android smartphones | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

New research disclosed a string of severe security vulnerabilities in the ' Find My Mobile '—an Android app that comes pre-installed on most Samsung smartphones—that could have allowed remote attackers to track victims' real-time location, monitor phone calls, and messages, and even delete data stored on the phone. Portugal-based cybersecurity services provider Char49 revealed its findings on Samsung's Find My Mobile Android app at the DEF CON conference last week and shared details with the Hacker News. "This flaw, after setup, can be easily exploited and with severe implications for the user and with a potentially catastrophic impact: permanent denial of service via phone lock, complete data loss with factory reset (SD card included), serious privacy implication via IMEI and location tracking as well as call and SMS log access," Char49's Pedro Umbelino said in technical analysis. The flaws, which work on unpatched Samsung Galaxy S7, S8, and S9+...

Do you know how many kinds of sensors your smartphone has inbuilt? And what data they gather about your physical and digital activities? An average smartphone these days is packed with a wide array of sensors such as GPS, Camera, microphone, accelerometer, magnetometer, proximity, gyroscope, pedometer, and NFC, to name a few. Now, according to a team of scientists from Newcastle University in the UK, hackers can potentially guess PINs and passwords – that you enter either on a bank website, app, your lock screen – to a surprising degree of accuracy by monitoring your phone's sensors, like the angle and motion of your phone while you are typing. The danger comes due to the way malicious websites and apps access most of a smartphone's internal sensors without requesting any permission to access them – doesn't matter even if you are accessing a secure website over HTTPS to enter your password. Your Phone doesn't Restrict Apps from Accessing Sensors' Data ...

In 2024, cyber threats targeting SaaS surged, with 7,000 password attacks blocked per second (just in Entra ID)—a 75% increase from last year—and phishing attempts up by 58%, causing $3.5 billion in losses (source: Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024 ). SaaS attacks are increasing, with hackers often evading detection through legitimate usage patterns. The cyber threat arena saw standout players, unexpected underdogs, and relentless scorers leaving their mark on the SaaS security playing field.  As we enter 2025, security teams must prioritize SaaS security risk assessments to uncover vulnerabilities, adopt SSPM tools for continuous monitoring, and proactively defend their systems. Here are the Cyber Threat All-Stars to watch out for—the MVPs, rising stars, and master strategists who shaped the game. 1. ShinyHunters: The Most Valuable Player Playstyle: Precision Shots (Cybercriminal Organization) Biggest Wins: Snowflake, Ticketmaster and Authy Notable Drama: Exploited on...

Hackers and geeks always tinkered with their devices, regardless of their operating system, and are always behind the ways to run Android on iPhone, iOS on Android phones, or Dual-Boot iOS and Android together in a single device. Though there are many solutions available on the Internet to solve these queries, but recently a hardware hacker has demonstrated a new way to run Android OS virtually on iPhone within an app i.e. without booting the iOS device. Nick Lee, the CTO of mobile development firm Tendigi, has created a specialized iPhone case, that when connected to your iPhone, will let your iPhone run a full-fledged version of Android operating system. This hack is not the first weird thing Lee did; he previously was able to get his Apple Watch to run Windows 95. Lee showed how everything from WiFi to the Google Play Store to the calculator app worked fine. To run Android on iPhone, Lee first cloned the Android Open Source Project and built his own version of Android M...

Android N Developer Preview, an early beta of Google's new mobile operating system that was expected to launch on Google I/O in mid-May, is unexpectedly launching right now. Android N Developer Preview for the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Pixel C Nexus 9, the Nexus Player and the General Mobile 4G, an Android One device has been made available as an over-the-air update by Google on Wednesday. So, you can test out Android N Developer Preview on your smartphone and tablet right now from developer.android.com/preview . The good news is that the Google Android team has brought meaningful features to your smartphone and tablet in just five months. "As we look to the next release of Android, N, you'll notice a few big changes aimed at you as developers: it's earlier than ever, it's easier to try and we're expanding the ways for you to give us feedback," Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's SVP for Android writes . "We hope these changes will ensure that you are heard an...

Good News for Linux Techno Freaks! Do you usually mess with your Android smartphone by trying out the continual ins and outs of various apps and custom ROMs? Then this news would be a perfect pick for you! What If, you can effectively carry a Linux computer in your pocket? Hereby introducing a new Android-based Operating system named " Maru OS " that combine the mobility of a smartphone as well as the power of a desktop on a single device. Maru OS allows you to turn your smartphone into a desktop when plugging it with an HDMI cable. Maru custom ROM includes two operating systems: Android 5.1 Lollipop for mobile phones Debian-Linux for desktop monitor When you connect your phone (with Maru OS installed on it) via HDMI to a monitor, it will load Debian Linux automatically on your desktop screen in less than 5 seconds. "Your phone runs independently of your desktop so you can take a call and work on your big screen at the same time,...

