The price of an open market: Google pulls 21 Android apps for malware

Yesterday, the Android market place had 21 applications pulled by Google and force-removed from users' devices due to them containing an exploit chosen 'rageagainstthecage'. And while Google successfully and quickly pulled the software from the market and from devices ("kill switch"), those 21 apps were downloaded over fifty,000 times (bigger market, bigger target).

It was bound to happen. We've been bombarded for years about the threat of calculator viruses, exploits, Trojans, etc. and if there was ever a viable target today, Android would be it. It has an open market (no approval processes), huge market share and one heck of a hacker community. How serious is the exploit? Our sis site Android Central says:

rageagainstthecage...opens the door for the app to do anything with your data -- like send it to a remote server. Of course with root information technology can do much worse every bit well.

If you installed whatsoever of these applications, they should have been pulled off your phone, but that's not enough. You need to do a full arrangement wipe and reset your phone completely, the information wipe and reset from settings may not exist enough. This ways ODIN, RUU's, .sbf files or a trip to your carrier store if this is beyond your capabilities.

Mind you, all 21 apps were uploaded by one person. Going further, Android Police, who originally broke the story says

...it steals nearly everything it can: production ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country, and userID. But that's all child's play; the truthful pièce de résistance is that information technology has the ability to download more than code. In other words, there's no way to know what the app does afterwards it'south installed, and the possibilities are almost endless.

Egads. While nosotros hope nothing too nefarious has happened, it goes to show that having a regulated Marketplace, like Windows Phone, where the lawmaking is checked for such things tin can be quite valuable when compared to what Android users are now facing. Will this become a regular occurrence? What will Google practice to address the trouble? Information technology will be interesting to see in the adjacent couple of days the fallout from this breach.

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