Barcode App Infected With Malware

Lavabird’s Android app Barcode Scanner seems to be infecting Android smartphones with malware since its latest update.

The app was downloaded millions of times before being thrown from the Play Store.

The popular app put the adware in its latest update, in December last year. Although 10 million people downloaded the app, the number of people who received the update and the adware is much smaller.

The malware in the app appears to open the browser and click open a lot of websites. Google has now removed the app from its Play Store. If you have the app on your smartphone, you can also delete it manually.

There are many apps with a similar name, but the malware is in the Barcode Scanner app, made by a British company LavaBird.

The app was benign until December 4, 2020. However, an update on that day injects the app with code that visits sites on its own and opens many popups. Malwarebytes discovered that.