Nexus 4 & 5 security vulnerability uncovered

A Security researcher and

hacker, named John Gordon,

has found an easy way to

bypass the security of locked

smartphones running Android

5.0 and 5.1 (Build LMY48M).

Many of us use various

security locks on our devices

like Pattern lock, PIN lock and

Password lock in order to

protect the privacy of our

devices.

However, a vulnerability could

now allow anyone to take your

Android smartphone (5.0 build

LMY48I) with locked screen,

perform a "MAGIC TRICK" and

as a result crash the user

interface (UI) for the password

screen and gain access to your

device.

The vulnerability, assigned

CVE-2015-3860, has been

dubbed as "Elevation of

Privilege Vulnerability in

Lockscreen".

How the Attack Works?

The secret behind the

researcher's "MAGIC TRICK" is

as follows:

Get the device and

open the Emergency

dialer screen.

Type a long string of

numbers or special

characters in the input

field and copy-n-paste

a long string

continuously till its

limit exhausts.

Now, copy that large

string.

Open up the camera

app accessible without

a lock.

Drag the notification

bar and push the

settings icon, which

will show a prompt

for the password.

Now, paste the earlier

copied string

continuously to the

input field of the

password, to create an

even larger string.

Come back to camera

and divert yourself

towards clicking

pictures or increasing/

decreasing the volume

button with

simultaneously

tapping the password

input field containing

the large string in

multiple places.

All this is done to make the

camera app crash. Further, you

will notice the soft buttons

(home and back button) at the

bottom of the screen will

disappear, which is an

indication that will enable the

app to crash.

At this time, stop your actions

and wait for the camera app to

become unresponsive.

After a moment, the app will

crash and get you to the Home

Screen of the device with all

the encrypted and

unencrypted data.

Now without wasting time go

to Settings > Developer

options > Enable USB

debugging and control the

device by installing the

Android Debug Bridge (ADB)

utility.


In addition to this, if we notice

the number of users with

Android 5.0 and 5.1 with

hardware compatibility as

Nexus 4 and software installed

as Google factory image -

occam 5.1.1 (LMY47V) are less.

Therefore, the risk associated

will affect those users only.

Furthermore, for those users

we have a good news that is-

the patch has released for the

vulnerability and is made public

by Google.


My question is, will it also affect other L users???