Chinese phones warn that Google apps are malicious code

This notice appeared about the past three days, and was reflected by many users in the Android community. “My Huawei P10 phone today detected the Google app as malicious code, specifically TrojanSMS-PA. I uninstalled and reinstalled, but then still received the same warning,” member SM7012 wrote on Google support page on October 28.

On the support community, nearly 10,000 people said they encountered the same situation. The majority use Huawei devices, like P10, P30 Pro, Mate 20 Pro, or Honor. Additionally, the problem spread to some Vivo phone users.

Security site Bleeping Computer also confirmed that the device they were using also suddenly displayed a “security threat” message. When clicking to view details, the device displays TrojanSMS-PA malicious code, located in Google software. This code is warned that it can secretly send SMS messages and steal personal information as well as make unauthorized payments. This site suspects this may be a “false positive” warning.

Meanwhile, Google confirmed that the notification did not come from its Google Play Protect system. Google applications, when posted to the Play Store, still have to go through the same review measures as other apps and must ensure standards.

With users receiving the above warning, Google representatives believe that they may have used devices that are not Play Protect certified, so they have to download apps from unreliable external sources.

However, according to Bleeping Computer , the situation was recorded on devices born before Huawei was banned from using Android, so they are real Android products, not as Google claims.

Huawei, Honor, Vivo have not commented on this issue.

Luu Quy