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...

A dangerous backdoor has been discovered in the MediaTek processor that could be exploited to hack Android devices remotely. MediaTek is a Taiwan-based hardware company that manufacture hardware chips and processor used in the smartphones and tablets. The backdoor was discovered by security researcher Justin Case , who already informed MediaTek about the security issue via Twitter, as the chipset manufacturer had no proper vulnerability reporting mechanism in place. The vulnerability is apparently due to a debug tool that was opened up for carriers to test the device on their networks, but unfortunately, it was left open in the shipped devices, thus leaving the serious backdoor open to hackers. If exploited, the debug feature could allow hackers to compromise personal data of an Android device, including user's private contacts, messages, photos, videos and other private data. MediaTek acknowledged the issue, saying "We are aware of this issue, and it has bee...

With Launch of Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge , Samsung was the first one to bring 4GB RAM access in the Android mobile phones; with Samsung Note 5 and the current OnePlus 2 carrying the same RAM capacity. Now, today Samsung has again taken the technology a step further with the launch of 12GB LPDDR4 ( low power, double data rate 4 ) DRAM Chip that will offer 6GB RAM for the upcoming Next Generation Smartphones and tablets. The latest DRAM chip version 12 comes with such technology that accelerates: Advanced 20-nanometer (nm) Process Technology 30% fast speed than the previous 8GB LPDDR4 20% Less energy consumption Increased Manufacturing productivity to 50% The next generation mobile phones are supposed to be equipped with the new mobile DRAM chip enabling increased capacity and fastest speed with simultaneously providing essentials (for building a smarter mobile device) such as: Excellent energy efficiency Reliability Ease of design Smooth multitasking Better pe...

Data leaks through power consumption? Don't be surprised because security researchers have discovered a way to track your every move by looking at your Android smartphone's consumption of the battery power,even if you have GPS access unable. Researchers at Stanford University and Israeli Defense Research Group, Rafael, have developed a new technology, which they have dubbed " PowerSpy ", that have capability to gather the geolocation of Android phones by simply by measuring the battery usage of the phone over a certain time. TRACKING PERMISSION GRANTED BY-DEFAULT Unlike Wi-Fi and GPS access, the battery consumption data does not need the users' permission to be shared and is freely available to any downloaded and installed application. Therefore, this data can be used to track a phone with up to 90 percent accuracy. All an attacker would need to do is use an application — any application you download and installed onto your Android smartphone — to measu...

Malware authors are trying hard to create malicious software with more innovative ways to infect victims. A new mobile Trojan horse infection has been discovered by security researchers that comes pre-loaded onto low-cost Chinese-made Android smartphones popular in Asia and Africa. The trojan, dubbed DeathRing , is a Chinese Trojan that masquerades as a ringtone app and comes pre-installed onto some cheap Android smartphones most popular in Asian and African countries including Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Taiwan, and China. DeathRing malware app cannot be uninstalled or removed by the end user or by antimalware software because it comes pre-installed in the system directory of the handsets at an unknown point within the supply chain, making the threat even more severe. WHAT DOES DEATHRING DO? Though the malware pretends to be a genuine ringtone app, but actually downloads SMS and WAP content from its command-and-control server to the victim's handset, which ...

After offering chocolate ( Kit-Kat ), now Google is ready to serve you Lollipops. Google on Wednesday finally revealed the official name of its next version Android L — Android 5.0 Lollipop . The newly released Android 5.0 Lollipop ships with the latest Motorola-made Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet built by HTC, but the company did not make the Lollipop available for download to other users immediately. The older versions of Nexus devices will receive the Lollipop update in the coming weeks. Lollipop features some significant changes to the Android platform with a sleek new user interface, cross platform support and improved performance via the new ART runtime engine. The operating system also offers better battery life, improved notifications, OpenGL ES 3.1 and 64-bit support, among other features. Here are some most notable features of Android 5.0 Lollipop , along with some insight as to when you might be able to get your hands on it. Google describes Lolli...

If US has banned its several major government departments, including NASA, Justice and Commerce Departments, from purchasing Chinese products and computer technology due to suspected backdoors, then they are not wrong at all. A popular Chinese Android Smartphone comes pre-installed with a Trojan that could allow manufacturer to spy onto their users' comprising their personal data and conversations without any restrictions and users knowledge. GOOGLE PLAY STORE OR A SPYING APP? According to the researchers at the German security firm G Data , the Star N9500 smartphone, a popular and cheap handset device in China, comes pre-installed with Uupay.D Trojan horse, disguising as a version of the Google Play Store. The trojan camouflage as the Google Play Store , so it enables Chinese Company to secretly install malicious apps, which creates the whole spectrum of abuse. STEALING WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS The nasty Spyware runs in the background and has capability to steal ...

