In what may sound a scare to our readers, as many as one billion Android phones and tablets are apparently vulnerable to Quadrooter.
According to security firm Check Point, a newly discovered vulnerability called Quadrooter may have affected about one billion Android phone and tablets. Apparently devices powered by the Snapdragon chipset are said to be more vulnerable to Quadrooter.
Surprisingly, the high-end Android smartphones include the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, HTC One M9, HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge have displayed susceptibility to Quadrooter. However, what is even more shocking is that BlackBerry’s DTEK50, which boasted about being the world’s most secure Android smartphone, was affected by the vulnerability.
The Quadrooter vulnerability can find its way into the smartphone by tricking the user into installing a malicious app onto their handset. The hacker then needs to exploit just one of the four flaws, after which he can gain root access to the device. The hacker can then access the camera, microphone, data and all of the remaining hardware, thereby completely controlling the smartphone.
However, Qualcomm claims that between April and July, it fixed all of the flaws and sent out patches to partners, customers, and those in the open source community. The patches have also been included in the monthly security update sent out by Google to Nexus models. However, one of the flaws still remains vulnerable and is expected to receive a patch in the September update.
Google, however, claimed that over 90 percent of the Android devices are safe from the Quadrooter vulnerability. Google confirmed that protection features of the ‘Android Verify Apps’ will identify, block, and remove applications that exploit vulnerabilities like QuadRooter. However, this protection is only available to users installing apps from the Google Play store with the Verify Apps feature enabled.
