{"id":5456,"date":"2018-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hitechhui.flywheelsites.com\/uncategorized\/rottensys-malware-has-infected-5m-android-devices-since-2016\/"},"modified":"2023-05-16T02:20:09","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T12:20:09","slug":"rottensys-malware-has-infected-5m-android-devices-since-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hitechhui.com\/2018\/04\/03\/rottensys-malware-has-infected-5m-android-devices-since-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"RottenSys Malware Has Infected 5M Android Devices Since 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postcontent\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7617 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hitechhui.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/androidXresized.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">There&#8217;s a new threat on the horizon, according to security researchers from Check Point.&nbsp; A group of hackers in China are busy building a massive botnet that so far, totals almost five million Android smartphones.&nbsp; The hackers are quietly taking control of these devices using a strain of malware known as &#8220;RottenSys.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the malware is flexible and can be adapted to any number of purposes, in its present incarnation, it&#8217;s being used to display copious numbers of advertisements. This generates a healthy revenue stream for the hackers, but that could be just the beginning.&nbsp; The researchers have found evidence that the hackers are gearing up for a campaign that could be much more far-reaching and damaging.&nbsp; According to Check Point: &#8220;This botnet will have extensive capabilities, including silently installing additional apps and UI automation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>RottenSys is fairly new to the malware ecosystem, first appearing in September 2016. So far, the hackers have spent most of their time simply spreading their creation to more devices.&nbsp; At current count, the number of infected Android phones stands at 4,964,460, and it grows by the day.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t until last month that RottenSys got an update that gave its owners the ability to take direct control of all the devices.&nbsp; Prior to that, they were happy to simply rake in ad revenue, which is estimated to exceed $350,000 a month.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the malware hasn&#8217;t spread beyond the confines of China, but that could easily change as the hackers seek to add an increasing number of devices to their already massive botnet.<\/p>\n<p>What makes RottenSys notable is the fact that it has managed to spread to so many devices in such a short period of time.&nbsp; As it turns out, the secret to the hackers&#8217; success has to do with the code it&#8217;s built around, which includes both &#8220;Small&#8221;, (an open source virtualization framework) and &#8220;MarsDaemon&#8221;, which is a library that keeps apps &#8220;undead,&#8221; which ensures that the malware&#8217;s processes continue to operate even after users close them. This ensures that the ad-injection capacity cannot be disabled.<\/p>\n<p>Only time will tell what the hackers have planned, but it can&#8217;t be anything good. They&#8217;ll have a formidable botnet to do damage with. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sitesdev.net\/articles\/2018\/04\/03\/rottensys-malware-has-infected-5m-android-devices-since-2016\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Used with permission from Article Aggregator<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"post-admin\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a new threat on the horizon, according to security researchers from Check Point.&nbsp; A group of hackers in China are busy building a massive botnet that so far, totals [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>RottenSys Malware Has Infected 5M Android Devices Since 2016 - 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