Recently discovered on the 9Apps alternative store, the malware Agent Smith stands out from other threats by its singularity: according to CheckPoint, the malware in itself does not represent a direct threat, but it has taken the habit of replacing the applications of the user by counterfeit copies.
According to the security firm, more than 25 million smartphones are infected in India, Pakistan, Russia, the United States and Bangladesh, countries which most often use 9Apps.
Agent Smith begins his work by listing the applications installed on the user's smartphone to determine if some are in his own list of compromised applications. If one or more applications match the catalog of available infected apps, it will uninstall the apps from the smartphone and then reinstall the infected apps bypassing the security systems.
Most of the time, these adware applications broadcast advertising, collect personal data or attempt to extort money from the user.
The situation is currently embarrassing 9Apps which regrets not being able to verify each application distributed on its network. We could always recommend that users go exclusively through the Google App Store to download applications, but lately Google has also shown its limits by distributing a lot of applications containing malware …
