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Samsung Galaxy Store contains potentially dangerous streaming video apps

Android Police found that the Samsung Galaxy Store pre-installed on the South Korean company's smartphones appears to contain potentially dangerous streaming video apps.

According to mobile security analyst linuxct, several clones of the now-defunct Showbox video streaming app on the Galaxy Store may not be harmful by themselves, but appear to include technologies that allow malware to be downloaded and executed.

Freelance Android Police writer Max Weinbach discovered after receiving security alerts from Google Play Protect that at least five Showbox clones were possibly malicious, prompting him to investigate.

An analysis by Virustotal, an online virus and malware scanning service, showed that the applications contain something definitely suspicious. Some of them also ask for an excessive number of permissions, including permission to access call logs.

Another problem is that Showbox had a reputation for being a pirated tool and its clones on the Galaxy Store were likely not infringing copyrights. At least none of them are on the Google Play Store.

The Galaxy Store doesn't track app installs, so it's difficult to determine how many times a specific app has been downloaded. However, some user reviews contain warnings about malware.

Samsung has yet to comment on the Android Police findings. Still, Samsung smartphone users are advised to download apps only from the Google Play Store.

Image source: androidpolice.com