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posted by janrinok on Friday June 19 2015, @09:02PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 19 2015, @10:38PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Friday June 19 2015, @10:38PM (#198473) Journal

    But how do you get Multiling O Keyboard onto the phone if Swiftkey is supposedly "uninstallable" ..?

    (Swiftkey picture [androidcommunity.com], Multiling picture [androidpit.info])

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2015, @03:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2015, @03:17PM (#198706)

    Wait, are "Swiftkey" and "Swype" the same thing? Or was Swype replaced by Swiftkey on newer phones?