Android phones hacked; ‘hundreds of millions’ cameras, GPS, microphones affected!!!!

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Google and Samsung on Tuesday disclosed several security vulnerabilities to their phones, allowing attackers to bypass a phone user’s security protections.

The security vulnerabilities could allow a hacker to access the Google Camera app on the Google Pixel 2XL and Pixel 3 smartphones. According to Forbes, the vulnerabilities were uncovered by the Checkmarx security research team.

Checkmarx uncovered several exploits, including the ability to remotely control the smartphone camera applications, take pictures, record video and use the video recording to eavesdrop on a user’s phone conversations. Hackers could also use exploits to remotely gather a user’s GPS location data.

The Checkmarx findings suggest these vulnerabilities could be exploited in the background of a user’s phone without them knowing anything is wrong.

The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) has set restrictions barring applications from using camera, microphone and location recording tools without first accepting a user’s permission. Checkmarx was able to bypass those security measures by using the Google Camera app and exploiting a common permission feature which requests storage permission.

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