Avast has alerted the public about thousands of Android smartphones are being shipped with pre-installed Malware. The Software and Antivirus developer says over 18,000 devices has been found to be affected with the Malware in the last one month. It also said the malware called Cosiloon was found in devices located in about 100 countries. This countries including Russia, Italy, Germany, the UK, as well as in the U.S.

The malware creates an overlay to present an ad over a webpage within the users’ browser. It says devices from manufacturers like ZTE and Archos are also affected. Avast revealed that majority of these devices are not certified by Google. It said it has contacted Google on the matter and that the Google is working on addressing the issue.

The malware comes pre-installed on the device making it harder to address. The company as revealed that the malware authors kept updating the control server with new payloads. Avast say even after this was discovered, the Manufacturers still continued to ship new devices with the pre-installed Malware.

Users can find the dropper in their settings (named “CrashService,” “ImeMess” or “Terminal” with generic Android icon), and can click the “disable” button on the app’s page, if available (depending on the Android version). This will deactivate the dropper, and once Avast removes the payload, it will not return.

Source: https://www.techchairman.com/2018/05/warning-zte-archos-smartphones-affected.html