Last night Google removed 21 apps from the Android Market because they were designed to root a users phone, steal information, and even download code without your permission. Now xda-developers member Rodderik has put together an app that protects at least some phones against the exploit used by these apps.
If you’re running Google Android 2.3 or later, you have nothing to worry about. The security hole has already been patched. If you have Android 2.2 or below, Rodderik’s patch should protect users from future attacks.
On the other hand, it does nothing to protect you if your phone has already been attacked, so Rodderik recommends doing a factory reset on your phone and reformatting your SD card if you think you’ve been infected.
Rodderik’s patch basically creates a blank file in the directory where the malicious applications were trying to write. It might also be possible to manually create a dummy file called “profile” in the /system/bin/ folder on your phone if you have root access and a root file explorer. But it’s also possible (and likely) that future attacks will target different files and/or directories.
via Android Police
