WifiTools - legit or not?

Sunny Rio · Jan 13, 2022

I have an app called WifiTools on my old Android (which was a dodgy China Ebay purchase). Every so often it pops up a white screen with "Hello World!" at the top. Is this a virus? I can't find any mention of WifiTools on a google search. I can't uninstall or disable it in the system control panel.

lunatic59 · Jan 13, 2022

How old is old? And, has it always done this or is it something new? The fact that you can't uninstall it means it's probably part of the phone's ROM and wouldn't be fixed by a factory reset. Many inexpensive off brand phones are thrown together in questionable "factories" (more like a basement in Newark) and are loaded with crap apps that barely work. It could be malicious or simply bad programming.

The good news is that many of these no-brand phones might already have root access. You should take a look at a root checker app and see if it is already rooted. From there, assuming the version of Android installed permits it, you should be able to elevate permissions to remove the app. Be warned, though that messing with root can break functionality and without a stock rom to flash, you may not be able to recover.

ocnbrze · Jan 13, 2022

how do you know it is wifitools that is the culprit? can you post a screenshot of this?

Sunny Rio · Jan 13, 2022

It's one of many things I think is the culprit, I mentioned WifiTools because I can't find evidence of that program anywhere on the internet, if it's a system program, surely it's findable on google? and popping up a blank screen saying "Hello World" is kinda sus. The phone is full of annoying stuff that continually downloads more stuff, mainly with names ending in "search", and often (literally every 5 minutes!) the browser opens up with an advert when I'm trying to do something. It's Android 4.5 (sold to me as 6 on Ebay from China), got a full refund and got to keep it when I got angry. Bluetooth won't work. Google play says "there was a problem at our end". Only way to get things on it is download on a PC, transfer via USB, then install an APK. Although I recently managed to get APKPure's app to install stuff, it's their equivalent of Google Play. I did have "no root firewall" installed, but all I use the phone for now is running Boinc (distributed computing) as it seems a shame to throw it away, and the firewall manages to screw up its communication. I did root it with Kingoroot a long time ago, but that didn't seem to help. And as you say, it's probably not wise for me to start removing stuff when I'm no expert at it.

mikedt · Jan 14, 2022

Sunny Rio said:
I have an app called WifiTools on my old Android (which was a dodgy China Ebay purchase). Every so often it pops up a white screen with "Hello World!" at the top. Is this a virus? I can't find any mention of WifiTools on a google search. I can't uninstall or disable it in the system control panel.

I'm certain it's not a "virus" from what you've described about this knock-off device. And given what this device is, it sounds much more like the clowns left the first lesson app for Android Studio in the firmware.
https://developer.android.com/codelabs/android-training-hello-world#0
"Android fundamentals 01.1:
Android Studio and Hello World"

It's rather like the BASIC equivalent of 10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!", that someone might have typed on a Commodore 64 or Sinclair Spectrum or something. Except on this thing, you can't do anything except try returning it to the "dodgy China Ebay" .... good luck!

lunatic59 · Jan 14, 2022

Are you sure it's Android 4.5? Officially, Android went from 4.4.x to 5.0. If your system OS says Android 4.5 then you've got something that's akin to a platypus crossed with a unicorn. Without looking at the file level OS, there's no telling what you've really got. I do agree with @mikedt that the pop-up is more likely developer laziness (or incompetence) than anything else. The pop-ups, ads, etc are probably also the result of adware installed as a system app.

Personally, if you want a beater phone, I'd head over to swappa and pick up any of a handful of phones for under $50 and send that Chinese monstrosity to the recycler.

Sunny Rio · Jan 14, 2022

mikedt said:
I'm certain it's not a "virus" from what you've described about this knock-off device. And given what this device is, it sounds much more like the clowns left the first lesson app for Android Studio in the firmware.
https://developer.android.com/codelabs/android-training-hello-world#0
"Android fundamentals 01.1:
Android Studio and Hello World"

It's rather like the BASIC equivalent of 10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!", that someone might have typed on a Commodore 64 or Sinclair Spectrum or something. Except on this thing, you can't do anything except try returning it to the "dodgy China Ebay" .... good luck!

I already complained, immediate full refund and I get to keep it, clearly they were operating a scam and didn't want any trouble. It's happily crunching away on black holes and binary pulsar data. Might aswell use the little 2 core CPU for something, it doesn't use much electricity.

The hello world isn't that annoying, but the continual downloading of search engines and other nonsense with strange names suggests they're up to something. I did install a firewall, but it interferes with monitoring the science I mentioned. Might try a different one or just leave it, since I don't actually look at the phone much, it's remotely controlled from a Windows 10 desktop.

lunatic59 said:
Are you sure it's Android 4.5? Officially, Android went from 4.4.x to 5.0. If your system OS says Android 4.5 then you've got something that's akin to a platypus crossed with a unicorn. Without looking at the file level OS, there's no telling what you've really got. I do agree with @mikedt that the pop-up is more likely developer laziness (or incompetence) than anything else. The pop-ups, ads, etc are probably also the result of adware installed as a system app.

Personally, if you want a beater phone, I'd head over to swappa and pick up any of a handful of phones for under $50 and send that Chinese monstrosity to the recycler.

4.4.2, 4.5 was a rough guess from memory. This is what CPU-Z reports. The system states 6.0, clearly a lie. I cannot install programs which require 6.0.

The phone's CPU is being put to good use in science.

I bought a better one, £30, Ebay, UK seller, probably a Chinese redistributor, VKWorld Mix Plus, brilliant phone. Same specs as a £200 Iphone!

Sunny Rio · Jan 22, 2022

Sorted. It kept failing to start programs (inside Boinc distributed computing), looking like a shortage of RAM. While connected via USB to a real computer as it's the only way I can get files onto it to install stuff and I was going to try a new firewall, I noticed some very peculiarly named folders like .hgksuhgurv all over it, all beginning with a fullstop. These are not visible in the phone's file manager. So I deleted them all. Stuff in the android folder with the same silly names too. When rebooting it, something popped up like it was trying to do something but everything was placeholders. Looks like I thwarted it. Ahh, now google play works, which promptly deleted wifitools as it's unsafe. And no more 20 browser windows opening displaying Tarot games and so forth.

WifiTools - legit or not?

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