Thousands of Android devices come with unkillable backdoor preinstalled

Comments

• Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Clarifying “Android” here feels misleading. Sure, they’re all Android devices, but they’re not what people think of when they think of Android devices. And they’re also unlikely to be the ones most people buy.

  You could also say “cheap Chinese TV boxes” and it’d still be accurate, and the devices people would think of would be more closely related to the actual devices in question.

  This has basically nothing to do with Android. You might as well say “plastic TV boxes” at that point.

  source

  • bappity@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    agreed! what a pointless inclusion of Android in the headline. clearly trying to paint a bad picture for them

    source
  • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I agree with you that it’s misleading, but the app was in the playstore and I think that’s what they’re referring to. Google says they weren’t certified which means they weren’t tested and they were removed. I agree that it’s still clickbait though.

    source
  • ghostBones@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I respectfully disagree. Ars Technica is not known for being a clickbait site. They are merely stating what platform(s) the malware runs on. It’s not an Android hit piece, and it’s not clickbait, it’s just a warning about buying cheap Chinese electronics that have access to your Wi-Fi.

    source

    • SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s a Wired article though, they sometimes run those too and the quality of them, at least from my perspective, is dubious.

      source
  • Zorque@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Thats what the title was for the last couple posts for this article, "cheap android TV boxes" instead android itself.

    source

    • ghostBones@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Thank you. I was not aware of that. I don’t really know how to check to see if a link has been posted before. I would like to avoid reposting. 'sure would be nice if a veteran citizen of Leamington could explain it.

      source
  • ghostBones@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I suppose that clarifying it as ‘uncertified open source Android’ would be more appropriate.

    source
  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Clarifying “Android” here feels misleading

    Not at all for anybody who knows “Android TV” is an operating system.

    You could also say "cheap Chinese TV boxes

    You could also say “Wrzldrmpft with BBQ sauce”.

    Android TV is installed on TVs, projectors, small boxes, big boxes, round boxes, triangled boxes, californian boxes, chinese boxes…

    source
• GlitterInfection@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  OP’S headline is a lie and should be taken down or modified.

  There are no Apple devices preloaded with malware or backdoors in this article.

  The same security firm that found the malware on the cheap Chinese ANDROID ONLY boxes, found android and ios apps that one has to download which are security risks and has reported them to both Google and Apple. Both companies are dealing with them appropriately.

  source

  • AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Thank you. No hatred toward anyone involved, but the first question is whether I’m affected and this provides a clear answer

    source
• unbuckled@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Why did this headline say “AND Apple”?

  source

  • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Because there are some iOS apps implicated, I assume. It’s definitely misleading, if you buy one of the tv boxes they talk about in the article you are almost certainly getting malware, if you buy an appletv even used, the chance it has malware that would survive a clean reinstall is minuscule.

    source
  • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Honestly, it’s an easy way to get upvotes with this community. A lot of people will upvote it without reading it, much less thinking critically about it for half a second.

    source
• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

  ---

  This week, cybersecurity firm Human Security is revealing new details about the scope of the infected devices and the hidden, interconnected web of fraud schemes linked to the streaming boxes.

  “They’re like a Swiss Army knife of doing bad things on the Internet,” says Gavin Reid, the CISO at Human Security who leads the company’s Satori Threat Intelligence and Research team.

  “This is a truly distributed way of doing fraud.” Reid says the company has shared details of facilities where the devices may have been manufactured with law enforcement agencies.

  In the second half of 2022, Human Security says in its report, its researchers spotted an Android app that appeared to be linked to inauthentic traffic and connected to the domain flyermobi.com.

  When Milisic posted his initial findings about the T95 Android box in January, the research also pointed to the flyermobi domain.

  The company’s report, which has data scientist Marion Habiby as its lead author, says Human Security spotted at least 74,000 Android devices showing signs of a Badbox infection around the world—including some in schools across the US.

  ---

  The original article contains 455 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  source
• Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This article does NOT say Apple is shipping hardware with badbox / peachpit preinstalled.

  It does look like some shady apps got submitted to Apple’s App Store and were committing Ad Fraud. Moreover, it looks like the Android Badbox devices are kind of toast, unless you’re up for totally reinstalling new firmware.

  humansecurity.com/…/HUMAN_Report_BADBOX-and-PEACH…

  If you bought a name brand streaming device, and only installed popular well known apps from their marketplaces, you’re properly fine.

  source