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Cross-platform Attacks Discovered on Google Play

JB

Earlier this month, SecurityWeek’s Brian Prince wrote about Kaspersky Lab’s discovery of malware that is capable of jumping from Android devices to Windows PCs, turning the computer into a live microphone. As it turns out, this isn’t the only type of cross-platform attack that worked itself into Google’s application store.

Researchers at NQ Mobile have discovered another case of Android to PC malware, one that leverages the device’s USB connection to deliver a number of payloads, including keylogging or remote access.

“In this case, the malware hijacks a legitimate Android cache-cleaning app and comes to life when syncing the device with a PC via the USB port. And the motive seems to be all about money: the malware can be used to allow cyber criminals to access the machine and the sensitive data it holds or even capture keystrokes. The worm can also copy itself to all the PC’s drives, including removable ones such as flash drives, as well as mapped network drives – and even disable your Windows anti-virus software,” the company explains.