Dealing with Malware

[sfst351]

Hi,
I am new to using a smart phone and so perhaps my question would sound very basic. But I still couldn't find a satisfying answer elsewhere which is why I am posting it here. Thanks for the reply in advance.

So I downloaded a wallpaper app from google android market for my android phone. After the download, my Lookout virus software installed earlier indicated that the wallpaper app has a malware and gave me an option to uninstall it, which I did. So now is my phone safe with the app removed or do I have to take some other measures. I am asking this because the word 'uninstall' does not mean deleting the files from which installation took place. I would still look forward to actually deleting the files which I had downloaded. Since no such option is provided anywhere in the android system, I am concerned as to whether the application files that were downloaded are still sitting on my SD card or internal storage or does the process of un-installation completely remove the files that were downloaded. And also, is there a way to report the app developer to the google market team? I read in the reviews of other apps by this developer that they too harbor malware. Finally, suppose there was a malware on by android system which went undetected. Does a factory reset as well as erasing the SD card completely clean the system like hard reformatting does on a regular hard drive?

Thanks

 

[Rxpert83]

My first guess would be that was a false positive from lookout. I would've looked into that first.

What wallpaper app were you using?

There's quite a bit of debate about whether or not malware apps are needed on an android device, and I'm pretty firmly in the camp that says they aren't needed.

A factory reset will completely wipe away anything an app installs on the device.

 

[Stuntman]

Please, let us know which wallpaper app was flagged as malware by your malware detection app. Perhaps someone is familiar with it and can confirm whether or not it is malware.

 

[sfst351]

Hi, the app is called "Nature Wallpapers" by a developer called frederic. Here's a link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ysler.wps.nature

A few others reviewing this app noted that it seems to contain malware. The same pattern I saw with other wallpaper apps by this developer.

So you believe that antimalware programs like AVG or Lookout are unnecessary for android OS? Why is that?

A factory reset will completely wipe away anything an app installs on the device.

Does this mean that it is similar to reformatting a hard drive? And what if I do a factory reset but don't erase the SD card, the app would be still there after the reset, wouldn't it?

 

[chanchan05]

Actually, uninstall does delete all installation files.

 

[Hadron]

Does this mean that it is similar to reformatting a hard drive? And what if I do a factory reset but don't erase the SD card, the app would be still there after the reset, wouldn't it?

An app won't be on sd unless you move it there, and even if you do it's moved to a special folder which is wiped by a factory reset. So no, a factory reset will remove it.

 

[Hadron]

You might be interested to know that Avast also flags this thing as containing a trojan (I have Avast for the phone location features, so decided to test).

 

[Hadron]

And also, is there a way to report the app developer to the google market team?

There is a button to report it as objectionable. I used this, selected "other" as the objection, then described the problem as "many security apps flag this as malware" (since a browse revealed that Trustgo, AVG, Avast, Lookout and Kaspersky all flag this one).

 

[sfst351]

An app won't be on sd unless you move it there, and even if you do it's moved to a special folder which is wiped by a factory reset.

But I noticed that all the apps I downloaded went straight to the SD card without giving me a choice to put it in internal storage. Also, on my phone (Coolpad Quattro) there is an option to do factory reset with or without erasure of the SD card. It does say that factory reset alone will remove all applications. Although applications on the SD card are not mentioned separately, I am supposing that all means all. Including the SD card in the reset option means music/photos and other data files are also erased which would otherwise remain intact.

Please let me know if I have understood correctly.

 

[nieltab]

But I noticed that all the apps I downloaded went straight to the SD card without giving me a choice to put it in internal storage. Also, on my phone (Coolpad Quattro) there is an option to do factory reset with or without erasure of the SD card. It does say that factory reset alone will remove all applications. Although applications on the SD card are not mentioned separately, I am supposing that all means all. Including the SD card in the reset option means music/photos and other data files are also erased which would otherwise remain intact.

Please let me know if I have understood correctly.

If you only erase your phone, nothing on the sd card will be lost, if you erase the sd card aswell everything will be lost (apps, music, photos,...).

In my opinion you dont need to reset, you uninstalled the app so you should be fine.