Huawei: Trojans in the App Store - 9 million Android phones infected

Over nine million Android phones are said to have been infected with malware via the Huawei AppGallery. Huawei's app store is thus indirectly responsible for the fact that some sensitive data was stolen. A total of 190 apps were found with a Trojan.

Huawei AppGallery: gateway for malware

What the App Store is at Apple and the Play Store at Google is called AppGallery at Huawei. Since Huawei is no longer allowed to use the Play Store for Android phones, the AppGallery has recently gained in importance. Serious deficiencies have now emerged , as security researchers report. According to a study, malware is in circulation via the AppGallery that has infected 9.3 million Android smartphones so far.

The trojan found with the designation "Android.Cynos.7.origin" is a modification of the well-known Cynos malware. According to security researchers, the Trojan was successfully hiding in many mobile games that can be found in Huawei's AppGallery.

So far, 190 apps (games) have been identified that either found worldwide distribution or were specifically aimed at Chinese or Russian players. German customers were probably not explicitly attracted. One of the apps alone was installed on over two million cell phones.

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Trojans via AppGallery collect data

After installation, the apps asked those affected to give permission to make and manage calls. The access was then used to collect phone numbers and other device information such as geolocation, cellular network parameters and system metadata (source: Dr.Web).

The malware-infected apps have now been removed from the AppGallery . Users who have installed the apps on their Android mobile phones have to remove them manually to prevent further misuse.