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Help "Samsung Members" system notification popup - malware??

A

Android Question

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Hi,

A message popped-up today in the form of a system notification which invited me to supposedly download a "Samsung Members" app from Google Play. However the numerous spelling mistakes caught my attention and did not press on the relevant link. After searching the Play store no such app was found. I assume it may be some sort of malware but i have checked with numerous anti-malware/anti-virus apps with nothing popping up. Anyone else has had this? I am using a Galaxy S6 Edge if it matters.

Thank!
 
It's safe to assume that any pop-up suggesting you install an app is spam of some sort.

If you press and hold a notification it should tell you what app produced it, and depending on OS version may give you options to control notifications from that app. If I found one of my apps spamming via the notification tray I would get rid of the app.

However, it probably doesn't need to contain anything a malware scanner would find in order to do this. If it can post notifications and then pass the link to a browser or download the target itself then that's all it needs. So the app responsible could just be a bit spammy, but the thing it tries to get you to install could be worse.

Apps you've recently installed or updated are more likely suspects, but some apps are smart enough to wait a while after installation before spamming, to be less obvious.

Cheetah Mobile, the Go app team and suchlike are infamous for spam, so if you've anything from them they would also be suspects, but I don't know about this particular spam.
 
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Thank you for your detailed reply Hadron! I will do this next time it pops up (if it even does as it has only appeared once till now). I will also remove any recently installed apps and see how it goes!
It's safe to assume that any pop-up suggesting you install an app is spam of some sort.

If you press and hold a notification it should tell you what app produced it, and depending on OS version may give you options to control notifications from that app. If I found one of my apps spamming via the notification tray I would get rid of the app.

However, it probably doesn't need to contain anything a malware scanner would find in order to do this. If it can post notifications and then pass the link to a browser or download the target itself then that's all it needs. So the app responsible could just be a bit spammy, but the thing it tries to get you to install could be worse.

Apps you've recently installed or updated are more likely suspects, but some apps are smart enough to wait a while after installation before spamming, to be less obvious.

Cheetah Mobile, the Go app team and suchlike are infamous for spam, so if you've anything from them they would also be suspects, but I don't know about this particular spam.
 
Upvote 0
Hi,

A message popped-up today in the form of a system notification which invited me to supposedly download a "Samsung Members" app from Google Play. However the numerous spelling mistakes caught my attention and did not press on the relevant link. After searching the Play store no such app was found. I assume it may be some sort of malware but i have checked with numerous anti-malware/anti-virus apps with nothing popping up. Anyone else has had this? I am using a Galaxy S6 Edge if it matters.

Thank!
I just had this notification pop up on my phone within the last 30 minutes. I have no idea what is causing it. I deleted any apps/games that I've downloaded in the past week and this did nothing.

When I held down on the notification to see what app was causing this, it says "software update" as the app name. It allows me to block notifications and hide content from the lock screen when I click on the "i" information button.

I don't know if this is useful information, but when I went to application manager and looked at the list of apps, there are two apps named "software update" listed there. One is 1.1MB and the other is 7.55MB. I don't know if having two software update apps is normal or not, I'm just adding this incase it's useful information.

Did you figure out what it was yet?
 
Upvote 0
I just had this notification pop up on my phone within the last 30 minutes. I have no idea what is causing it. I deleted any apps/games that I've downloaded in the past week and this did nothing.

When I held down on the notification to see what app was causing this, it says "software update" as the app name. It allows me to block notifications and hide content from the lock screen when I click on the "i" information button.

I don't know if this is useful information, but when I went to application manager and looked at the list of apps, there are two apps named "software update" listed there. One is 1.1MB and the other is 7.55MB. I don't know if having two software update apps is normal or not, I'm just adding this incase it's useful information.

Did you figure out what it was yet?

I just received this notification a few hours ago as well. When I hold down the notification I get the same thing, says "software update" as the app name. In application manager, I have 2 "software update" listed too. One is 860KB and the other 412KB. I hastilly clicked the link that was in the notification and got an error message from the app store. I have not pressed OK yet...

Haven't downloaded any new apps lately. I purchased a Play Music 3 month trial that was on promo, and I then updated the app but that's it.

I have a Galaxy S6 with Fido.
 
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I just noticed this today myself. On further investigation, it is also coming from an app called "Software Update," and there are two in the app registry.

If you look at the permissions for these two apps, one has a reasonable set of permissions and the other has UNLIMITED permissions that make no sense for an update service - unlimited access to text messaging, calls, device and account info, managing contacts, etc... basically, every permission in the book. This app can't be disabled, force stopped or uninstalled as far as I can determine. Antivirus apps don't detect it.

Anybody with a rooted phone who's had this issue that can chime in on removal? I'm not a knowledgeable enough user to tackle it.
 
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Did it read something like this?
Samsung Electronics releaed Samsung Members application which is easy & simple solution to resovle the error and questions regarding Samsung smart mobile device.

English might not be the best when it comes from Beijing, i.e. Cheetah Mobile most likely.




The first responder mentioned "Cheetah Mobile" as a known culprit for spammy notifications... I just noticed an entry for "Cheetah Mobile CleanMaster" which I definitely never downloaded. Anybody else have this too?

Cheetah Mobile Clean Master SDK as a system app. All recent Samsungs have it. Samsung calls it Smart Manager, but it's definitely a version of Clean Master.

http://www.androidheadlines.com/201...clean-master-technology-galaxy-s6-models.html
Samsung And Cheetah Mobile Announce Partnership To Incorporate Clean Master Technology Into Galaxy S6 Models
 
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I just had this notification pop up on my phone within the last 30 minutes. I have no idea what is causing it. I deleted any apps/games that I've downloaded in the past week and this did nothing.

When I held down on the notification to see what app was causing this, it says "software update" as the app name. It allows me to block notifications and hide content from the lock screen when I click on the "i" information button.

I don't know if this is useful information, but when I went to application manager and looked at the list of apps, there are two apps named "software update" listed there. One is 1.1MB and the other is 7.55MB. I don't know if having two software update apps is normal or not, I'm just adding this incase it's useful information.

Did you figure out what it was yet?

Hello again, seems like this issue is getting more widely spread as time goes by. To provide some follow-up feedback on my experience, the pop-up message did not appear again until now (even after some restarts of the phone). However, I was not able to locate the cause - do you believe it is actually a system notification through Clean Master? From my perspective, the English used to write it are too poor to be the result of any app that is not "harmful" :) Has anyone had the notification pop-up multiple times?
 
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The notification is still present on mine despite multiple restarts.
Did you click on the OK button when it first popped-up? Regarding your previous reply, I can also confirm that I have two "Software Update" apps, with no option to disable either one, and with one of them having permissions to actually do anything with my phone content. As per the "Addons Detector" app, they have both been installed on 30th of April. I am not sure if that was the date there was an actual software update on my phone, is there a way to pinpoint this?
 
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Another thread discusses this issue as well:

http://androidforums.com/threads/fake-information-message-notification-w-spelling-mistakes.1033113/

It appears that a fellow Android user has contacted Samsung regarding this, who has replied that a patch may be issued for the problem (quoted below - submitted by user "coronos" which we thank for his/her input :)):

"I just chatted with a Samsung customer service rep. She said that this is NOT from Samsung, and that they will issue a patch update to "resolve the issue". We will receive a notification on the phone when it is released. Hopefully it will be clear that it's from Samsung."

Hope this clears the things up a bit!
 
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