Horror game is removed from Google Play for trying to steal Google and Facebook passwords
Application has been removed from Google Play after security company report. - Photo: Reproduction
A horror game called "Scary Granny ZOMBYE Mod: The Horror Game 2019" was removed from Google Play after security company Wandera reported that the application displayed fake windows to try to steal Google and Facebook passwords. Before it was taken off the air, the software had just reached the 50,000 download mark.
According to Wandera, the malicious activity in "Zombye mod" starts just two days after installation. This technique is intended to confuse the victim about the origin of the problems caused and is common among applications with malicious behavior. The application starts to display full-screen advertisements and fake login windows, especially from Google, to steal the victim's username and password.
If Google credentials are provided to the app, it immediately logs into the victim's account and removes account information, including phone numbers and recovery emails. It is unclear what is the purpose of stealing this data.
On phones with the latest Android version, malicious behavior was apparently not activated either. This is also common behavior in fraudulent applications: newer versions are usually safer. Even when these protections can be bypassed, the application's attempt to bypass them may end up alerting security systems and blocking the publication of the app on Google Play.
Functional game
The game promised to be a zombie version of "Granny", a game for Android that has already exceeded the mark of 100 million downloads. However, the "ZOMBYE Mod" was not registered in the same account as the developer of the original "Granny" and there is no indication of involvement of the original game creator with this "zombie" version. It is possible the goal of this "modified" version had been to get a ride on the game's fame.
Despite the presence of malicious activity, the game actually worked as promised. The player assumed the role of a character trying to escape from a house infested by zombies.
Wandera notes that this feature may have contributed to the good evaluation of the game on Google Play (it has had 4 stars) and with the popularity obtained. In three weeks, the application went from the thousand mark to 50 thousand downloads.
Wandera said it is still investigating the advertising network used by the app. The company said that it is possible that some of the ads displayed have led users to download other malicious programs, although it has not observed this happening.
