Experts Bare Malware In China's Pinduoduo Shopping App

Experts in six cybersecurity firms worldwide have confirmed the presence of malware in China’s Pinduoduo shopping app, less than a month after Google axed the app from its Play Store, with Bloomberg also citing a Russian firm had identified the malware, Nectar Gan, Yong Xiong, and Juliana Liu reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: A Pinduoduo employee claimed that it was in 2020 that the company set up a team of about 100 engineers and product managers to dig for vulnerabilities in Android phones, develop ways to exploit them — and turn that into profit.

A Pinduoduo employee claimed that it was in 2020 that the company set up a team of about 100 engineers and product managers to dig for vulnerabilities in Android phones, develop ways to exploit them — and turn that into profit.

The company first targeted users in rural areas and smaller towns, while avoiding users in megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

However, the malware could harvest data from users worldwide for the benefit of Chinese security and intelligence networks, Kristie Lu Stout and Sean Lyngaas also reported for CNN.

Approached by CNN, researchers from Tel Aviv-based cyber firm Check Point Research, Delaware-based app security startup Oversecured and Hyppönen’s WithSecure conducted an independent analysis of the 6.49.0 version of the app, released on Chinese app stores in late February.

Google Play is not available in China but Google found malware in off-Play versions of the app.

The researchers found code designed to achieve “privilege escalation”: A type of cyberattack that exploits a vulnerable operating system to gain a higher level of access to data than it’s supposed to have, according to experts.

Sergey Toshin, the founder of Oversecured, said Pinduoduo’s malware specifically targeted different Android-based operating systems, including those used by Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo.

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