Android | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

One of the world's largest smartphone makers is being sued by the Dutch Consumers' Association (DCA) for its lack in providing timely software updates to its Android smartphones. This doesn't surprise me, though. The majority of manufacturers fail to deliver software updates for old devices for years. However, the consumer protection watchdog in The Netherlands, The Dutch Consumentenbond, filed a lawsuit against Samsung, due to the manufacturer's grip over the local market compared to other manufacturers. Last year, the discovery of the scary Stagefright Security Bug , which affected over 1 Billion Android devices worldwide, forced Samsung to implement a security update process that " fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered a security update process that " fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered, " and that the security updates will

Rejoice for Privacy Lovers! Facebook today took a surprising move by announcing that it is bringing the free anonymizing software TOR support to its Android app , almost two years after the social network planned to make Facebook available directly over Tor network. Yes. Believe it or not, the Android version of the popular Facebook application now supports the Tor anonymity network. In October 2014, Facebook launched a .onion website on TOR in order to let its users around the world access its service more securely. Access Facebook over TOR via Orbot This latest move to expand that access to the Android app opens up the option to millions more users to maintain their privacy when they visit the world's most popular social network. Facebook says "a sizeable community of people" are already accessing the site over TOR, so the company is bringing this feature to Android via the free Orbot proxy app , which is available on the Google's Play

The introduction of Open AI's ChatGPT was a defining moment for the software industry, touching off a GenAI race with its November 2022 release. SaaS vendors are now rushing to upgrade tools with enhanced productivity capabilities that are driven by generative AI. Among a wide range of uses, GenAI tools make it easier for developers to build software, assist sales teams in mundane email writing, help marketers produce unique content at low cost, and enable teams and creatives to brainstorm new ideas.  Recent significant GenAI product launches include Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Salesforce Einstein GPT. Notably, these GenAI tools from leading SaaS providers are paid enhancements, a clear sign that no SaaS provider will want to miss out on cashing in on the GenAI transformation. Google will soon launch its SGE "Search Generative Experience" platform for premium AI-generated summaries rather than a list of websites.  At this pace, it's just a matter of a short time befo

A new critical zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in the Linux kernel that could allow attackers to gain root level privileges by running a malicious Android or Linux application on an affected device. The critical Linux kernel flaw ( CVE-2016-0728 ) has been identified by a group of researchers at a startup named Perception Point. The vulnerability was present in the code since 2012, and affects any operating system with Linux kernel 3.8 and higher , so there are probably tens of millions of computers, both 32-bit and 64-bit, exposed to this flaw. However, the most bothersome part is that the problem affects Android versions KitKat and higher , which means about 66 percent of all Android devices are also exposed to the serious Linux kernel flaw. Impact of the Zero-Day Vulnerability An attacker would only require local access to exploit the flaw on a Linux server. If successfully exploited, the vulnerability can allow attackers to get root access

Google appears to be no longer using Java application programming interfaces (APIs) from Oracle in future versions of its Android mobile operating system, and switching to an open source alternative instead. Google will be making use of OpenJDK – an open source version of Oracle's Java Development Kit (JDK) – for future Android builds. This was first highlighted by a "mysterious Android codebase commit" submitted to Hacker News. However, Google confirmed to VentureBeat that the upcoming Android N will use OpenJDK, rather its own implementation of the Java APIs. Google and Oracle have been fighting it out for years in a lawsuit, and it is hard to imagine that such a massive change is not related to the search engine giant's ongoing legal dispute with Oracle, however. What Google and Oracle are Fighting About The dispute started when Oracle sued Google for copyright in 2010, claiming that Google improperly used a part of its programming language

As much as you protect your electronics from being hacked, hackers are clever enough at finding new ways to get into your devices. But, you would hope that once a flaw discovered it would at least be fixed in few days or weeks, but that's not always the case. A three-year-old security vulnerability within a software component used by more than 6.1 Million smart devices still remains unpatched by many vendors, thereby placing Smart TVs, Routers, Smartphones, and other Internet of Things (IoT) products at risk of exploit. Security researchers at Trend Micro have brought the flaw to light that has been known since 2012 but has not been patched yet. Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities  Researchers discovered a collection of Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in the Portable SDK for UPnP , or libupnp component – a software library used by mobile devices, routers, smart TVs, and other IoT devices to stream media files over a network. The flaws occur du

Bluestacks , the first app player for running Android apps on Windows, has launched the latest version of its Android emulator platform with one major upgrade: The Ability to Run Multiple Android apps Simultaneously. BlueStacks 2 Released Bluestacks previously only run a single app at a time. However, with the launch of BlueStacks 2 , the app adds a tabbed interface that allows you to jump between multiple Android apps in the same window. This is great for you to run gaming and messaging apps, or news and messaging apps at the same time. The update also adds a toolbar that allows you to quickly tell the Android emulator to simulate rotating the device screen or to perform other functions, such as copying and pasting. In BlueStacks 2, players now have options to marry gameplay and app discovery, meaning when they click an advertisement, a new tab will appear so that the players can continue playing their games without being interrupted. How to Run Mult

Own an Android Smartphone? Hackers can install any malicious third-party app on your smartphone remotely even if you have clearly tapped a reject button of the app. Security researchers have uncovered a trojanized adware family that has the capability to automatically install any app on an Android device by abusing the operating system's accessibility features. Michael Bentley , head of response at mobile security firm Lookout, warned in a blog post published Thursday that the team has found three adware families: Shedun (GhostPush) Kemoge (ShiftyBug) Shuanet Also Read:  Android Malware Can Spy On You Even When Your Mobile Is Off All the three adware families root-infect Android devices in order to prevent their removal and give attackers unrestricted access to the devices. But, it seems that the Shedun adware family has capabilities that go beyond the reach of other adware families. The Malware Doesn't Exploit Any Vulnerability It is

