"Certifi-Gate" Android Vulnerability Lets Hackers Take Complete Control of Your Device
Android users are busy fighting with Stagefright vulnerability while the popular mobile operating system faces another critical security vulnerability, dubbed as “Certifi-Gate”.
Millions of Android devices could be hacked exploiting a plugin that comes pre-installed on your Android devices by the manufacturers.
Most of the Android device manufacturers pre-install ‘Remote Support Tool (mRST)’ plugin onto their phones that are intended to help users, such as RSupport or TeamViewer.
But, a critical Certifi-Gate security vulnerability in this mRTS plugin allows malicious applications to gain illegitimate privileged access rights, even if your device is not rooted.
"Certifi-Gate" Android security vulnerability
According to Israeli researchers at Check Point, Ohad Bobrov and Avi Bashan, Certifi-Gate Android vulnerability lies in the way Google’s partners (manufacturers) use certificates to sign remote support tools.
Remote support tools often have root level access to Android devices, even if your device is not rooted. Thus any installed app can use Certifi-Gate vulnerability to gain unrestricted device access, including:
The flaw affects thousands of millions of Android devices, and users cannot uninstall the vulnerable plugin from the device because it is part of the core system…
Am I vulnerable to Certifi-Gate vulnerability?
Checkpoint released an app that detects if your Android device is vulnerable to the Certifi-Gate exploits and also reveals if any attacks have already been launched on the user’s phone.
The annoying news is that the vulnerability may not go away anytime soon, because Android phone manufacturer companies are notoriously slow in releasing patches to users.
Millions of Android devices could be hacked exploiting a plugin that comes pre-installed on your Android devices by the manufacturers.
Most of the Android device manufacturers pre-install ‘Remote Support Tool (mRST)’ plugin onto their phones that are intended to help users, such as RSupport or TeamViewer.
But, a critical Certifi-Gate security vulnerability in this mRTS plugin allows malicious applications to gain illegitimate privileged access rights, even if your device is not rooted.
"Certifi-Gate" Android security vulnerability
According to Israeli researchers at Check Point, Ohad Bobrov and Avi Bashan, Certifi-Gate Android vulnerability lies in the way Google’s partners (manufacturers) use certificates to sign remote support tools.
Remote support tools often have root level access to Android devices, even if your device is not rooted. Thus any installed app can use Certifi-Gate vulnerability to gain unrestricted device access, including:
- screen scraping
- keylogging
- exfiltrating private information
- installing malware apps, and more
The flaw affects thousands of millions of Android devices, and users cannot uninstall the vulnerable plugin from the device because it is part of the core system…
Am I vulnerable to Certifi-Gate vulnerability?
Checkpoint released an app that detects if your Android device is vulnerable to the Certifi-Gate exploits and also reveals if any attacks have already been launched on the user’s phone.
The annoying news is that the vulnerability may not go away anytime soon, because Android phone manufacturer companies are notoriously slow in releasing patches to users.
(Update: now official) A YouTube app just for kids
Google just officially announced YouTube Kids, now available in the Play Store and on iOS. The app features a kid-friendly design, with four main hubs: Shows, Music, Learning, and Explore. A set of parental controls gives adults control over what content and how much of it the little ones can access. More about the new YouTube Kids on the official YouTube blog.
Source: www.androidauthority.com
Source: www.androidauthority.com
Google Calendar update brings a 7-day week view, additional Google Drive integration and more
The Google Calendar app for Android is getting a pretty significant update in the next few days. The new update brings a few much-needed features and improvements like a new 7-day week view, pinch-to-zoom, the ability to add Google Drive files to events and many more. Here’s a full changelog for the new update:
Specifically, the 7-day week view should be a welcome change to most users since Google previously got rid of the full month view in the smartphone version of the app. If you’re interested in checking it out, the new view can be accessed in the settings menu. Moreover, pinch-to-zoom functionality is another great enhancement. Now you can see more events in the 7-day week view, but unfortunately the feature isn’t available for any other calendar views in the app.
