Virus?

[Peewee]

My laptop got a virus through a facebook post a 'Friend" sent me. I found it, killed it and thought that was it! Now a friend told me she got a TON of weird texts from me! Could it have gotten to my PHONE? I use FB on my phone too!! **** I didn't know my PHONE could get a virus! Can it???

 

[henrykend]

I think I have a similar issue! I got a virus through my email on my laptop and now email from my phone is acting funky....

 

[hoppermi]

Its my understanding that there are no virus for linux. Malware is the real threat to android users. There are other ways to send texts than through your phone. Did you have a copy of the texts on your phone?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[henrykend]

can I run malware on it?

 

[hoppermi]

Sure. Its the wild west in the market. Always read what permissions you are granting to an app. If its a wallpaper but wants access to your phone logs or email that would be a red flag, for example.

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[Dpaulin]

Would malware make the phone go crazy? My Droid has been steadily getting less and less stable, to the point where now I'm lucky if I can get a couple of "lucid" hours out of it. The behavior I'm seeing has been described in several other posts here - basically, it acts like it's on crack. It jumps into my contacts and makes random phone calls, opens new text messages and starts typing garbage, flies up and down through menus, and basically locks up to all external attempts to get it to do anything. I end up having to pop the battery out.

Here's the interesting thing. I've tried every possible fix and/or idea I could get my hands on to fix it and nothing worked. The only "fix" I've found (if you want to call it that) is to knock the battery out. That works anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple of days, but increasingly it's only a couple of minutes. I got so sick of it tonight I didn't care what data would be lost and performed a factory reset, wiping everything out. After the phone restarted, it didn't even take 30 seconds for it to go apesh!t again.

And here's the REALLY interesting thing - I recorded what the phone was doing for my imminent conversations with Verizon. Since this is after the factory reset there shouldn't be any of my info left - no contacts, no call log, no favorites, nothing. While the phone is freaking out, I'm watching as it calls voicemail a couple of times, and then it calls a different number that I didn't recognize. It hangs up, and opens a web browser, and then searches for "ATM machines". Then it backs out of that, and goes into a text message where it starts typing garbage again. Since it's about to send a 10,000 character text that I'll get billed for, I knocked the battery out again and went back to watch the video.

The number that it called was 773-975-5700, which happens to be for First American Bank in Lincoln Park, IL. I've never heard of this bank, and sure as hell don't bank there. What are the odds of a phone with NO data on it randomly calling a bank AND searching for "ATM machines" on Google????

So again, I'm definitely not an expert - could that possibly be caused by malware? Seems a bit phishy to me… Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[harrellj]

I agree, it sounds fishy. Question though, do you have any non-market apps installed? So far, the only known malware is not available through the Market.

Yeah, yeah.. I'm on my phone. So?

 

[Dpaulin]

Nope, no non-market apps. As a matter of fact, I haven't really messed with the phone at all - nothing but market apps, haven't tried rooting it, nothing.

 

[Stelv]

Dpaulin...if you are not rooted and dont have non market apps I would bring to a Verizon tech for fixing. Could be malware not a virus. Could also be task killer.

If you all have a auto task killers it will cause problems. It works against Google's 2.2 froyo os.

Go through all your apps under manage apps and see what permissions they have. Get rid of fishy ones if you don't need them.

I am rooted and use plenty of non market apps and don't have problems. I just watch the permission that each app asks for.

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[Dpaulin]

The latest suspicious activity happened after a factory reset, so there are currently no apps installed whatsoever - just whatever comes standard on the phone. Definitely agree about getting to a Verizon tech, though! Pretty interesting...

 

[ionide]

Can you post the video to youtube to share?i find this issue fascinating and really odd

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[moset]

As far as the bank call and ATM search idk, but the other weird behavior it sounds like a problem I had. I called it phantom screen touches. It was like I was touching the screen randomly. It would jump all over the place. I had just pulled a screen protector off. Ended up getting a replacement phone. They thought it was the screen.

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[kwstumpf]

Virus or Malware?

First, let me start by saying, I love my new Droid-X, but not so much, the hack. On Monday afternoon (01/10/11) I traded in my Blackberry for a new Droid-X phone with Verizon. I will admit that I’m not up to speed on the open source Android modified Linux OS of the phone. I don’t know if it’s even possible to hack the phone. It seems like it would be, but here are the facts. I had an incident similar to yours, where my new Droid-X seemed to have a mind of its own.

If my phone didn’t do it directly, it seems that it somehow facilitated - permitted the Gmail hack. I’m not sure how, Malware maybe? My Gmail account has never been hacked prior to Monday. The hack occurred within 24 hours of the Verizon people setting up my new Droid phone. The Droid is linked to Gmail and Facebook. I use both. While driving to work at 5:20 AM on Tuesday 01/11/11 my phone “woke-up” lit-up and came out of sleep mode – on its own. It did not un-lock, but was quite visible, sitting on the car seat in the dark. From what I can tell, it looks like my Droid took the address of everyone that I ever emailed, or received email from, in my Gmail account, and somehow sent out two spammer-link type emails on its own. Or, maybe it allowed the hacker to penetrate my email account using the information obtained from my phone? The first email was sent at 5:29 AM while I was driving in my car, the second email was sent while the phone was sitting on my desk at work at 8:20 AM. I don’t know how this was done, and it was extremely embarrassing. It even sent the emails to my work computer, which is how I discovered the problem. I turned my phone off, and the spamming ceased.

This is a strange coincidence. I get a new phone, and my email is subsequently hacked and spamming everybody inside of 24 hours?

Verizon folks were clueless about this incident, and claimed that nobody hacked their server, but they gave me a phone number for their fraud department. I called them, left a message, but haven’t heard back yet.

There is nothing in my sent mail or trash folder on my phone or Gmail account, and my computer at work and home were - are currently “clean” – malware and virus free. I have since set up a new Gmail account just for my droid phone, and changed the password on both Gmail accounts and Facebook. I started Google searching, but have not totally narrowed it down yet. It looks like factory installed Malware on the brand new phone – straight out of the box. I have not downloaded any apps prior to this incident. I found what looks like some anti-Virus / Malware apps for the Droid, but would appreciate an expert opinion. What is the best method, and software for eliminating the Malware on my phone? Anyone with a suggestion? Thanks.

 

[Dpaulin]

I've never used any screen protectors, so I don't think that was part of my issue.

The phone going crazy and performing what appear to be random actions is one thing. I wasn't too worried about that, figuring it was something to do with the apps I had (before the factory reset) or just a glitch. But to have a "clean" phone go crazy and randomly call a bank and search for ATM locations, hmmm... Something's not right there.

I'll try to post the video and supply the link, but it will be a challenge. Unfortunately, the only thing I could record with was my work-issue BlackBerry. The 5 minute video is over 21 mb, too big to e-mail. Tried transferring from the BlackBerry to my PC, but mass storage option is off and locked by the company. I'll keep trying, though.

I'm sure I can get other video of the phone freaking out and post it this weekend - the phone is entirely too happy to provide more evidence! But if you're looking for the footage of it calling the bank, that may take me a while to figure out.

 

[Stelv]

Here is a link to another thread on malware http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-news/106356-malware-attacks-against-androids-increase.html

I have never had any of these malware issues on my droid at all, especially from a factory out of box new phone. So I am not sure what is going on. It would be hard for someone to hack your phone with Malware unless you authorized them to do so. It may be a problem the crappy bloatware that Moto puts on their phones, maybe they allowed something to install before it got to the customer.