Heads up, Samsung phone users! Researchers have discovered numerous riskware apps flooding the Samsung app store “Galaxy Store” that Google’s Play Store blocks already.
Riskware Apps On Samsung Galaxy Store
According to a recent report from Android Police, Samsung’s official app store “Galaxy Store” lists numerous “riskware” applications.
Samsung is one of the few Android phone makers that offer separate app stores, together with the Google Play Store. While such app stores provide more opportunities for users to try different apps, there always remain security risks in such cases.
That’s what the Max Weinbach of Android Police just demonstrated.
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
As reported, some of those risky apps cloning Showbox-based apps trigger warnings when attempting to download from Play Store. However, these apps generally exhibit a low detection rate on VirusTotal.
An analysis of one of the Showbox apks at Virustotal shows over a dozen low-grade alerts from security vendors ranging from “riskware” to adware. Some of the apps also request more permissions than you’d expect, including access to contacts, call logs, and the telephone.
Then, further analysis from the Android security analyst linuxct showed that the app didn’t include malicious elements apparently. Nonetheless, it does possess a dynamic code that may make the app go rogue anytime by executing other codes.
Samsung hasn’t commented on this matter until the time of writing. Therefore, it remains unclear if the tech giant is aware of this matter and whether or not it will take any subsequent actions in this regard.
So, for now, Samsung users should avoid downloading any apps from unknown developers from the Galaxy Store. In fact, users should ideally use caution when trying new apps regardless of the source app store. They should rather prefer downloading apps from legit developers only – that too – after verifying developers’ information and checking customer reviews.
