<story><title>Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update</title><url>https://blog.malwarebytes.com/android/2021/02/barcode-scanner-app-on-google-play-infects-10-million-users-with-one-update/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wooptoo</author><text>This is possibly tied to the recent assault on the ZXing Barcode scanner app[1].&lt;p&gt;This is a legit open source app that&amp;#x27;s been recently flooded by 1-star reviews claiming that the app contains malware, probably in order to get users to switch to the other apps.
The funny thing is this app has not been updated since 2019 on the Play Store, so those reviews are clearly bogus.&lt;p&gt;It takes a special kind of scum to slander an open source project in order to push malware.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.google.zxing.client.android&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.google.zxi...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bityard</author><text>The ZXing Barcode Scanner (which is the &amp;quot;official barcode&amp;#x2F;QR code scanner for Android, as far as _I_ am concerned) is also available on f-droid.org. There&amp;#x27;s no absolute guarantee that F-Droid apps are malware-free but they have at least been looked at by a competent team of humans, something that is not true of the Play Store.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;f-droid.org&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;packages&amp;#x2F;com.google.zxing.client.android&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;f-droid.org&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;packages&amp;#x2F;com.google.zxing.client.andr...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update</title><url>https://blog.malwarebytes.com/android/2021/02/barcode-scanner-app-on-google-play-infects-10-million-users-with-one-update/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wooptoo</author><text>This is possibly tied to the recent assault on the ZXing Barcode scanner app[1].&lt;p&gt;This is a legit open source app that&amp;#x27;s been recently flooded by 1-star reviews claiming that the app contains malware, probably in order to get users to switch to the other apps.
The funny thing is this app has not been updated since 2019 on the Play Store, so those reviews are clearly bogus.&lt;p&gt;It takes a special kind of scum to slander an open source project in order to push malware.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.google.zxing.client.android&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=com.google.zxi...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TheRealDunkirk</author><text>&amp;quot;Apps&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;algorithms&amp;quot; seem to be driving literally everything about society now. I don&amp;#x27;t think this is a good thing, nor do I see the trend reversing. These giant black boxes now control the levers of modern society, and the companies that own them get to hide behind their &amp;quot;terms of service&amp;quot; to avoid any responsibility for the damage being done.&lt;p&gt;Every significant review system is being gamed to the point of being unusable, and yet stories about not being able to trust them keep being reported as if this were somehow noteworthy. For every one of these stories that rises to a thread on HN, how many other small time vendors are getting screwed by someone who is willing to pay a room full of people in some 3rd-world country to debase their competitor&amp;#x27;s online presence?</text></comment>