A hacker could take over Android smartphones with nothing more than the mobile number, according mobile security experts at cybersecurity firm Zimperium.
That's a serious problem because some 80 percent of smartphones ship with Google's mobile operating system and victims of a hacker exploiting the bugs may not even know they've been attacked, Zimperium researcher Joshua Drake told NPR. Unlike other types of attacks, a target in this kind of hack doesn't necessarily need to open up a suspicious file or message to be hit. Instead, the attack works the moment you receive a text message -- or more specifically, a multimedia message using the Hangouts app.
First a bad guy would need to create a short video and hide malware inside it. When they text it to your number, your device would do some initial processing to get the video ready to play when you open the message. It's that initial processing that triggers the malware, Drake told NPR. So, iff a target was using a phone's default messaging app, they might have to view the text message to be infected -- but they wouldn't have to play back the video, he said.
From there a hackers could do almost anything, the researcher said, including taking over a device's microphone or camera -- and covering their tracks so a victim doesn't know the phone has been compromised.
Aww cute try, however that iPhone bug didn't actually allow anyone to access your device. This trojan is truly dangerous and I would be terrified if I were an Android user since you won't even know if you have it
Well, that was a bug that CRASHED the iPhone (that was fixed in iOS 8.4). This is a vulnerability that can be active as soon as the message is loaded (Hangouts pre-loads messages before you even read them), making it a bigger problem since it opens up your phone to malware from hackers. Try again.
Scary as hell
