Many new apps without any functionality have crept into the Google Play Store recently, and have achieved more than half a million installs. What they do is secretly install new apps, after tricking users into giving permissions to the new apps. What they are trying to achieve with this move is to make money for their creators by displaying ads when users unlock their phone screen.
Malware analyst Lukas Stefanko from ESET discovered 13 malicious apps that had the exact same behavior, all published by developer Luis O Pinto. These apps, which looked like games, hid their icon from the phone's menu and immediately started downloading other apps. While this process was automated, when installing new apps, the user had to grant permissions. At this point, many users granted the permissions, as they could not find the original app they downloaded in their phone's menu, and believed that the download had been canceled and started over.
According to Lukas Stefanko's analysis, the secretly downloaded app was called Game Center, which after installation was hidden and displayed ads when the phone's screen was unlocked. In addition, each app was given permissions for full control of network access, while it was also set to run at startup.
The malicious applications found did not serve any other purpose than constantly displaying ads.
