Mazar BOT

A new Android malware has been making waves recently that have the capability to gain root access on your smartphone and completely erase your phone's storage. Dubbed Mazar BOT, the serious malware program is loaded with so many hidden capabilities that security researchers are calling it a dangerous malware that can turn your smartphone into a zombie inside hacker's botnet. Mazar BOT was discovered by Heimdal Security while the researchers at the firm were analyzing an SMS message sent to random mobile numbers and locations.

  How Mazar BOT Works?

Despite other Android malware that distributes itself by tricking users into installing an app from third-party app stores, Mazar spreads via a spam SMS or MMS messages that carry a link to a malicious APK (Android app file). Once the user clicks the given link, he/she'll be ending up downloading the APK file on their Android devices, which when run, prompts the user to install a new application. This new Android app has a generic name, MMS Messaging, that asks for admin level privileges. Most of the users end up giving the root access to the malicious app due to its common name.

What Makes Mazar BOT So Nasty?

Once gaining root access on the victim's device, Mazar BOT can do variety of nasty stuff on your Android devices, like:

Gain boot persistence to help survive device restarts
Send and Read your SMS messages
Make Calls to your contacts
Read the phone's state
Plague phone's control keys
Infect your Chrome browser
Change phone settings
Force the phone into sleep mode
Query the network status
Access the Internet
Wipe your device's storage (the most critical capabilities of all)

How to Protect Yourself from Mazar BOT?

There are standard protection measures you need to follow to remain unaffected:
NEVER click on links in SMS or MMS messages sent to your phone.
Go to Settings → Security → Turn OFF "Allow installation of apps from sources other than the Play Store" option.
Always keep an up-to-date Anti-virus app on your Android devices.

Avoid unknown and unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots and Keep your Wi-Fi turned OFF when not in use.


Source: http://thehackernews.com/2016/02/hack-android-malware.html