Android Bloatware, Another Serious Android Privacy Issue
Dec 05, 2011
Android Bloatware , Another Serious Android Privacy Issue Researchers have found that some Android smartphones are more vulnerable to attacks than others, thanks to add-on software and skins that get installed by handset makers before they ship their smartphones to subscribers. It's not just Carrier IQ that Android users need to be worried about. A team of researchers from North Carolina State University discovered the security vulnerability on eight different smartphones from Google, HTC, Motorola and Samsung. Black hat hacker can exploit these vulnerabilities to record phone calls (see proof of concept video below), wipe out your phone, call or text premium rate numbers, and read your private messages and emails, all without your permission, of course. According to the paper published by the team. " Our results with eight phone images show that among 13 privileged permissions examined so far, 11 were leaked, with individual phones leaking up to eight permissions. By exploi