About a week back we reported about a popular paid Antivirus application on the Google Play Store which was actually a scam, dubbed as ' Virus Shield '. This First paid fake app managed to become one of the most popular anti-virus app in less than a week, and apparently more than 10,000 Smartphones users purchased it in $3.99 from Google Play Store and hence scammed more than $40,000. The Virus Shield Android App claimed to protect users' personal information from harmful viruses, malware and spyware, but in actual app doesn't scan anything and was removed from the store once the fraud had been uncovered. If you were one that had downloaded the Virus Shield Antivirus app , then don't worry, just check your email inbox, because Google cares about you and reaching out all those affected android users who purchased the app, in order to refund their money in full. REFUND WITH $5 BONUS CREDIT According to Android Police , Google has decided to refund $3.99 back to u...

The capillary diffusion of mobile devices, the lack of security systems on these platforms and low level of awareness on principal cyber threats made them a privileged target for cybercrime. We have assisted in the recent year to an explosion of malware designed to hit principal mobile OSs, in a recent report Sophos security firm revealed that in Australia and the U.S. Android threat exposure rates exceeding those of PCs showing the urgency to implement proper countermeasures. The situation appears really critical that why I asked to the expert of Group-IB Forensics Lab to show me how these agents work with a really case study. Several month ago Group-IB Forensics Lab detected mobile-banking malware through Google Play by Sberbank request (Russian leading national bank).  The File associated to the malware was named sber.apk , it was an Android Package having size of 225,905 bytes and digest md5: F27D43DFEEDFFAC2EC7E4A069B3C9516 . Analyzing the functionality of th...

Soon, you would have the ability to carry a proper desktop operating system on your mobile phone. The firm behind the Ubuntu operating system, Canonical has announced a version of its software for smartphones. Instead of Android, now users will be able to run a very different Linux-based OS , the long-awaited mobile version of Ubuntu which comes with a new UI adapted for smaller screens. Best part, the operating system uses the drivers and kernels from Android, which means it can be easily installed on any smartphone currently running Google's OS, and also means manufacturers won't need to change any of their hardware to support the new OS. Benefits: A single OS for phone, PC and TV Fast, beautiful interface for entry level smartphones Unique PC experience on super phones when docked with a monitor, keyboard and mouse Ubuntu raises the bar for mobile UI design, for richer and more apps. Ubuntu's founder, Mark Shuttleworth, said he was in talks with manufacturers f...

The Russian anti-virus vendor Doctor Web has found a new malicious program for Android which allows hacker groups to carry out mobile denial of service attacks. While it's not entirely clear how the Trojan is spread, researchers suspect that the attackers use social engineering tactics since the malware appears to disguise itself as a Google Play clone. This malware works in the background without your knowledge. Once it is activated it searches for its command and control center and sends out information regarding your device there. One piece of information that will be sent is your phone number. The criminals will be using this number to send text messages to your phone to control the malware. Dubbed TheAndroid.DDoS.1.origin, creates an application icon, similar to that of Google Play. If the user decides to use the fake icon to access Google Play, the application will be launched. When it receives a DDoS attack command, the malware starts to send data packets ...

Security researcher Andres Blanco from CoreSecurity discovered a serious vulnerability in two Wireless Broadcom chipsets used in Smartphones. Broadcom Corporation, a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom BCM4325 and BCM4329 wireless chipsets have been reported to contain an out-of-bounds read error condition that may be exploited to produce a denial-of-service condition. Other Broadcom chips are not affected. The CVE ID given to issue is  CVE-2012-2619 . In advisory they reported that this error can be leveraged to denial of service attack, and possibly information disclosure. An attacker can send a RSN (802.11i) information element, which causes the Wi-Fi NIC to stop responding. Products containing BCM4325 chipsets: Apple iPhone 3GS Apple iPod 2G HTC Touch Pro 2 HTC Droid Incredible Samsung Spica Acer Liquid Motorola Devour Ford Edge (yes, it's a car) Product...

Mobile industry watchers have long known that Android is under attack. The number of high risk and dangerous apps targeting Android users jumped from 30,000 in June to 175,000 in September, Trend Micro said in its third quarter security roundup . While some apps are clearly criminal - such as those that secretly purchase premium smartphone services - others are more of a privacy threat. These include "Aggressive Adware" apps that collect more personal information than the user has authorized. App developers may even be aware of the problem, thanks to the existence of rogue ad networks. " Though most adware is designed to collect user information, a fine line exists between collecting data for simple advertising use and violating one's privacy," Trend Micro said. "Because adware normally collect user information for legitimate purposes, they can serve as an effective means to gather more data than some would want to give out. " Many of these issues a...