Page 53 - index

What is Google doing to protect users?

Android devices with Google Play installed have an option to verify the apps installed on the device.
This is Google's attempt at a minimally invasive security scanner to warn against installing a known
dangerous app that Google has flagged. Google is proactively checking for known insecure apps
that exploit CVE-2014-7911.

While Google’s scanner won't catch all apps that attempt to exploit it, Google has begun flagging
the most popular ones. We discovered that Google has flagged at least two of the sample apps that
are available online and provides a warning if you try to install an app that Google has identified as
malicious.

A few examples below:

Some of the popular malware scanners will also identify these apps, but will also do what is called a
deep scan to determine an application’s behavior rather than solely relying on know bad apps. This
means that these malware scanners will catch a wider pool of candidate apps that can attempt to
exploit this vulnerability.

What can you do?

Use caution when downloading Android apps and be sure to download from reliable sources, like
Google Play.Learn how trustable your device is, as well as discover if you are vulnerable to
ObjectInputStream Serialization or others, by downloading Trustable by Bluebox for free in the
Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bluebox.trust

About the Author

Andrew Blaich, Lead Security Analyst at Bluebox

53 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – February 2015 Edition
Copyright © Cyber Defense Magazine, All rights reserved worldwide