Google Prevented 2.28 Million Malicious Apps from Reaching Play Store in 2023

Google on Monday revealed that almost 200,000 app submissions to its Play Store for Android were either rejected or remediated to address issues with access to sensitive data such as location or SMS messages over the past year. The tech giant also said it blocked 333,000 bad accounts from the app...

Debian DSA-5583-1 : gst-plugins-bad1.0 - security update

The remote Debian 12 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the dsa-5583 advisory. A buffer overflow was discovered in the AV1 video plugin for the GStreamer media framework, which may result in denial of service or potentially the execution of arbitrary...

Debian DSA-5444-1 : gst-plugins-bad1.0 - security update

The remote Debian 11 / 12 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the dsa-5444 advisory. Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number. %NASLMINLEVEL 80900 C Tenable, Inc. The...

Google Blocks 1.43 Million Malicious Apps, Bans 173,000 Bad Accounts in 2022

Google disclosed that its improved security features and app review processes helped it block 1.43 million bad apps from being published to the Play Store in 2022. In addition, the company said it banned 173,000 bad accounts and fended off over $2 billion in fraudulent and abusive transactions...

Android Malware ‘FlyTrap’ Hijacks Facebook Accounts

Researchers have uncovered a new Android trojan, dubbed FlyTrap, that’s spread to more than 10,000 victims via rigged apps on third-party app stores, sideloaded apps and hijacked Facebook accounts. In a report posted on Monday, Zimperium’s zLabs mobile threat research teams wrote that FlyTrap has...

Google: Efforts Against Bad Android Apps on Play Store Are Working

Some of the efforts Google has made over the past few years to bolster the security of Android app users as well as the mobile apps available on its Google Play store are starting to work, according to the tech giant. The company, which historically has struggled mightily to keep bad apps and...

Google Will Award $1M-Plus to People Who Can Hack Titan M Security Chip

Google is willing to award up to $1.5 million to hackers who can successfully hack its Titan M security chip on the company’s Pixel devices as part of an expansion of its Android bug-bounty program unveiled this week. The company revealed increased payouts to its Android Security Rewards in a blo...

A week in security (October 23 – October 29)

Welcome back to "A week in security." Last week, we took a look at how deleted files can be recovered, explored the BadRabbit ransomware plague attacking Eastern Europe including a deep dive into the code, and talked about what it takes to work in security. One of our researchers, who is a PhD...