If you are seeing an error in your Android device that looks something similar to – “Unfortunately, adobe air has stopped.”, then perhaps your device has become infected with a serious malware infection called GhostPush Trojan. This trojan automatically roots your Android device using one or other vulnerabilities in Android kernel (particularly in the older ones using Jelly Bean or KitKat) and installs itself as a system app. It installs itself in the form of 2-3 apps so that if you somehow manage to remove one app, other malicious apps immediately reinstall it back. This makes it very hard to remove from your Android device even if you use apps like ES File Explorer and try to manually remove the APK files.
Among the symptoms of the GhostPush infection, you would see 2-3 apps named SystemInfo, iKeyboard, TimeServices, Adobe Air etc., that you never installed yourself on your phone, full-screen advertisements popping up as soon as your connect to the internet (through WiFi or 3G/4G networks), and phone getting unusually hot. You can also see many error messages like – “Unfortunately, adobe air has stopped.”
Here is how you can remove GhostPush trojan from your Android device:
- Root your Android phone. This is needed as this trojan gets installed as a system app and can only be removed through root access. You can use Root Genius or Kingo Android Root for rooting your Android phone.
- Install Cheetah Stubborn Trojan Killer on your Android phone. Launch and give superuser access to Stubborn Trojan Killer.
- Scan your device with Stubborn Trojan Killer which will detect and remove possible trojans from your device.
- Reboot and then re-scan your device once again. This time, it should not detect any trojans. You can install other antivirus products like CM Security Antivirus to scan your device further.
If this method does not work, then you have no choice but to re-flash the stock ROM for your Android device. You can find stock ROM as well as the flashing instructions from the website of your device manufacturer, from XDA forums, or you can google for it. Re-flashing will be like formatting and re-installing Android all over again on your device.
This GhostPush trojan and other malicious apps usually get installed if you try to download APK files from untrustworthy sources. To avoid future infections, you should make a habit of using only Google Play Store to download your apps and use a standard antivirus program like G-Data Internet Security for Android phones.