Cybersecurity researchers are calling consideration to a brand new shift within the Android malware panorama the place dropper apps, that are usually used to ship banking trojans, to additionally distribute easier malware comparable to SMS stealers and primary adware.
These campaigns are propagated through dropper apps masquerading as authorities or banking apps in India and different components of Asia, ThreatFabric mentioned in a report final week.
The Dutch cellular safety agency mentioned the change is pushed by latest safety protections that Google has piloted in choose markets like Singapore, Thailand, Brazil, and India to dam sideloading of doubtless suspicious apps requesting harmful permissions like SMS messages and accessibility providers, a closely abused setting to hold out malicious actions on Android units.
“Google Play Defend’s defences, significantly the focused Pilot Program, are more and more efficient at stopping dangerous apps earlier than they run,” the corporate mentioned. “Second, actors need to future-proof their operations.”
“By encapsulating even primary payloads inside a dropper, they achieve a protecting shell that may evade in the present day’s checks whereas staying versatile sufficient to swap payloads and pivot campaigns tomorrow.”
ThreatFabric mentioned that whereas Google’s technique ups the ante by blocking a malicious app from being put in even earlier than a consumer can work together with it, attackers try out new methods to get across the safeguards — a sign of the infinite sport of whack-a-mole in terms of safety.
This consists of designing droppers, conserving in thoughts Google’s Pilot Program, in order that they do not search high-risk permissions and serve solely a innocent “replace” display screen that may fly previous scanning within the areas.
However it’s solely when the consumer clicks the “Replace” button that the precise payload will get fetched from an exterior server or unpacked, which then proceeds to hunt the required permissions to fulfil its aims.
“Play Defend might show alerts in regards to the dangers, as part of a special scan, however so long as the consumer accepts them, the app is put in, and the payload is delivered,” ThreatFabric mentioned. “This illustrates a vital hole: Play Defend nonetheless permits dangerous apps by means of if the consumer clicks Set up anyway, and the malware nonetheless slips by means of the Pilot Program.”
One such dropper is RewardDropMiner, which has been discovered to serve together with adware payloads a Monero cryptocurrency miner that may be activated remotely. Latest variants of the instrument, nonetheless, not embrace the miner performance.
A number of the malicious apps delivered through RewardDropMiner, all concentrating on customers in India, are listed beneath –
- PM YOJANA 2025 (com.fluvdp.hrzmkgi)
- °RTO Challan (com.epr.fnroyex)
- SBI On-line (com.qmwownic.eqmff)
- Axis Card (com.tolqppj.yqmrlytfzrxa)
Different dropper variants that keep away from triggering Play Defend or the Pilot Program embrace SecuriDropper, Zombinder, BrokewellDropper, HiddenCatDropper, and TiramisuDropper.
When reached for remark, Google advised The Hacker Information it has not discovered any apps utilizing these methods distributed through the Play Retailer and that it is consistently including new protections.
“No matter the place an app comes from – even when it is put in by a ‘dropper’ app – Google Play Defend helps to maintain customers protected by routinely checking it for threats,” a spokesperson mentioned.
“Safety towards these recognized malware variations was already in place by means of Google Play Defend previous to this report. Based mostly on our present detection, no apps containing these variations of this malware have been discovered on Google Play. We’re consistently enhancing our protections to assist hold customers protected from dangerous actors.”
The event comes as Bitdefender Labs has warned of a brand new marketing campaign that is utilizing malicious adverts on Fb to hawk a free premium model of the TradingView app for Android to in the end deploy an improved model of the Brokewell banking trojan to watch, management, and steal delicate info from the sufferer’s gadget.
A minimum of 75 malicious adverts have been run since July 22, 2025, reaching tens of hundreds of customers within the European Union alone. The Android assault wave is only one half of a bigger malvertising operation that has abused Fb Advertisements to additionally goal Home windows desktops below the guise of assorted monetary and cryptocurrency apps.
“This marketing campaign reveals how cybercriminals are fine-tuning their techniques to maintain up with consumer habits,” the Romanian cybersecurity firm mentioned. “By concentrating on cellular customers and disguising malware as trusted buying and selling instruments, attackers hope to money in on the rising reliance on crypto apps and monetary platforms.”
