Weekly Edition
Return to the Security page
| |||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
More fun with Android
If you read this bug
entry, you'll see that getting root access on an Android-based phone is
rather easier than originally thought. It seems that the phone simply
boots with a root shell listening to the keyboard, regardless of any other
applications running. Be careful what you type... (a bit more information
can be found on this
page).
(Log in to post comments)
More fun with Android Posted Nov 8, 2008 21:53 UTC (Sat) by mikachu (guest, #5333) [Link]
I wonder how many android phones were running at half speed after someone replied "yes" to someone...
More fun with Android Posted Nov 9, 2008 5:09 UTC (Sun) by ajross (subscriber, #4563) [Link]
It's not a posix environment, so no /bin/yes, etc...
Actually this bug (already fixed via an over the air update, sadly) was a huge boon to free software folks, as it allowed root access on the device. Given that it was exploitable only via the phone keyboard, it hardly ranks as a security flaw at all.
More fun with Android Posted Nov 9, 2008 19:16 UTC (Sun) by tajyrink (subscriber, #2750) [Link]
Luckily we have Neo FreeRunners :) Btw, accelerometer-controlled Doom rocks (http://unsyncopated.com/BrainSolvent/Doom%20Port)
More fun with Android Posted Nov 14, 2008 8:38 UTC (Fri) by massimiliano (subscriber, #3048) [Link] Luckily we have Neo FreeRunners :)
Yes, but what for those who want/need a 3G phone?
More fun with Android Posted Nov 10, 2008 7:27 UTC (Mon) by elanthis (guest, #6227) [Link]
It VERY much ranks as a security flaw. It would allow you to trick users into doing things that the user wouldn't expect. It's bad enough when a user might fall for a site that gives instructions to open a shell, login as root, and run some malicious code. It's much worse when a site can trick a user into typing something into an app that is supposed to be 100% safe and yet still get malicious code to run.
It's not of the same class as an open remote exploit, no. But it's still a severe problem. No computing device should do unexpected things, especially not with root privileges.
|
|
||||||||||||