JOIN USRiley Hassell, founder of boutique security firm Privateer Labs, told Reuters he and colleague Shane Macaulay decided not to lay out their research at the gathering for fear criminals would use it attack Android phones. He said in an interview he identified more than a dozen widely used Android applications that make the phones vulnerable to attack.
“App developers frequently fail to follow security guidelines and write applications properly,” he said.
“Some apps expose themselves to outside contact. If these apps are vulnerable, then an attacker can remotely compromise that app and potentially the phone using something as simple as a text message.” He declined to identify those apps, saying he fears hackers might exploit the vulnerabilities.
Hassell said he and Macaulay alerted Google to the software shortcomings they unearthed. Google spokesman Jay Nancarrow said Android security experts discussed the research with Hassell and did not believe he had uncovered problems with Android. “The identified bugs are not present in Android,” he said, declining to elaborate. Hassell said he plans to give his talk at the Hack in The Box security conference in Kuala Lumpur in October.