Can laptop transfer malware on android

[dimleader]

I have brand new Xperia z5. Yesterday at work a co-worker of mine asked me to transfer a few photos i made with the phone to his laptop. It was job- related so i had to agree. This guy i dont trust at all and he is kinda tech guy (although not IT or something that big, atleast as far as i know him) So i used my usb cable from the charger and we connected the devices. A message appeared on my phone asking me if i want to install a softoware on the PC in order to be able to transfer pictures/media and so on. I wasnt able to read it all but i tapped yes. He then opened my photos section through the laptop and dragged out the few photos. We then terminated the connection. I was watching him the whole time, i was also watching my phone. Now i freaked out if he infected my phone? A friend told me today that same guy once hacked his computer somehow. I reseted my Xperia to factory settings just to be sure. I then dowlonaded Malwarebytes and scanned both with it and AVG. Nothing showed up. I then connected my phone to my laptop to see if the same message will appear and it did (about the instalation of the software- at least it looked the same) My question is is this message normal to show up and can he installed something to spy my phone - i was watching the whole time both the laptop and the phone i saw nothing exept this message. He than only dragged out the few photos and we unplugged the cable.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. I don't think anything happened. Sometimes that message does pop up, and he would have had to have had a little more time to put anything on your phone.

Another thing to consider, if unknown sources was not checked, any installation shouldn't have happened.

The reset was a good starting point. That should remove almost anything that could have been installed. Anything that could have been installed at the system level normally needs root access. If all the time he had was to pull a few pictures off, and that was it, i don't think he could have had enough time to do all that in the time allowed.

 

[dimleader]

Thanks for the reply Gofldriver. I've never allowed unknown sources, so i hope they were off by default. I reseted and now they are off by default, so i believe they were before that as well (since i never checked before). He had about 10 seconds at maximum, and again i was watching the entire time what was going on both on the phone and the laptop- there weren't any running programs or anything on his backgroud. I was affraid about that message, but again after i reseted the phone i connected it with my own laptop and the same message appeared. But i believe it only happens the first time. I read they were malwares out there that can rootthemselves, but i dont think my co- worker was able to own such malware.

 

[Golfdriver97]

so i hope they were off by default

They usually are.

But i believe it only happens the first time.

That is a possibility. It may depend on the message.

I read they were malwares out there that can rootthemselves

Again, possible. But highly unlikely. Between what would have to have been done (access the phone, use an auto program to root, install malware) all in the time to pull a few photos off, I really don't think it is feasible.

However, and ounce pf prevention is worth a pound of cure. I would consider changing the password on your Gmail account (if it's been a while, it's not a bad idea to do it anyway). This should further limit what this person could do.

 

[VidJunky]

Golfdriver is exactly right. Without root or at a minimum unknown sources checked there's no way that anything could have been installed. Actually even if unknown sources were checked the file would have had to of been transferred to the device and opened from there to be installed. Then there would have been the while installation process and all that. I'm confident your safe if none of that happened. Also without root anything that was installed, as long as during the reset you don't choose to automatically restore apps, everything is wiped out. So having said that you can rest easy.

 

[dimleader]

Thanks for the help. I created brand new email to use for my phone. I changed all other email/facebook account's passwords for protection.

 

[dimleader]

VidJunky yes i erased everything. I was fearing if this message could somehow been configured to install once you allow it. Thats what scared me at the first place. But again i saw the same message again. It was not pop up tye but something simmilar to when you get android update. It seemed legitimate, it stated Do you want to install softoware on This PC (it appeard on my phone) Then it showed a list of options that i will be able to do- like sharing photos/music and so on.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Do you want to install softoware on This PC

I'm thinking this was drivers for the PC to allow communication between the phone and PC to happen.

 

[dimleader]

So it was drivers that were installed on the PC, not on the phone

 

[Golfdriver97]

So it was drivers that were installed on the PC, not on the phone

Very likely.

 

[Rukbat]

Android phones don't install drivers, Windows devices do.

 

[dimleader]

Okey, so i would consider that whatever had happened in these few seconds the phone was plugged, the reset should have taken care of? Rukbat mentioned in another thread about the possibility of malware root it self in the system but with nothing visiable happening and the limited amount of time the phone was plugged (5-7 seconds), shall i consider such possibility not real. Does it take time for a program/malware to root itself on its own. Also the guy had no idea what phone i have, i believe these programs interact differently with different devices, he had no knowladge what phone i will show up with since it was brand new one.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Yeah... plausible, but unlikely anything happened that quickly.

 

[dimleader]

But just one more thing since paranoia is heavily kicking in, if an app root itself will the phone remain rooted afterwards? Because i also checked with rootchecker and i do not have root access, according to it?

 

[Golfdriver97]

But just one more thing since paranoia is heavily kicking in, if an app root itself will the phone remain rooted afterwards? Because i also checked with rootchecker and i do not have root access, according to it?

Most root methods will stay after a reset. However, those said root methods need more than a few seconds to execute. The temp ones that I mentioned before would go away with a reset.

 

[dimleader]

Thank you very much for the support Golfdriver