File-Storage App 4shared Caught Serving Invisible Ads and Making Purchases Without Consent

'With more than 100 million installs, file-sharing service 4shared is
one of the most popular apps in the Android app store. But security
researchers say the app is secretly displaying invisible ads and
subscribes users to paid services, racking up charges without the
user's knowledge -- or their permission -- collectively costing
millions of dollars. From a report:

"It all happens in the background... nothing appears on the screen,"
said Guy Krief, chief executive of London-based Upstream, which shared
its research exclusively with TechCrunch. The researchers say the app
contains suspicious third-party code that allowed the app to automate
clicks and make fraudulent purchases. They said the component, built
by Hong Kong-based Elephant Data, downloads code which is "directly
responsible" for generating the automated clicks without the user's
knowledge. The code also sets a cookie to determine if a device has
previously been used to make a purchase, likely as a way to hide the
activity.'

-- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/03/1738253

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
_______________________________________________
wlug mailing list | [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug