Dvamp is Android’s First Trojan Malware with Code Injection

A sophisticated and dangerous new trojan malware, Dvamp, has emerged as the first-known trojan for Android operating system with code injection.

In April this year, cybersecurity researchers at Kaspersky uncovered a new rooting malware being distributed in the Google Play store. Upon closer infection, researchers discovered that the malware goes beyond merely installing its modules onto the system. This malware, they found out, injects malicious code into the system’s runtime libraries, making it the first malware to affect the world’s most widely-used mobile operating system in such a manner.

Titled Dvamp, the malware uses a number of sophisticated techniques and bypasses Google Play Store’s security checks in a simple yet devious manner. For context, Dvamp was hidden inside a simple puzzle game made available on the Play Store. Developers behind Dvamp uploaded a clean version of their ‘game’ to the store near the end of March, 2017, before promptly updating it with a malicious version for a short period of time. Then, they would switch over, back to the clean version, on the same day. This was a pattern repeated at least 5 times between April 18 and May 15.

When it is installed, the Trojan looks to gain access to root privileges on the device to install its malicious modules. Once installed, the malware then deletes root access in its attempt to mask its presence and avoid detection.

If and when activated, the malware reports to a command and control server, even though researchers discovered that the server did not respond with any instructions.

Researchers wrote:

These malicious modules report to the attackers about every step they are going to make. So, I think that the authors are still testing this malware, because they use some techniques which can break the infected devices. But they already have a lot of infected users on whom to test their methods.

Altogether, the Trojan was downloaded over 50,000 times since March and Google has removed the malicious app from the Play Store after being notified by Kaspersky.

Image credit: Pixabay.