against the
intrusion.
Even though the virus seems to
be limited to Chinese market for
the moment, there's no telling if
this spreads to other application
markets









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