VirginMedia distributing viruses!

[Lil-Squabbit]

As the title says.

VirginMedia are now distributing malicious malware/ viruses via their Telly Tablets. The viruses in question are:

• COM.WAGD.SMARTER
• COM.WAGD.XIAOAN
• COM.WAGD.GEM

Apparently, this is due to an infection on one of their update servers which hard codes the malware into the system software. This means that even if you do a hard reset on the device, the malicious products will be reinstalled too.

What are VirginMedia doing about this as I am sure we cant be the only people that are having this issue.

This is worrying that a major broadband supplier is letting these malware/viruses run rampant through their products. Bad form VirginMedia, bad form!

What are you going to do about this? 

[newapollo]

I can understand your reluctance. The firmware build on the XDA forum is from July last year so won't have the current issues.

If I had a telly tablet I would do it as I have plenty of past experience, but I was scared the first few times I did anything like that.

The last download in that post with twrp allows you to unroot the device as well.

It would be great if VM could provide me with a free telly tablet to practice on Hint Hint 😁

It's a shame it's not a Samsung tablet as their firmwares and tools are readily available with complete and easy to understand instructions which don't involve rooting the device https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ 

[Lil-Squabbit]

We are in exactly the same boat. The tablet was provided ad part of a promotion, worked as planned for awhile but now is unusable.

The only way to stop the virus is to disable the Wi-Fi. This way the malicious software can not access the Internet to download the harmful apps/ websites. Hope this helps a little. 

[Lil-Squabbit]

To be honest, I am not going to hold my breath in regards to VM getting this sorted. In my own personal experience of past issues. 99% of the time, these type of issues will be swept under the carpet because it would just be to technical to sort out or at least to costly to replace the offending hardware.

I guess we'll have to wait and see right? 

[Josie62]

I also have these viruses on the Tellytablet I purchased from Virgin, and cannot remove them by running a factory reset (tried 3 times) As I mainly use the tablet for TV programs and Zoom, the constant interruptions are rendering it useless. 

I cannot afford to buy a new tablet.

Please, please, can Virgin help get a resolution for this? 

[Jamgood]

Same thing here with our Telly Tablet. Annoying pop ups, homepage changes, do not disturb being activated, smart, gem and xiaoan apps being installed over and over.

From what I can tell from this malware infection is that it uses an exploit in the System Update file which makes it unstoppable as you cannot delete or disable the System Update. 

Updates for this machine won't have come from Virgin so Virgin isn't distributing viruses, they will be from the manufacturer of the software (Gigaset mobile users are suffering from the same thing) and to be honest, Virgin will probably be clueless and useless to a fix. 

To be safe, I've logged out of everything on it (I don't use much) and changed my passwords on another device.

Unless a fix comes along the tablet is now rendered pretty unusable and will probably be worthy of the bin without a fix. I've tried everything including the so called temporary fix from Malwarebytes. It doesn't work on this device.

Shame it's not a Samsung. Quick easy fix for that.

Anthony

[ENDYT]

Really glad I found this thread. I've had my Telly Tab for a couple of years and it was fine until a few weeks ago when Gem, Smart, Xiaoan and others started appearing and automatically installing themselves each time they were removed, sometimes within minutes. I've gone into safe mode, and tried clearing the cache, done a factory reset, nothing worked.  I can't watch anything without being interrupted by random adverts for games and tarot sites. No other device is displaying this issue. At a loss as to what can be done by a non-technical person such as myself. Virgin please get your supplier to sort a patch or something out asap.

[Lil-Squabbit]

Ok

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@Jamgood wrote:

Same thing here with our Telly Tablet. Annoying pop ups, homepage changes, do not disturb being activated, smart, gem and xiaoan apps being installed over and over.

From what I can tell from this malware infection is that it uses an exploit in the System Update file which makes it unstoppable as you cannot delete or disable the System Update. 

Updates for this machine won't have come from Virgin so Virgin isn't distributing viruses, they will be from the manufacturer of the software (Gigaset mobile users are suffering from the same thing) and to be honest, Virgin will probably be clueless and useless to a fix. 

To be safe, I've logged out of everything on it (I don't use much) and changed my passwords on another device.

Unless a fix comes along the tablet is now rendered pretty unusable and will probably be worthy of the bin without a fix. I've tried everything including the so called temporary fix from Malwarebytes. It doesn't work on this device.

Shame it's not a Samsung. Quick easy fix for that.

Anthony

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Ok that's fair enough, prehaps they are not personally responsible for the malicious software but the fact remains the same and that is, the hardware is still branded and distributed by VirginMedia and as such it falls within their court to rectify, replace or investigate the issues noted above.

If, for some reason they can not fix the problem, which as you pointed out, is highly unlikely, then they ahould offer to replace the tablet with something else or at least compensate those whom have the issues. As I said before, it's only a matter of time before someone who is less tech savvy to have bank details or other personal information stolen by these nefarious methods; this would probably result in lawsuits to reclaim losses, damages or worse. 

[Jamgood]

I wouldn't hold my breath on Virgin offering a replacement. 

[Flashman68]

Hi there. I've got the same problem, apps just keep reinstalling. All the antivirus software available find it, but can't get rid of it. You have to manually uninstall all the infected apps (gem, smart, xioan etc.). Then go to developer options, go to running services and stop system updates. Also make sure you delete history and clear cache on any browser you're using. This is just a workaround until Virgin sort it out. The malware came via a hacked German update server, as it's also affecting a lot of German handsets. 

Also, if you reboot your tablet after you've done this, the apps will just reinstall and you'll gave to do it again. Hope this helps. Simon. 

[Lil-Squabbit]

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@Jamgood wrote:

I wouldn't hold my breath on Virgin offering a replacement. 

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Oh trust me I am not 😔