Source: www.androidauthority.com
- See more events at a glance with 7-day week view and pinch-to-zoom
- Add Google Drive files to events. Drive will even check if everyone can open them
- Control whether birthdays from Google+ are shown in settings. You’ll also see the same changes on the web next week
- A new option to show week numbers in settings
- Import .ics files sent to you in Gmail and other apps
Specifically, the 7-day week view should be a welcome change to most users since Google previously got rid of the full month view in the smartphone version of the app. If you’re interested in checking it out, the new view can be accessed in the settings menu. Moreover, pinch-to-zoom functionality is another great enhancement. Now you can see more events in the 7-day week view, but unfortunately the feature isn’t available for any other calendar views in the app.
Source: www.androidauthority.com
Youtube app now lets you easily trim your videos
In the past, if you had a long video and only wanted part of it to actually go up on YouTube using your Android device, you really had only one option: you had to edit it through a 3rd party app before uploading to the video sharing network. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Starting today, the Android app now supports the ability to quickly trim off parts of your videos that you don’t want to share with the world.
How it works is pretty simple. You start uploading your video and you will be presented with a timeline that lets you set a beginning and end point for a video. The precision here is also pretty amazing, offering 1/30th of a second precision, ensuring only the exact moments you want are captured. Obviously this feature is more aimed at those of us taking quick videos with our phones that we want to share with our friends and family, and not necessarily the pro Youtubers out there. Nonetheless, this is a very welcome feature that could come in handy.
As already mentioned, the new feature is going live today. And no, you don’t need to do anything to enable it. Apparently the feature is enabled through the backend, so no need to update the Youtube app to get in on the action.
Source: www.androidauthority.com
How it works is pretty simple. You start uploading your video and you will be presented with a timeline that lets you set a beginning and end point for a video. The precision here is also pretty amazing, offering 1/30th of a second precision, ensuring only the exact moments you want are captured. Obviously this feature is more aimed at those of us taking quick videos with our phones that we want to share with our friends and family, and not necessarily the pro Youtubers out there. Nonetheless, this is a very welcome feature that could come in handy.
As already mentioned, the new feature is going live today. And no, you don’t need to do anything to enable it. Apparently the feature is enabled through the backend, so no need to update the Youtube app to get in on the action.
Source: www.androidauthority.com
Unlock your music with Google Play
Google Play helps you bring your iTunes library to your Android devices. You can upload up to 20,000 of your songs from your computer to Google Play for free. Once you’ve uploaded your music, it's instantly available on the web and your Android phone or tablet. No wires, downloading or syncing.
GET STARTED...
1. Sign up for your Google Play music library
2. Upload your collection
3. Access your music on the web and your Android phone
GET STARTED...
1. Sign up for your Google Play music library
2. Upload your collection
3. Access your music on the web and your Android phone
WhatsApp starts rolling out voice calling feature to Android users
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After testing the feature with select users, it appears mobile messaging service WhatsApp is now rolling out the much awaited internet calling functionality to a wider set of people. We were able to get the voice calling feature activated on our Android phone after receiving a WhatsApp call. Although, we were able to make voice calls to other Android and BlackBerry 10 users with the latest version of the app, the feature was not being activated for all users. It's possible that WhatsApp may have set a limit to the number of users one could invite or is only allowing a limited set of users at this time to test its networks. The feature is not available yet on the iPhone although WhatsApp's recent iOS update had introduced a calling button within the chat window. The feature also doesn't work on Windows Phone headsets at the moment. |
After activation of the feature, WhatsApp's user interface changes to feature separate screens for dialing a voice call to WhatsApp contacts, call logs and ongoing calls. The chat window also displays a calling button (represented by a phone icon). The active call screen sports buttons for turning on the loudspeaker, switching to the chat window and for muting the call. It's worth pointing out that WhatsApp has not officially announced the rollout of the feature yet.
The voice calling feature will bring WhatsApp in direct clash with apps like WeChat, Viber and Line that already allow users to make calls and send messages. WhatsApp is the biggest instant messaging app in the world, with 700 million active users in January 2015.
The voice calling feature will bring WhatsApp in direct clash with apps like WeChat, Viber and Line that already allow users to make calls and send messages. WhatsApp is the biggest instant messaging app in the world, with 700 million active users in January 2015.
