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Apple and Google have perpetrate as many as 20 apps from their respective app stores after security researchers found the apps were carrying datum - steal malware for almost a year .
certificate researcher at Kasperskysaid the malware , dubbed SparkCat , has been active since March 2024 . Initially , the researchers find the malicious model within a food delivery app used in the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia but later found the malware on 19 other , unrelated apps , which they say were cumulatively downloaded more than 242,000 times through Google ’s Play Store .
Using codification that ’s designed to capture text edition visible on the user ’s display — known as optical fictional character recognition ( OCR ) — research worker obtain the malware scan the image gallery on victims ’ machine for keywords to find recovery phrases for cryptocurrency wallets across various languages , including English , Chinese , Japanese , and Korean .
By using the malware to get a dupe ’s recovery phrases , attackers could gather complete ascendance over a victim ’s wallet and steal their store , the researchers found .
The malware could also turn on the extraction of personal information from screenshots , such as messages and password , the researchers say .
Upon receive the report from the investigator , Apple overstretch the compromise apps from the App Store last week , follow by Google .
“ All of the identified apps have been remove from Google Play , and the developer have been shun , ” Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez told TechCrunch .
Google ’s spokesperson also confirm that Android users were protect from have intercourse versions of this malware through the in - work up Google Play Protect protection feature .
Apple did not reply to requests for scuttlebutt .
Kaspersky representative Rosemarie Gonzales told TechCrunch that while the report apps were draw from the prescribed app stores , the party ’s telemetry data point suggested that the malware was also available from other websites and non - official app stores .
