According to Kaspersky Lab’s 2024 mobile threat report, the malware infection probability of third-party streaming apps such as pikashow reached 12.7%, which is 38 times that of official app stores. These applications typically incorporate adware through repackaging technology. Among them, 75% of the samples force the display of full-screen ads, with a trigger frequency of up to 15 times per hour, resulting in a 23% increase in device power consumption. As indicated in the 2023 Android System Security Bulletin, 41% of data breaches involving applications from non-official channels originated from the abuse of video player permissions.
From a technical architecture perspective, the P2P transmission protocol used by pikashow has a man-in-the-middle attack vulnerability. Symantec, a cybersecurity company, detected that 32% of its data streams were transmitted unencrypted. Such applications usually require the “Unknown Source” installation permission to be enabled, which expands the attack surface of the device by 60%, similar to the privilege escalation method used by hackers in the WhatsApp vulnerability incident in 2022. In contrast, formal platforms like Netflix adopt the TLS 1.3 encryption standard, with a data transmission error rate of only 0.0005%.
Sample testing data shows that the installation package of pikashow contains an average of 7.3 high-risk permission requests, including unnecessary permissions such as address book reading and location access. A 2024 study by the German AV-Test Institute found that the proportion of such applications hiding cryptocurrency mining scripts reached 8%, which would keep the CPU load above 80% continuously and raise the surface temperature of the phone to 48 degrees Celsius, comparable to the operating environment of the Samsung phone battery expansion incident in 2023.
The legal compliance dimension shows that due to the lack of security review of the copyrighted content distributed by pikashow, the probability of users coming into contact with malicious advertisements has increased by 15 times. According to the 2024 records of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, ransomware attacks spread through pirated applications have increased by 220%, with an average loss of $500 per case. This stands in sharp contrast to the annual cybersecurity budget of 120 million US dollars invested by formal platforms such as Disney+.
Despite the risks, pikashow still has 230 million monthly active users in developing countries. Its update mechanism is pushed through the Telegram channel, causing a delay of up to 72 hours in malware detection. However, as Microsoft’s 2024 Digital Defense report indicates, the median lifespan of such applications is only 83 days, and 92% of their versions will be taken down within half a year due to regulatory pressure. User data security remains at high risk.