Android users are being warned to delete 19 apps that could infect their phone.
The apps have been banned from the Play Store after they were found to leave lots of unwanted and irritating adverts on people's phones.
The latest alert comes via the team at White Ops Satori Threat Intelligence and Research who discovered 19 nasty applications that are capable of filling devices with unwanted and highly irritating adverts.
This adware was able to take over the moment the device was unlocked and plugged into a charger and was even able to launch an attack whether the infected app was open or not - reports the Daily Express.
Some of the apps were able to hide from users by disappearing the moment they were downloaded.
This trick is often used by hackers as it makes it much harder for people to find and delete the applications from their devices.
The White Ops Team say they identified the apps after seeing suspiciously high volumes of ad traffic during their threat hunting investigations.
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After looking more closely at those apps and their similarly-developed counterparts, White Ops discovered code facilitating out-of-context adverts as well as a pretty clever way to evade detection.
The apps it investigated in the course of its research did not function as advertised and had more than 3.5 million downloads.
White Ops dubbed this investigation CHARTREUSEBLUR with the majority of apps featuring in the attack including the word “blur” in their package name.
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Many also say they are photo editing apps - a popular type of download from the Store - which claimed to allow a user to blur sections of an image in their photo gallery.
With the threat confirmed, Google has since removed the applications from its Play Store but android users are being warned to delete them from their phones.
The Satori Team say they continue to monitor this threat and will identify any emerging adaptations and new apps.
Apps android users are being warned to delete
Auto Picture Cut • 100,000+ installs
Color Call Flash • 50,000+ installs
Square Photo Blur • 500,000+ installs
Square Blur Photo • 500,000+ installs
Magic Call Flash • 50,000+ installs
Easy Blur • 100,000+ installs
Image Blur • 100,000+ installs
Auto Photo Blur • 100,000+ installs
Photo Blur • 500,000+ installs
Photo Blur Master • 100,000+ installs
Super Call Screen • 100,000+ installs
Square Blur Master • 100,000+ installs
Square Blur • 50,000+ installs
Smart Blur Photo • 500,000+ installs
Smart Photo Blur • 500,000+ installs
Super Call Flash • 100,000+ installs
Smart Call Flash • 50,000+ installs
Blur Photo Editor • 5,000+ installs
Blur Image • 10,000+ installs
