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Viruses via browser?

G

Galactico

Lurker
Hello,
I was just wondering about some problem - is it possible that Android would get infected by some virus/trojan/etc. during surfing on Internet via browser?
And also: is there any possibility that virus could be transmitted from Android to Windows or Linux, for example via wire, bluetooth or GMail, which is synchronized on Android?
Unfortunately I'm not very experienced in this topic but I'm really interested how it works.
Could anybody tell anything about this?
Best regards!
 
Doesn't matter. I could knowingly put in 10GB of viruses on my phone and nothing will happen. It doesn't work that way. Windows Viruses on work on Windows. Nothing will happen if you put them on Android. Viruses don't exist for Android, although malware does. I know for some people, viruses is everything bad, but there is a whole lot of difference between a virus and a malware (malicious program).
 
chanchan05 said:
Doesn't matter. I could knowingly put in 10GB of viruses on my phone and nothing will happen. It doesn't work that way. Windows Viruses on work on Windows. Nothing will happen if you put them on Android. Viruses don't exist for Android, although malware does. I know for some people, viruses is everything bad, but there is a whole lot of difference between a virus and a malware (malicious program).
Click to expand...

Pretty much this. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that you should let your guard down totally. The OP has a point that an Android phone could transfer a virus/malware to a Windows PC. However, it would be the exact same way as a flash drive could, where the Android is unaffected, but copying and running the file on a Windows PC would infect the computer.

However, Android devices themselves are for the most part safe from drive-by attacks through web browsers.
 
Galactico said:
Hello,
I was just wondering about some problem - is it possible that Android would get infected by some virus/trojan/etc. during surfing on Internet via browser?
Click to expand...

I'm going to assume when you say "virus/trojan", you mean malware generally.

Drive by download of malware is possible, but I think the the probability is pretty low. As of right now, this type of attack is not that prevalent or sophisticated. We're starting to see some crop up, but nothing too alarming. Only time will tell if this becomes more of a serious issue.

Last year at blackhat conference, some researchers at a security firm showed a drive by attack though a webkit floating point buffer overflow vulnerability. The exploit coupled with heap spraying allowed to bypass android's sandbox and steal data from the phone and upload to remote server with no user intervention. As far as I know this vulnerability was patched in 2.3 (gingerbread), but still it illustrated the possibility.

This one is a little bit more interesting. At RSA conference this year some researchers demoed a drive by attack through another webkit vulnerability and an sms link. When the link is clicked on, it downloads malware, triggers the exploit, crashes the device and install the program on reboot.

Android smartphones infected via drive-by exploit - Update - The H Security: News and Features

One thing to note is that this isn't just an android thing. Webkit is also being used on iphones, so it could be modified to target that platform as well.
 
Thank you very much for all of your replies, they are very helpful. And I have one more question related to this topic:
Let's say that I've downloaded virus during browsing a web on my phone. Is it possible that it would be transmitted to PC while sending files (my photos, videos) via Bluetooth or while synchronizing my Gmail account?
 
Galactico said:
Thank you very much for all of your replies, they are very helpful. And I have one more question related to this topic:
Let's say that I've downloaded virus during browsing a web on my phone. Is it possible that it would be transmitted to PC while sending files (my photos, videos) via Bluetooth or while synchronizing my Gmail account?
Click to expand...

Depends on how you got it. If you downloaded the file for later use, and isn't meant to run on Androids, nothing will happen until you open the file on the PC. If it happened to be a drive-by exploit for your phone, and happened to be sophisticated to infect your PC via Bluetooth or start attaching malicious files to emails, than your really at the mercy of whoever designed the worm.

The latter sounds pretty sophisticated though (but not impossible). So I wouldn't worry about it too much, since Android does have a pretty secure system going for it already, whereas Windows, applications have a lot of freedom, even running under a normal user, let alone Administrator.
 
Thank you for your reply. And is it possible to transmit to PC a virus or malware while synchronizing Gmail account?
E.g.:
1. I have downloaded virus on my phone
2. I'm synchronizing my Gmail account - virus is sent to my Gmail account
3. I'm checking my Gmail box on my PC - virus is downloaded from my Gmail account on my PC.
Is it possible?
 
Galactico said:
Thank you for your reply. And is it possible to transmit to PC a virus or malware while synchronizing Gmail account?
E.g.:
1. I have downloaded virus on my phone
2. I'm synchronizing my Gmail account - virus is sent to my Gmail account
3. I'm checking my Gmail box on my PC - virus is downloaded from my Gmail account on my PC.
Is it possible?
Click to expand...
In theory. However, unless that virus infected your phone, you personally would need to send that file to yourself or someone else, and then download it to your PC on purpose. And that's if it gets through Google's virus check.

Like I said, it would need to be a pretty sophisticated attack and require a lot of social trickery (ie. fooling you into thinking its a legitimate file).

But the file simply residing on your phone won't do anything, not even Gmail sync.
 
I got mail attached .zip files on my phone, harmless for phone, but when been opened on the PC they would be trojans/viruses.

So, if I copy the contents of the phone's Download folder on my PC, I've to think of it ;)

EDIT: ... I've to think of it, beause often such emails are labeled as spam, I delete the unread email, but the attachment remains in the Download folder.

Harry
 
Just to be clear, there are NO viruses that affect Android. Viruses that affect other OS can be passed along by the phone via email or transferring infected files, but there's NO actual Android viruses.
 
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