Document scanning app CamScanner is now back on the Google Play Store, about 3 weeks since it was removed from the app store.
Google removed the app, which had earned rave reviews from most of the nearly 2 million users who had taken their time to rate it on the platform after malicious code libraries were unearthed by researchers at security firm Kaspersky.
In a statement later on, after the situation escalated, CamScanner’s developers, Chinese group CC Intelligence, confirmed the same adding that the offending code had been added by the third-party they use for monetizing the app thereby putting users of version 5.11.7 of the application at risk.
The statement ends with the company promising to remove the suspicious code added by AdHub and releasing subsequent clean versions, some of which had already been in circulation by the time Google pulled it from its app store.
That appears to have happened since the application, as already noted, is now available for download and installation to the over 2 billion devices that have access to Google’s app store. The additional testing required by Google before granting its seal of approval must’ve been what held the app for that long.
Besides version 5.11.7 where the suspicious code was initially flagged, versions 5.11.3 through to 5.12.0 are also said to have the same defect and users advised to update their apps if they already haven’t done so.