When it comes to Android phones, tech experts claimed that it is the most vulnerable system. In this case, it should be noted that many customers prefer Android over iOS due to the price range. There are consumers who would like to buy cheap phones and there is nothing wrong with that. But there are reports about the serious vulnerability issues in cheap Android phones.
Earlier, researchers found some cheap smartphone models which include some pre-installed apps that can exploit the device. Now once again tech experts found two notorious pieces of undeletable Chinese malware in another Android phone.
Cheap Android phone malware
Researchers at Malwarebytes analyzed a cheap Android phone distributed in the USA by Virgin subsidiary Assurance Wireless, Unimax U686CL. The Android smartphone was given as part of the company's federally subsidized Lifeline program, which is available to low-income US citizens.
After the security company checked the firmware in Virgin's U686CL handsets, the researchers detected two pieces of Chinese malware which cannot be deleted. The malware runs on the devices without any user intervention as soon as they're switched on.
The Chinese malware
The newly detected malware by the Malwarebytes researchers are Adups and another unnamed Chinese dropper app. It should be noted that the first malware runs over-the-air firmware updates and some apps that run inside the OS without any intervention from the smartphone user. It should be noted that Over-the-air firmware updates or the OTA Fireware updates refer to the practice of remotely updating the code on an embedded device.
On the other hand, the dropper app installs malware such as HiddenAds, which is a Trojan malware and as the name suggests it can bombard the device with ads. In the case of HiddenAds malware, advertising functionality is hidden and users are not made aware of the ads during the installation.
