If you have turned to the SmartTube app to get rid of ads on YouTube, the developer is now warning that malware has slipped into the app. You must take action.
The SmartTube app is popular on Android TV, Google TV and Fire TV devices, where it must be sideloaded, as it is not readily available from official app stores.
The app offers access to YouTube as you know it, but without ads and sponsored segments in videos. This is possible because YouTube's videos are not copy-protected. The app also has features such as PiP that users will not find in the official YouTube app.
Malware bundled in
The developer of SmartTube admits to AFTVNews that recent versions of the app have been infected with malware. As a result, the malware has been included both in fresh installations and app updates in November via versions 30.43 and 30.47.
It happened because the developer's computer was infected during development, which compromised a digital signature. There are also various forks – different app variants – of SmartTube that may now be infected.
Google has forcibly removed or disabled the SmartTube app on certain devices. Apps installed via sideloading are not covered by Google's security procedures, which, according to Google, is why it plans to heavily restrict sideloading.
SmartTube was created as a no-nonsense YouTube app, but the malware incident is concerning. Photo: SmartTubeShould be clean now
It is not specified which type of malware is involved or what it can do to infected devices or other devices on the home network, but you should take action.
AFTVNews recommends not just deleting the app but performing a factory reset on every TV device on which the SmartTube app was installed. The app has had privileged access to the Google and YouTube accounts linked to those devices, so you should also watch for any suspicious activity here.
This applies to devices such as Chromecast with Google TV, Google TV Streamer, Nvidia Shield, Nokia boxes, Strong boxes, TCL Google TV, Philips Google TV, Sony Google TV and more.
The developer claims that SmartTube version 30.56 is clean – free of malware.
- Source: AFTVNews
