Android Trojan Oldboot Has Infected Over 350,000 Devices!

92 per cent of infections have been detected in China. 
Android Trojan, Oldboot, Doctor Web, infections, Android.Oldboot, mobile device, imei_chk, bootkit

Russian security firm Doctor Web has sounded the alarm for a threat that is well on its way to create a new record of sorts with its deadly lethality! Dangerous Android Trojan ‘Oldboot’ has reportedly infected over 350,000 devices worldwide, claims the firm.

Further, the persistent Android Trojan has spread itself mostly across China with much as 92 per cent of infections , US and Brazil. Italy, Spain, Germany and Russia too fall in line with ‘severe’ infections! Meanwhile, INDIA doesn’t feature in the ‘threat list’ yet, but definitely needs to be careful. Functioning like a bootkit, Oldboot gets embedded into the kernel of Android. Thereon it resides within the device’s memory and launches everytime the device is powered up. This implies Oldboot can reinstall itself when the phone is fired up again post detection and removal. “This malware is particularly dangerous because even if some elements of Android.Oldboot that were installed onto the mobile device after it was turned on are removed successfully, the component imei_chk will still reside in the protected memory area and will re-install the malware after a reboot and, thus, re-infect the system.” explained Doctor Web.

Flashing a device with modified Android firmware that has the Trojan concealed within is one likely route of Oldboot infection.

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