A security researcher has discovered an interesting loophole in Gmail Android app that lets anyone send an email that looks like it was sent by someone else, potentially opening doors for Phishers. This is something that we call E-mail Spoofing – the forgery of an e-mail header so that the email appears to have originated from someone other than the actual source. Generally, to spoof email addresses, an attacker needs: A working SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server to send email A M ailing Software However, an independent security researcher, Yan Zhu , discovered a similar bug in official Gmail Android app that allowed her to hide her real email address and change her display name in the account settings so that the receiver will not be able to know the actual sender. How to Send Spoofed Emails via Gmail Android App? To demonstrate her finding, Zhu sent an email to someone by changing her display name to yan ""security@google.com" (w

If you own a Samsung Galaxy Phone – S6, S6 Edge or Note 4 , in particular – there are chances that a skilled hacker could remotely intercept your voice calls to listen in and even record all your voice conversations. Two security researchers, Daniel Komaromy of San Francisco and Nico Golde of Berlin, have demonstrated exactly the same during a security conference in Tokyo. The duo demonstrated a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack on an out-of-the-box and most updated Samsung handset that allowed them to intercept voice calls by connecting the device to fake cellular base stations. The issue actually resides in the Samsung's baseband chip , which comes in Samsung handsets, that handles voice calls but is not directly accessible to the end user. How to Intercept Voice Calls? The researchers set up a bogus OpenBTS base station that nearby Samsung devices, including the latest Samsung S6 and S6 Edge , think is a legitimate cellular tower. Once connected to

Hackers have found a new way to hack your Android smartphone and remotely gain total control of it, even if your device is running the most up-to-date version of the Android operating system. Security researcher Guang Gong recently discovered a critical zero-day exploit in the latest version of Chrome for Android that allows an attacker to gain full administrative access to the victim's phone and works on every version of Android OS. The exploit leverages a vulnerability in JavaScript v8 engine , which comes pre-installed on almost all (Millions) modern and updated Android phones. All the attacker needs to do is tricking a victim to visit a website that contains malicious exploit code from Chrome browser. Once the victim accessed the site, the vulnerability in Chrome is exploited to install any malware application without user interaction, allowing hackers to gain remotely full control of the victim's phone. Also Read:   This Malware Can Delete and Replace Yo

Vulnerabilities are common these days and when we talk about mobile security, this year has been somewhat of a trouble for Android users. Almost every week we come across a new hack affecting Android devices. One of the serious vulnerabilities is the  Stagefright Security Bug , where all it needed to install malicious code on the Android devices was a simple text message. Although Google patched these security holes in its latest Android update, manufacturers can take a long time to release their own updates, and it's even possible that older devices may not get the updates at all. So, even after the release of patches for these critical vulnerabilities, it is difficult to say which Android devices are at risk of what bugs. There is a one-click solution to this problem. One Android app can help educate you and help you know whether your devices is at risk. One-Click Solution to Check Your Device for All Critical Bugs Android Vulnerability Test Suite ( VT

The China's Google-like Search Engine Baidu is offering a software development kit (SDK) that contains functionality that can be abused to give backdoor-like access to a user's device, potentially exposing around 100 Million Android users to malicious hackers . The SDK in question is Moplus , which may not be directly available to the public but has already made its way into more than 14,000 Android apps, of which around 4,000 are actually created by Baidu. Overall, more than 100 Million Android users, who have downloaded these apps on their smartphones, are in danger. Security researchers from Trend Micro have discovered a vulnerability in the Moplus SDK, called Wormhole , that allows attackers to launch an unsecured and unauthenticated HTTP server connection on affected devices, which works silently in the background, without the user's knowledge. Also Read:   More than 26 Android Phone Models Shipped with Pre-Installed Spyware This unsecured serv

Google is planning to merge its Chrome OS with Android operating system and roll out a single operating system by 2017. New Android OS Optimized for Laptops: Yes, a Single Operating system for Mobile devices, desktops, laptops and notebooks, just what Microsoft is offering to its users with  Windows 10 . Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system based on the Linux kernel and designed by Google to power its Chromebook Laptops and Desktops. Here's the deal: According to a recent report published by the Wall Street Journal, Google has been working for two years to merge Chrome OS and Android, and you can expect to see an early version of the 'single OS for all' as soon as next year at Google I/O event. Is Google Killing Chrome OS? NO, Google isn't Killing Chrome OS.  Some have reported that Google might "kill" Chrome operating system, but it's not what the company has planned about. Also Read:  Google OnHub Router actu

A large number of third-party Android apps have reportedly been discovered grabbing copies of all text messages received or sent to infected devices and sending them to the attackers' server. More than 63,000 Android applications use Taomike SDK – one of the biggest mobile advertisement solutions in China – to help developers display ads in their mobile apps and generate revenue. However, around 18,000 of these Android apps contains a malicious code that spy on users text messages, according to researchers at Palo Alto Networks, who made the discovery . Taomike provides a Software Development Toolkit (SDK) and services to the Android app developers using which they can: Displaying advertisements to users Offer in-app purchases (IAPs) Android Apps Stealing SMS Messages Focussing on distributing the app and techniques for building revenue, "Not all apps that use the Taomike library steal SMS messages," security researchers said. The security