What is FluBot Malware
FluBot is a malicious infection classified as a banking trojan that happens to penetrate Android-based smartphones. A wide number of users made reports upon receiving suspicious messages with links to download pages. This is exactly how FluBot targets its victims. Extortionists send a number of similar SMS messages (in different languages) that contain links to download an ostensibly legitimate FedEx application. The fake delivery website shares an APK file used to install the FluBot virus. As soon as you launch the APK file, the installation wizard asks to grant many types of permissions like reading contacts, observing and sending SMS messages, pushing notifications, initiating phone calls, tracking location, and other suspicious permissions. Having such a big number of unreasonable permissions begs up a huge security question. By allowing all of the mentioned actions, your smartphone will be fully controlled by cybercriminals. This will, therefore, help them collect sensitive data entered during the usage. After accessing your smartphone, the virus also receives remote commands from servers to disable device protection and other features preventing third-party invasion. Note that FluBot may also generate fake windows that will require entering banking information (credit card number, CVC/CVC2 codes, etc.). Everything mentioned above proves that FluBot is a dangerous piece that has to be removed. Besides serious privacy issues, Android devices infected with this virus may start lagging, refuse to respond, and experience other downsides deteriorating the usage. Deleting FluBot should be urgent to avert potential damage. To remove the symptoms and FluBot itself, we have prepared specific instructions in the article below.
1. Download Anti-malware software
The best and most effective way to detect and remove malicious software is to use a specially designed program like antivirus. High-quality and trusted anti-malware software wields constantly updating databases of malware to find it and neutralize quickly. Manual removal may not be as effective as using anti-malware software. The virus may show reluctance to the deletion or otherwise leave redundant traces. Our strong recommendation is Norton Security which has been providing thorough protection and removal of various threats across smartphone operating systems. You can download it from Google Play for Android and run malware removal for free.
2. Manual removal
Before deleting the malvertising application, we should know which is the one. There are two traditional ways to do it. Both include checking the amount of battery and data resources demanded by the app. If there is a malicious program installed on your device, you will see excessively high resource demand by the malware. The steps listed below are similar on all Android-based smartphones.
To check Battery resources:
- Find and open Settings on your device.
- Among the list of settings, choose Battery.
- Then tap on Battery Usage and check which application consumes the most (on top of the list).
To check data usage:
- Open Settings as we did above.
- Then choose something related to the network. Usually, it is called Connections.
- Find and tap on Data Usage or similar. On some devices, you will see the overall usage of traffic immediately. If not, you have to choose WiFi and Mobile data usage separately.
Now, once you identified which app causes the most resource consumption, you can navigate to Settings > Applications, find and delete the application you already know is the culprit. However, before doing so, we also recommend deactivating Administrative Privileges for the malicious app:
- Go to Settings and find the Lock Screen and Security configuration.
- Most smartphones have Advanced or Other security settings to open.
- Then you should select something called Device Admin Apps.
- Once done, find the malicious application you found before and Deactivate it.
After performing these steps, you should no longer have any eye contact with the malicious program. You can also observe the list of installed applications for other suspicious applications that you do not know. If you find anything unfamiliar, make sure to mop it up as well as FluBot.
3. Reset browser settings
After running full application removal, it is worth resetting your browser from residual content. This method includes a number of steps dedicated to restoring browser settings. Besides infecting your device, FluBot may also hijack your browser to impose various changes. Content like push notifications and other types of banners might originate from your browser. This is why it is important to reset browser configuration to wipe out third-party presence. We will show you how to do it on the most popular browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.
Google Chrome:
At first, let’s clear browsing data.
- Open Chrome browser and tap on Menu (3-dot icon in the top right corner).
- Then go to History and choose Clear browsing data….
- In the Advanced tab check all boxes and tap Clear data.
Then, we should disable push notifications.
- Open the same Menu and choose Settings.
- Then find and open Site Settings.
- Scroll down a bit until you find Notifications.
- Locate websites under Allowed, tap on them, and choose Clear & Reset.
- You can also disable the Notifications feature to prevent websites from asking for permission completely.
Instead of doing these steps, you can also reset your browser to default settings. This means that all of the data stored within the browser will be deleted and rolled back to the default configuration. Since we are dealing with malicious behavior, it is good to perform such steps to make sure nothing harmful persists inside of your browser. This is because sometimes these steps do not help get rid of receiving annoying content from suspicious resources.
- Find and open Settings on your screen.
- Go to Applications and search for Chrome.
- Once found, tap on it and navigate to Storage > Manage Storage.
- Finally, tap on Clear All Data and wait until the process is done.
Mozilla Firefox:
The process looks almost identical, only slightly different in the names of the steps. Nevertheless, we will show you how it looks like on Firefox as well. To clear browsing data:
- Open Firefox and navigate to Menu likewise in Chrome.
- Choose History and tap on Clear private data.
- Select all of the entries and tap Clear Data.
To disable push notifications, follow these steps.
- Open Firefox again.
- Open Menu (either on top or below) and choose Settings.
- Then, go to Site permissions > Notification.
- Choose Blocked to not see notifications at all.
Up next is resetting browsing settings completely. To do this, simply follow all of the steps mentioned for Chrome above.
Opera:
Clearing browsing data in Opera looks like this:
- Open Opera and tap on the browser logo below on the right.
- Choose Settings, scroll down the list, and tap on Clear browsing data….
- Click Advanced, check all of the boxes listed, and choose Clear Data.
In order to disable notifications in Opera:
- Open Opera and tap on the browser logo below on the right.
- Choose Settings and scroll down until you find Site Settings.
- Click on it and choose Notifications.
- Tap Block to remove all Notification permission.
Performing full Opera reset equals to what we mentioned in instructions for Chrome.
4. Perform a Factory Reset
If you continue to struggle to delete the banking trojan, the best solution is resetting the device itself. This step will remove all the data stored on your system and roll all configuration settings back to the default state. In other words, you will reinstall your system from scratch. This will delete the virus and make your smartphone breathe wider, especially if you have not cleaned it for a very long time. Before doing so, make sure there is no important data to lose. It is also worth noting the names of accounts for Google and other services because most people tend to forget them over time. After performing the Factory Reset, you will have to log in to all of your user accounts once more. With that said, let’s dive into resetting your device.
- Open Settings and go to About phone.
- Right there, you will see information about Android and UI versions, your CPU, RAM, Memory, and more.
- Somewhere at the bottom, you will see the Reset button. Click on it and choose Factory Reset to erase all data and get your smartphone back to default settings.
- Agree with everything promoted and wait until your device completes the reset. It might take 30 minutes or close.
- Also, if you do not have the same location of settings and unable to find some of these steps, you can type Reset being in Settings and open it up.
In fact, you can do this with all of the steps. We are making detailed instructions to provide a full picture of how it looks all like. Thus, next time you struggle to find something step-by-step, simply enter the keyword into the search and find what you actually need.
Summary
As often said, it is better safe than sorry. Think twice before clicking on suspicious messages or downloading content from unknown/fishy resources. If you receive similar messages or requests by ostensibly legitimate companies, there is no doubt it is 100% fake that should be avoided. We understand that infections of such sort are not the thing to be happy about. However, even if they happen, you know the measures to respond against malicious behavior. Keep it safe and do not fall into traps like SMS fishing.