Chinese Android smartphones could have a pre-installed virus

Android smartphones, which are a favourite in china, could be compromised and be a huge concern to data theft. The Android operating system that comes pre-installed out-of-the box, could be either accidentally infected at source, or planted by a hacker.

According to Yahoo! News, Unit 42, a California-based sub-division of Palo Alto Networks, which focuses on online security, raised concerns about a particular handset being sold in China.

A lengthy report by Unit 42 stated that Coolpad smartphones, available in China, are infected by a virus, the moment they are bought from the shelf. The virus infected is named as Coolreaper, and is a backdoor, which helps attackers hijack the device from a remote location.

Unit 42 has released a lengthy report on how the Coolreaper backdoor can exploit the smartphone’s consumers, both in China and overseas. If the smartphone is used with the virus, the hacker can download and install whatever software they choose to, erase the user’s data, send and receive random text messages, make random phone calls and copy any and all information on the phone to a remote server. The backdoor is installed in the system itself, and even though the Android smartphone is reset to factory defaults, the vulnerability remains and gets active again.

The report also mentioned that the problem / vulnerability were not only found on a particular model from Coolpad, but also on other models from the same company. The theory from Unit 42 points out that either Coolpad has built the backdoor themselves, or it could be an accidental infection from their developer desk.

If you happen to own a Coolpad Android device, your best bet is to factory reset the device and flashes it with Google’s original Android firmware as soon as you read this. Replacing the internal firmware would also wipe out the vulnerability. If you do not know how to do it, you could ask a friend or a techie, who knows how to flash a smartphone, to help you with it.

Surprisingly,the case of Coolpad is not the first—a few months ago, two other Chinese brands came under the scanner for a similar reason.

All said and done, even though you don’t think your smartphone would be compromised, it is best to refrain from storing sensitive information on your device.