'Agent Smith' malware infected 25 million Android devices worldwide, 15 million in India

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Agent Smith, not a Fictional character of Matrix franchise, but a newly discovered Android malware that has infected about 25 million Android devices worldwide and most of the infected users (15 million) are from India and other neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, reports Check Point Researchers.

Disguised as a Google-related Android app, Check Point Research confirms that the malware manages to exploit known Android vulnerabilities and has targeted the Arabic, Indonesian, Hindi, and Russian speakers by automatically replacing installed apps on the devices with malicious versions.

In order to trick the users, the malicious software installed via a popular third-party app store 9Apps is intentionally designed to look similar to the original one. App Installation occurs without the users' consent or interaction, the report added.

According to the research report, once the app is installed on the victim's smartphone, it starts showing fraudulent ads related to financial gain that allow it to behave like previous campaigns such as Gooligan, HummingBad, and CopyCat.

The Agent Smith malware consists of Loader, Core, Boot, Patch, AdSDK and Update modules used for various malicious purposes staying under the radar. Cyber threat intelligence Check Point has worked closely with Google and at the time of publishing, no malicious apps remain on the Play Store, the report reads.

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