Android smartphones' security can be broken by entering a very long password on the screen. This causes the lockscreen to crash and puts the phone vulnerable to attackers. The discovery of such malware already affected 21% of all Android devices. Google's security team already sent the patch on this loophole few days ago.
The Guardian said that hackers require overloading the lockscreen with text by entering a very long password. This causes the phone to crash and reveal the homescreen which gives full access to the device. The report added that the bug affects devices that run on Android Lollipop.
Moreover, John Gordon from Texas University said in the Guardian, "By manipulating a sufficiently large string in the password field when the camera app is active an attacker is able to destabilise the lockscreen, causing it to crash to the home screen." This will indeed panic Android users due to comprised security.
To describe more of how hackers attack Android devices, the report said that Google researchers demonstrated the mechanism on Google Nexus 4. The attacker used the emergency call function to copy several characters to the clipboard. After which, the camera's setting was pulled down and it prompted the entry of the characters to be pasted in the password box. At that moment, the phone crashed. In response to this issue, Google said in the related report that its developers released a resolution on the security hole. This patch was sent to Nexus devices on September 16.
The information security office of Texas mentioned on their page that attackers must have the physical access on the device and the users must have a security set in pin or password form to be able to accomplish her/his motive. The page also stated that devices which have pattern lock are safe from the issue.
Security is essential to keep privacy and confidentiality of files on users' devices. According to the details from Google, users can change their security pins or passwords to pattern lock instead to be able to keep secured.
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