My 6 year old son's Hudl has been infected with malware (courtesy of Google Play) and I can't get rid of it. I've tried:

A software factory reset (from settings)
A factory reset (power & vol+)
Malware bytes
Eset

The two scanners highlight the problems, offer to resolve them but then fail to do so.

The hardware factory reset claims to clear all user data but either that's not true or the malware has bypassed Android's 'security' and put it's cr4p somewhere in the system files (the tablet is not rooted).

Not only has this malware come courtesy of the Play Store but the content he can access is supposedly restricted but this damned malware keeps trying to install 'porn hub' on his tablet. When I click 'cancel' for the install it just tries again 2 secs later (well thought out Google!)

Anybody got any ideas how I can get his Hudl back into a usable state?

Can you reinstall the rom, say, via odin or flash an img of the rom?
Otherwise might try some malware app.

It's a hudl, this is not going to be the best advice but can't you palm it off to cash converters and use the money towards a new one?

Or keep it for yourself as your own personal porn hub tab?

I'm facing this problem too with my wife's tablet. In my case is some crap accelerator speed boost bull*****... But the real problem is that apparently i can't unlock the bootloader of that trash, at least with fastboot on Linux. Courtesy Motorola.

All out have to do is just reflash your device

I hate to say it...
buuuutttt..
I really dislike the state of droid tablets and phones...
suuuurrre...
there is plenty to read up online to fix a samsung for example...
but little for odd models...
I do feel your pain...
Not too long ago now (a week or 2 I think...)
I was handed a alcatel one touch pixi3 ...
it was internally ...a mess..I couldn't get past the start screen initially...it was sooo bad...
There is little in the way of anything on the web concerning the model...
let alone about freeing it from malware ...
I am not very droid savvy but I did manage to erase all the partitions where crap could (and was) hiding ....and get it back to a proper clean state...
Between the touchscreen (oooohhh I hate capacitive touch with wee itty bitty onscreen buttons...) ...the joy of a handheld smartdevice that needs antimalware, antiviralware, etc...
I am soooo content with my maemo....
Reflashing may or may not have any affect.
Didn't work for me...
I know I had to burn out every partition there was to get rid of it...
It could be that your malware is hiding out in an ordinarily inaccessible area or partition like where the frp resides...and so you can't get at it by normal methods...but have to be a bit more severe and burn out the bloody cockroaches...
Don't let it multiply to other areas or hide itself...
Burn!
Burn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sglyFwTjfDU

Well on Sailfish and such we don't grant permissions to installed applications so I suspect it would be even easier to make naughty software than Android but not one bothers as the userbase (potential targets) are too few.

Which malware is being detected? From a quick read on XDA, it seems as if the bootloader is locked and you might not have an easily flashable ROM as your solution.

Reseting it will still leave some files behind. And if the files have been placed in the right locations, they will persist even if you reset the device. It needs to have its entire OS removed, refreshed, rewritten and via ADB that's trivial if you can get past a locked bootloader.

Not so the case with the HUDL. But that's after a few quick reads... which landed he here eventually. I'll keep looking, but not so sure I'll be of any help.

@switch-hitter which version of android is your device running?

I do not know how easy this is to do with stock Android but on Cyanogen it is easy to not install any Google stuff, instead choosing F-Droid for a software repository and if you really need an APK or two from the amazon and google stores use http://android-apk-downloader.com
if you ask nicely the author will give you a G-Play login.
I quit using Ubuntu Touch mostly because it tried to force a Launchpad Ubuntu-Store model onto users vs the desktop open repos we are used to. An upside to cyanogen, if your device is supported, is it lets you re-block permissions on apps after installing them, you also now need what amounts to a cheat code to prove that you actually have business futzing in root, probably to satisfy one+ without removing it entirely.
Regular Android allows too much as user because with exceptions / is inaccessible.