Seeing those permissions granted to the Pokemon GO app could indicate that the device is infected, although these permissions are also subject to change in the future.įigure 1: Granted permissions from legitimate Pokemon GO APKįigure 2: Granted permissions from the backdoored Pokemon GO APK (first screenshot)įigure 3: Granted permissions from backdoored Pokemon GO APK (second screenshot) In Figures 2 and 3, the outlined permissions have been added by DroidJack. These permissions are subject to change depending on the device’s configuration for example the permissions “Google Play billing service” and “receive data from Internet” are not shown in the image but were granted on another device when downloading Pokemon GO from the Google Play Store. Figure 1 shows a list of permissions granted to the legitimate application.
The malicious APK that we analyzed has a SHA256 hash of 15db22fd7d961f4d4bd96052024d353b3ff4bd135835d2644d94d74c925af3c4.Īnother simple method to check if a device is infected would be to check the installed application’s permissions, which can typically be accessed by first going to Settings -> Apps -> Pokemon GO and then scrolling down to the PERMISSIONS section. The legitimate application that has been often linked to by media outlets has a hash of 8bf2b0865bef06906cd854492dece202482c04ce9c5e881e02d2b6235661ab67, although it is possible that there are updated versions already released.
First, they may check the SHA256 hash of the downloaded APK. Individuals worried about whether or not they downloaded a malicious APK have a few options to help them determine if they are now infected. Should an individual download an APK from a third party that has been infected with a backdoor, such as the one we discovered, their device would then be compromised. Unfortunately, this is an extremely risky practice and can easily lead users to installing malicious apps on their own mobile devices. This can usually be done by visiting Settings, clicking into the Security area, and then enabling the "unknown sources" checkbox."
“ To install an APK directly you'll first have to tell your Android device to accept side-loaded apps.
Some even went further and described how to install the APK downloaded from a third party : Additionally, many large media outlets provided instructions on how to download the game from a third party. Likely due to the fact that the game had not been officially released globally at the same time, many gamers wishing to access the game before it was released in their region resorted to downloading the APK from third parties. Although we have not observed this malicious APK in the wild, it was uploaded to a malicious file repository service at 09:19:27 UTC on July 7, 2016, less than 72 hours after the game was officially released in New Zealand and Australia. The DroidJack RAT has been described in the past, including by Symantec and Kaspersky.
This specific APK was modified to include the malicious remote access tool (RAT) called DroidJack (also known as SandroRAT), which would virtually give an attacker full control over a victim’s phone. In this case, Proofpoint researchers discovered an infected Android version of the newly released mobile game Pokemon GO. However, as with any apps installed outside of official app stores, users may get more than they bargained for.
To that end, a number of publications have provided tutorials for "side-loading" the application on Android. It was released on July 6th in the US, but the rest of the world will remain tempted to find a copy outside legitimate channels. The augmented reality game was first released in Australia and New Zealand on July 4th and users in other regions quickly clamored for versions for their devices. Pokemon GO is the first Pokemon game sanctioned by Nintendo for iOS and Android devices.