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Sheldon Pinto
12:00 16th Sep, 2015
Simple Lock Screen Hack Gives Hackers Full Access To Android 5.0+ Devices | TechTree.com
Simple Lock Screen Hack Gives Hackers Full Access To Android 5.0+ Devices
While the vulnerability has been fixed in Android version 5.1.1, it is the update reaching devices that seems to be a bigger issue.
Seems like Android’s vulnerability problems never seem to end. After the massive vulnerability that was discovered last month, another one has taken its place.
The vulnerability is very easy to pull off and works with Android devices that are stuck on Android 5.0 and over. Those who have downloaded or received the Android Lollipop 5.1.1 update that Google released last week, can count themselves out.
And prying your smartphone open is pretty simple. As seen from the video below, the hack involves entering the emergency dialer menu from the lock screen and entering an abnormally long random string of characters in the field and then opening the camera to gain access to the smartphone.
After entering the long string of characters, in the emergency call window, the hacker copies the same to the clipboard and then simply swipes open the camera from the lock screen. After that he swipes down to access the notification bar and the toggles when he gets greeted with the password prompt. Upon pasting the same long password once again, instead of throwing up an error, the smartphone surprisingly unlocks.
[Also Read: 5 Best Free Antivirus Apps For Android]
The problem lies in the lock screen prompt’s inability to understand long passwords (really long ones) and will simply unlock the screen when it chokes up on those characters.
The only way to avoid the problem, for those who have not received the latest update is simply change the unlock method to a PIN or a Pattern unlock.
Knowing how long it takes for smartphone brands to deliver the latest updates, it is wise to change your unlock method to the ones mentioned above.
TAGS: Mobile Phones, Security, security flaw, Android
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