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from the don't-bother-calling-me-I-can-already-hear-you dept.
As many as 600 million Samsung phones may be vulnerable to attacks that allow hackers to surreptitiously monitor the camera and microphone, read incoming and outgoing text messages, and install malicious apps, a security researcher said.
The vulnerability is in the update mechanism for a Samsung-customized version of SwiftKey, available on the Samsung Galaxy S6, S5, and several other Galaxy models. When downloading updates, the Samsung devices don't encrypt the executable file, making it possible for attackers in a position to modify upstream traffic—such as those on the same Wi-Fi network—to replace the legitimate file with a malicious payload. The exploit was demonstrated Tuesday at the Blackhat security conference in London by Ryan Welton, a researcher with security firm NowSecure. A video of his exploit is here.
Thus will hackers be treated to front row seats to 600 million pockets full of lint.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by Marand on Friday June 19 2015, @10:11PM
I never liked swift key because it "phones home" with whatever you are writing (for better "writing recognition" I'm sure) and it needs an inordinate amount of permissions.
This is why I use Multiling O Keyboard [google.com] instead. Practically no permissions used, no internet at all, and it's extremely configurable. You can completely redefine the layout and switch layouts at will, plus resize it and tweak almost anything it can do.
The logic used for key swiping isn't perfect, but it works well enough, and I'd rather have the privacy and configurability anyway.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 19 2015, @10:38PM
But how do you get Multiling O Keyboard onto the phone if Swiftkey is supposedly "uninstallable" ..?
(Swiftkey picture [androidcommunity.com], Multiling picture [androidpit.info])
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2015, @03:17PM
Wait, are "Swiftkey" and "Swype" the same thing? Or was Swype replaced by Swiftkey on newer phones?