Google takes down an auto-rooting Malware app from the Play store

Recently we covered a couple of articles on malicious malware that can affect your Android Smartphone and ruin your smartphone experience. Apparently, there is yet another malware that is affecting the smartphones worldwide. Google worked with Lookout, a mobile security company, and has successfully taken down the auto-rooting malware app that was said to be silently rooting Android device and install other apps without user permission.

Last week the security firm discovered an app called LevelDropper on Google Store. It is a flat level calibration tool that users can use on any flat surface to check if it is really flat. It appears to be a simple application that can be used by many in our day-to-day life. But according to Lookout, this application contained a lot of malicious code. The company ran a deep analysis and found out this about the application.

The application has silently rooted the device and installed around 14 applications in about 30 minutes of time. So basically it installed an app every 2 minutes. According to the company, once the LevelDropper application was executed, it automatically installed a bunch applications called Gin Rummy, More cast, etc. And the worst part is, none of these apps even prompted a message before installation.

According to Lookout, it was pretty difficult to determine if the device was rooted or not. They ran a couple of sophisticated tests to find out that the system partition was writable, which is usually not the case. The system partition is typically in read-only format. And if by any chance you use LevelDropper on your phone, then we advise you to perform a factory reset and remove the malware. Check out our full guide on how to remove malware from your Android smartphone here.

More and more applications like these are coming out daily on the Google Play store. It is advised that you check the reviews and read about the developer properly before installing any application. It could be a small virus that can freeze your application or it could be anything terrifying like the “Godless” malware which can get root access into your system and cause harm to your software etc. Share this article and stay tuned to us for more information like this.

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