Trojan Tablet Virus (Who said Linux was safe)

[barrelockingnut]

Feeling a little sick? According to Lookout, the makers of an Android Security and anti-virus application called myLookout there is a new Trojan that apparently is affecting Android devices in China called "Geinimi." This virus spreads by hiding in known legitimate apps, including Monkey Jump 2, Sex Positions, President vs. Aliens, City Defense and Baseball Superstars 2010, and infects your tablet when you install an app that has it. More on this later in this post.

According to Lookout, “…The specific information it collects includes location coordinates and unique identifiers for the device (IMEI) and SIM card (IMSI). At five-minute intervals, Geinimi attempts to connect to a remote server using one of ten embedded domain names. A subset of the domain names includes http://www.widifu.com, http://www.udaore.com, http://www.frijd.com, http://www.islpast.com and http://www.piajesj.com. If it connects, Geinimi transmits collected device information to the remote server…”

While the good folks over at Android Central and Droid Life point out that this is probably not going to ruin most Android users days as the majority of their applications installed come from the main Android Market, since a lot of the tablets we love come direct from China, and due to the fact that we are having to do a lot of hacks and workarounds to get things on our devices, we may need to be more diligent than the phone users. In order to get this Trojan you have to download and sideload an infected app through Chinese app stores. So unless you're doing that, you should be cool.

The solution? After “a much higher level of effort than usually required” Lookout has analyzed the threat and updated their app to take care of this malware. Download and install their application from either the Market or directly from them at Lookout and you should be fine.

(sources - Android Central, Android Life, Lookout, Wikipedia)

[Warpedflash]

Already have it
Alo there is no sim in the scroll so this wouldent actually do much for us...

[Diego]

You should update your title. As you state in the next to last line of your post, it's 'malware', not a 'virus' and not a 'trojan'.

[Mac]

as a linux user i have to point out that linux is safer.. not immune. a lot of issues come from the users, and their internet behavior. if your the type of person looking for paid for apps for free (be it MS Office, games, or whatever) then your more likely to contract a virus. i used windows for over 10 years (working on repairs in a shop) and in all that time my own pcs never got a virus, and in that time many clients returned with reinfected machines because they never learnt.
linux IS safer, with its built in security, but a user can still bypass that security and infect a linux pc.

a little common sense goes a long way.