The year begins as it ended: with a new security alert for Android applications. This time, they are clones of Showbox, a dubious app that allows you to see pirated movies, widely distributed in the Samsung Galaxy Store.
In 2022, more than ever, you have to be extra careful when downloading applications on your Android smartphone. Security specialist Max Weinbach came across a disturbing alert when downloading a Showbox clone from Samsung’s Galaxy Store: Google’s anti-virus signaled that the app could pose a danger.
Potential threat
Showbox has a sulphurous reputation. Known to allow pirated movies to be played on Android, it has generated an army of potentially dangerous clones. These applications are indeed able to download and run code which may contain malware. Another security researcher, linuxct, explains that there isn’t much legitimate use for such a feature.
I gave Huawei shit for this, gonna do it to Samsung too.
Samsung is hosting literal malware on the Galaxy Store. Google’s anti-virus protection software, built into Play Services, stops the install.
I’ve found at least 5 of these apps in a row on the Galaxy Store. pic.twitter.com/LiiDJtGwmb– Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) December 27, 2021
So all that’s left is malicious use, which is why Android’s Play Protect feature reported it. Dozens of Showbox clones are present in the Samsung app store used by Galaxy smartphone owners alongside the Play Store. It should be noted that none of these questionable applications are downloadable from the Google store.
While waiting for Samsung to clean up its Galaxy Store, it is better to avoid picking up this kind of apps in this store unless you like unpleasant surprises. The Play Store is more secure, although everything is not perfect at Google either.
By: Bitdefender
