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Source- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Android_robot_skateboarding.svg

The highly dis-joined operating system that runs on 24,000 devices from 1,300 brands that we know as Android, has been experiencing another security bug that opened user’s private data to abuse. As Google found and recognized the bug, they have set out to patch it, which will likely be completed sometime in the coming weeks.

What was the bug?

As android becomes further stretched out to fit more devices, its list of vulnerabilities has grown in a correlational manner. As this bug is reported to originate in the Android component itself, some Android carriers have become worried as a whole about how to go about patching this issue up.

This bug would allow attackers to simply send an app download file to the end user and have them download it, probably over a fake file name to trick the user. After the malicious app is successfully installed, your device security would be compromised.

As this attack received full access to your phones pictures, MP4 files, recorded videos, and other forms of media, anything on your phone could be easily stolen.

Is Google really fixing this though?

What we would like to believe is that Google will be patching this up and we won’t have to worry about it again for at least a while. But in all honesty, this is not a rare occurrence by any means.

With the event of what has been called Android’s “Stagefright”, all that was required for your device to be hacked was having an unpatched version of Android OS and the receiving of a text. The worst part about this security bug is that you don’t even have to open the text message or open Google hangouts for it to all happen. After receiving the text, your device’s Stagefright media library opens it automatically before you can even get to it, and the hacking process begins.

Almost immediately after this bug’s discovery, a patch was sent out from Google addressing this issue to all their partners. Unfortunately, most carriers aren’t planning to actually send out this patch. Not to worry though, there are manual fixes which mostly solve the issue that can be made by any Android user that are explained at the bottom of the post, here.

What can you expect from Android?

Not to sound biased, but Android historically hasn’t been exactly the most reliable OS when it comes to the security of your device and your personal data. Google certainly does value your privacy, but perhaps not as much as you wish they did, thus, the consistent reoccurrence of security breaches and bugs. At least, with an Android, you know that your pictures won’t be pulled out of the cloud from a password algorithm vulnerability.

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Tags:- Android OSAndroid StagefrightAndroid usersGoogle addressing