Google has reportedly shut down operations and cut ties with one of its Google TV/Android TV partners over inserting a backdoor that opened the path for potential botnet activity, and has since offered up an official blog post about the goings on and Google’s steps moving forward. The company, named Videostrong, was a certified Android TV set top box manufacturer and was one of Google’s certified partners, but was knowingly installing a backdoor and selling access to criminal affiliates, then selling those affiliates’ malware modules onto infected devices.
According to Google, these modules were committing ad-fraud and enrolling infected devices into “residential proxy networks,” while also loading additional malware onto compromised devices. Videostrong has since been banned from making more Android TV boxes with pre-loaded Google apps and services. What’s more, Google says that by knowingly infecting devices that customers would then purchase, it was intentionally opening them up to a wide variety of malicious activity that included potential data-exfiltration and routing malicious network traffic through the devices. Google says that it has taken measures to safeguard future against this kind of activity from manufacturers in the future.
Google has altered its review process to prevent Android TV botnet activity going forward
While the existence of this activity on devices that millions of people have purchased is a huge breach of trust, Google says, the company confirms that there is a positive result from discovering this series of actions. Google has altered its review policy so things like this don’t happen in the future.
According to Google, Videostrong used obfuscation techniques that allowed it to exploit a gap in Google’s compatibility and security tests, which in turn allowed Videostrong to load malicious code onto these set top boxes after customers had booted them for the first time. Google has since taken legal action against Videostrong that has taken down the domains and servers that were used to control the botnet. It has also placed a ban on Videostrong and any of its future subsidiaries from manufacturing and selling devices as certified Android devices going forward.
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