Huawei’s App Gallery Gets Infected with Joker, the Play Store Malware

Huawei mobiles may not be able to work with Google services or with the American giant’s apps, but cybercriminals are so skilled that, when it comes to working with malware, they make them compatible with all types of systems. The example is in the Joker malware , first seen in the Google Play Store and which has also been able to sneak into the App Gallery , Huawei’s app store.

This ” virus ” was the culprit that thousands of applications were expelled from the Android store for being infected. Now the criminals behind the malware seem to have equipped themselves better and prepared the malicious file for passage to other app stores. In fact, nearly 500,000 Huawei phones may have been affected by malware that unknowingly subscribes the infected user to premium mobile services.

Joker’s danger

Beyond being known for being Batman’s arch enemy, this evil Joker has been circulating in the Play Store for quite some time, but this is the first time that he sneaks into a store other than Google’s and appears in the app gallery of Huawei . According to the Russian antivirus firm Doctor Web, the virus danger was discovered hidden within at least 10 applications on the Huawei platform that have already been removed.

The victim user may not notice anything even though they are infected as the applications work as intended, executing malicious activity in the background. The malicious code is so intelligent that what it does is deceptively subscribe the user to a premium mobile service from which they must then unsubscribe, not without certain problems. Quite a “joke” at the level of the characteristic crime clown.

Currently, the malware has been found to limit subscription per user to five premium services. However, cybercriminals could extend this limit without much trouble, while at the same time becoming more dangerous malware by gaining access to contacts and text messages to spread the malware among the members of our agenda.

Although the applications in question have been downloaded more than half a million times, and could infect this number of devices, Huawei has removed the applications from the App Gallery . Interestingly, they were all from the same developer so the attackers may have discovered a security hole to sneak through.