SafeUM
Home Blog Services Download Help About Recharge

Axarhöfði 14, 110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015
SafeUM
Blog
Services
Download
Help
About
Recharge
Menu
Archive
TOP Security!
29 Jul 2014

Android mobile malware vulnerability from Hong Kong

Boffins get your mobe to spill the beans using Google text-to-speech kit. Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed bizarre malware that dictates contacts, emails and other sensitive text data in order to steal it.

In the novel attack a seemingly innocuous app that required no permissions called a bad guy's phone number and blabbered the stolen data out of the speakers and down the microphone using Google Voice Services (GVS).

It affected 'nearly all' Android devices and could not be detected by VoicEmployer malware or victims, provided savvy hackers conducted the attack in the wee hours with the volume turned down.

The GVS-Attack was not nearly as powerful as malicious apps that required users to blindly grant permissions to enable widespread botting and bank account pilfering, but it did break new ground in the ability for malware to exploit the so called zero-permission state previously considered safe.

"Through invoking the speaker, this zero permission app can make phone calls, forge SMS/Email, steal personal schedules, get the user location, [and] transmit data remotely," Wenrui Diao, Xiangyu Liu, Zhe Zhou, and Kehuan Zhang wrote in a paper Your Voice Assistant is Mine: How to Abuse Speakers to Steal Information and Control Your Phone.

"Generally a mobile malware needs quite sensitive privileges (even root) to achieve remote control. However our attack doesn't need any permission. "This inter-application communication channel and transmission media are beyond the control of Android OS."

User devices could be activated when the phones were securely locked due to a bug in which the Google Search app -- which granted more privileged access to bluetooth devices – did not check if a device was actually attached.

Attackers could glean a users location, their IP address and possibly capture pictures by converting these to HEX before dictating it down the blower, researchers said. The hack served more as a new avenue for targeted intelligence gathering operations rather than as a set and forget attack in which financial or login data would be pillaged en masse.

It could, Vulture South imagines, also serve as a means to terrify a population by whispering things as victims sleep, or ruin their mornings by setting alarms to blast at 3am across the world.

The researchers pulled off their attacks on a Samsung Galaxy S3, running both stock firmware and modded with CyanogenMod, a Meizu MX2 and a Motorola A953. "This research may inspire application developers and researchers rethink that zero permission doesn't mean safety and the speaker can be treated as a new attack surface."

Tags:
Android fraud hackers
Source:
The Register
2093
Other NEWS
3 Jul 2020 safeum news imgage An encrypted messaging service has been infiltrated by police
4 May 2020 safeum news imgage Two-Factor Authentication ​What Is It and Why You Should Use It
12 Dec 2019 safeum news imgage Encryption is under threat - this is how it affects you
4 Nov 2019 safeum news imgage Should Big Decisions Be Based on Data or Your Intuition?
7 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage VPNFilter malware infecting 500,000 devices is worse than we thought
4 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Hackers target Booking.com in criminal bid to steal hundreds of thousands from customers
1 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Operator of World's Top Internet Hub Sues German Spy Agency
30 May 2018 safeum news imgage US says North Korea behind malware attacks
29 May 2018 safeum news imgage Facebook and Google targeted as first GDPR complaints filed
25 May 2018 safeum news imgage A new reason to not buy these cheap Android devices
24 May 2018 safeum news imgage Flaws in smart pet devices, apps could come back to bite owners
23 May 2018 safeum news imgage Google sued for 'clandestine tracking' of 4.4m UK iPhone users' browsing data
21 May 2018 safeum news imgage LocationSmart reportedly leaked phone location data onto the web
18 May 2018 safeum news imgage The SEC created its own scammy ICO to teach investors a lesson
17 May 2018 safeum news imgage Thieves suck millions out of Mexican banks in transfer heist
All news
SafeUM
Confidential Terms of Use Our technologies Company
Follow us
Download
SafeUM © Safe Universal Messenger

Axarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015