Android wallpaper app really malware: security firm

It's not porn, but it is still something Apple is probably going to try to make hay out of. At the always interesting Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Kevin MaHaffey, chief technology officer at mobile security Lookout noted a group of Android wallpaper apps by the same developer which are stealing data from users that install them.

The innocent looking wallpaper apps can collect several pieces of a user's data, including a device’s phone number, subscriber identifier, and currently programmed voicemail number. If an end user were to program his voicemail password into the voicemail app, it could steal that, too.

It sends the data to a web site, www.imnet.us. That site is apparently owned by someone in Shenzhen, China (ironically, where a lot of Apple products are assembled).

The wallpaper apps are by developer jackeey,wallpaper and can be found here. We assume they will be expunged from the Android Market, soon.

Unlike Apple and the App Store, Google doesn't vet apps in its Android Market. Instead, when you install an app, a list of "permissions" the app needs are displayed. Of course, much like a EULA, users frequently don't read that information.

According to Lookout, the apps have been downloaded at least 1.1 million times. The developer chose a number of popular themes, such as Dragonball Z, Bleach, and Naruto for his apps. If you have anything from this developer on your Android phone, you should uninstall it immediately.

Lookout security has a line of smartphone anti-malware apps, for Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. We can guess why there is no iOS version; the app probably requires deeper integration with the OS than Apple will allow.