Your Android phone could be compromised by a simple image

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Android, even with the many great things it is capable of, still finds itself dealing with quite a few issues. Many of these come about due to how Android operates on an open-source principle and that allows not only a better understanding of what is happening on the backend, but a better look into how the system can be manipulated, as well.

Case in point: a bug that was both brought to light and patched in Android’s latest security bulletin. Basically, with some malicious code, a hacker could gain access to a user’s phone and all it would require is the user opening up a PNG image that contained the code.

Here is how Google explains it:

“[It] is a critical security vulnerability in Framework that could allow a remote attacker using a specially crafted PNG file to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process.”

Luckily, Google has already patched the issue and has stated that it has received no reports of users that have been affected by the exploit. It should be noted that the update has been pushed to Google’s lines of phones, but other Android-based phones have not received the update, however.

What do you think? Does this make you worried about security on your Android phone? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.