The favored open-source SmartTube YouTube consumer for Android TV was compromised after an attacker gained entry to the developer’s signing keys, resulting in a malicious replace being pushed to customers.
The compromise turned identified when a number of customers reported that Play Defend, Android’s built-in antivirus module, blocked SmartTube on their units and warned them of a danger.
The developer of SmartTube, Yuriy Yuliskov, admitted that his digital keys have been compromised late final week, resulting in the injection of malware into the app.
Yuliskov revoked the outdated signature and mentioned he would quickly publish a brand new model with a separate app ID, urging customers to maneuver to that one as a substitute.
SmartTube is without doubt one of the most generally downloaded third-party YouTube shoppers for Android TVs, Fireplace TV sticks, Android TV packing containers, and comparable units.
Its recognition stems from the truth that it’s free, can block advertisements, and performs nicely on underpowered units.
A person who reverse-engineered the compromised SmartTube model quantity 30.51 discovered that it features a hidden native library named libalphasdk.so [VirusTotal]. This library doesn’t exist within the public supply code, so it’s being injected into launch builds.
“Probably a malware. This file just isn’t a part of my mission or any SDK I exploit. Its presence within the APK is surprising and suspicious. I like to recommend warning till its origin is verified,” cautioned Yuliskov on a GitHub thread.
The library runs silently within the background with out person interplay, fingerprints the host system, registers it with a distant backend, and periodically sends metrics and retrieves configuration by way of an encrypted communications channel.
All this occurs with none seen indication to the person. Whereas there is not any proof of malicious exercise comparable to account theft or participation in DDoS botnets, the danger of enabling such actions at any time is excessive.
Though the developer introduced on Telegram the discharge of protected beta and steady take a look at builds, they haven’t reached the mission’s official GitHub repository but.
Additionally, the developer has not supplied full particulars of what precisely occurred, which has created belief points locally.
Yuliskov promised to deal with all considerations as soon as the ultimate launch of the brand new app is pushed to the F-Droid retailer.
Till the developer transparently discloses all factors publicly in an in depth autopsy, customers are really useful to remain on older, known-to-be-safe builds, keep away from logging in with premium accounts, and switch off auto-updates.
Impacted customers are additionally really useful to reset their Google Account passwords, verify their account console for unauthorized entry, and take away providers they do not acknowledge.
Presently, it’s unclear precisely when the compromise occurred or which variations of SmartTube are protected to make use of. One person reported that Play Defend does not flag model 30.19, so it seems protected.
BleepingComputer has contacted Yuliskov to find out which variations of the SmartTube app have been compromised, however a remark hasn’t been accessible but.
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