Help How to prevent a particular "harmful app" notification?

[hstroph]

How do I prevent a notification from appearing? It is from Google Play Protect:
"Uninstall harmful app - Cerberus puts your device at risk"

Cerberus offers more useful options than https://google.com/android/find?access_token=... and I want to keep it on my phone without Google's annoying notifications every few minutes.

 

[hstroph]

How do I prevent a notification from appearing? ...

I disabled "Scan apps ..." in the notification settings, but would like to only disable notifications about the desired Cerberus app.

 

[ocnbrze]

i would not use cerberus. i just found a link that tells people how to use it to hack people's phones. it is basically gives remote access of the phone on a pc. and if given access hackers could then be anywhere and gain access to your phone.

if you want you can pm me and i will provide a link. i do not want this info soe readily available which is why i am not posting a link.

there is a reason why google pulled it off of the play store.

 

[mikedt]

There's quite a few apps and services called "cerberus" in the Play Store. Which particular one are you referring to?

 

[hstroph]

... i just found a link that tells people how to use it to hack people's phones. it is basically gives remote access of the phone on a pc. and if given access hackers could then be anywhere and gain access to your phone....

The pc access is what I want, and it is securely password protected with a unique user ID. It allows me to view through the camera, listen to audio, track in real time, wipe, enable/disable wifi, enable/disable bluetooth, sound alarms and many other remote commands. e.g., I've lost my phone, and a camera image or audio alarm might let me see that it's in a different room

Google, I'm sure, sees Cerberus as serious competition to its own "Find My Device" and wants to eliminate it in the same way that Micro$oft views a Linux dual-boot partition or mingw64 as malicious software.

 

[hstroph]

There's quite a few apps and services called "cerberus" in the Play Store. Which particular one are you referring to?

Cerberus was installed from the Play Store a year ago when I transition from a Nexus 6P to a Pixel 6; it was installed on the 6P several years ago and has proved its usefulness many times. It has since been removed from Play Store and doesn't show on your list.

On my phone, image attached.

 

[mikedt]

Cerberus was installed from the Play Store a year ago when I transition from a Nexus 6P to a Pixel 6; it was installed on the 6P several years ago and has proved its usefulness many times. It has since been removed from Play Store and doesn't show on your list.

On my phone, image attached.

That particular “Cerberus" app is not something I've ever seen before. So can't really comment on it. If it's not on Play, does it have a website somewhere?

 

[ocnbrze]

well i have seen it on several hacker websites and that is not good. the good thing is that in order for a hacker to use cerberus, the hacker needs access to the phone so that they can download and install the app. the article i read made it so simple to do which is scary.

so there is no way that i can find to get rid of that warning. the fact that this is a known tool for hackers i can understand why google has the warning. you might just have to deal with it, if you choose to continue using the app.

 

[codesplice]

Wow, Cerburus - there's an app I haven't heard about in a long while. I do remember it being really handy back in the day... I guess that must have been around Android 4ish that I used it last?

As mentioned above, there are a number of security concerns regarding the Cerberus Anti-Theft app, and it having been removed from the Play Store for violating policies isn't a good look either. There are other anti-theft / "find device" apps still available through the Play Store so I don't think it's a case of Google simply trying to shut down competition for their Find My Device service (which doesn't make them any money anyway).

Personally, I would ditch Cerberus and go for another solution instead. Many could likely be augmented a bit with Tasker or a similar automation app to provide more capabilities while still preserving the Play Protect protection.


If you're insisting upon using a potentially insecure app, though, try going to Settings > Security & privacy > App security, tap the gear icon at the top of the screen, and disable Scan apps with Play Protect and Improve harmful app detection.