FlixOnline Malware Appears as App For Free Netflix. If you have an Android device and you’re something of an app fanatic, you may have seen an app called FlixOnline, which was available on the Google Play Store for a time. The app’s description promises a free trial subscription to Netflix, which naturally prompted many people to download it and give it a try. Unfortunately, instead of giving the promised free Netflix trial as the FlixOnline Malware Appears, it installed malware on the devices of everyone who decided to give the app a spin.
If you’re one of those, by all means, uninstall FlixOline Malware right away. On installation, the fake Netflix app asks for “Overlay,” “Notification,” and “Battery Optimization Ignore” permissions. If you grant those, it has everything it needs to serve up fake login overlays that lay atop legitimate apps and invariably cause some people to give their login credentials to the people controlling the app.
If you also have WhatsApp installed, your problems will worsen, based on the research conducted by Check Point.
Here’s what WhatsApp had to say about FlixOnline Malware:
“Check Point Research (CPR) recently discovered malware on Google Play hidden in a fake application that is capable of spreading itself via users’ WhatsApp messages. If the user downloads the fake application and unwittingly grants the malware the appropriate permissions, the malware is capable of automatically replying to victim’s’ incoming WhatsApp messages with a payload it receives from a command-and-control (C&C) server. This unique method could have enabled threat actors to distribute phishing attacks, spread false information or steal credentials and data from users’ WhatsApp accounts, and more.”
Bottom line: If you’re a WhatsApp user and you also download the FlixOnline fake Netfix app, you’re probably infecting all your contacts with the same malware, or worse.
If you want to double-check your phone to make sure FlixOnline Malware is not there and uninstall it if it is, just head to “Settings,” then “Apps and Notifications” and “App Info” to be of its removal. As an added precaution, be sure you change the passwords of any apps you may have logged into since installing the FlixOnline Malware on your device.
