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Security experts have been alarming users regarding a Chinese app that can snoop on users’ personal activities on their phones.
TikTok, a China-based app, has garnered a lot of questions and issues from the media. Recently, CEO Shou Chew was grilled by the U.S House Committee for Energy and Commerce as the government is planning to ban the usage of the said app in the whole country.
Now, a new Chinese app aside from TikTok has been hot-seated. Pinduoduo, a shopping app, is said to contain some malicious code enabling the perpetrator to screen mirrors and track the compromised device on their end.
“Some versions of the Pinduoduo app contained malicious code, which exploited known Android vulnerabilities to escalate privileges, download and execute additional malicious modules, some of which also gained access to users’ notifications and files,” said Igor Golovin, a Kaspersky security researcher.
Due to such security concerns, Google suspended a specific version of the Pinduoduo app from the Play Store.
“The Off-Play versions of the e-commerce app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect,” the Google company spokesman said.
According to CNN, it is alarming how the malware can open the chances of the attackers reading private messages, taking control of the device by changing its settings and checking notifications.
Since not all users always read the terms and conditions and the accessibility agreement before installing software, Pinduoduo sees this as a chance to elevate their privileges in gaining access to users’ data.
“This is highly unusual, and it is pretty damning for Pinduoduo,” mentioned Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at cyber security company WithSecure.
As TikTok is seen as a threat to U.S. security, the sister app of Pinduoduo, Temu, may also gain the government’s attention.
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