DroidDream is a mobile botnet type of malware that appeared in spring 2011. The DroidDream Trojan gained root access to Google Android mobile devices in order to access unique identification information for the phone. Once compromised, a DroidDream-infected phone could also download additional malicious programs without the user s knowledge as well as open the phone up to control by hackers.
DroidDream affected mobile devices running v2.2 (FroYo) and earlier versions of the Android OS operating system, and entered phones through the download and installation of one of 50+ third-party applications that were available on Google’s official Android Market. Google removed the apps from its marketplace and had to utilize its “kill switch” to remotely wipe Android devices that had been infected by DroidDream.
DroidDream got its name from the fact that it was set up to run between the hours of 11pm and 8am when users were most likely to be sleeping and their phones less likely to be in use. Additional variants of DroidDream have since appeared, including DroidDream Light in June 2011 and a variant of DroidDream Light that appeared a month later.
