Samsung Galaxy S3, S2 & HTC Android Phones are Vulnerable to 'remote wipe' Hack
Yet again a large number of Android users have been warned of a security hole. Security experts have uncovered that millions of Android handsets including the Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S2, HTC One X and HTC Desire can be wiped just by visiting a malicious website that embeds particular code in weblinks. A user with a vulnerable handset who visits a page and clicks a link containing the malicious code would see their phone wiped, losing personal data such as photos and texts as well as repleaceable data such as contact details and apps. The flaw is caused by a security hole in some versions of Android's dialler software, which allows the "tel:" URL prefix to be used on a webpage to perform functions on the phone's dialling software. Normally that is useful for functions such as initiating a call on the handset directly from a site. But the tel: prefix can also be used to pass a string of non-numeric data to the dialler.
Special strings of characters can perform other functions; for example typing #06# on the dialler will display a phone's IMEI number. The flaw exploits a string that activates a factory reset of some phones because they do not force a user interaction before carrying out the function encoded in the string. The code would have to be embedded as a link to cause the user to activate it - but it would be easy to represent it as an innocent link to Google or any site. Pressing the link would initiate the wipe.
Users of vulnerable handsets may be able to install a third-party dialler and make that the default as protection against the "remote wipe" attack. Experts also pointed out that not all Android handsets have the capability for a remote wipe built in - although the number of models discovered with the vulnerability has grown since it became known on Tuesday.
Dylan Reeve, a New Zealand-based TV editor who first brought the flaw to wide notice, says that Samsung Galaxy phones which use Android 4.1 will be safe from the hack. But that still leaves millions of Galaxy S2 and some S3 models which will not have had the correct revision of the firmware rolled out to them and which could be hit.
Though the vulnerability was fixed in Android's core
code earlier this year, that code has not been propagated to every
handset in use. The fact that the flaw existed in handsets from Samsung
and HTC - the two biggest vendors of Android handsets - also suggests
that a huge number of existing handsets could include the outdated code.
Samsung
said in a statement that it has already provided a patch for the Galaxy
S3, but it is not clear how long that will take for operator approval
and rollout. In general software updates to any phone have to first be
tested and approved by the carrier supporting the phone. Samsung said it
is testing a patch for the Galaxy S2, but had no information on when it
will be available or how it will be distributed. But HTC has issued a statement saying that "our devices do not support a USSD code to factory reset option." This means that they should not be vulnerable to the exploit described below.
-Source (Guardian)
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