Android Hacks

Recently, hackers have found a vulnerability in the Android Video API that puts all Android phones at risk. Furthermore, it has been reported that this vulnerability has existed in the Android OS since version 2.2.

The only thing that hackers require to make this exploit work is the phone number being used in the Android device. Once they have that, they can gain access to your Android phone in no time.

But there’s also good news along with the bad news. The good news is that there’s an OTA update from Google that will be rolled out shortly that will patch this vulnerability, and all Android users who are using stock Google devices like the Nexus series and Google Play editions will get the OTA immediately while those using manufacturer customized versions of Android like Samsung, Sony, etc. smartphone users, will have to wait a bit for their own manufacturers’ OTA updates, to incorporate this fix).

Now the bad news. Older devices (those on Android versions older than 4.2) will not be getting this OTA update due to compatibility issues.

Precautions:

However not all is last. You can still take precautions to avoid any potential android hacks like:

• Restrict automatic download of video and audio files in apps that allow this capability. Like WhatsApp or Viber and other similar calling / chatting apps for example. Apps like these provide an option in their settings to enable/disable the download of audio and video messages or media automatically. You can turn this off from their settings (by default this feature is turned on).

Since the vulnerability exists in the Android video API, if you allow the automatic download of video files in apps on your device, you run the risk of a potential hack.

The following screen shots depict how you can disable the auto download media feature from WhatsApp and Viber

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