Google's Bouncer shows Android malware the door

By GCN Staff

Connecting state and local government leaders

| February 3, 2012

It may have arrived too late for the 5 million phones recently infected, but Google has introduced Bouncer, a service designed to muscle out apps carrying malicious code.

Apps

It may have arrived a little too late for the owners of the 5 million phones that were infected recently, but Google has introduced an automated service designed to muscle out apps that contain malicious code, Computer World reports.

Bouncer, which Google formally introduced Feb. 2, scans the code of all newly uploaded apps for known instances of malware (including Trojan horses and spyware) before they make it to the Android Market. The system automatically rejects some apps that raise red flags and sets aside others for review.

Google says Bouncer's simulator function can can run apps exactly as they would appear to Android phone users, allowing it to check for any hidden behaviors that might require the apps to be flagged for later review. As Bouncer's ability to detect and analyze improves, it will also be able to go back and check apps that have already been published.

The introduction of Bouncer comes on the heels of the recent announcement from Symantec that as many as 5 million Android phones have been infected with some type of malicious code. As GCN reported, the code that affected 13 applications in the Android market was "a bot-like threat that can receive commands to carry out certain actions, as well as steal information from the device," in Symantec's words. But there is some question as to whether the code was even malware: Lookout Mobile Security said it was more likely an aggressive form of adware.

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