PART 3: GENERAL AND CASE STUDY BASED QUESTIONS (25 MARKS ALLOCATED)
Goldoson MalwareStore
Security researchers have discovered a new malicious software library capable of collecting lists
of installed applications, a history of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth device information as well as nearby
GPS location data. Dubbed Goldoson by McAfee's Mobile Research Team confirmed that the
library can also load web pages without user awareness and perform advertisement fraud by
clicking on ad links in the background without the victim's consent.
"The research team has found more than 60 applications containing this third-party malicious
library, with more than 100 million downloads confirmed in the ONE store and Google Play app
download markets in South Korea," wrote McAfee's SangRyol Ryu. "While the malicious library
was made by someone else, not the app developers, the risk to installers of the apps remains.
"From a technical standpoint, the Goldoson library registers the device and gets remote
configurations while the app runs. "The library name and the remote server domain vary with
each application and are obfuscated. The name Goldoson is after the first found domain name,"
Ryu explained.
Further, remote configuration contains the parameters for each functionality, specifying how
often it runs the components. "Based on the parameters, the library periodically checks, pulls
device information, and sends them to the remote servers," reads the advisory. For instance,
collected data is sent out every two days by default, but the cycle can be changed by the remote
configuration. The McAfee team said it notified Google of the malicious apps. As a result of the
disclosure, some apps were removed from Google Play while others were updated by the official
developers.
"As applications continue to scale in size and leverage additional external libraries, it is important
to understand their behavior," Ryu concluded. "App developers should be upfront about libraries
used and take precautions to protect users' information." The Goldoson library disclosure comes
a couple of months after Kaspersky security researchers announced the discovery of 196,476
new mobile banking Trojan installers in 2022, doubling the number observed in 2021.
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