many Android apps promising users’ shoes, free tickets have been caught installing malicious botnets on their phones.
According to Hindustantime Tech, the botnet was discovered by the White Ops Satori mobile security team. It’s called “Terracotta,” and the Satori team has been researching it since late 2019. The app offers users a gift when they download it. After installing this application, users are asked to wait two weeks to receive a gift.
During the two weeks after the installation, what the apps actually did was run a modified version of the WebView – the minified version of Chrome. They are used to launch ads. The user is not even aware of the whole process going on. Despite running a fake ad network, the Terracotta botnet can still evade detection, the Satori team said.
Although not directly affecting the user, but Terracotta application is still harmful as it often leads to the consumption of a lot of battery and mobile data. The network on which Terracotta apps ran was massive, and more than 2 billion ads were downloaded from 65,000 phones in the last week of June alone.
White Ops has notified Google and most of these applications have been removed. However, it is not excluded that there are still a few malicious applications lurking.