{"id":9824,"date":"2026-11-02T20:56:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9824"},"modified":"2026-11-02T20:56:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:56:51","slug":"google-botnet-android-tv-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9824","title":{"rendered":"One of Google\u2019s Android partners turned 1.3 million set-top boxes into a botnet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Google says one of its Android manufacturing partners secretly <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.google.com\/blog\/topics\/threat-intelligence\/shutting-the-door-on-the-xcpe-botnet\">built a backdoor in 1.3 million devices<\/a> and turned them into a botnet. The company says it has now dismantled the backdoor and \u201ccut ties\u201d with the manufacturer, the Shenzhen, China-based Videostrong Technology Co., which has been banned from building or selling certified Android devices or supplying software for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The infected devices were used without owners\u2019 knowledge for \u201cmalicious activity,\u201d like ad fraud, data exfiltration, and routing unauthorized network traffic. Google claims the \u201cbackdoor and botnet were intentionally developed, deployed, and operated for financial gain,\u201d saying:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<blockquote class=\"duet--article--blockquote _1lkuyz82 _1lkuyz80 _19wv7tc9\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1lkuyz89 _1lkuyz88 _19wv7tc1\">Videostrong monetized the backdoor by selling access to criminal affiliates and loading those affiliates\u2019 malware modules onto infected devices. These secondary modules were conducting ad-fraud; silently enrolling infected devices into residential proxy networks; and loading additional malware onto XCPE-compromised devices. We also took action to disrupt the command and control (C2) domains that operate these affiliate modules. Because these affiliates each have diversified distribution channels for their modules beyond XCPE, we assess that taking down their C2 domains will sever access to at least 10 million additional compromised devices.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">It wasn\u2019t just one device that was impacted, either \u2014 the malware was found \u201cbuilt directly into many different device models and brands over multiple years.\u201d Most of those were Android TV set-top boxes, but the botnet also infected other \u201cAndroid-based IoT devices, including telehealth devices, karaoke machines, and digital signage devices.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Google says Videostrong used \u201cobfuscation techniques\u201d to load the malware onto users\u2019 devices after they booted up the hardware for the first time. Google also says it made changes to its review process for device manufacturers after this incident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/1024807\/google-botnet-android-tv-shut-down\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google says one of its Android manufacturing partners secretly built a backdoor in 1.3 million devices and turned them into a botnet. The company says it has now dismantled the backdoor and \u201ccut ties\u201d with the manufacturer, the Shenzhen, China-based Videostrong Technology Co., which has been banned from building or selling certified Android devices or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32,46,249,68,34],"class_list":["post-9824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-google","tag-news","tag-security","tag-streaming","tag-tech"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>One of Google\u2019s Android partners turned 1.3 million set-top boxes into a botnet - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google says it dismantled the backdoor one of its manufacturing partners used to create a botnet including 1.3 million Android TV devices.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9824\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One of Google\u2019s Android partners turned 1.3 million set-top boxes into a botnet - 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