Summary
Trojan:AndroidOS/Tapsnake (also identified as Android.Tapsnake) is a spy tool that disguises itself as mobile game. Installation of the trojan requires the user/attacker to have physical access to the target phone.
Removal
You can set the F-Secure app to scan your device for viruses and other threats automatically. Once the app has completed its scan of the files on your device, you may assess any detected file or files and opt to remove it.
Trojan:AndroidOS/Tapsnake can be uninstalled by following the steps below:
Go to Google Android Menu
Go to Settings
Go to Applications
Select Manage
Select the Tap Snake application
Click the Uninstall button.
A False Positive is when a file is incorrectly detected as harmful, usually because its code or behavior resembles known harmful programs. A False Positive will usually be fixed in a subsequent database update without any action needed on your part. If you wish, you may also:
Check for the latest database updates
First, check if your F-Secure security program is using the latest updates, then try scanning the file again.
Submit a sample
After checking, if you still believe the file is incorrectly detected, you can submit a sample of it for re-analysis.
Note: If the file was moved to quarantine, you need to collect the file from quarantine before you can submit it.
Exclude a file from further scanning
If you are certain that the file is safe and want to continue using it, you can exclude it from further scanning by the F-Secure security product.
Note: You need administrative rights to change the settings.
Technical Details
Once installed, the trojan runs perpetually in the background, constantly reporting the phone's location to a remote server.
Installation
This trojan is distributed through the Android Market and is explicitly promoted as a spy program disguised as a mobile game.
The spy program is a commercial application known as GPS SPY.
Once bought, the trojan advises the user to download and install the "Tap Snake game" to the target phone.
Installation also requires the game to be registered with a keycode in order to enable spying.This requires the person installing this program to have physical access to the target phone.
Execution
On execution, the trojan launches a game based on the old (but still popular) game Snake:
In addition to the game, the trojan has two other features. Once installed, the trojan runs silently and continuously in the background, restarting itself automatically if the phone is rebooted.
In addition, the program checks the current location of the phone approximately every 16.67 minutes; the location is acquired thru GPS and/or Network (Cell-ID or Wi-Fi) services.
If the phone has moved at least 250 meters away from the previous location, the program will silently send the information below to a remote server (http://gpsdatapoints.[...]/[...]) via a HTTP post operation:
- Email address used in registration
- Location coordinates (latitude and longitude) and the time it was captured
These functionalities are clearly stated in application's resources access list:
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