Massive Android flaw leaves 99% of devices vulnerable

Discovery by security firm BlueBox offers a 'master key' to hackers

A picture of the Nexus phone running the latest version of Android, 4.2 - known as Jellybean

Security researchers have discovered a dangerous flaw in Google’s Android operating system that allows hackers to take full control of smartphones running the OS. The team behind the discovery – Bluebox Security – claim that “99% of devices” are vulnerable.

In a post on their website detailing their research Bluebox CTO Jeff Forristal says that the mistake has been present since the release of Android 1.6 in September 2009, potentially affecting nearly 900 million devices.

The vulnerability is based in “discrepancies” in how Android verifies and installs third party software (whether that is built by developers or by manufacturers). The cryptography guaranteeing that the apps have not been tampered with or modified has been found to be deficient.

“[A malicious application] not only has the ability to read arbitrary application data on the device (email, SMS messages, documents, etc.), retrieve all stored account & service passwords, it can essentially take over the normal functioning of the phone,” said Forristal.

“Finally, and most unsettling, is the potential for a hacker to take advantage of the always-on, always-connected, and always-moving (therefore hard-to-detect) nature of these “zombie” mobile devices to create a botnet.”

Despite this, the fact that the loophole has been discovered by independent research and not as an investigation of any particular malware is comforting – meaning that malicious exploitation of the flaw is so far only hypothetical.

Bluebox notified Google of the flaw in February 2013 but did not detail how the company had responded to the threat. “It’s up to device manufacturers to produce and release firmware updates for mobile devices (and furthermore for users to install these updates),” said Forristal.

Google have so far declined to comment.