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What was the “Evil Telegram” campaign?
Kaspersky reported Android Telegram modifications that were promoted as faster alternatives to the official app. They appeared on Google Play and included descriptions in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, and Uyghur. Researchers described localization consistent with an intended audience; it does not identify who operated the apps or establish government involvement. Kaspersky’s campaign report describes the apps and their behavior.
Kaspersky researcher Igor Golovin put the risk of trusting a store listing this way: “What can possibly be wrong with a Telegram mod duly tested by Google Play and available through the official store?” The report’s point is that an app’s presence in an official store does not, by itself, prove its code is safe.
What does “60,000+” mean?
BleepingComputer reported that the examples shown in Kaspersky’s research had more than 60,000 installs. An install count is not necessarily a count of unique people: one person can install more than once, and the figure does not show how many users were active, how many devices were successfully infected, or whether data was stolen from every installation. The cited reporting does not establish a campaign-wide total of confirmed victims. BleepingComputer’s report covers the reported install figure.
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What information could the spyware collect?
Kaspersky described extra code associated with the package name com.wsys. Its analysis said the code could collect contact information and user identifiers, monitor changes to usernames, user IDs, and contact lists, and copy incoming messages to a command-and-control server.
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How were the modified apps different from the official client?
The campaign report listed org.telegram.messenger.wab and org.telegram.messenger.wob as malicious package identifiers, and identified org.telegram.messenger.web as the legitimate app’s package name in this case. These identifiers are indicators for the apps analyzed in this campaign, not a universal safety test for Telegram software or proof about apps researchers did not examine.
When choosing a messaging app, check its publisher and listing details and use the official app source. A package name that looks familiar—or availability in an app store—cannot by itself guarantee an app is safe. Claims that a modified client is “faster” or enhanced are not evidence of legitimacy.
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Were the apps removed from Google Play?
Yes: in an update dated 11 September 2023, Kaspersky said Google had informed it that all the apps identified in its report had been removed from Google Play. That confirms the status of the apps covered by that report at that time; it does not establish the current status of every later Telegram lookalike or modification.
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What should you do if you installed one?
- Stop using the modified app and switch to the official messaging app from its official source.
- Review the app’s publisher and details rather than relying on a claimed speed improvement or store availability.
- Follow official account and device security guidance if you may have used one of the reported apps. The campaign reporting does not provide a tested cleanup procedure or establish that a particular security product detects it.
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