Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Mobile & Wireless

Android Malware Increasingly Packaged With HTML5 Apps: Trend Micro

Cybercriminals are repackaging legitimate HTML5 applications into Android malware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), according to Trend Micro.

Cybercriminals are repackaging legitimate HTML5 applications into Android malware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), according to Trend Micro.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) finalized the fifth major version of the hypertext markup language (HTML) specification in October. HTML5 is increasingly used by application developers, but cybercriminals are also leveraging its capabilities in their malicious activities, the security firm warned on Monday.

HTML5 enables developers to build Web apps that work on any platform. This is to the advantage of both developers and users who will no longer have to worry about applications that work only on certain mobile platforms. However, if developers don’t put too much effort into protecting their code, cybercriminals will easily copy and repackage their creations.

This year, the number of new HTML5-packaged applications for Android increased by 200% compared to the previous year. However, the number of PUAs and pieces of malware also increased, with almost half of such Android threats being disguised as games, Trend Micro said.

According to researchers, cybercriminals can use two methods to package Android malware with HTML5 apps. The attackers can initiate a local webview to load attached or remote HTML5 code. By doing so, they obtain an Android application to which they can add their own malicious code.

Another method that can be used involves middleware, the software layer that lies between applications and the operating system, and which is often used to develop cross-platform programs. Cybercrooks can use development tools such as Apache Cordova to repackage HTML5 apps and inject them with malicious JavaScript code.

“In the foreseeable future we may be seeing a type of malware that can hit different mobile platforms (such as: iOS, Android, Windows Phone) all at the same time. To prevent from this, developers need to spend more efforts on code obfuscation or other coding tricks to secure their apps. Home users also need to take care of new app installations by only downloading from official app stores,” Trend Micro mobile threats analyst Seven Shen wrote in a blog post.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Mobile & Wireless

Infonetics Research has shared excerpts from its Mobile Device Security Client Software market size and forecasts report, which tracks enterprise and consumer security client...

Mobile & Wireless

Apple rolled out iOS 16.3 and macOS Ventura 13.2 to cover serious security vulnerabilities.

Mobile & Wireless

Critical security flaws expose Samsung’s Exynos modems to “Internet-to-baseband remote code execution” attacks with no user interaction. Project Zero says an attacker only needs...

Mobile & Wireless

Technical details published for an Arm Mali GPU flaw leading to arbitrary kernel code execution and root on Pixel 6.

Mobile & Wireless

Two vulnerabilities in Samsung’s Galaxy Store that could be exploited to install applications or execute JavaScript code by launching a web page.

Mobile & Wireless

The February 2023 security updates for Android patch 40 vulnerabilities, including multiple high-severity escalation of privilege bugs.

Mobile & Wireless

Apple’s iOS 12.5.7 update patches CVE-2022-42856, an actively exploited vulnerability, in old iPhones and iPads.

Cybercrime

A digital ad fraud scheme dubbed "VastFlux" spoofed over 1,700 apps and peaked at 12 billion ad requests per day before being shut down.