How to know which Android “ barcode scanner ” is malware

“When good apps go wrong” seems to be the name of the digital game these days. The large garter belt The browser extension recently showed its true colors, and now joining it in malware purgatory is Android’s long-time favorite “Barcode Scanner” app, despite having over 10 million installs.

Our usual advice applies, with an important caveat: If you’ve installed Barcode Scanner on your Android device and Google hasn’t already removed the app on your behalf, now is a great time to get rid of it. However, be sure to get rid of the voucher. Malwarebytes’ recent report describes the Barcode Scanner application of Lavabird:

“… in the case of Barcode Scanner, malicious code had been added that was not present in previous versions of the application. Additionally, the added code used heavy obfuscation to avoid detection. To verify that this is the same app developer, we confirmed that it was signed by the same digital certificate as previous clean versions. Due to its malicious intent, we have moved beyond our original adware detection category directly to Trojan, with the detection of Android / Trojan.HiddenAds.AdQR. “

There is another Barcode Scanner application, from ZXing, it does not come with malware (at the time of writing this article). This is probably the Barcode Scanner app you are thinking of, as it has been available for Android for virtually as long as the operating system has been around. It’s good to use, even if it becomes exam bombed in hell because people assume it’s the malicious app of the same name. Sigh.

How can you check who is what? If you can’t tell from app icon, you can still view Settings> Apps & notifications> See all … apps> Barcode scanner, then press Advanced> Application Details, which should lead you to the listing in the Google Play Store. (The steps for your specific Android device may differ slightly). If the Google Play Store listing does not exist, you have the wrong Barcode Scanner app and you should delete it now.

What if you are wondering if there is something you could have done about the malware-filled Barcode Scanner app? Not really. If an app has established an established presence in the Google Play Store, has been providing a useful service, and hasn’t been a problem for years, there isn’t anything that can tell you about a developer. intention to take advantage of all this goodwill for nefarious means.

Of course, you will notice that something is strange when your device starts to work – a browser is launched without any interaction from you, in this case – but it will be difficult to determine the cause of this problem. Generally speaking, you’ll want to see which of your apps have been recently updated and start digging, but it’s also possible that an app that was updated months ago will now trigger some sort of mechanism. malware or some other questionable practice (with the hope that it won’t get caught).

It probably wouldn’t hurt to install an app like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and run it from time to time; it can at least alert you if the apps on your device are newly suspicious. You don’t even have need the premium version of the app: Regular free scans should be fine (along with the app’s privacy audit feature). You can aalso consider Sophos Intercept X, advertising filled Avast Antivirus, and many others.

While I feel like it’s rare situation for an app to go rogue like this, and probably one that doesn’t justify a realtime scanner running on your device, it never hurts to have a few tools in case your phone starts to do something strange. If that is the case, run a scan, check which apps have been recently updated, and run some web searches to see if you can identify the problem. Chances are good that if your phone acts like spam, there’s an app to blame.