Last Thursday (30), Microsoft warned users of devices with older versions of Android that malware could develop. steal their money. According to the Microsoft 365 Defender team, bill fraud malware is affecting several consumers using older versions of the operating system.
According to Microsoft researchers, malware is one of the most dangerous species to evolve today and uses a mechanism called Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to attack users and make inappropriate accusations — This feature is also used by legitimate apps to make real charges on smartphones.
When infecting an Android smartphone, the malware subscribes the device to premium services without the user’s knowledge and even fills in all the necessary fields to complete a subscription process. After completing the first step, the criminals can hide the SMS notifications about the crime, thus hiding the information from the user.
How does malware work?
According to Microsoft, the fraudulent billing malware is designed to evade detection and hides behind apps that look legitimate but ask for excessive permissions – for example, a photo editing app that asks for SMS permission.
“Also, by default, it uses a cellular connection for its activities and forces devices to connect to the mobile network even if a Wi-Fi connection is available. Once the connection to the target network is confirmed, it secretly initiates and confirms a fake signature without the user’s consent, or even in some cases to do so.” hijacking the one-time password (OTP),” Microsoft posted on its blog.
Researchers claim that the biggest target of this malware is devices with Android 9 and earlier versions, so Android 10 or higher smartphones are safer from the problem.
Source: Tec Mundo
