38 apps spread malware on Smartphone: McAfee

Although it’s part of the same large and malicious adware family as the previously identified “Goldoson” virus, this “HiddenAds” campaign might seem a little less harmful at first glance, doing, well, exactly what the name suggests.

Specifically, around 35 million (!!!) Android users worldwide have apparently been served ads in the background of their mobile gaming sessions recently with the main purpose of generating unlawful revenue for various shady companies and individuals.

That sounds like something that won’t greatly impact your user experience or data privacy, but anyone who’s ever accidentally installed this type of malware before knows precisely how annoying it can be to notice your phone slow down, freeze, or crash out of nowhere without being able to identify the culprit.

If you’ve experienced something like that of late, it’s possible that your mobile device is infected with “HiddenAds”… or a similar malware, especially if you happen to occasionally share said device with a child between the ages of 5 and, say, 15.

That’s because every single malicious app found to be part of this specific adware group emulates or, let’s be honest, downright rips off Mojang’s hugely popular Minecraft game. We’re talking incredibly similar titles mixing up the words “block”, “diamond”, “craft”, “sword”, “monster”, “forrest”, “builder”, and “rainbow” in slightly different ways to draw the attention of the most vulnerable mobile users of all.

• Block Box Master Diamond
• Craft Sword Mini Fun
• Block Box Skyland Sword
• Craft Monster Crazy Sword
• Block Pro Forrest Diamond
• Block Game Skyland Forrest
• Block Rainbow Sword Dragon
• Craft Rainbow Mini Builder
• Block Forrest Tree Crazy
• Craft Clever Monster Castle
• Block Monster Diamond Dragon
• Craft World Fun Robo
• Block Pixelart Tree Pro
• Craft Mini Lucky Fun
• Block Earth Skyland World
• Block Rainbow Monster Castle
• Block Fun Rainbow Builder
• Craft Dragon Diamond Robo
• Block World Tree Monster
• Block Diamond Boy Pro
• Block Lucky Master Earth
• Craft Forrest Mini Fun
• Craft Sword City Pro
• Block Loki Monster Builder
• Block Boy Earth Mini
• Block Crazy Builder City
• Craft Sword Vip Pixelart
• Block City Fun Diamond
• Craft City Loki Rainbow
• Craft Boy Clever Sun
• Block City Dragon Sun
• Craft Loki Forrest Monster
• Lokicraft: Forrest Survival 3D
• Craft Castle Sun Rain
• Craft Game Earth World
• Craft Lucky Castle Builder
• Craftsman: Building City 2022
• Craft Rainbow Pro Rain

So, yeah, if you’re not extremely careful about every single thing you or your kid downloads from the official Play Store every single day, odds are your phone might need a little spring cleaning. And quickly! That’s especially true if you live in the US, Canada, South Korea, or Brazil, which were apparently the main countries targeted by this malware-spreading campaign.

For its part, Google seems to have fulfilled its secondary task of cleaning up the Play Store of these apps after failing the primary goal of keeping such threats away to begin with. But that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t also locate these apps and delete them from your devices before they can spread their tentacles and start performing other shady background activities besides pushing ads for dirty money.