Can you believe it that by just playing a simple video, your Android phone can be hacked? Yeah! That’s possible. So you must be beware of playing any video downloaded from the internet or Email.
Android being an open-source operating system has many pros and cons. One such disadvantage is the vulnerability of hackers. Hackers have developed a new way to enter into your Android smartphone. Your Android phone security can be compromised by just playing any harmless-looking video.
In the few past Android versions i.e. Android 7.0 (Nougat) to 9.0 (Pie), there is RCE which stands for Remote code execution vulnerability. This code is located in the Android Media Framework, which if, falls into the wrong hand, may affect the device badly. Through this code, remote hackers can execute hacking code on the targeted device in the question.
To do this, hackers are making their way to the phone through a video playing on the default video player of Android phone. Google has already alerted all Android users before a month ago. Google has also released an official patch to deal with it. Though, many of the Android device manufacturers yet to give the Android security update for their device.
This has already been reported by Google in the early days of July this year via its Android Security Bulletin. On the very popular tech website Github, A Geman Android developer – Marcin Kozlowski has uploaded proof of this.
Marcin Kozlowski has shown the clear crashing of media player which helps the attachers to make use of the RCE on any target device.
Read- 15 Best Hacking Apps for Android
However, the point has to be noted that the video won’t work if received from any social network like Facebook or Instagram or from any Instant messaging app like WhatsApp. The reason is social networks and instant messengers already compressed the videos and re-encode all the videos. So, the malicious code injected by the hackers is removed.
Well, it is needless to say that living in the technical world, you should be aware of your device and data security. The best way to do this, keep your devices and Android smartphones up to date with all the security patch releases till date.
If security patches from your brand manufacturer or Google are awaiting, you should avoid downloading videos from the internet, especially from unprotected sources. If you want to share anything regarding this, you’re more than welcome.
