Samsung Device Security fails to detect Malwares!

[RichMan1]

Samsung have their own virus scanner embedded into their phones under Device Maintenance, which is supposed to scan the device and identify any virus or malware apps. But it fails to do so.

I intentionally downloaded a generic Android Adware that hides itself after installing and bombard the device with various pop up ads and clickbaits. This generic adware version is one of the most common malware found in Android.

I placed the malware file on Internal storage and ran a complete scan. See the result in the screenshot.
Then I ran a 3rd party app named Malwarebytes, see their results too.

Highly disappointed. Please Samsung look into it, and do something about it. This built in Virus Scanning fails to protect the user, and it's already in a lot of Samsung devices.

[CHMultimedia]

They use McAfee, what did you expect? MBAM is miles better

[RichMan1]

McAfee is not that bad, but that's not our concern. Most people doesn't know or care which company or where it's from, they trust it'll keep them protected. It's surprising it can't detect even the most generic yet critical malware.
Samsung needs to improve this, even if it means dropping McAfee. Or they need to remove this app completely. We don't expect any useless bloat that doesn't work in our phones that we pay a lot of money for and more expensive than their competitors.

[300kc]

I guess I'll install mbam

[RichMan1]

Yeah. Samsung should buy license from MBAM dropping McAfee. What's the point of built in antivirus if it can't detect critical malwares.

[Vic20]

I use webroot and never touched the built in McAfee scanner. Though my device maintenance only peaks at 90 due to not enabling McAfee. And it always ask to enable it for the extra 10. 🙄

[mindl]

useless

[Moderator_]

Hey @RichMan, we are sorry to hear about your experience with Device Maintenance. Could you please submit a device log when this happens again? From the Samsung Members application, tap the “Feedback” icon. Tap the Pen icon and then submit an “Report”. Thanks!

- Wonchul

[ras]

hey it's greg