An entirely new way to hack a huge number of Android devices is discovered by cybersecurity researchers.
... [+]A vulnerability in a chip manufactured by $60 billion market cap Taiwanese tech giant MediaTek left a third of all of the world’s smartphones and internet of things devices open to remote snooping of phone calls and spying via the device microphone, researchers have claimed.
The problems lay in the part of MediaTek chips that handle audio signals, according to researchers at Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point. For a remote attack to work, a hacker would need to first have malware installed on the target Android phone, or smart device, or find some way to access the MediaTek audio firmware. Once installed, the malware could write malicious code to device memory by exploiting the ways in which the audio processor worked with Android.
“Left unpatched, a hacker potentially could have exploited the vulnerabilities to listen in on conversations of Android users,” said Slava Makkaveev, security researcher at Check Point. The three distinct vulnerabilities were addressed by MediaTek in October, though users have been advised by Check Point’s researchers to check with their phone manufacturer, if they believe they have not received an update. MediaTek chips can be found in smartphones made by Android phone giants like Xiaomi and Oppo.
MediaTek, reportedly the largest supplier of mobile chips in the world, had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. But in a release from Check Point, MediaTek’s product security officer Tiger Hsu said: “We worked diligently to validate the issue and make appropriate mitigations available to all [original device manufacturers]. We have no evidence it is currently being exploited.
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