Carrier IQ Rootkit is logging everything you do on your Android phone from hitting the home button to sending a text to the contents of the text. This Carrier IQ which is being masked as a performance monitoring software for smartphones could be illegally tapping your every move.
According to a security researcher named Trevor Eckhart he found software that is logging your every move and calls this a rootkit, which is a software that hides and watches your every move with root access to everything. Seen above Eckhert released a video showing in detail what is going on. While this was shown on an HTC device we found the same program within the Motorola Atrix disguised under the name “Fake Blur Xmpp”.
Here is the real proof of sneakiness, not only ask yourself why hide the app doing all of this shady stuff? but also why is it not showing under running apps?
From Eckhart’s video you can see that Carrier IQ is only seen under all apps and not under running apps which he shows as IQRD on HTC devices and we have confirmed as Fake Blur Xmpp on Motorola devices. When trying to force close the app on the HTC device it does nothing and continues to run, we have also confined this to be true on Motorola devies.
Eckhart shows in the video that everything from the keypad buttons being pressed and home button pressed to secure website urls being passed as plain text and the content of your text messages being logged. The only way found so far to remove the application is to root your device and use a custom ROM that replaces the stock one.
How to Remove Carrier IQ form Android Devices
Such an important message, an important issue and you put in a 17 MINUTES VIDEO?! And no pics? I have to watch all the 17 minutes to know if I have this app installed on my phone? Kudos for the research and the discovery but it’s the worst documentation I’ve ever seen.
If your using an Android phone without a custom ROM replacing the stock one then you have it on your device. The point of this was to make people aware. Since there is nothing you can do about it short of replacing the stock ROM I see no need to go too deep at this point. When more information is available or there is actually a way to remove it we will let everyone know. There is no confirmation on Verizon yet so they may be safe.
I just found FakeBlurXmppApp on my brand new Driod Bionic! Verizon Wireless!