Clever Android Virus Keeps Coming Back Even After a Full Reset

xHelper is an Android malware infection that has been around for a while, with security vendor Malwarebytes first detecting it in May 2019.

Since then, the majority of Android security apps added xHelper detection, which means that most devices should already be protected against this form of malware.

But as it turns out, cleaning a device is much harder than we think, as xHelper keeps coming back even after a full reset.

How is this possible? Malwabytes says xHelper is not based on pre-installed malware bundled with the firmware, but uses Google Play, which keeps serving the infection after a full device reset or a successful clean with an antivirus.

“Google Play was not infected with malware. However, something within Google PLAY was triggering the re-infection—perhaps something that was sitting in storage. Furthermore, that something could also be using Google PLAY as a smokescreen, falsifying it as the source of malware installation when in reality, it was co...