1.3 million Android-based TV boxes backdoored; researchers still don’t know how

arstechnica.com 1.3 million Android-based TV boxes backdoored; researchers still don’t know how

Infection corrals devices running AOSP-based firmware into a botnet.

Researchers still don’t know the cause of a recently discovered malware infection affecting almost 1.3 million streaming devices running an open source version of Android in almost 200 countries.

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Well that’s encouraging. Thank all the gods I only own dumb TVs
- This is about the boxes you plug into the TV, like a Roku, or Fire TV, except it's the cheap Chinese white box rebranded Android TV boxes you buy on places likeAmazon, Ali, and eBay.
  
  Ah, so it is. My bad
  
  They don't even run Android TV. They run a modified (normal) Android. This is well known, but the article also mentions it.
  
  So basically a non-issue unless you just plug the cheapest streaming box you can get your hand on into your devices.
  
  I didn't say they're the cheapest, just that the boxes I'm personally aware of with this problem are white box rebranded ATVs.
  But I haven't looked through the entire list, so it's entirely possible that some other more well-known and "respectable" device brands are also compromised. If you have an Android TV box, you should probably search the list to find out.
- Isn't the article about tv boxes that you use with your dumb TV so you can watch streaming stuff on it? I don't think any TVs are affected
  
  Seems like that’s true. My bad

12 comments