Help How effective is factory reset?

[Android Question]

If you have a non rooted device and it becomes infected with malware, is it possible for it to infect the original factory image and spread itself?

 

[mikedt]

Yes there is some malware that can infect the system by using root exploits. Have you been sideloading stuff from outside of Google Play or Amazon? Like Chinese app stores or whatever other places.

 

[androidmachine]

If the malware made its way onto the system partition then a factory reset isn't going to do much.