Google Apps Remotely Removed from Android Phones

This week two free Google Apps have been removed remotely from hundreds of Android phones worldwide because the apps are believed to misrepresent the Google Company and violate Android developer policies.

This is the first time that Google has had to use their Remote Application Removal Feature. The feature allows the company to delete applications because of security reasons. They have the right to delete any Google application that has been installed through the Android Market

The apps were designed to test the ability to distribute a program that could later be used to take control of a device in an attack. This is according to Jon Oberheide who is the developer who wrote and distributed them.  One app was called RootStrap and just gave the phone user a message saying “Hello World”. The second app did the same function as RootStrap but was hidden underneath a preview for the new Twilight movie.

In an interview on Friday on CNET it was said that about 50 people downloaded the Rootstrap App and 250 to 350 downloaded the Twilight app.

Oberheide developed these applications so that they could be used as a device allowing someone to take control of a phone if they had the app installed.

“An attacker who develops legitimate-looking apps and distributes them on the Android Market could gather a large install base and if there was a vulnerability within the Android operating system or Linux (upon which Android is based) the attacker can phone home to see if there is an exploit to download and push it out to all the phones he controls and take complete control of the phone via the kernel,” said Oberheide, who works at a security start up called Scio Security.

The apps “were not designed to be used maliciously, and did not have permission to access private data–or system resources” beyond accessing the Internet, Rich Cannings, Android Security Lead, wrote in a recent blog post.

“A warning to watch out when downloading new Apps for your phone”