Security researchers have spotted new Android malware that doesn’t even need users to accept interactions to launch. Firstly, to become fully operational and run the processes it was designed to do, it still needs the victim’s approval.
Cyber security researchers from McAfee said that they observed a lot, and in fact, newly developed versions of XLoader, known to be called Android malware variants, were used in the past to steal sensitive user information and other relevant data from the system.
Meanwhile, most of the affected countries, such as France, Japan, the US, UK, Germany, Africa, Korea, and Taiwan, have noted that most of their sensitive files have been missing and ruled out in their systems.
This new variant or loader is distributed in the same manner as its predecessors, thus via SMS messaging containing a shortened URL, leading to a website hosting the malicious APK file.
In addition, the key difference happened after installation, namely that the victim doesn’t need to run the said application, which means that it automatically launches and runs on the device.
While the application is installed, malicious activities start automatically, according to McAfee. “We have already reported this to Google, and they’re already working on it, as assured by the leadership.”
