Many android apps have mobile ads – it is the primary funding method for a lot of software developers – and mobile ad networks have been the target of many malware authors – if they can get their malicious code on the ad networks, all they need is *any* application running on an android device with the correct “old” version of the operating system to bring that ad into an application.. and bingo – exploited android phone or tablet!
Mobile ad networks can provide a loophole to serve malware to Android devices, according to researchers from security firm Palo Alto Networks who have found new Android threats being distributed in this manner.
Most mobile developers embed advertising frameworks into their applications in order to generate revenue. Unlike ads displayed inside Web browsers, ads displayed within mobile apps are served by code that’s actually part of those applications.
The embedding of code for the advertising network into a mobile application itself ensures that ads get tracked and the developers get paid, but at the same time this third-party code represents a backdoor into the device, said Wade Williamson, senior security analyst at Palo Alto Networks, in a Monday blog post.
“If the mobile ad network turns malicious, then a completely benign application could begin bringing down malicious content to the device,” Williamson said. “What you have at that point is a ready-made botnet.”
The strength of putting a piece of malware code into an ad, is that it doesn’t matter if the application is secure or not – once the ad is displays, the phone or table is exploited.
This new trend of going after ad networks for ad network malware is called “malvertizing”…