Android Security Vulnerability | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Android ecosystem is highly broken when it comes to security, and device manufacturers (better known as OEMs) make it even worse by not providing critical patches in time. According to a new study, most Android vendors have been lying to users about security updates and telling customers that their smartphones are running the latest updates. In other words, most smartphone manufacturers including big players like Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Sony, HTC, LG, and Huawei are not delivering you every critical security patch they're supposed to, a study by Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell of German security firm Security Research Labs (SRL) revealed. Nohl and Lell examined the firmware of 1,200 smartphones from over a dozen vendors, for every Android patch released last year, and found that many devices have a "patch gap," leaving parts of the Android ecosystem exposed to hackers. "Sometimes these guys just change the date without installing any patches. Probably for m...

Own an Android smartphone? Beware, as just an innocuous-looking image on social media or messaging app could compromise your smartphone. Along with the dangerous Quadrooter vulnerabilities that affected 900 Million devices and other previously disclosed issues, Google has patched a previously-unknown critical bug that could let attackers deliver their hack hidden inside an innocent looking image via social media or chat apps. In fact, there is no need for a victim to click on the malicious photo because as soon as the image's data was parsed by the phone, it would quietly allow a remote attacker to take control over the device or simply crash it. The vulnerability is similar to last year's Stagefright bug ( exploit code ) that allowed hackers to hijack Android devices with just a simple text message without the owners being aware of it. The Stagefright flaw affected more than 950 Million Android devices and resided in the core Android component Stagefright — a multim...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Android has Fallen! Yet another set of Android security vulnerabilities has been discovered in Qualcomm chipsets that affect more than 900 Million Android smartphones and tablets worldwide. What's even worse: Most of those affected Android devices will probably never be patched. Dubbed " Quadrooter ," the set of four vulnerabilities discovered in devices running Android Marshmallow and earlier that ship with Qualcomm chip could allow an attacker to gain root-level access to any Qualcomm device. The chip, according to the latest statistics, is found in more than 900 Million Android tablets and smartphones. That's a very big number. The vulnerabilities have been disclosed by a team of Check Point researchers at the DEF CON 24 security conference in Las Vegas. Critical Quadrooter Vulnerabilities: The four security vulnerabilities are: CVE-2016-2503 discovered in Qualcomm's GPU driver and fixed in Google's Android Security Bulletin for July ...

Google has released the February Security Update for Android that patches multiple security vulnerabilities discovered in the latest version of Android operating system. In total, there were five "critical" security vulnerabilities fixed in the release along with four "high" severity and one merely "moderate" issues. Remote Code Execution Flaw in WiFi A set of two critical vulnerabilities has been found in the Broadcom WiFi driver that could be exploited by attackers to perform Remote Code Execution (RCE) on affected Android devices when connected to the same network as the attacker. The vulnerabilities (CVE-2016-0801 and CVE-2016-0802) can be exploited by sending specially crafted wireless control message packets that can corrupt kernel memory, potentially leading to remote code execution at the kernel level. "These vulnerabilities can be triggered when the attacker and the victim are associated with the same network," read...

It seems like there isn't any end to Android security flaws. After the discovery of the Stagefright vulnerability that allowed hackers to infect Millions of Android devices with just a maliciously-crafted message… Researchers have now warned of another critical security hole in Google's Android mobile operating system platform that impacts over 55 percent of all Android users . Security researchers at IBM have discovered a new privilege escalation vulnerability in the Android platform that could allow " a malicious app with no privileges the ability to become a 'super app' and help the cybercriminals own the device. " Dubbed the Android serialization vulnerability, assigned CVE-2015-3825 , affects Android versions 4.3 and above, including the latest build of Android M. The vulnerability resides in a component of Android's platform called OpenSSLX509Certificate , which can be exploited by an Android app to compromise the system_server process and gain powerful syste...

Android users are busy fighting with Stagefright vulnerability while the popular mobile operating system faces another critical security vulnerability, dubbed as " Certifi-Gate ". Millions of Android devices could be hacked exploiting a plugin that comes pre-installed on your Android devices by the manufacturers. Most of the Android device manufacturers pre-install ' Remote Support Tool (mRST) ' plugin onto their phones that are intended to help users, such as RSupport or TeamViewer . But, a critical Certifi-Gate security vulnerability in this mRTS plugin allows malicious applications to gain illegitimate privileged access rights, even if your device is not rooted. "Certifi-Gate" Android security vulnerability According to Israeli researchers at Check Point, Ohad Bobrov and Avi Bashan, Certifi-Gate Android vulnerability lies in the way Google's partners (manufacturers) use certificates to sign remote support tools. Remote support tools often hav...