Could Malware reach my Galaxy S4 ?

[AC Question]

Could malware reach my galaxy s4 ?

Hi, I used my galaxy s4 tethered to my laptop for the internet. If I test out a potential harmful program or website inside a sandboxed environment on my pc, could that infect my phone?

So basically I'm wondering could your phone get infected with virus if u tether it and get a virus on your PC thru internet?

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Could malware reach my galaxy s4 ?

Assuming a good sandbox (Sandboxie?), when you close the sandbox there are no permanent changes unless you're asked to allow one and you allow it. If you trust the sandbox you're using, don't worry about viruses in the device the virus is running in a sandbox on. If a request for something you're not meaning to run comes up, deny it.

(That doesn't mean that the S4 can't get viruses - since they're not changing anything on the PC, the PC lets then through to the S4. Have a good antivirus app running on the S4.)

If I misunderstood your question, and the S4 is connected to the internet and the PC to the S4, same thing, just in reverse. No permanent changes to the S4 that you didn't allow when you close the sandbox, and have a good antivirus program on the PC.

 

[GALAXYS444]

Re: Could malware reach my galaxy s4 ?

I was the OP. I ask because I had my phone tethered to the laptop all night and i went to check battery in the settings and there was some thing like sec.com. or something like that followed by a string of letters/numbers and then the word "sandbox" appeared in it also. it was one of the apps using battery power. I tried to take a screenshot to record what it was called but accidentally shut down the phone.

It had one of these icons in front of it:




I tried tethering the phone to laptop again and that app won't appear anymore. Not sure why it was running in the first place. Want to make sure something didnt infect my phone.

 

[GALAXYS444]

Re: Could malware reach my galaxy s4 ?

Does anyone know about this?

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Could malware reach my galaxy s4 ?

com.sec.android... would be one of the security apps running in Android. The icon is typical of system apps in battery usage. If you have antivirus and antimalware apps running in the phone I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[GALAXYS444]

Re: Could malware reach my galaxy s4 ?

com.sec.android... would be one of the security apps running in Android. The icon is typical of system apps in battery usage. If you have antivirus and antimalware apps running in the phone I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah it was com.sec......sandbox .... something, thats all I remember.

BTW- if my phone is compromised badly, would a factory reset clear everything? Any chance there are still bad things left over ?

Thanks for helping out. I think my phone has some problems from before when i experimented with a lot of websites and softwares. Cursor is in wrong place sometimes. It wasn't like that at all when i got this out of the box.