Odd battery warning pop-up on SG4 - is it malware?

[AC Question]

For about 5-6 days now, I have been frequently getting a - new - mysterious battery warning on my Samsung Galaxy S4 that I never got before for as long as I owned the device.

The warning can be seen here (in this case, it is displayed within the YouTube app)...

http: //imgur.com/a/ZDsWJ

The language of the warning is in English but my device is set up to my own native language which is not English. I usually receive a single battery-warning pop-up that for one doesn't sit in the top of the screen at 15% battery-level and for the other, that warning is always in my own native language (as are all the other pop-up warnings, I am receiving from the phone).

I didn't press any of the three options as I have a suspicion, that this might be some sort of malware that has been installed onto the device via the browser from some obscure site and wants me to download more junk. Whenever I get the warning, it appears mostly when my device is at 25% battery-level but has also been appearing at 19% battery-level some other time.

The first time I got this warning, I downloaded Malwarebytes and scanned the whole device but didn't find anything. I did this several times with the same result. Usually Malwarebytes is of high quality and should be able to figure out if there is any malware or not. Thus I am turning to this forum for some help.

Does anybody know of or recognize this battery warning?

I am not sure if Samsung could be this stupid and just implement some new feature such as this one without informing users of it first, but I still think of this as a possibilty (you never know, it's Samsung).

If anyone has an SG4 with latest updates installed and Android 5.0.1, maybe you could have a look and let me know.

Otherwise, any input is welcome and highly appreciated.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I don't have that phone, so I can't comment on whether it's an official part of the firmware -- but remember also that some apps can sneak these kinds of "bonus" features in without telling you (usually accompanied by annoying ads). Common culprits include alternative launchers, battery-saver or "RAM booster" apps, alternate lockscreen apps, and file managers. Does this happen in Safe Mode as well? https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-27781

 

[Anders A]

Welcome to Android Central! I don't have that phone, so I can't comment on whether it's an official part of the firmware -- but remember also that some apps can sneak these kinds of "bonus" features in without telling you (usually accompanied by annoying ads). Common culprits include alternative launchers, battery-saver or "RAM booster" apps, alternate lockscreen apps, and file managers. Does this happen in Safe Mode as well? https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-27781

Hello B. Diddy,

and thank you for the nice welcome.

Thanks also for the link with informations to safe boot the phone. I did that and although it worked slightly differently than in the instructions, I could get into safe mode. However since the phone was fully charged as well as that I use it the whole time, I thought I wanted to wait for a better occasion, such as a weekend, where I'd try to see if the pop-up alert also got displayed in safe mode. In the meantime the battery-alert has been triggered again, though this time at 35% plus that it all of a sudden showed an option underneath the "wifi-button" for "disabling" also the bluetooth connection which I had enabled at the time. So I think this is most likely some sort of rogue malware. I haven't gotten any of those apps installed (and never had before) that you mentioned in your last post. But I do have some free games installed as well as some other apps with functions of interest to me ie. a weather widget app etc. However these apps have never given me any issues before and the first time this pop-up would appear was after I fell asleep in the night while surfing in the browser. I didn't disable the connection and thus there had been ample time for a website to establish some sort of malware through that connection. At least this is my best guess. As a consequence, I reset my phone to factory standards and am now in the process of installing all my apps again in the hope, that this will axe all the remains of the malware. As a bonus, I can now use haptic feedback again which - although enabled - disappeared at some point.

When I'm finished, I'll turn back here to let you know how it went.

Thanks again for your kind help and the time you took to answer.

 

[Anders A]

Hello again B. Diddy,

seems like resetting the phone to factory standards has achieved the wanted. No more pop-ups, no more false battery-warnings etc. In retrospect, I am now 100% certain that this has been some sort of malware or adware, trying to trick a user into downloading more junk onto the phone. So what can be concluded is that...

1. If you ever have a battery warning similar to what is shown in the image link in my first post, do NOT press anything, anywhere in the pop-up and...

2. Disable all internet-connections, do a factory reset, then install - as the first thing - AVAST, Malwarebytes etc. as well as any other required security apps and finally, install all the apps that you like or think, are giving you more functionality (ie. weather apps, Dropbox, Google Drive etc.)

The above will do the trick...

In the meantime, many thanks to you B. Diddy for your help and the great input.

You and all the others involved in running this forum, are doing a good job!